Victorian striped trousers part 2

The pair of trousers for my son are very nearly finished. I only need to finish sewing the seam allowance flat to the inside of the fabric. This way the seam allowance doesn't irrate the skin and the seams are nice and flat on the outside. As my son is growing really fast I won't hem the trousers until shortly before the event.

The fabric is dark charcoal grey wool with thin white stripes. The pattern is Laughing Moon #106, California Pants.

Striped Victorian trousers.

I love sewing historical costumes and I love my husband and my son but somehow these facts don't translate in me loving sewing victorian trousers. Be honest, trousers are boring compared to the nice sparkly ladies costumes! This year my son decided that he didn't want to be an urchin any more. He wants an nice suit. I got out out of sewing an entire suit by buying a, what I guess to be, a 1950's gentleman's wedding suit. Unfortunately the pair of trousers that came with it didn't fit. So I didn't get out of making him a pair. When my husband found out he sweetly reminded me that I promised him a new pair, like five years (or more...) ago!

The pair of trousers that I am currently working out started out as my husbands but they magically shrunk while I was working on them! I gues I messed up the measurement or forgot that I needed to add seam allowances. I'd better check what the problem is before I start working on the next pair! Both my men wanted a pair of striped trousers, because for them that is what belongs with a victorian suit. I thought it was worth checking if historically speaking that was true. Looking at what I found plain or plaid trousers were more in favour but there striped pants were worn as well.

1800's The Met

1820's cossack trousers,

Victoria and Albert Museum

ça. 1840, The Met

1848 fashion plate 

Left pin stripes, middle wider stripes.

coeurdelhistoire

 Il Gionale dei Sarti September 1850 

Source: cutterandtailor.com

1870's 

Source: Victoriana.com

1880's, RISD Museum

Fashion plate from Sartorial Arts Journal, 1891, 

Gladys Marcus Library, FIT

c. 1900 white cotton & blue pinstripe trousers

Augusta Auctions

Althoug I only did a very superficial on the matter I did feel that after the 1860's examples became easier to find. Maybe they became more fashionable?

Catwalk, historical fashion exhibition, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

 Historical fashion exhibitions seem to be in fashion. I'm not complaining but I am going broke! Still I don't want to miss a thing. Who knows how long it will take before there is another one. This time it was the Catwalk exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam that had my undivided attention.

Here a very small selection of my photograps:

Robe à la Française, c. 1765 - 1775

Mantua dress with train, c.1759 

Robe à la Française, c. 1765 -1775

Regency Full Evening Dress with train, 1802-1812, silk and gilt brass 

Ball dress of Blonde Lace, 1815-20, silk.

Regency Riding Habit, c. 1826, wool 

Oval Crinoline Day dress, 1863-66, cotton and silk.

Early Bustle day dress 1868-72 

Belle Epoque Dress 1894-95 

Edwardian Coat Suit, linen ca. 1903

Edwardian Wedding dress, 1902, silk and lace 

For much more eyecandy visit my facebook photoalbum.

I am currently working on two project. A small one, a linen 14th century  saint brigitta's coif and a pair of 19th century woollen trousers for my husband. Progress is very slow but at least I am doing creative stuff again!

Ode to Dutch Fashion/Ode aan de Nederlandse Mode

Being thoroughly fed up with working on the house and not doing any costuming related things. I decided it was time for a treat and went to the Ode to Dutch Fashion exhibit in the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag with a friend. Ode to Dutch Fashion features more than a hundred creations from the history of fashion in the Netherlands from 1900 to 2015 with some much older pieces. Although my main interest is historical fashion, which will become apparant when you see my pictures, I had a really great time.
I forgot to the photograph a lot of the information provided with the costumes. That is why it is missing under a lot of the pictures. Just enjoy and do a game of guess the era! ;-)

Silk dress 1826-1827

Silk dress 1850-1855

Female Jacket 

ca. 1770-1780

Chintz with linen lining

detail of quilted skirt.

 Corset, 18th century, silk, linen with boning

Skirt, 1750-1800, quilted silk

Jacket ca. 1800-1850

Wool damask, metal

Silk dress, Robe ajustée

ca. 1765-1775

Wool damask skirt 18th century

Dress and cape worn by Her Majesty Queen Maxima,

at the investiture of His Majesty King Willem Alexander,

30th of April 2013

(l) Silk cocktail ensemble by Maison Kuiper, Zeist, 1966

(r) Wool ensemble by Koos van den Akker, 1966

A very inspiring 1970's crochet dress.

Fun idea but I think I'll pass.

This is a contemporary design 

and I loved the Edwardian feel.

Looks good on me, doesn't it! ;-)

The museum also provided some costumes you could try on and ofcourse I couldn't resist a chance to play dress up.

It was a one size fits none dress and the bustle was way to low but trying it on was great fun.