Girls 1930's Dresses

When I planned my 1930's dress, I had several pieces of printed cotton calico that weren't quite correct for 1860's reenacting. One piece was just under 2 yards long and became my dress. I had a yard for Anne's gown, and just a bit for Rosie's, left over from the skirt of the dress I made her for Valentine's Day. The prints are not reproduction and probably not quite right for the 1930's, either, but they look good! I was happy to be able to use up some odd pieces of fabric and the girls can always use new play dresses!

I made Rose's dress first, even before I made my undergarments. Hers is based on pattern illustrations from the early 1930s and features slashed-and-gathered details at the underarms, front and back. I wanted to keep this dress as simple as possible, to go with what truly would have been an everyday, plain, easily sewn at home style that a little girl in rural Appalachia would have worn back then. 

I love the unfitted look and hemmed to just above the knees, this is long enough to count as a dress and short enough to be practical for an active little girl. Underneath, according to the patterns I found, a little girl could have worn matching panties or shorts. 

To finish the dress, I added plain fitted sleeves and finished the neck and sleeve hems with white bias binding. The back has a bound slit and closes with a button and elastic loop. Rose has worn this dress quite often since I made it and it will fit for a while!

I was going to make Anne's dress in a similar style but with tucks at the shoulders that released over the chest. BUT. . ..there wasn't enough fabric. At all. I ended up having to make her a more fitted style but I am glad for that because I LOVE how her dress came out! There isn't much growing room in it, but it will look nice for this summer and Rose will grow to fit it. 

Anne's dress has a fitted bodice with a V neckline, finished with a contrasting collar and bow made of blue plaid. The skirt is A line and hemmed to just above the knee. I had just enough scraps left to put in short sleeves and make a placket in the side seam, that closes with hand applied snaps. 

We all went down to the river (yes, it actually is a river though it is a very small part of the river here!) and the kids splashed and played under the bridge in the shallows. The sand is soft there, so it's a favorite spot. Benjamin caught a crawdad! 

Love,

Sarah

Little Bit of Summer

It's been hard to find time to sit down and blog about my projects; it's been a crazy busy summer. My own six kids, ages 3-11 and usually at least that number of neighbor kids are running through the house almost daily. 😂 School starts in a few weeks and as the summer winds down it seems the chaos is growing more fervent. The nights are later, the mornings earlier, and the activity swift and intense as the kids pack all they can into their last month of freedom.

What a beautiful road to travel.

Sunflowers, where the dove hunting grounds will be opened in September.

Evening sunshine. :) 

Begonias in the front yard. 

It's been a summer of baseball, fishing, 4-H, putting in a garden and watching it grow, mowing, going to the park, the library and VBS, planning a few living history events, enjoying visits from out of state family (and the kids sure enjoyed visiting their grandparents out of state as well!) and helping neighbors find run away dogs. It's been cook-outs and sparklers on the porch at night and bike rides and thunderstorms. 

Malachi up to bat. 

Sweet Anne turned six!

He caught his first fish this summer - and a lot more after that!

Got her fishing pole and her Barbie. ;) This girl has no fear of worms, either.
She loves digging them out of their plastic cups filled with wood shavings!

I had planned to post about the girls 1930's dresses today but night finds me still having that undone and at this point, I'm too tired to do it. 😂 Instead, here are just a few pictures of our summer so far. Sometimes on blogs that focus solely on historic sewing, it's easy to forget that the authors live in 2018, just like everyone else, and life is 98% normal day to day living. And there is beauty in that simple old hum-drum routine.  

Yes, I generally look tired, I think, lol. I turned 32 in May and I sure am feeling it!
The year after next Rosie will be the last baby to start school and I hope I can
find time to go back to school myself - and maybe get a little more sleep. :) 

One of Judah's photographs for 4-H.

Evening. :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer and looking forward to the beauty of changing seasons as autumn approaches. 

Love,

Sarah

Some 1930's Impression Photos

Thanks to Malachi we were able to get some nice photos of our new 1930's style dresses this week. Benjamin wore his overalls and a button up to join in on the fun. 😁

excuse Rosies decidedly modern tattoo, one of her favorite
prizes from the library for her summer reading log.😆

I have a few computer issues to fix over the weekend but will have a more detailed post up soon! This was such a fun project and I love how everything turned out.

Love,
Sarah

Homemade 1930's Underthings

Ever since our really-super-hot event in June I have felt a little burned out on making 1860's things. I do have a few shirts in various stages of completion for a couple friends but I haven't done much else to build up our kits. I may want to make Anne a new dress before our event in August but that is mainly because I think the skirt on her new dress came out a little skimpy and a fuller skirt would look better. But that's just in the maybe-possibly-someday-if-I-have-time-if-I-feel-like-it stage.

I've been really digging into family ancestry lately, partly because I do so in fits and starts whenever I have time and inclination and partly because I am determined to really, finally at last find a record of a Civil War soldier in own bloodline and find out what their story is. (And so far my research has proved at least several Union soldiers who were great-great-great-great uncles and 1 who was a Confederate, who deserted, but NO RECORD of a direct ancestor yet!) 

Anyway, while researching my great-grandmothers line in West Virginia I became very invested in her life story. I've talked about my great grandma on my blog a little bit in the past. She came from a not well-to-do family and her husband, his family, all their parents, grandparents and great grandparents and on as far back as I can trace all were from the same general area of West Virginia (or Virginia, prior to 1863). I have happy memories of this little, spunky, kind looking lady who made exquisite things and helped spur me down the path of fiber arts. She married the love of her life, my great-grandfather, on August 8, 1931 in Ripley, West Virginia. My grandma was born not long after. 

My great grandparents

I really wanted to make a 1930's outfit representative of something my great grandma may have worn in the 30's. I have made a few 30's dresses in the past but I wanted to do a better job this time; to make something that really was real, if that makes sense. Something my great grandma may have made by hand or on her own sewing machine and put on for day to day wear around the house as a woman of modest means in West Virginia. 

My grandma, sometime around 1944

To start properly, of course, you need the right under layers! I pulled out my book Women's Wear of the 1920s by Ruth Countryman and looked at the patterns they had for under things. While most of the under things in this book are from the mid 20's, there are a few from the very late 20's and 1930. I decided to use their pattern for the 1930 panties and try the 1929 darted cup bra. The bra was a flop (ok, yeah, bad pun) 😂 so I looked online at original 1930's brassieres and original patterns from the 30's showing how a homemade bra would have been cut and sewn. In the end, I chose to make a two piece cup like this original:

I made both garments from light pink, lightweight cotton from Wal Mart that is actually surprisingly nice in quality. It's not as fine as true voile or lawn, but it still washes very nicely and is smooth and soft and doesn't create much bulk. 

I made the brassier fronts and back in two layers, bound the edges with narrow binding and made narrow shoulder straps as an extension of the binding. I liked how it looked, being plain, but originals often seem to be decorated at least a little with lace. At the encouragement of a friend who put up with my anxious musings upon the subject (much praise for their patience!) I added lace and ribbon to decorate the top and bottom. I was so happy with the fairly good fit. 

Next I tackled mocking up and making the 1930 panties from Women's Wear of the 1920's. These weren't difficult at all and I got them made in a day. Each leg is cut in one piece and the waist edge is narrowly bound. A hook and eye (probably actually vintage to the 1930s or before!) closes the back placket opening. 

Finally, I needed a slip to go under the thin cotton calico my dress would be made of. I didn't want to use the same cotton as the other under things as a slip needs to be able to, well, slip, over the bottom layers and have the dress easily slip on overtop. I ended up finding a mystery fabric at Wal Mart for 50 cents a yard that had a nice slippery feel and was light enough to not add much bulk. So, the fiber is almost certainly not historically accurate but it will result in me being able to wear all these things together without the layers catching on each other and bunching up.

The slip is based on simple ones seen on original pattern covers from the 1930s. While I saw a lot of bias slips with seams on the torso and waist and hips, I chose to go with a one piece slip that hangs down straight from the neckline, with a little shaping to make it slightly A-line. It is lightly fitted with darts at the side bust. 

I aged a few photos in photoshop to make them look old-timey. 😉 I still need to figure out a good 1930s hairstyle for medium length hair. ..I never do my hair at all so any sort of style is challenging for me! 😂

Love,

Sarah

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

We had the honor of representing our 1860's heritage at a parade this morning, before the heat index climbed to 110 degrees. I am so grateful for the opportunity to honor the memory of those who fought and died for a country they loved and a cause they believed in.

No matter the current political agonies, gross oppression and inhumanity that exists in our country today, our history is done and sealed. It is imperfect; full of flaws, full of things that we would rather not remember but must never forget lest we repeat our mistakes. It is our story.

May we never forget, and, as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently stated in his famous words at Gettysburg:

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."