19th century newspapers

We had a beautiful snowfall today! Before I went outside to enjoy it, I spent a few hours inside, looking through some old newspapers.

J. Russell’s Gazette, Commercial and Political, for Monday, July 22, 1799. Most of the ads here are from the MD/VA/PA area, Philadelphia and Washington.

It has the usual scattering of textile, rice, coffee and tea ads.

Not sure if that’s the Hancock of Declaration fame or not (top center of image).

The Daily National Intelligencer, Tuesday, December 28, 1813 …

… has this awesome advert for millinery and clothing  …

… and nearby, someplace to wear your new frippery. I can hear Jane Austen characters squealing as I read this.

Clothe your Lilliputians at the Lilliputian Bazaar! From the New York Daily Tribune, November 9, 1887.

A first-class dressmaker who comes to your home and has her own machine! Cool, right?

And from another issue of The New York Tribune, 1887, this highly amusing story. I wonder if he tried it a second time!

A new hat

I’ve been holding back my sewing appetite because I’ve had other things to do, but yesterday, I lost the fight and it resulted in a 1910s hat.

Me doing my not-smiling thing, and my brand-new super suffragette velvet hat. I made it from a few bits of used cotton velvet, a couple pieces of canvas for stiffening/lining, and a length of narrow metal boning for the brims’ shape. I winged it; I didn’t have a pattern, and I had super luck making it, so I probably won’t be able to pull it off again. You know how those things work.

The brim: just a loop of boning with a loop of velvet folded over.

 

 

The sides; a wide strip of canvas folded in half lengthwise, and a somewhat wider strip of velvet pleated and sewn down to the canvas.

 

Sides and brim, ready to be sewn together

 

Pinning/sewing the sides to the brim.

Inside out, sewing the top to the sides. This was later covered with a bit of that stripy material. I did completely hand-sew it, I could have used the machine on about half of it, but the rest was really better finished by hand. The visible basting stitches were an oversight that I might re-do later.

And hat! Needs some feathers/flowers/stuff. It’s very comfy.

It’s kind of like this purple number from The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Click here for the item description.

And finally, yeah, I made it on a whim and I have nowhere to wear it. I’d love to make a whole suit/outfit to go with it. I have some more velvet and a lot more of the cool stripy lining material. Maybe.

 

 

 

The net tea gown, finished!

My net tea gown is all washed, dried and steamed out, so today I got her on my mannequin. Isn’t she pretty?

The lower skirt looks a lot whiter than the rest of the dress because you’re only seeing two layers of net there, and then the white petticoat I photographed it over. The rest of the dress looks yellow because you’re looking through four or more layers of net, and the white padding on the mannequin is harder to see. Im thinking of taking photos later with unbleached cotton under it, to get a more accurate color. The brighter white kind of distracts me.

Disclaimer: The skirt has a weird hitch at the left hip because of an old repair gone wrong. It left a big pucker in the inner skirt and the hemline doesn’t fall straight now.

When I first saw this dress I thought it might be early, maybe 1905-1910, but I wasn’t totally comfortable with that date range – I couldn’t find a lot of similar dresses. It looks different on a mannequin. Now I think it’s probably 1914-1917.

A 1917 silk chiffon and net Austrian tea gown from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Bingo! (Cotton) net, shorter skirt, layers, somewhat fitted sleeves, and that ruffly wrap front with the same attached under-shirt.

I wish I had a parasol, white shoes and a nice hat to pair with it! It’s the perfect summer tea party dress! I don’t have those things (yet …), but I do have the coat that goes with it, and that pretty glass bead purse in my last blog post. I’ll reunite them, maybe later this week, and get some more pictures up.

Some vintage clothing, finally …

It’s been difficult to get good photos of my vintage stuff, but today, my camera liked the light, and detail came out! Yay!

I wrote up four of my items on my other blog, The Everyday Clothing Project. Click on the links to go to that blog and see more pictures and stuff.

The Everyday Clothing Project isn’t to sell items, but to document and, hopefully, to serve as a reference for users. Or to supply images for Pinterest. That would flatter my photography skillz.

So here are the items. One: this homemade turn of the century linen and cotton corset cover, in a wearable size that’s just asking to be reproduced. Check out that lace and linen vandyked bit around the neckline.

Two: This gorgeous turn of the century beaded purse, which I want to photograph with the silk jacket of awesome awesomeness and its associated net tea gown, eventually.

 Three: this linen purse from about 1900-1915, which has appeared here before in my reticule project posts.

Four: these lacy, frilly, girly split drawers, ca. 1890s-1900s.

Enjoy!