A 1905 Waist and Skirt--Techniques from Art of Dressmaking

If you can get a copy of Butterick's 1920s Art of Dressmaking, do it. It's full of wonderful information.

My 1905 waist was made largely with techniques from this book.

First, the yoke. This could be used for any sort of shaped lace you wanted.



First, cut a piece of cardstock to the shape of your pattern piece. You need to use good lace that has a pull thread in it for the next step. Baste the lace to your pattern piece and pull the gathering threads so it lies flat. Use a contrasting color for the basting thread.



Repeat with a second piece of lace.



Here's where the magic happens (and it really is!). Whipstitch the two pieces of lace together. If you enlarge this picture, you can see this on the right.

Keep going until your pattern piece is filled.

Then cut the basting stitches away, and you have lace fabric! It's so amazing :)



Here's the finished yoke with gathered lace attached.



And the collar!



The yoke attached to the waist. I hemmed the neck edge and then whipped the yoke to it.





And here is the yoke in the process of being attached.

The lace insertion is done in the typical way. Sew the lace on, cut down the center back of the fabric underneath, and hem.

The petticoat under flounce is also done in an interesting way.



Set the ruffle on the right side of the skirt.



Fold the bottom edge over it.



Sew, and flip down.



Fold the raw edge under the seam, much like a flat felled seam.



And sew!

A 1905 Waist and Skirt

In 2008, my friend Sarah had a dress up opportunity at work and she asked me to take part. It was so hard to convince me! Anyway, the theme was 1905 so I decided it was time to finally make a lingerie blouse.



The blouse is cotton batiste with miles of lace insertion (all from Farmhouse Fabrics), and was so much fun to make. It closes up the back with machine (they're period!) buttonholes on the fabric and loops made of buttonhole stitch on the lace collar.

The hat is the Lynn McMasters round pattern, and it did look better in real life than in the front on pictures that are on Flickr but not here. And it would look better if I could get bigger hair too, admittedly :)



The bodice pattern started as my 1860s base pattern--I know, absolutely no help!

The skirt is from the Folkwear pattern and is tropical weight wool from B. Black and Sons and lined with polished cotton.

I'm wearing it over a sleeveless chemise based on the Folkwear princess slip pattern, the Folkwear princess slip, and a Folkwear petticoat and drawers. They're pretty good patterns! My corset is the 1905 corset from Period Costume for Stage and Screen. I was quite pleased that although I made that absolutely ages ago and never wore it, it was well made and only needed a slight alteration--the hips were too big and made the stomach stick out--to fit.



I'll save construction for a different post--the collar in particular is deserving of attention!



The belt is silk taffeta interlined with two layers of cotton organdy and backed with cotton twill.

I cut the organdy and twill without seam allowances and just hemmed the silk over them. It closes with hooks and bars.



And the slip and petticoat!

My LJ tag for this project.