There's Nothing More Natural Than a Horse Hair Bustle, Right?

 I was getting carried away with my plans for the pink and burgundy 1882 gown. I was ready to mock-up the bodice and make some real progress on this thing! Then I had to halt and do a pivot.

I needed the correct under things to go under this new gown and give it the right shape. And it would really be best to make those things before going through the hassle of mocking up the bodice to ensure a good fit on the finished product. 

Thus, the bodice patterns I was contemplating got set aside for another day, and I fell down the rabbit hole of horse hair bustles.

1882, the year of my fashion plate, was at the tail end of what we call the "Natural Form Era." "Natural" as in the fashionable shape resembled natural women's shape slightly more than the fashionable shape of the years preceding and following this era - but it certainly wasn't entirely natural. Corsets, of course, were still worn, as were petticoats, and bustles. Yes, bustles. But not the large lobster tail bustles of the mid 1870's and 1880's. No, the bustles of this 1878-1882 era were much smaller and more natural looking - just a bit of extra "oomph" added to the back of the silhouette, rather than an extensive wire contraption. 

The book Victorian Fashions & Costumes From Harper's Bazar, 1867-1898, edited by Stella Blum, features a drawing of an 1881 "hair cloth bustle" on page 135 - this became my primary inspiration for my own horse hair bustle. Then I took to the internet to see if there were any of these bustles in museums that I could find pictures of - and that yielded rich results!

LACMA, Woman's Bustle

Turns out there's a wide variety of extant horsehair bustles which have found their way online. The above bustle from LACMA was particularly intriguing to me and looked relatively easy to make.
In my internet search I also came across the Modern Mantua Maker's blog post about her natural form underthings - and the pictures she shared of her horse hair bustle (especially the inside of it) gave me a good idea of how to construct one.

Armed with my inspiration pictures, I ventured down to the basement to locate suitable materials in my fabric stash - hair canvas (bought in 2020 for a men's tailoring project I never did get around to) and a blue striped cotton (obtained from a church basement that was being empties out probably around 2018ish) for the base. Originally I was just going to use plain unbleached muslin for the base fabric, but the stripes called to me and I couldn't resist them!

  

I used the back and side back upper skirt pattern pieces from McCall's 8191 (The pattern I used for my sister's natural form gown) as the starting point for the bustle base - they looked like they would give me a similar shape to the bustle in the book I was using as inspiration. I cut 2 side back pieces, with the front edge straightened out, to use as the "wings" on my bustle. For the center back, I folded some width out of the middle of the pattern piece since I wouldn't be needing to gather the top edge the way you do for a skirt. Then I cut out two sets of center back pieces - one set slightly wider than the other.

I would use the wider back panel to mount my horse hair ruffles on, then I would pleat the upper edge of that panel to match the width of the narrower panel, essentially using the narrower panel as a stay to help the wider panel on top maintain a bit of extra "oomph" once all the ruffles were sewn on and the bustle was assembled.

Speaking of assembly,

 

I began by binding the the front and bottom edges of the side panels with linen tape to finish them. Then I sewed up the center back seams of both the top/wider "ruffle" panel and the bottom/narrower "stay" panel, and bound the bottom edges of each of those with linen tape as well.

After that I measured and marked ruffle placement on the top panel, and proceeded to hem all the horsehair ruffles.

The very top ruffle then had gathering stitches run along the top and through the middle. It would be gathered up and sewn on as a "poof" to match my inspiration images. 

I pinned on the ruffle according to the marks on my striped panel, then gathered it to fit.

Gathering horse hair canvas is no joke.

I regretted this decision almost as soon as I started.

Pleating this ruffle would have been wayyyyyyy easier than gathering.

Eventually it was done - but never again!

Once that first ruffle was all gathered and pinned on, I pleated the next ruffle.

Wayyyyyyy quicker and easier.

I did the same thing with the third ruffle.

Then I took the ruffly-puffly thing down to the sewing machine.

I sewed on the ruffles.

Then covered the upper raw edge of the two pleated ruffles with linen tape.

With that, the ruffe panel was done and the bustle was ready for final assembly.

I pinned the non-ruffled stay panel to the side/wing pieces, right sides together.

Then, right sides together again so the wing panels were sandwiched between the two back panels, I pinned the stay panel to the ruffle panel along the side seams.

 I sewed up those side seams, pinked them to keep them from unraveling, then turned the bustle right side out.

I slightly pleated the top edge of the ruffle panel to fit the top edge of the stay panel, then sewed the bustle onto the waistband I'd already made.

And with that - my Natural Form bustle was done!

It only took about 3 hours to make (One morning when I was home due to an ice storm), and the results are incredibly satisfactory!

And, it first the HSM theme "Colors of Nature", which feels fitting for something from the "Natural Form" era.

What the item is: Hair Cloth Bustle

The Challenge: Colours of Nature: Make something using undyed material, or material coloured with natural dyes. The horse hair cloth and linen tape are both undyed. The striped cotton base fabric does obviously have some dyed sections, but the shades of blue are all shades than can be achieved with indigo - a natural dye (Though as I received this fabric either second or third hand I have no idea what it was actually dyed with.)

Material: Horse hair canvas, and plain weave striped cotton

Pattern: I used some pieces from McCall's 8191 to get the base, then altered those and added ruffles.

Year: This is based on an image from 1881, but would be appropriate for about 1878 -1882 looks.

Notions: Linen tape and thread

How historically accurate is it? My hair canvas is modern, with some synthetic in it, so that's not accurate, but the striped cotton is good. My construction method is just what made sense to me without a lot of research, so I can't 100% vouch for it. The finished garment looks correct though when compared to similar pieces from the era, and it serves it's purpose well, so atleast 60% I'd say.

Hours to complete: 3

First worn: February 2024, but only for pictures and mock-up fittings so far.

Total cost: The hair cloth was about $8 a yard, and I think I used a yard and a half, so $12 there, everything else was stash, most of it obtained for free.

Planning and Daydreaming about the Perfect Valentine's Natural Form Era Gown

 Happy Valentines Day! 

A couple weeks ago, on a cold Sunday afternoon, I was browsing Pinterest instead of doing the multitude of other things I told myself I would get done that afternoon. I happened upon this fashion plate, and fell in love!

That pink and burgundy dress on the right! It was so pretty! I made a spur of the moment decision that I was going to make that gown. I had the perfect fabrics in my stash, so I wouldn't have to buy a thing - what excuse did I have to not make it??

I traipsed down to my basement sewing room - forgetting about any and all other projects I'd intended to work on that day. Out came the roll of dusty rose colored moire my best friend's mom picked up for me at an estate sale years ago. It was perfect! And to trim the gown with? A burgundy cotton velveteen, left over from another project, with a deliciously luxurious pile!

 

The fabric was the easy part. Next I pulled out all my books that covered the era of the fashion plate.

Down in the right hand corner of the fashion plate it reads "April 1882", and that was incredibly helpful as I began to research how this gown went together, what pattern shapes might be and what the inner structures might look like. As I looked through allllllll my books I began to get an idea of how 1882, the end of the natural form era, was different from 1878, the beginning of the natural form era. One of the most helpful books was American Dress Pattern Catalogs - Four Complete Re-prints, a Dover book edited by Nancy Villa Bryk. I picked it up used for only a couple bucks a few years back, because it looked interesting, and for only $3 why not, but I wasn't sure how useful it would be.

Super useful for this project as it would turn out, as it contains the entire Butterick Summer 1882 catalog, so I was able to see what sort of patterns a home seamstress in 1882 would have been able to buy to make a gown similar to that in my fashion plate. Also, as you may have noticed, the fashion plate only shows the front of the gown, thus part of my research was figuring out what the back might look like - and this catalog features several polonaise style bodices, similar to the fashion plate, with detailed illustrations of both the front and the back of the bodice - jack pot!

 

With vague ideas of what the pattern should be in my mind, I went to my pattern stash and pulled out Past Patterns 904, Butterick B6572, and McCall's M8191 and M8189.  None of these were perfect for the gown I wanted to make, but all were close enough to make a good starting point. 

I was ready to cut out a mock-up and get going on this project - but then I hit a snag. I've not actually done a natural form era gown for myself before, so I didn't actually have the proper under things for this era in my closet. I would have to start with those before beginning on the pretty bodice. . .

Kitty guarding the pretty fabric while I make the underthings. . .

 By the end of that cold, cold, (but delightful thanks to my new costume plans) Sunday, I had a plan for the gown, a bustle cut out, a skirt mock-up cut out, and a petticoat cut out. My goal was to get right on it and have the complete ensemble done by Valentine's Day, as it is the perfect color.

Well, sadly it's not done yet, but it is in progress - and I'm still very excited about it! Next I'll tell you all about the fantastic new underthings I made to go with it!

That said, this is the first time since the Pink Edwardian Gown that I've begun blogging about a project before it's actually done - and we all know how long it took me to finish that one. . . .

So which do you prefer? Me sharing about a project as I'm working on it, with no guarantee of how fast I'm going to get to the end and you'll get to see the finished garment. Or, me waiting to share anything about the project until it's all finished and photographed and I can tell you all about it within a tighter time frame, even if it's months after I actually finished the project? Comment and let me know if you have a preference!

The Plaid Wool Fringed Shawl

 In the fall of 2019 I came up with a brilliant idea - I would make a shawl to wear with my new 1840's wool dress! A nice large woolen shawl, it could be worn with all sorts of different dresses from throughout the 19th century - it would be perfect!

I dove into my books to research shawls. If I was going to make this thing I was going to make it right! My family had a re-print of an 1890's Sears catalogue we'd recently picked up and I read all the descriptions of the shawls for sale in the catalogue.

60" by 60", plus fringe, most of the descriptions read. 

I went to my wool stash to see what my fabric options were. After rejecting several fabric cuts because either there wasn't enough yardage, or I had the fabric earmarked for something else, or I didn't like the plaid for this project, or the fabric was too narrow, I finally decided on a gray and red plaid wool I'd picked up from a thrift store for a couple bucks a few years earlier. (I picked it up at the same time I snagged the wool that became this skirt)

The fabric was a full 60" wide, and there was enough of it to cut a full 60" square and still have some fabric left over. So I cut out my square. (And a few months later I used the leftover fabric to make my Hogwarts-inspired bonnet.) Now all I had to do was fringe it!

Now the "proper" way to fringe a shawl is to un-ravel the fabric for a couple inches all around the perimeter. But is that what I did in 2019? Oh no. I was unaware. I made my life much harder than that. Don't get me wrong, I did unravel fabric. . .

A lot of fabric, but. . .

It was not along the edges of my shawl.

I was worried that if I unraveled the edges that would reduce the dimensions too much, I really wanted that 60"x60" + fringe shawl, so I decided at add on fringe instead of unraveling my fabric.

 Along the two edges of my shawl that were not selvedge edges I sewed a very tight zig-zag on my sewing machine to keep the fabric from unraveling. Like I said, there would be absolutely no unraveling the edges of my shawl!

Then, I unraveled my fabric scraps, and cut my unraveled threads to a uniform length.

I sorted the threads by color, then threaded a couple at a time onto a large craft needle.

And I used the needle to thread the threads through the fabric along the edges of my shawl.

Then I knotted the little bunches of fringe in place. 

Making sure, of course, to match the fringe color with the color of the plaid at each location.

This way, when all was said and done, it would look like the fringe had been created by just unraveling the edges of the fabric.

Yep, just by unraveling the fabric, with a few extra steps thrown in.

Honestly, at the beginning it was pretty relaxing and fun, matching up the colors and knotting the fringe onto the shawl.

The completed sections of fringe were just so satisfying to look at!

I started the shawl on a Monday, thinking I'd have it done by that Saturday to wear to a Halloween party. (Thank you date stamps on photos and old blog posts to remind me of the details!)

I did not. In fact, one month later, I only had about 18" of the fringe done. 18" on one of four 60" sides. That's less than one-eighth of the way around the shawl! Barely more that one-sixteenth if my math is correct!

Unravel the fabric.

Cut the threads to the correct length, sort by color.

Knot onto the edge of the shawl and repeat. I definitely lost momentum. This "fringe the shawl" idea became very tedious. I wished I'd just unraveled the edges of my wool like a normal person! But it was too late to do that now. I'd started the shawl this way, I was going to finish it this way! I'm stubborn like that.

For the next 4 winters (2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022, and 2022/2023) I picked up the shawl between other projects and continued adding fringe. Honestly, knotting the fringe on wasn't too bad. It was the running out of fringe, or running out of one particular color of fringe, and having to unravel more fabric part that got annoying. 

Finally, a couple years in, I figured out a method that worked really well for me. Rather than knotting on the fringe one section at a time - dark gray, white, dark gray, red, dark gray, light gray, dark gray, red, dark gray, white, dark gray, lots of light gray, white, more light gray, and repeat (I bet it was tedious just reading that.) - and having to stop every time I ran out of of one particular color to unravel more, I would just work with one color at a time. I would knot on all of that color I had unraveled.

Then I would pick another color and knot on all of that color that I had unraveled.

Until I has whole sections filled in! (As time went on I also became less obsessive about making all the fringe the exact same length.)

I made some real progress with this method! And finally, last January, over three years after I began this "It should only take me 5 days of knotting on fringe in the evenings while watching TV to finish" project, I actually finished it, by knotting the final bunch of fringe - one strand of each color - onto the final corner of the shawl.

It was done. My big woolen shawl was finally, finally, finished and ready to wear with all the costumes. And what did I do with it?

 I put it away in the closet. After over 3 years I was tired of it. It took too much time!

This winter however? It's finally doing what it was made to do.

It pairs quite wonderfully with my 1890's wrapper (Which I wear around the house "just because" probably atleast once a week!) It's just the thing to throw on over the wrapper on mild winter days to run outside and do quick animal chores.

And on these very, very, cold winter days we've had recently, I've been wearing it even in the house, while sitting by the fire.

Despite the literal years it took me to make, I've very glad to have this thing - though I will never, never, make a shawl like this again!

Every single year I worked on this thing I picked a Historical Sew Monthly theme it would fit if I could get it done in time. After many themes (it would have been perfect for) came and went, I was left with the 2023 options, and I picked challenge #3:

Focus on the Fabric!

Because really, what else is there to this shawl? It's all just one single piece of fabric, with fringe, made from the fabric, knotted on to match the design woven into the fabric. 

What the item is: A fringed Shawl

The Challenge: Focus on the Fabric

Material: Wool Plaid

Pattern: None, just the dimensions of the shawls in an 1890's Sears catalogue as reference

Year: Pretty much the whole Victorian era

Notions: none, all the fringe came from unraveling scraps of fabric, so it's really all just the fabric.

How historically accurate is it? The fabric and dimensions are accurate. My fringing method? Probably not. I believe it would have been more accurate to unravel the edges of the shawl to make the fringe, rather than unraveling fabric scraps to get the thread then knotting those threads onto the edges of the shawl to make the fringe. When I began this project 4 years ago I valued dimensions over method. Thus a project that took way too long to finish.

Hours to complete: Too many. 4 winters of working on this thing between other projects.

First worn: This winter I guess. I don't have a specific date I can recall.

Total cost: The fabric cost me $4 at a thrift store years ago.