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.

My 1897 Valentines Paisley Wrapper

 Several years ago I found a bolt of fabric, a paisley striped cotton, at Joann’s that just cried out to be turned into a late Victorian wrapper. Every time I was in the store I would stop and admire it. “Take me home” it would say, but I could never quite justify that.

Eventually the fabric was clearanced and moved to the clearance racks. I continued to visit it there. One day it was gone.

“Dang it” I thought, “I should have bought it”

On my next trip to Joann’s I discovered it wasn’t gone, it had just been moved to a different area. I snatched the bolt off the shelf and ran to the cutting table, declaring I would take everything left on the bolt! Hopefully there would be enough for my wrapper!

There were 9 yards of fabric on the bolt. Enough for a wrapper and then some! I probably didn’t actually need alllllll if it, but what could I say? I’d been offered another chance with this fabric and I took it!

As with most of my fabric acquisitions, this one sat on my shelves for a few years until I got to the planned project. In 2020 Wearing History released an 1897 “Morning Jacket” pattern. With a Watteau back and ruffles around the yoke it was everything I could ask for! Just extend it from jacket length to full length and it would be the perfect wrapper pattern! I bought it on the spot!

And this past winter I finally made the thing! (It does help that one of the Historical Sew Monthly challenges this year is “Style Starts at Home”. As a wrapper was a garment meant to be worn at home, this challenge was just the motivation I needed to make my wrapper.) 

An 1890’s wrapper perfect for wearing around the house in the evenings. Who doesn’t want historical clothing to lounge around in for every day use??

As the single-size reproduction pattern from Wearing History was already approximately my size I went ahead and made a mockup of the lining pattern from an old sheet to check the fit. 

(I started by fitting my mock-up over my corset, because "this is a historical garment so corsets are just what you do", but then I remembered this was a "wear around the house" garment, so I abandoned the corset for subsequent fittings. The finished garment fits both with and without a corset.)

It was a bit too short, too loose through the upper chest, too tight through the bust, and required some re-shaping of the armholes.

I traced the pattern onto some brown paper, made my alterations, and threw together a second mockup. 

The pattern does not include a collar piece so I grabbed the collar pattern I drafted for my 1880’s ice skating outfit and tried that out with this second mockup. It worked beautifully!

Mockup fit well enough so I proceeded to cut into my fabric!

I extended the front and back outer layer pattern pieces to full length.

I kept the lining pieces as they were, no further alterations needed now that they fit well!

I sewed the back lining pieces “inside out” so the right side of the fabric would be visible on the inside of the garment. I sewed the front lining pieces on “right side out” since the top edge of the lining would be visible as the yoke of the finished garment.

The front edge of the lining was finished with some bias tape, left over from a previous project.

Once the lining was assembled it was onto the outer layer of the wrapper.

I made nice big patch pockets, trimmed in lace, and sewed them to the front panels.

Even a wrapper must have pockets! And from looking at extant wrappers online it seems patch pockets are perfectly historically accurate.

The front panels were sewn to the back panels. The top edges of both had gathering stitches sewn. Then it was time to attach the outer layer to the lining layer.

I laid the outer over the lining and discovered the seamlines didn’t line up at all like I thought they would.

But, with some finagling, I got the shoulders and armscyes to line up the way they were supposed to so it was all good.

I gathered the front upper edge to fit the lining and the back top edge to fit the neckline.

“Watteau” backs of this era can either be pleated, like their 18th century inspiration, or gathered. This pattern recommended gathering and I decided to stick with the gathers. (Though others who have made this pattern have done pleats instead. There are several examples online!)

The back got sewn to the lining on either side of the gathered section to help it keep its shape. I used the same lines of stitching to attach the waist ties to the wrapper.

Once all the gathers were sewn in place the shoulder seams were sewn up, the sleeves were set, and it was time to set about finishing this wrapper! Buttons, trim, and a hem!

The hem was easy, it’s just faced with a bias cut strip of polished cotton. I even machine sewed it (For an at-home garment of the 1890's a machine sewn hem can be accurate!) so it took hardly any time at all!

The trim and the buttons took a little more consideration.

I wanted to do the ruffle around the “yoke” that was shown on the pattern. So I cut two strips of my fabric, hemmed one edge and trimmed it with some lace from my stash to match the lace on the pockets, collar, and at the ends of the sleeves. (It was a cotton or cotton blend gathered lace I picked up at an estate sale sometime in the past couple years.)

Then I gathered the top edge of the strip and sewed it to the wrapper.

Next came figuring out what trim to use to cover the raw gathered edge of the ruffle.

This had me completely stumped. I came up with four okay options from my stash and it took me a couple days to make my choice.

Red velvet ribbon, a vintage woven trim, green velvet ribbon, pink velvet ribbon. 

After lots of thought and a couple Instagram polls I decided to go with the red velvet ribbon. 

I still wasn't sure if it was really the right trim. But once it was on the wrapper I actually loved it!

As for the buttons. . . like the trim I considered several different options. Unlike the trim, I had a clear favorite. 

Gray metal 2-hole buttons with a pretty design engraved around the edges! 

There was just one slight issue. I had 12 of these buttons, a pretty good size set of buttons really, but I needed closer to 20 to go all the way down the front of my wrapper from neck to hem.

After considering more options and some more brainstorming, I found a card of gray plastic buttons the same size as my pretty metal buttons. From a distance they looked like the same color as the metal buttons. I decided to use them both!

I sewed all the buttonholes (by machine!) and then sewed on all my buttons. I started at the top with the metal buttons and ran out at about knee-length. So from the knees down its plastic buttons.

And you know what? Unless you're getting reallllllllly up close and personal and examining every single darned button, you can't tell where the buttons switch from one type to the other!

There's actually one more type of button on this garment, but it's entirely hidden.

The lining buttons up separately from the outer layer. I just used plain "coconut shell" buttons on the lining because I've got a ton of those. When the wrapper is on and buttoned up you can't see them!

I finished the wrapper on Valentine's Day, and I immediately put it on! 

I wore it about the house that entire evening, and I've worn it many evenings since! It's comfy and makes me feel oh so elegant no matter what I'm doing. 

Cooking dinner, folding laundry, reading, sewing, watching T.V., feeding the cats and the baby goats.

It's impossible not to feel elegant with ruffles, velvet ribbon, a floor length skirt, and that dreamy Watteau back!

What the item is: 1890’s Wrapper

The Challenge: Style Starts at Home - Wrappers were an at-home garment, and this one would have been quite stylish with the Watteau back.

Material: Cotton Print

Pattern: Wearing History 1897 Morning Jacket - extended to full length

Year: 1897

Notions: Thread, Cotton Lace, Velvet Ribbon, Buttons

How historically accurate is it? The pattern is accurate, it’s machine sewn, which is accurate for the era, though I did machine sew all the buttonholes and I believe those ought to have been hand sewn. The materials are good, though in the era it would have been cotton thread, not polyester like I used, and silk velvet ribbon, not polyester or nylon, whatever mine is. About half my buttons are metal, which is good, but the other half are plastic, which is not accurate. 80% overall.

Hours to complete: I made it in about 2 weeks, sewing a couple hours about 3 evenings a week.

First worn: I finished it February 14th and wore it around the house that very night! It’s become one of my favorite garments to wear around the house in the evenings!

Total cost: If I’m remembering correctly I paid about $7 a yard for this fabric. Everything else was stash, except the pattern, which I paid $5 for when it came out. I think I used 6 yards of fabric, but I didn’t really keep track and I don’t remember how much I bought to begin with. The total would be close to $50