Sewing Summer Sportswear Part 1 Historical Fashion

Hi and welcome to the topic Sewing Summer Sportswear, for dolls of course! Shari and I will be teaching in tandem for this series. Shari will kick things off with a look at the origin of women's sportswear and a fun new design from the Edwardian time period. I'll jump in and bring things forward a bit to 2025 with a few cute ideas for the modern active girl. The focus of this course includes a variety of warm weather sportswear attire - hiking, tennis, walking, running, pickle ball, and more. We'll leave swimming for another topic!Today, Shari is here to kick things off... Take it away Shari!One of my favorite things to do during our northern Minnesota summers is head out to the hiking trails to ramble through the woods and climb the rock hills. Wildflowers begin to bloom in May and it is a lot of fun to search out and identify the different varieties along all the nooks and crannies of the trails as they come into season. Before the 1900s, society frowned on women taking these kinds of hikes because it was believed that women were far too delicate for any strenuous form of exercise. Anything that exposed a lady to too much sun or caused one to break a sweat was considered a health risk because “...their feeble arms cannot perform work too laborious and too long continued, and the graces cannot be reconciled with fatigue and sun-burning. Excessive labour reduces and deforms the organs, destroying by repeated compressions that cellular substance which contributes to the beauty of their contours and their colours.” La Belle Assembleé, Vol. I, Issue III April 1806. At least, that is what the women in the upper and middle classes of society were told. There didn't seem to be too much concern for women in the laboring classes that tended to get plenty of strenuous sweat producing exercise doing their day to day tasks, and seemed to do just fine. Towards the mid 1800s, as women started to move toward greater independence, a movement to improve women's health emerged and there was an awakening to the benefits of more strenuous exercise. As women started to get more involved in a wider variety of physical activities, their efforts were constrained as they were expected to engage in these activities in their normal full dress – corsets, long heavy petticoats and skirts, and tight bodices. At first the only change women dared to make was to shorten their dresses and loosen their bodices, but by 1900 young women were fully embracing physical activity shaking off societal restrictions. The impetus to develop rational “sports costumes”, began in earnest. Necessity of movement in the more active sports of cycling, horseback riding, tennis, golf, swimming, boating, hiking, and even mountaineering required designs and fabric choices that were more breathable and allowed for better mobility. The Introduction of the Split Skirt!The split skirt was first developed as an accommodation for horseback riding and the increasingly popular sport of bicycling, but it was quickly adopted for a variety of other other sports such as hiking and rock climbing. Because it was shorter in length than the fashionable skirts of the time, it was always paired with calf length boots or leggings for protection and to preserve ones modesty. There were many variations of these split skirts, but one of the most popular featured a full-length flap down the front that could be folded over and buttoned in place to quickly convert it to a proper skirt between activities. There's a new pattern in the works from Thimbles and Acorns - The Edwardian Split Skirt! Watch for it to be published this week! In the meantime here's a pic from the creation process.The evolution of my Edwardian Split Skirt design...Most of the time, we make buttonholes vertically, but the buttonholes in these skirts are always sewn horizontally. There are practical reasons for this. As we move, our bodies tend to shift from side to side so most of the movement buttons experience is horizontal. Vertical buttonholes, while neater in appearance and easier to fasten, are prone to popping out with excessive movement. The horizontal orientation of the buttonholes on the skirts give the buttons leeway to shift, preventing them from coming undone. Here's a look at my finished prototype! What do you think? I'm guessing that looking at all those buttons and buttonholes might be provoking a little fear and hesitation - am I right? Read on to see how I powered through these same concerns!I ran into a few unexpected problems while trying make the horizontal buttonholes for my doll-size split skirt on my machine. Normally, the buttonholer works quite well, but it does get a bit touchy when the surface I am working on is uneven. The front of my skirt seemed flat enough, so when my buttonholer kept getting hung up for what appeared to be no good reason, I started to get a bit frustrated. After several failed attempts, I decided to do a little trouble shooting and you can see how I solved my problem in this video. As you look at the clothes you are making, whether for dolls or for yourself, take a moment to consider the orientation of the buttonholes. While vertical buttonholes may look sleeker and be easier to fasten, a horizontal buttonhole is always more secure. For buttonholes that are 3/4” or less vertical or horizontal buttonholes can both be good choices, but as vertical buttonholes get larger or if you are using heavier weight fabric they become increasingly unstable and prone to coming undone. Even if your buttonholes are smaller than 3/4”, heavy activity or stress points will make them more to popping out. Depending on the situation, it may be best to turn the buttonholes on their side.If you're excited to work on the Edwardian Bicycle Split Skirt pattern when it's released, here's a list of the fabric and notions needed. Take a peek at your stash or make a trip to the store (or shop online) to gather up the necessary materials.Skirt: 1/2 yard 45" wide medium weight woven fabrics such as quilting cotton, linen, muslin, wool suiting, twill, and chambray. Not suitable for knits.Looking for lovely Linen blend fabric? Check out Hawthorne Fabric Supply Co! A lovely Us based fabric shop, with fast shipping, great customer service, and yardage sold starting at 1/2 yard! Buttons: Twelve 3/8" buttons (I got mine at Hobby Lobby for just 99 cents!) I hope this post and video has helped to take the fear out of sewing buttonholes on your projects! I'd love to troubleshoot more buttonhole issues as they arise, if you have questions or specific problems with creating buttonholes, please leave a comment below and explain what's holding you back from success! I'll see what I can do! Next Tuesday...Cinnamon will be back with a fun project using upcycled graphic tees - so be on the lookout for something with a branded graphic less than 7-inches wide (and straight across) and a bit later the debut of the darling little sporty bubble dress!

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