Tag Archives: working woman

1920s Black Artificial Silk Dress With Lace Collar

1920s Black Dress With White Lace Collar

In the 1920s, black (artificial) silk dresses were suitable for afternoon wear. But they were also worn as work dresses for the office like on this antique 1920s photograph. For my 1920s black dress I used black cellulose acetate fabric which was called celanese in the 1920s. And for the lace collar, I used antique Mechlin lace and cotton bobbinet tulle. The main inspiration for my 1920s black dress was this beautiful 1926 fashion plate. Continue reading 1920s Black Artificial Silk Dress With Lace Collar

1850s Printed Cotton Gown – The ‘Sleeping Spinner’ Dress

1850s Printed Cotton Gown - The 'Sleeping Spinner' Dress

Printed cotton dresses were worn in the Victorian era in the morning while doing the housework, often with a floral pattern on dark ground. Because of the pattern, they don’t show dirt so readily; and because they’re of cotton, they can be easily laundered. Continue reading 1850s Printed Cotton Gown – The ‘Sleeping Spinner’ Dress

Victorian Cotton Pinner Apron

Victorian Cotton Pinner Apron

I’ve sewn a Victorian pinner apron as part of my Victorian working woman outfit.

‘If for common use, aprons are made of white, brown, blue, black, or checked linen, of black stuff, calico, Holland, leather, nankeen, print, or long cloth; if for better purposes, of cambric muslin, clear, mulled, or jaconet muslin, silk, satinette, satin, &c. The length of the apron is, of course, generally determined by the height of the wearer, and the width, by that of the material, and by the purpose for which it is intended. For working aprons, the width is generally one breadth of a yard wide; for dress aprons, two breadths, one of which is cut in half, and these halfs put one on each side of the whole breadths. If the material should be wide enough, on breadth, of from fourteen to twenty nails will answer very well.’ (The Workwoman’s Guide, 1840, p. 76) Continue reading Victorian Cotton Pinner Apron

Victorian Corded Petticoat

Victorian Corded Petticoat

This is my Victorian corded petticoat. It’s just a short petticoat – about knee-length. Usually, stiffened underskirts, such as horsehair crinolines, cage crinolines and corded petticoats, were shorter than over-petticoats in the mid-Victorian era: 1858 painting, ca. 1835 short whalebone crinoline, 1858 cage crinoline and 1857 cage crinoline at the MET museum.
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Victorian Crochet Wool Shawl (Sontag)

Victorian Grey Wool Crochet Scarf

In the Victorian era, women usually wore a woven wool scarf or a knitted sontag, but sometimes they wore a crocheted scarf. I’ve used a rather scratchy grey wool blend yarn (mostly wool and just some other fibers). The yarn had blue and red wool dots which I’ve removed. This took the most time! 😉 Here are three CDV of women wearing similar scarfs: two colored scarf, light colored scarf, and dark scarf with flowers.