Sporting Fashion, 1920s Angler, Rod and Creel

Wow.  It's almost the end of August and I'm wondering where summer went.  For many like myself, summer may as well be over, come September the first, even if it lasts another three weeks.  Here in the Sierra Foothills of California, everything is dry and brown.  The ground is covered in the curling brown leaves that spring brought to us sparkling green and full of renewal.  The days are hot.  It doesn't rain from May until late October, and if it does, it's a quirk of nature and only enough wet to mess up your windshield.  Yet it has a beauty of its own.

Some may call it Indian Summer, but I was firmly corrected by my husband who grew up in Pennsylvania, that Indian Summer is a heatwave after cooling temperatures in fall.  Maybe in Pennsylvania, Smart Ass, but here in California, Indian Summer is a long two months from August to October.

Its also harvest season and always has been.  Our vegetable garden which grew corn, tomatoes, green beans, summer squash, jalapenos, acorn squash, and some version of Japanese eggplant that didn't quite work out this year, is at the end of its cycle.  The lake I love so much is rapidly being drained to irrigate, provide power and desalination for fish hatcheries.  Summer's last days are limping along as August comes to a close.

This may be the longest stretch of time in between journaling posts that I've taken.  Not my fault.  Well, sort of.  I actually completed the Sporting Fashion, 1920s Angler outfit two weeks ago.  I've been waiting for several little things to arrive in the mail and finally, today, everything was here.  And I'll address those items a little later on.  The fact is, two weeks ago I was excited and ready to sit down and blog, but this A-type girl kept wanting everything to be as perfect as it could be, so I waited.

As the VDC continues to produce luxurious historical gowns and dresses, I've been slowly making my way through the few items I wanted to reproduce from the Sporting Fashion book.  Several things come to mind when I'm selecting a new fashion to recreate for Lacie.  Is it practical?  Can a girl have fun wearing it?  Can I find or make the shoes?  Does it have cool accessories to make?  Do I like the colors?  Is it something I would dream of wearing were I in that time with a body like Lacie's or the mannequins?  

It's not always a choice of creating something I identify with, but something maybe that I need or want to explore.  The 1920s Angler ensemble seemed like a natural progression from the Tennis Spectator dress, which may be one of the better pieces I've ever done.  

So, what drew me to the Angler?  I don't fish.  I don't think I could ever intentionally end another's life.  In fact, just the other day while I was hiking Brighton down at the lake, I stumbled 

across a poor fish, a large one, that died, possibly because it found itself in too shallow of water and while the lake kept dropping, couldn't find its way back.  I mourned.  But I was attracted to the colors of this fishing outfit.  Colors I myself wear especially in fall.  I loved the middy top and the cropped pants.  And the thought of making the creel excited me.  I love making accessories to scale.  And what of that insanely long fishing rod?  What's that all about?  So, I began.

The origin of fly fishing can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, who made flies made of feathers and fur to catch fish.  However, it wasn't until the Middle Ages that fly fishing as we know it today, began to develop in England.  In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, fly fishing began to take root in the American colonies.  Early settlers like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were avid anglers who embraced fly fishing as a way to relax and enjoy the beauty of the American wilderness. 

From its roots in ancient Greece to its popularity in colonial America, fly fishing has been a symbol of recreation, relaxation and the beauty of the American wilderness.  

The earliest documented female angler was a woman from the 15th century.  Before the 1920's, men and women often fished together, and women were depicted in fly fishing prints and advertisements.  However, after that period, women's participation became less visible.  Less visible, but popular enough that Vogue would "chime in to help plan the wardrobe".

In the 1920s, "Wildlife journal, Outing, recommended they be made from 'Forestry cloth', a brownish green cotton twill used for the uniforms of the U.S. Government Forestry Service".

With this information in mind, I hunted down suitable lightweight linen to make this outfit in the closest shades I could find to the ones depicted on the Sporting Fashion mannequin.

The costume is described as a "middy blouse and knickers".  In the early 20th century America, sailor dresses were popularly known as Peter Thomson dresses after the former naval tailor credited with creating the style.  The style is that of the British Royal Navy and by 1919, the Peter Thompson dress or style was formerly accepted as school uniforms as well as a sporting style.  The name middy, for the middy blouse, comes from the title of midshipman in the navy.

A further anecdote, practical yet a bit disturbing, is that sailors often wore their hair long or in braids, and the collar's wide, flat front, and bib-like flap, helped protect the uniform from grease,

oils and sweat used to maintain hairstyles.  Given that, you would think the collar was a separate piece that could be washed frequently, but I saw no mention of this.

As mentioned earlier, this costume was completed two weeks ago, and it's been a project with seemingly long stretches in between working on the various parts of it.  The fine linen was sourced from China.  While awaiting its arrival, and with all hopes that the colors would work, I'd been sewing summery beach outfits for the Little Stella dolls for the trip to New Orleans for the UFDC convention. 

I can never be certain a fabric is going to work and considering the voluptuous nature of Lacie's body and the need for lightweight fabric, the fine linen seemed like a good choice.  Her large bosom and wide hips would not have been the ideal body shape of a woman in the 1920s.  Designing the pattern for the top took several tries and mockups.  

The original middy blouse was designed to unbutton at the hips and pull over the head.  When I went to try this, as you lifted the doll's arms over her head, you couldn't pull the open neckline over the width.  I tried a couple of variations on this, but dressing a doll takes special considerations.  So, I opened it at the front and concealed it with snaps.  The tie helps hide the design as well.

There was only so much width I'd could give the blouse to gather into the hip band, so the blouson effect is almost indistinguishable.  

The knickers had the same issue.  Due to the doll's wide hips and thighs, there was only so much width I could add to the pattern without her behind looking baggy.  So much of this is study of a photograph and guess and by gosh.  There was definitely a time when I was ready to give up and call it unsuccessful and move on.  

I don't sit down to a premade pattern and zip through a fashion in one afternoon. Every costume I make is unique and begins from scratch,

but I'm diligent, determined in my approach if nothing else.

Tiny "Barbie" buttons were decoratively sewn on the sides of the hip band to give the impression of side-buttoning.  About the hip band, the fabric arrived as a much brighter color.  I spent two days tea dying a section of fabric to tone it down.  Three strong bags of Tetley's British Blend tea still didn't deliver the results I wanted, but I had to move forward.  I tea dyed a good section of fabric so I had plenty to work with when constructing the cap.

I often think of a young woman walking into a clothing shop and purchasing such a garment.  Today, we purchase separates from different departments, but given the nature of these costumes, I would imagine you would have purchased something like this as a set.

The hat took several mock ups as well.  Rather than four conical pieces sewn together, this one took six.  Again and again, I redrew,

recut, restitched the pieces together to get a good fitting cap.  Measuring only helps at the onset, and getting the look and shape right takes a lot longer.  And the hat needs to fit over whatever wig the doll is wearing.  In retrospect, the brim of this bucket hat could have been a little wider, but even I get frustrated and need to call it on occasion.  I wouldn't call this a standard bucket hat like we wear today, because when turned up, the brim of this hat fits snuggly against the head yet has a tiny downturn over the brow.  Shadowing in the photograph didn't help me any, but I figured it out.

I began researching fishing baskets.  As I mentioned earlier, I don't fish and all the components it requires took some research.  This style of basket is called a creel.  And the little hole in the top is used for tucking in a fish once caught.  The shapes varied slightly, and because I've never learned the art of basket weaving, I created a more simplified version of the antique one shown here.  What a pretty thing it would make as a

decoration with a silk flower arrangement in it!  I often give myself wider bandwidth in designing these accessories because one never knows what the actual piece looked like brand new.  Right? As I write up this journaling, I'm tempted to "antique" Lacie's creel with a darkened vanish.  You may have noticed that these photos are very bright.  I'm trying using the auto-adjust color feature of my photo editor and what you see is the result.  In truth, the creel I made Lacie is the correct color. Always thinking, thinking, thinking.

Before moving on to the fly fishing rod and stringer, the original boots I was using were ones that were offered for Grace in her first season.  They were black, had a buckle at the ankle and a toffee brown band at the top.  Large, chunky heels.  What girl in her right mind is going to wade out into a stream wearing 

boots like this?  It bothered me, but the colors were right and I could add a brown sock to fold over the top band.  Then this past weekend while looking for black heels on Facets for Lacie, I spotted these flat foot boots and decided to give them a try.  More waiting.  The flat-footed boots were not designed for the high heel foot but given that Marcia showed them on the foot, and said they'd work, I gave them a try.  No sock I purchased and cut down for Lacie was thin enough for the boots, so these are more like boot toppers.

In the photo to the right, as a last accessory, I included a "stringer" with a bass hooked to it for Lacie to hold.  I have the American Girl of Today fly fishing outfit and accessories from 25 years ago, and a stringer was part of the set.  Given that only very small fish would fit in the hole of that creel, this seemed appropriate.

And finally I'd like to share the fishing rod I made.  Oh I looked.  I didn't want to make the fishing rod, but nothing I found was the right size or would have worked for Lacie.  Correct scale is 

everything to me.  I learned a great deal about these fishing rods recreating one for a 16" fashion doll.  It's no secret that I love making accessories more than sewing, and this gave my brain a good stretch.

These rods are really long.  How people manage to fish with them must require a lot of practice.  They come in two pieces and assemble in the center.  Lacie's does this and this will come in handy when storing it. 

My first question was how long the rod should be.  The recommended length for a woman 5' 9" would be 7' 6" for a short rod used in smaller spaces.  For a medium rod with a longer reach, the length would go up to 8' 6"!!!  I chose the calculations for a short rod based on the photograph in the Sporting Fashions book.

These rods are also very thin and have good flexibility so I chose a 2mm dowel for this purpose.  It also fit nicely inside the jewelry

finding I used to connect the two lengths in the center. I had a heck of a time finding the mini dye cast metal wheels I purchased eons ago, and when found, I used them for the reel. Such wheels are no longer made.  I looked.

The tiny fly was based on the dry fly fishing fly.  There is wet fly fishing and dry fly fishing.  The dry style of fly will resemble a bug to the fish swimming below the water and float on the surface.  The wet fly is supposed to resemble larvae or pupa and has a bead attached to it to sink below the water.  Given the feathered fly in the museum photograph, Lacie is going out dry fly fishing.

I'm super pleased with how the rod turned out considering that the idea of making it gave me pause.  Sometimes a little research and learning about something goes a long way in helping create a mini version.

Late summer/early fall is the perfect time for Lacie to head out to a freshwater stream and cast her rod beneath clear blue skies in view of the changing colors in the trees.

I'm glad I did this one.  I learned a lot in the clothing design as well as about a sport I have zero interest in.  It's funny, but often in movies you'll see men, and women, intently making fly lures with creativity and precision.  I guess that might be half the fun of the sport!  Or it just looks good on film portraying someone who is detail oriented or has a hobby.

There will be other historical costumes, and in particular, I really want to make an Amelia Earhart pilot's costume.  Maybe I'm hoping the VDC will offer one, but in light of the fact that they seem to enjoy gowns and glamour more, I can only hope.  It would be a good project for spring. 

For now, I must turn my thoughts to Halloween and the holidays.  I might work on a long-term project that I can pick up and set down while working on costuming for the holidays, but either way, historical costuming excites and intrigues me, so I will continue making things for my muse, Lacie.

Below are some wonderful images I saved off along the way, of young women fly fishing, and dolls that were depicted fishing.  I hope you enjoy them as well as the changing season on the horizon.

 

Sporting Fashion, Spectating 1920s - Project #5

Wow!  June!  Hello Summer!  In another day it will be mid-month, and I'll be writing my Mid-Month Review in my handwritten journal.  The weather has been superb, at least up until this heatwave of the last few days.  And that's okay, too.  I've been getting plenty of early morning kayaking in, but this won't last forever since soon, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be letting out the water for energy and conservation.  The lake is already down two feet from last month.  This is what I do in summer.  Hike Brighton early in the morning, if it's nice on the lake, take my Swifty out.  The rest of the day is spent being a homemaker, lover-reader of books and working on some project in my studio.

After I completed the 1840s Gardening ensemble, I took a break.  I noticed that my last post was April 3rd and it was a shock.  This is the longest project I've ever worked on.  Nothing was easy.  Everything was new, and yet I was determined as ever to create the Spectating 1920s ensemble.

I really hate the fashion on the cover of this book.  Its just plain ugly.  But inside are some of the loveliest and interesting historical outfits I've come across.  I'm always saying that I love the fashions of the 1950s, but the 20s are right up there with them.

What inspired me to create this?  Maybe it was the way the mannequin was displaying a sexy little knee.  Or it could have been the Arctic Fox stole.  Or maybe is was the opportunity to embroider the little tennis player on the dress.  I think that was it.  The embroidered tennis player intrigued me.  I have never seen anything like this dress before and wondered if the wearer of this dress did that herself.  

Only towards the end of this project did I thoroughly read the description and found out that these dresses were sold this way for the sole purpose of celebrating the event the woman was attending.  I've included the description, so just give a click on 

it and you should be able to read it.

It was probably a week or two into April that I began looking for fabrics and notions to create this outfit.  Finding a silk this color was going to be difficult.  I would have to dye my own fabric.  Fabric stores don't want to pay the tariffs to stock good silks from India and China any longer.  I did have a nice stash of whites and ivories, but if I blew it, I wasted the silk.  As I'm sitting here writing, it all comes back to me.  There was a lot of hesitation and doubt along the way, and often I would just stop what I was doing for a day or two to really think it through.  

I'll share a sad and funny story.  I spent about two weeks ordering and testing Dharma dyes to find the exact color I needed for this dress.  I'd be dying the hat braid and possibly lace along with the silk to make them all the same color.  I was snipping off little pieces of the silk I wanted to use to get the dye bath correct.  Finally, I began mixing dyes.  The coral had too much blue in it  

so I began adding a daffodil yellow.  These dye baths and tests take hours, but obviously, if you get it right, you're on your way.

So silly me got excited about the color I'd developed and dunked a nice piece of prime off-white silk taffeta in the bath.  I swished and swirled the fabric for a nice even color, and whoops!  It didn't work.  Guess what?  I'd forgotten to wet soak the silk first.  NEVER put a dry piece of cloth in a dye bath.  I was disheartened.  So, I mixed some more and began again on the same piece to even the color.  The washed silk looked okay, but while I was doing all of this, I'd kept looking online for the right color.  And found it.  Ordered the rest of what the seller had and when that arrived, I dyed the hat braid and a lace to match.  

I've mentioned this before, but hat braid is getting harder to come by as well because of tariffs.  When I first stated sewing back in 2011, it was easy to buy doll supplies.  Monique Trading was still in business for wigs, silks were plenty in a wide range of colors,

and notions like hat flowers and braid were plenty, easy to buy both new and vintage.  You really have to be patient and dig and look and look and dig to find notions now.  This isn't a problem for contemporary costuming, but it is for vintage and historical costuming. 

All that said, 32 degrees North is a great place for hat flowers if you need them.  This is where I would find the ones I used for the Spectating hat.

I purchased a pair of olive-colored shoes from Facets Boutique and considered changing the color to a more yellow olive but didn't. It's something I've been thinking about all the way through this project and I still might do it so they look more like the pumps on the mannequin.  For now, they will remain their original color. 

So, what does this costume consist of?  A coral-colored silk dress with a mixed pleat skirt, a stole, a hat, a pair of gloves and of course, shoes.

This long bodice took me four tries, four mock ups.  I simply couldn't figure out what was going on in the photograph no matter how closely I looked.  Why?  Because I'd never done a dress like this before.  It was not an easy pattern to construct.  This photo on the right shows the V neck as it was made on the original.  There is a row of insertion lace between the "collar" and the bodice.  At first, I thought this "row" was just some kind of lace like mini eyelash lace.  I dug in my stash and found some.  Then realized that this was not what was going on with this dress and started the pattern all over again.  

I had to cut down existing insertion lace that I had just to get that tiny row.  I call it peep lace, as you can see her skin through the tiny ladders.  The doubled-over V collar has the insertion zigzag stitched to it on the machine, then that was hand-stitched to the faced bodice.  Working with that tiny strip of insertion took delicate, patient hand stitching.  

The sleeves are very full with long cuffs.  I must remember that shoulders on these patterns need to be very narrow.  With the addition of the separate collar, it was part of the shoulder.  That took some fiddling and rework as well.  Getting the V deep enough to resemble the original took some effort.

I spent a great deal of time on this dress.  Just judging the length of the bodice and the length of the skirt with complicated pleating took a week.  Once that V neck had been done, I couldn't make a mistake.  I had to account for the row of cluny lace that flows around the embroidered tennis player, the exact height of the tennis player, and the space between the bottom edge of the lace and the nine rows of green stitching.

What was interesting and super fun, was that after I'd done the embroidery, hand stitched the cluny lace on, cutting it around the tennis player and securing it so it didn't unravel!, and sewing the nine rows of green, I realized what I was looking at!  And I

laughed.  That lace was supposed to resemble the net on the tennis court!  Most likely the green rows were to resemble the color of the court itself.  

Finding a close matching cluny lace took some time, but I did.  It was vintage lace from the 1920s, so even if it wasn't a perfect match, I felt good about it.  Knowing now that it was to resemble a tennis net, I might have looked a bit more.  Bottom line, a lace that small doesn't exist.  I did learn that some people have actually learned lace making just do things like this.  No.  Not going there.

I took of photo of the dress before sewing up the back so you could see the pleating and how the decoration was done.  On the original, there were many more of the tinier pleats, but this is a doll's dress, and I just wasn't going to get that many.  The constant ironing and pressing to get the silk taffeta to pleat was done throughout the finishing of the dress.  I did run a gathering stitch to keep them in place, only to be taken out at the very end.  I could have taken the dress off the doll and pressed them one more time but didn't.  The gathering stitch holes will relax over time.

The tennis player was fun to embroider as I knew she would be.  I used the same process as I did embroidering the Grinch on the pinafore at Christmastime.  Again, you can click on these photos to see them close up.

The next three photos were taken right before I began writing this post.  Here is Lacie posing similarly to the mannequin.

Elegance.

Here's a view of the back of the dress.  Six tiny matching Barbie buttons with thread loops close the back.  One is on the top section of the V collar.  A hook would have been too clunky.

A side view showing the pretty bow tied sash.  

There is also a bow at the shoulder on the other side.  Both sash/bows were done in the same silk.  Because of the stiffening that occurs with stitching, these bows have been gently tacked down to "drape" correctly.  Using a silk satin bow of the same color would have been nice, I could have dyed it, but there were none to dyed this exact size.

And now that hat.  There is a name for these hats.  It's called a petal hat.  While I was trying to figure out how to make the look of the crown, I discovered the name.  

As mentioned earlier, this hat braid went in the good dye bath I'd made.  It came out beautifully.  

I made my own hat mold and the first whack at it had to be taken down to the brim and reworked.  It was too big.  I don't usually make that kind of mistake, but I think the task of decorating the hat had me at odds.  

The flowers I purchased would work along with the velvet leaves I'd chosen, but I dyed the pink and white flowers with a yellow-gold alcohol marker to get the right colors.  I removed the flowers from their stems and hand stitched each one on, and closely, interspersing leaves and tiny dark purple velvet flowers for depth.

The flat bow band is from a piece of silk taffeta that I've had for ages.  It was the perfect color.  Kind of a gray plum with orange threads.  Sounds weird but if you've ever worked with some of these silks, the colors can be like this.

After I'd sewn the flowers on, I crushed them to the crown.

Lastly, without a bit of wire, the hat brim would have been flat like a saucer sitting on her head.  So I cut a length of very fine cotton wrapped floral wire and dyed it a plum color with alcohol markers and stitched it to the edge of the brim.  This allowed me to shape it like a flounce.

In this photo, you can see the tiny button at the collar of the neckline.

Just for fun.  This was a photo I took on my cellphone to share with my friend Betsy while we were visiting.  She lives in Cincinnati and we visit as often by phone as we can.  She was bugging me to see the dress and didn't want to wait for this posting.  I was happy to oblige.  

You can see the paper towel covered in color where I dyed the wire.  That's the table I work on in my studio, and Maisie keeps me company at all times.  She's my muse.

Full view before the rest of the outfit was made.

And here it comes.  The emotionally difficult part of the project.  Yes, we love the look of fur stoles, but they were once little animals.  You know how I feel about this, but you also know what a stickler I am to accuracy when creating a costume.

What the mannequin is wearing is a fur pelt stole similar to this vintage one that was sold on Etsy.  These fur pelt stoles were symbols of wealth to the wearer.  Some were made with the front legs, some without.  For the purpose of this project and since the front legs couldn't be detected on the mannequin's stole, I left them off.

I'd originally wanted to make this from real fur.  This seller of doll coats in Canada would sell me scraps and I had a good sized white scrap to use.  However, even after I made the pattern and cut

it out of the pelt, the fur was too long.  I tried to trim it, but it wouldn't lay flat.  So, I went for Plan B and used white plush teddy bear fur.  MUCH easier to work with.

In this photo you see a similar stole that was made of real fur for a large French Fashion doll, and sold on Ruby Lane.  The odd thing is that I believe the doll must have been really big becasue this was the pelt of a whole animal. It had the head.

Look, this is tough enough for me to talk about, but this is it, the facts laid out and if you want to do things correctly, you study, learn and do the best you can to achieve your goal in doll costuming.

The stole out of teddy bear fur is soft and cute and was easy to trim around the head for a more 

accurate look.  It could have been a little longer, but I did not wish to make it one more time.  The head is separate and sewn to the body for the reason of shape.  I really had a hard time making this pattern.  Perhaps for no other reason than that I'd never made one before. This is very tiny work when it comes to heads and faces.  I could not add ears because the knit backing of the faux fur fell apart.  So I trimmed close to the head to give a look of "ear hole"

It came out the way I expected, except for the length, and is a nice representation of a vintage pelt stole for a fashion doll. I may trim down the leg fur a bit, still, but for the purpose of this post, its done.

Here is what it looks like draped over her arm.

I was tired.  Tired of working on this incredibly difficult and long project, and I did NOT want to make another pair of gloves.  I did not.  Nope.  No way.  So, I made them.

I went to bed that night and slept on it.  Got up and knew that the outfit would not be complete without them.  I also knew that they were cotton gloves, not leather, so would need to be made differently.

I went upstairs, found this white t-shirt top and cut it up.  This was interesting.  I sewed the edges with a blanket stitch as I do leather gloves but really didn't like the way it looked, so before I stitched past the thumb, I tried to turn it inside out.  It worked.  Smoothly too.  

The gloves have this lovely sheer cuff to them and the tops are decorated with points.  This was also something new I learned.  The term "points".  Points are the decorative stitching lines often

found on the backs of vintage gloves.  I read in one description that when gloves were handmade like these were, the point stitching was the glovemaker's signature, and those that wore these special gloves were often well-to-do.  Another sign of wealth.

I'd made line stitching on the backs of leather gloves for dolls before but never ventured into finding out their history or what they were called.  I have a lot to research and ponder on while making these costumes, and this is what fascinates me.

Lastly, I considered making white stockings to go with this ensemble then researched this as well.  Apparently, skin-tone stockings were most popular in the early 1920s, as well as pastels such as light pink.  The mannequin is white.  This often confuses me as I attempt to replicate a costume.  Is she wearing white stockings or is it just the composition of the mannequin?  Is that lace on the V or is it the mannequin's white body showing through?

I learned a lot on this creative journey.  There were many doubtful moments as well as many mockups and do-overs.  Its one-of-a-kind and won't be made again.  It is the fifth costume I've recreated from the Sporting Fashion book and there are still several I would like to do.  I won't say it's fun.  I'm still not sure I even like sewing.  But these projects challenge me to try new things and keep learning the history of costuming as well as new ways of doing things and terms I didn't know previously.  If I could buy it in a store, I would.  When I have a vision and want something, I can be quite determined to make it happen.  The fun for me is making it happen.  Knowing I did it, figured it out.  It also drives me to make another, and this is often why the projects become more complicated as time goes on.

I like the way it turned out and purchased an old version of the Lacie doll to wear it permanently.  This wigged Lacie is wearing the Sunny Days Anne Fitzpatrick wig. It makes a great 1920s bob.  Enjoy the summer and make the most of every day!  Keep playing dolls.