Reading thru I found several people wondered how old my Grandmother would have been when she made this. She would have been in her teens during this time period.
I remember the stuff I made when I was a teen. Oh gracious was it bad! Your grandma was amazing! Thanks for putting this forward so we can all see and enjoy her skills! It takes real bravery to cut into a price of fabric and then to wear it with all mistakes we make!
@@blairlowery8479 That absolutely makes sense. That piping and patterns looks like some of the details of Officers dress uniforms of the time. :) Wonderful!
And to me, I am both completely amazed at her sewing skills at such a young age, and amused that basting stitches were left where they wouldn’t show! A very teen age thing to do! Lol PS I think this dress could absolutely be worn today! It would make a beautiful mother of the bride outfit or a dressy outfit for any special occasion. Maybe a fancy Easter brunch?
Mama insisted that you can always have one of the best dresses in the room if you were willing to work for it. She was raised poor and this was important to her. Her dresses looked right, but she had to figure out the inside herself. Sometimes, it was pretty eccentric. :) I can't say how much I admired her, her drive and determination were epic.
Roxie Poe My great-grandmother and grandmother were the same way! They were poor, but they worked hard at replicating the fashions in the windows and had to just figure it out.
the pen marks get me 😭 so human. also good to know i should definitely never use regular pens on garments again since it obviously will not come out for over 100 years 😂
You *might* be able to get pen out of your own garments with hair spray or rubbing alcohol, but it's a 50/50 chance of it cleaning up nicely or just spreading and becoming a big stain 😩
That's why we have tailors chalk. The fading ink felt pens used by cross stitchers and quilters are great. Just keep in mind that it disappears in 1 to 3 days.
@@michellebyrom6551 Yes I use a combination of tailors chalk, heat erasable ink, washable ink, and tailor tacks depending on the need. I only used regular ink in emergencies and prayed it'd come out, which it never does.
Girls, girls! Hear me out!☺️🎉 I've been using Frixion pens (they are erasable by "frixion" - you use a small rubber bit at the end - but in fact it's the heat that makes the ink disappear. ❤️ I can write and mark all over the place and just need to iron or use a hair dryer to get rid of the ink.😉 You can find some drawing videos in wich the artists use this pen as a sketch base just to "erase" it later. I've tried in cloth and also works (better make a test first because the results change depending on the color used - blue tends to be better) I just love it.
Watching this makes me think of a photo I have of my Great Grandma and her sister in the twenties. On the back she wrote “we made new dresses and HATS.Ha!” I wonder what the inside of those garments looked like, but also love the fact that she was proud of her work! Wouldn’t it be great to see a pic of the woman that crafted that marvelous garment, especially one of her wearing it?
I love seeing these dresses where the creators just Couldn't Be Bothered on the insides!! Love it! And the dress is gorgeous too! Hmmm, maybe you need a summer-specific Signature Red Dress for unboxings? ;) Hahaha Gryf! "Mama play with me!"
Yes - I need a summer version of my red dress - maybe for next year I'll have one done! 😂 One of the things I *love* about these glorious gut-centric unboxing videos is sharing all the "Can't Be Bothered" realness on the insides of these pieces. It's so easy to hold antique clothing on this pedestal, while simultaneously beating ourselves up over "not being good enough" - when in reality - they did the same things we did. It just makes everything so much more relatable and obtainable!
I can’t even say how much I love the fact that she obviously recycled that silk lining from another project. The braid design is amazing and the whole outfit is adorable. But my favorite part is that it has that recycled silk lining. Oh, and I would love to see a pattern recreating that dress, were you ever to do such thing.
@@AbbyCox yay! The fun part about watching your instructional antique Garment videos is saving that knowledge for when you post your recreations. Looking forward!
That suit is just so stunning!!! Blair’s grandma has excellent taste. Your exploration and explanations are so informative and entertaining, thank you for sharing!
I could see reimagining the skirt and bolero, as a high waisted pant suit set. With a plain cream colored cami in either a satin or a really delicate knit, it would be eye catching!
Teens closures stump me every time! I’ve seen a lot of them in my work and we finally figured out that they would use different snaps and hooks to delineate what went with what... even they needed help remembering.
This closure is *tame* compared to another 1914 piece I have in my collection (that I will be sharing, but it's so vampy that it must be released around Halloween!) 😂
The way the soutache pattern was included on the buttons is just stunning and the echoes of art nouveau is so beautiful - I just want to replicate it! I think it’s good to see that people didn’t have what we would consider “perfect technique” and instead just got the job done and I hope she had some fantastic times in it. That’s the lesson there isn’t it - it doesn’t have to be perfect, just get it done, have fun making it (you don’t choose to do that many french knots without loving them!) and have fun wearing it. Brilliant video, thank you 💙
The Ad that I saw before the video was for fruit snacks and I honestly can't think of a more appropriate Ad for one of Abby's videos! Lol Now I want fruit snacks....TO THE STORE!!!
What a gorgeous summer outfit! I can’t wait to see your version of it. Grif is just the most precious goofy noodle!! My very favorite meme says, “Everyone thinks they have the very best dog...They’re all right.”
Nicole might beat me to it - she came over and started plotting her version of the suit already (just change some colors and it is right in her wheelhouse!) and yes - I agree - all doggos are the best doggos! ❤️❤️❤️
I love watching you go Sherlock Holmes on these. This particular one was extra nice since I watched Engineering Knits' video about making a coat like this yesterday, so it adds layers to both vids to first watch someone trying to figure out how to make this sort of coat and then watch you talk about how one was actually made. Whenever there's stuff like the basting stitches left in I think about how often modern sewists, knitters, cosplayers, crafters, etc start projects with deadlines and then hit a crunch where it's "@#$% it, we're doing it live!" I like to think that maybe back in the day maybe sometimes they also had their big plans for - whatever - making a beautiful dress for a party and suddenly the party is tomorrow and fine, not going to worry about the basting stitches! It's a design feature now! :D
I love the human element in these clothes like you can really imagine the young woman stoked about making this just combining incredible skill and hard work with the impatience to just wear the dang thing jdfkasl like. mood
Oh I have a WILD guess!! As I saw the buttons at the end I thought "Oh I wonder how she got the pattern on those buttons, they are backed with metal and since they are from Paris is it likely that she got 'blank' ones from Paris and did them herself or *gasp* - maybe she based the entire outfit on the buttons????" Like could that be the reason she made it?
@@janisi9262 You can still get buttons like that- stretch your cloth over the front shell and tuck it in behind, then press in the back piece and it holds in.
You can still buy "blank" buttons that you can cover with your own fabric. Shop for "cover buttons." My theory is she herself coved her own buttons (just because the fabric and cord is an exact match to the rest of it - but, yeah, she could have been inspired to do the whole project from seeing some covered buttons and wanting to give it a try.
Oh my gosh, talk about life goals! And to think she was a teenager when she made it is just mind blowing. What a beautiful ensemble, and a great treasure. So glad it being loved and looked after for posterity 💖
I have a couple of questions, firstly, what do you do with the pieces once you've unboxed them, do they get cleaned or displayed at all? Second, I'm really interested to know more about children's clothing and fashion, and how our ancestors designed clothes for kids who can grow an inch in a month! Love watching everything you do 🧡 xx
What is it with aesthetics recently? Especially cottagecore... I thought it was just me getting on an aesthetic obsession but apparently it’s the entire of costube..... not that I mind of course;)
I've spent a couple weeks trying to figure out what the difference between Cottagecore and Shabby Chic, but at this point, I'm past caring. 😂 I think "aesthetics" are just starting to really become popular...even though history bounding is also an "aesthetic" if you think about it...i dunno, but when I was working on my title/thumbnail I thought about cottagecore and was like, well damn...this is it. 😂
@Alessandra Hayes YES! I actually got really inspired and did my own take on all of her made up aesthetics. It'll be up on my itty bitty little channel on monday😂
This is gorgeous! Please recreate this, it would be soooo satisfying to see what it may have looked like when it was first finished, and it'd look amazingggg on you!!!
@@robyn3349 What everyone said - I just forgot to add the word "design" in my sentence! 😂 I'll just be tracing it and keeping the original outfit intact - as it should be. 😊❤️
I would love to make one too!! I totally support a drafting a pattern Abby!! I love how you talk to all the clothes you get. It's so caring and sweet and respectful. 😍
Realistically if someone is all up inside your intricate handmade garment to critique your finishing they are too close and need to just be quiet OR they are fascinated just want to see how you made it and don't care if you left threads hanging. 😂😊❤
My Irish grandma’s stitching was so perfect her items were reversible. I have only one piece left and it’s amazing. I’ve never seen such perfect stitching. This is a beautiful piece.
Fellow fan of 'teens fashion, here! This is such a sweet suit, and I love all the piecing and raw edges, and re-used lining fabric! I also love fashion/clothing archaeology: opening it up and looking at the inside to see the construction ... Back when I worked at a local museum I used to volunteer in the collections storage area also, and I was informally known as the costume and textile person (the collections manager didn't have any experience with textiles). The museum received a few donations of 19th century clothing that came with seemingly dubious provenance (family story that a few items were worn at Abraham Lincoln's funeral, and another dress was supposedly worn at the Inauguration Ball of California's governor during the few months in 1849 when California was still an independent republic), and I was given the job of examining the pieces and researching the events in question to see if I could verify or debunk the family stories. I loved looking at the pieces from all angles, and seeing how they were made, and re-styled or made of re-used fabric!
I LOVE all the "oops!"-es and not-so-perfect sewing examples in this. Its so true that we don't need to be hard on ourselves and our own work because people 50, 100, even 200 years ago weren't and they made plenty of mistakes too :)
THIS IS GORGEOUS! It looks like something my great-grandmother, with her blonde hair and blue and green eyes (one of each colour!) would have worn and loved! I love it! I probably wouldn't want to make a perfect reproduction, but a light blue, linen dress with some soutache! I'm expanding my made-by-me wardrobe, and this is a huge inspiration!
And here I was wondering what one makes out of all the pretty colours of linen I've seen online lately 😄 Love your enthusiasm going through these garments!
*Drools* That is beautiful. You know one thing that keeps a lot of people from learning to sew is that they think handmade means poorly made. One young lady actually told me she didn't want to start making her own clothes is because she wants her clothes to last. Well this outfit proves that wrong. Except for the faded spots it looks like it was made recently. And I have to say the teenager that made this has way more patience than I have to stitch all that lovely soutache braid design. That girl knew was she wanted so she did it. Stunning!
OMG, the chain stitchs on the underside. Totally remind me of the stitches use in delivery services. The sacks holding goods are stitched together and it's so much fun to take out!!!!!
What a fantastic garment! The teens are one of my favorite eras. I'm working on trying to recreate an outfit of my great aunts just from a photo and having a rough time of it! I wish I had family clothing from that era but I come from generations of tailors and seamstresses and they tended to rip apart old garments and remake them into other garments...especially during the depression.
How freaking cool is this?! I love seeing the inside imperfections and re-used china silk. It's so real. Like, I do stuff like that! Even seeing the fading on the skirt and it's location, I think that's cool. It all tells a story about the garment's life. It's so beautifully made and I love it!
This is my favorite unboxing video yet! Not just because I am a fan of the 19-teens style, but because there were so many great close-ups of the details, plus nice mannequin shots. You have inspired me to take a closer look at my great grandmother's wedding suit (1932) to learn more about its details.
I LOVE this video. Love, love, love it. So interesting. My lovely next door neighbour hand made the dresses for her girls weddings. Complete works of art and perfection. I asked her if she wd take me on a 'tour' of the 'anatomy innards' and she did. It was just amazing how she had put all the brides and maids dresses together. Lovely. She did all the flowers for my eldest daughter's wedding.... a very talented lady. I was taught to sew and embroider by my mother and to this very day my stitches are almost identical front and back. I can't help it.... It's sort of in my DNA, it wd drive me crazy to have 'naughty' threads at the back of my work:). I love watching your channel, fun and interesting .... adore doggie❤️.
Listening to this makes me so much more motivated in my own sewing - imagining that maybe someday someone will examine my work and enthusiastically saying see she took the time to understitch this etc 😂
I need this set, but in a wide-leg trouser version. 😍 I'm wanting to make something that I feel comfortable in in day-to-day life & something that I'd feel exceptional/fun in while visiting the Titanic museum. This may just be part of my inspiration for whatever 1912 history-bounding getup I end up making (yes, I know 1917 fashion differs for 1912 fashion)
What a beautiful suit! Hats off to the young lady who made this. Jerry rigging out of the things she had available when the proper materials weren't around. Ingenuity and talent all in one. Also, you have gained a new patron. I am joining for my daughter who has just completed her first year of costume making at Wimbledon School of Art. I'm both proud and jealous of her and the opportunities she has to look over the colleges wonderful collection of antique clothing and a career in costume. Keep on as you are going Abby. Your love and enthusiasm for clothes is infectious and great to see. Can't wait for the deep dives into seams, fastenings and trim.
Your comment about provenance just reminded me that I should write on acid free paper, and stick it on the bag holding the flour sack fabric my grandmother gave to my mom. (It's the "pride and joy" of my mom's very tiny fabric collection.) I intend to give it away to (hopefully a museum) when she passes.
Thanks so much for the validation about the appearance of the back of embroidery projects. I loved to embroider when I was in elementary school. I felt like a proper young lady straight out of Little Women. Then a family friend flipped my work over to check the back and tsk-tsked it! I didn’t know the back mattered. I admit, it broke my 9 year old heart. I tried to be neater after that, but never got the passion back.
Gorgeous. Thank you for sharing your inside construction knowledge. This piece is a GEM! Interested in maybe following the construction on this one! Very much enjoying your channel so far.
OH MY GOSH! This garment is absolutely STUNNING!! I have not sown in decades that this garment makes me want to pull out my machine and try sewing again!
Watching this made me feel so much better about my own dressmaking skills. It's good to know that people have always made boo-boo's, but just made it work anyway. (I recently had a similar experience making some crop pants.)
This is my favourite unboxing so far...this ensemble is simply stunning. Some gals love their fancy ball gowns but give me the over-the-top embellishments on simple blue linen, any day. You are so fortunate to be in a position to be able to acquire and preserve these wonder treasures of the past. Thank you for sharing with us.
Yes Griffy is a very good boy! He looks so happy and well adjusted now😽💕. I saw in the thumbnail that it wasn't THE red dress so I was already laughing at the substitute before you addressed the matter. How about a sew a long of a red summer weight suit/dress. It is a gorgrous color on you so you cant go wrong with yet another in your closet. I had zeroed in on the late teens as my preferred era, so I was happy that you gave it some love. Between the war, the suffragette movement, the flu...women were absolute bosses then.
OMG I want to make this outfit. Blair, your grandmother was amazing. Please, please, please, Abby, draft patterns of both the garments and the soutache and make them available!!
God, I want one! Blair's grandmother is a girl after my own heart I love the soutache and gotta love that grosgrain facing hehe (I've never seen one so tall either, I've used curtain tape in a couple of skirts because I find commercial interlining not good enough)
Oooh! That is so pretty - it looks so light and airy; the colour blue is gorgeous and the cream embroidery is such a lovely colour choice to augment the suit. I do love your enthusiasm too :D Thank you for sharing
I know I’m late to the par-tay, and I haven’t read any of the other comments either.... but, given the basting stitches are still in place, perhaps the item was never worn, perhaps that’s how it has survived. Oh, I just wish that I could be there sometimes, just to experience the item in person. To know the feel, and the weight of the fabric, the smell (not always) to have a complete sensory experience. I really love these videos, I love your insights into how and/or why something was done a particular way (or not as the case may be). Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and your knowledge with me. I’m enjoying being along for the ride (yee-haa!!) take care of yourself 🙂🐿
I feel super validated by this garment. Also, I want to recreate it. And I think I have just the right amount of self-loathing to get me through the project should I embark on it.
I never thought balene would still be used in the 1910's! How interesting, would that be recovered from an older garment or was whalehunting still a thing at the time?
Since this suit was remade from something earlier, there is a chance that they reused the baleen from the earlier garment as well....hmmmmmm now I'm pondering on this...
I literally died in the best way possible at the first shot of the video. AMAZING! How fun :) I love love love these unboxings/tours of antique extant garments
I love the colour and the little squiggles of braid along the edges! It's a gorgeous suit, but I think I'd be driven mad by the temptation to trim all those loose threads on the inside. YES 1910's fashion is so good! I love the silhouettes and draping, and the construction details and all the many many buttons.
I'm one to leave basting stitches in, but even I was like "damn girl, maybe we should trim these..." when I was looking at the stitching 😂 Just *wait* till you see the 1910s number that I'll be sharing for Halloween - it's 1910s Vamp Goddess 😍😍😍😍 - the 1910s is just...ugh...so good. so so good...
I would absolutely be down to make one of these beauties if you felt inclined to pull the pattern. That soutache work is giving me such joy!!!!!!!!!!! Also I love how wonderfully human the inside stitching and piecing is.
My grandmother was born in 1893. She was a young woman in the time this dress was worn. I have only seen two pictures of her during that time. In one she is wearing a dark skirt with a wide collared shirtwaist and in the other what appears to be a lightweight white dress with lots of lace or embroidered trim (I don't know the correct terms). She is standing in the sunshine with her two cousins who are wearing similar dresses.
I love this videos!! That outfit is stunning. I have decided to collect vicariously through costube. Though I did want to be a conservator when I grew up we were never near a university to take the course. So this way I get to see things up close and look at the construction and not worry about my lack of knowledge. Or my lack of storage space!! Thanks for taking us along
I think the selling point on the chain stitch sewing machines was an "elastic stitch" and also you could pull the seams apart easier if the garment was going to be re-made. And on really lightweight material the seams had less chance of puckering. I used to sell treadle sewing machines on ebay and it seems like one of the gals on a treadle sewing machine website told me that, and it makes sense. Willcox & Gibbs sure sold a lot of machines and and they were almost unchanged in the nearly 100 years they were in business. Singer and others made them as well, but W & G must have outsold Singer by a lot on that one.
I would so love to wear this suit. But if I made it, I wouldn't do all the details. That would just be too much and I would never finish it. I love the wide waist band and find that they fit a lot better than the tiny modern ones most clothes have now days. 😞 I am so glad that Blair sent this to you, Abby! It's beautiful! As this is my first comment, I will share that I came by way of Noelle of Costuming Drama, but have heard of you before that I think it may have been Miss Bernadette Banner. 🤔 Anywho, love your videos. Especially when you show a new piece being added to your collection of antique clothing. Love seeing you go over them and show them to your viewers!
Reading thru I found several people wondered how old my Grandmother would have been when she made this. She would have been in her teens during this time period.
Was there a family member in the Military at the time? This seems like something inspired for a hometown parade with Veterans or a Bonds campaign.
I remember the stuff I made when I was a teen. Oh gracious was it bad! Your grandma was amazing! Thanks for putting this forward so we can all see and enjoy her skills! It takes real bravery to cut into a price of fabric and then to wear it with all mistakes we make!
Her older brother served during WWI.
@@blairlowery8479 That absolutely makes sense. That piping and patterns looks like some of the details of Officers dress uniforms of the time. :) Wonderful!
And to me, I am both completely amazed at her sewing skills at such a young age, and amused that basting stitches were left where they wouldn’t show! A very teen age thing to do! Lol PS I think this dress could absolutely be worn today! It would make a beautiful mother of the bride outfit or a dressy outfit for any special occasion. Maybe a fancy Easter brunch?
Would I love to have this suit? Yes. Does the thought of sewing on all of that soutache cord make me want to gouge my eyes out? Also yes.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Exactly that. 🤣
And yet I WANT ONE!!!
Seriously though. That had to be a pain and a half.
See and as an embroiderer/cross stitcher, that's the only part I can comprehend doing.
I hope collectors in a hundred years roast my sewing as lovingly as you do for these pieces
Mama insisted that you can always have one of the best dresses in the room if you were willing to work for it. She was raised poor and this was important to her. Her dresses looked right, but she had to figure out the inside herself. Sometimes, it was pretty eccentric. :) I can't say how much I admired her, her drive and determination were epic.
Roxie Poe My great-grandmother and grandmother were the same way! They were poor, but they worked hard at replicating the fashions in the windows and had to just figure it out.
the pen marks get me 😭 so human. also good to know i should definitely never use regular pens on garments again since it obviously will not come out for over 100 years 😂
You *might* be able to get pen out of your own garments with hair spray or rubbing alcohol, but it's a 50/50 chance of it cleaning up nicely or just spreading and becoming a big stain 😩
Washable markers are the best for writing on fabric!
That's why we have tailors chalk. The fading ink felt pens used by cross stitchers and quilters are great. Just keep in mind that it disappears in 1 to 3 days.
@@michellebyrom6551 Yes I use a combination of tailors chalk, heat erasable ink, washable ink, and tailor tacks depending on the need. I only used regular ink in emergencies and prayed it'd come out, which it never does.
Girls, girls! Hear me out!☺️🎉
I've been using Frixion pens (they are erasable by "frixion" - you use a small rubber bit at the end - but in fact it's the heat that makes the ink disappear. ❤️
I can write and mark all over the place and just need to iron or use a hair dryer to get rid of the ink.😉
You can find some drawing videos in wich the artists use this pen as a sketch base just to "erase" it later.
I've tried in cloth and also works (better make a test first because the results change depending on the color used - blue tends to be better)
I just love it.
Watching this makes me think of a photo I have of my Great Grandma and her sister in the twenties. On the back she wrote “we made new dresses and HATS.Ha!” I wonder what the inside of those garments looked like, but also love the fact that she was proud of her work! Wouldn’t it be great to see a pic of the woman that crafted that marvelous garment, especially one of her wearing it?
I've never related more to a sewist than to the woman who made this an ensemble.
I love a bandaid queen!
Same! 😆 I really don't feel as bad about some of my projects now
@@catrinabush1530 Legit you should see some of my projects. I can't bandaid as well, but I had the "F it" attitude!😅
I could see myself wearing this suit while wandering through a botanical garden.
Same. With a lovely straw hat....
@@AbbyCox and white boots...and a parasol! Omg now I want to make this dress too!!!
I really enjoy seeing these garments but even more I love you taking us through the construction. Informative and entertaining!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I love sharing all these lovely details and construction info! ❤️
I love seeing these dresses where the creators just Couldn't Be Bothered on the insides!! Love it! And the dress is gorgeous too!
Hmmm, maybe you need a summer-specific Signature Red Dress for unboxings? ;)
Hahaha Gryf! "Mama play with me!"
Yes - I need a summer version of my red dress - maybe for next year I'll have one done! 😂 One of the things I *love* about these glorious gut-centric unboxing videos is sharing all the "Can't Be Bothered" realness on the insides of these pieces. It's so easy to hold antique clothing on this pedestal, while simultaneously beating ourselves up over "not being good enough" - when in reality - they did the same things we did. It just makes everything so much more relatable and obtainable!
"history says NO, history says who cares?" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 loved this
I can’t even say how much I love the fact that she obviously recycled that silk lining from another project. The braid design is amazing and the whole outfit is adorable. But my favorite part is that it has that recycled silk lining. Oh, and I would love to see a pattern recreating that dress, were you ever to do such thing.
This outfit is going to be reappearing on my channel at least a couple more times - it's way too fun to not recreate!
@@AbbyCox yay! The fun part about watching your instructional antique Garment videos is saving that knowledge for when you post your recreations. Looking forward!
That suit is just so stunning!!! Blair’s grandma has excellent taste. Your exploration and explanations are so informative and entertaining, thank you for sharing!
Agreed! I love it so much & thank you for watching! ❤️
I could see reimagining the skirt and bolero, as a high waisted pant suit set. With a plain cream colored cami in either a satin or a really delicate knit, it would be eye catching!
well..I just died thinking about this. #perfection 😍
*files this idea away for later*
Silk crepe de chine, broad over the shoulders, a neckline with guipre lace that follows the jacket neck and sits just unseen when worn.
Teens closures stump me every time! I’ve seen a lot of them in my work and we finally figured out that they would use different snaps and hooks to delineate what went with what... even they needed help remembering.
This closure is *tame* compared to another 1914 piece I have in my collection (that I will be sharing, but it's so vampy that it must be released around Halloween!) 😂
Abby Cox they always seem to try to one up themselves on how to make it look like they didn’t put it on themselves. Can’t wait to see that 1914 one!
@@AbbyCox wouldn't it be so fun to do a segment on period Halloween costumes!? They had Halloween costumes back then right?
Preserving shape while creating access that disappears!
The way the soutache pattern was included on the buttons is just stunning and the echoes of art nouveau is so beautiful - I just want to replicate it! I think it’s good to see that people didn’t have what we would consider “perfect technique” and instead just got the job done and I hope she had some fantastic times in it. That’s the lesson there isn’t it - it doesn’t have to be perfect, just get it done, have fun making it (you don’t choose to do that many french knots without loving them!) and have fun wearing it. Brilliant video, thank you 💙
the "messy" finishing inside makes me feel better about my sewing lmao
Hahaha spot on!
Buttons for show, close with snaps...I feel validated.
The Ad that I saw before the video was for fruit snacks and I honestly can't think of a more appropriate Ad for one of Abby's videos! Lol Now I want fruit snacks....TO THE STORE!!!
LOLOLOL (now I also want fruit snacks...damnit!)
What a gorgeous summer outfit! I can’t wait to see your version of it. Grif is just the most precious goofy noodle!! My very favorite meme says, “Everyone thinks they have the very best dog...They’re all right.”
Nicole might beat me to it - she came over and started plotting her version of the suit already (just change some colors and it is right in her wheelhouse!) and yes - I agree - all doggos are the best doggos! ❤️❤️❤️
Ooooh! Can’t wait to see both!
I love watching you go Sherlock Holmes on these. This particular one was extra nice since I watched Engineering Knits' video about making a coat like this yesterday, so it adds layers to both vids to first watch someone trying to figure out how to make this sort of coat and then watch you talk about how one was actually made.
Whenever there's stuff like the basting stitches left in I think about how often modern sewists, knitters, cosplayers, crafters, etc start projects with deadlines and then hit a crunch where it's "@#$% it, we're doing it live!" I like to think that maybe back in the day maybe sometimes they also had their big plans for - whatever - making a beautiful dress for a party and suddenly the party is tomorrow and fine, not going to worry about the basting stitches! It's a design feature now! :D
I love the human element in these clothes like you can really imagine the young woman stoked about making this just combining incredible skill and hard work with the impatience to just wear the dang thing jdfkasl like. mood
Oh I have a WILD guess!! As I saw the buttons at the end I thought "Oh I wonder how she got the pattern on those buttons, they are backed with metal and since they are from Paris is it likely that she got 'blank' ones from Paris and did them herself or *gasp* - maybe she based the entire outfit on the buttons????" Like could that be the reason she made it?
She probably made the buttons herself - just my opinion!
@@janisi9262 You can still get buttons like that- stretch your cloth over the front shell and tuck it in behind, then press in the back piece and it holds in.
You can still buy "blank" buttons that you can cover with your own fabric. Shop for "cover buttons." My theory is she herself coved her own buttons (just because the fabric and cord is an exact match to the rest of it - but, yeah, she could have been inspired to do the whole project from seeing some covered buttons and wanting to give it a try.
Oh my gosh, talk about life goals! And to think she was a teenager when she made it is just mind blowing. What a beautiful ensemble, and a great treasure. So glad it being loved and looked after for posterity 💖
I have a couple of questions, firstly, what do you do with the pieces once you've unboxed them, do they get cleaned or displayed at all? Second, I'm really interested to know more about children's clothing and fashion, and how our ancestors designed clothes for kids who can grow an inch in a month! Love watching everything you do 🧡 xx
What is it with aesthetics recently? Especially cottagecore... I thought it was just me getting on an aesthetic obsession but apparently it’s the entire of costube..... not that I mind of course;)
I've spent a couple weeks trying to figure out what the difference between Cottagecore and Shabby Chic, but at this point, I'm past caring. 😂 I think "aesthetics" are just starting to really become popular...even though history bounding is also an "aesthetic" if you think about it...i dunno, but when I was working on my title/thumbnail I thought about cottagecore and was like, well damn...this is it. 😂
Lilline did you see Rachel Maksy's video of made-up aesthetics? 😄
@Alessandra Hayes YES! I actually got really inspired and did my own take on all of her made up aesthetics. It'll be up on my itty bitty little channel on monday😂
This is gorgeous! Please recreate this, it would be soooo satisfying to see what it may have looked like when it was first finished, and it'd look amazingggg on you!!!
I definitely want to! It's a pretty easy pattern - just gotta pull the soutache and embroidery off of it! 😍
@@AbbyCox You will disassemble this dress?
@@robyn3349 I'm almost positive she meant that when she makes her own, she won't make soutache for it. She wouldn't harm the original.
@@AbbyCox I can't wait!!!
@@robyn3349 What everyone said - I just forgot to add the word "design" in my sentence! 😂 I'll just be tracing it and keeping the original outfit intact - as it should be. 😊❤️
I've never sewn anything more complicated than a single side seam, but I would love to make this dress 😂
I would love to see a historybounding outfit based on this garment. I think it would be fabulous.
Wow! Such a beautiful suit, well done Grandma! Yes, let's all make one!
I would love to make one too!! I totally support a drafting a pattern Abby!!
I love how you talk to all the clothes you get. It's so caring and sweet and respectful. 😍
Realistically if someone is all up inside your intricate handmade garment to critique your finishing they are too close and need to just be quiet OR they are fascinated just want to see how you made it and don't care if you left threads hanging. 😂😊❤
My Irish grandma’s stitching was so perfect her items were reversible. I have only one piece left and it’s amazing. I’ve never seen such perfect stitching. This is a beautiful piece.
The way you talk to the creators of the dresses is so endearing! Love watching you fangirl over and explain new old garments!
Fellow fan of 'teens fashion, here! This is such a sweet suit, and I love all the piecing and raw edges, and re-used lining fabric! I also love fashion/clothing archaeology: opening it up and looking at the inside to see the construction ...
Back when I worked at a local museum I used to volunteer in the collections storage area also, and I was informally known as the costume and textile person (the collections manager didn't have any experience with textiles). The museum received a few donations of 19th century clothing that came with seemingly dubious provenance (family story that a few items were worn at Abraham Lincoln's funeral, and another dress was supposedly worn at the Inauguration Ball of California's governor during the few months in 1849 when California was still an independent republic), and I was given the job of examining the pieces and researching the events in question to see if I could verify or debunk the family stories. I loved looking at the pieces from all angles, and seeing how they were made, and re-styled or made of re-used fabric!
That dress is absolutely stunning! 😍
I LOVE all the "oops!"-es and not-so-perfect sewing examples in this. Its so true that we don't need to be hard on ourselves and our own work because people 50, 100, even 200 years ago weren't and they made plenty of mistakes too :)
THIS IS GORGEOUS! It looks like something my great-grandmother, with her blonde hair and blue and green eyes (one of each colour!) would have worn and loved! I love it! I probably wouldn't want to make a perfect reproduction, but a light blue, linen dress with some soutache!
I'm expanding my made-by-me wardrobe, and this is a huge inspiration!
And here I was wondering what one makes out of all the pretty colours of linen I've seen online lately 😄 Love your enthusiasm going through these garments!
I have never felt such immediate love for a linen dress. I want a closet-full of these!
*Drools* That is beautiful. You know one thing that keeps a lot of people from learning to sew is that they think handmade means poorly made. One young lady actually told me she didn't want to start making her own clothes is because she wants her clothes to last. Well this outfit proves that wrong. Except for the faded spots it looks like it was made recently. And I have to say the teenager that made this has way more patience than I have to stitch all that lovely soutache braid design. That girl knew was she wanted so she did it. Stunning!
OMG, the chain stitchs on the underside. Totally remind me of the stitches use in delivery services. The sacks holding goods are stitched together and it's so much fun to take out!!!!!
What a fantastic garment! The teens are one of my favorite eras. I'm working on trying to recreate an outfit of my great aunts just from a photo and having a rough time of it! I wish I had family clothing from that era but I come from generations of tailors and seamstresses and they tended to rip apart old garments and remake them into other garments...especially during the depression.
This is so beautiful. I appreciate your attention to details so I can finally see what historical fashion really looked like.
I loooooove the 1910's!!! And love when you show its secrets so closely as you do💖💖💖💖💖💖Keep on!!!!!
How freaking cool is this?! I love seeing the inside imperfections and re-used china silk. It's so real. Like, I do stuff like that! Even seeing the fading on the skirt and it's location, I think that's cool. It all tells a story about the garment's life. It's so beautifully made and I love it!
This is my favorite unboxing video yet! Not just because I am a fan of the 19-teens style, but because there were so many great close-ups of the details, plus nice mannequin shots. You have inspired me to take a closer look at my great grandmother's wedding suit (1932) to learn more about its details.
That embroidery is absolutely gorgeous.
I LOVE this video. Love, love, love it. So interesting. My lovely next door neighbour hand made the dresses for her girls weddings. Complete works of art and perfection. I asked her if she wd take me on a 'tour' of the 'anatomy innards' and she did. It was just amazing how she had put all the brides and maids dresses together. Lovely. She did all the flowers for my eldest daughter's wedding.... a very talented lady. I was taught to sew and embroider by my mother and to this very day my stitches are almost identical front and back. I can't help it.... It's sort of in my DNA, it wd drive me crazy to have 'naughty' threads at the back of my work:). I love watching your channel, fun and interesting .... adore doggie❤️.
Listening to this makes me so much more motivated in my own sewing - imagining that maybe someday someone will examine my work and enthusiastically saying see she took the time to understitch this etc 😂
Every time I see you squeeling over the pretties that have arrived I'm like: you're vocalizing all of what we feel inside ;) ^^
🥰🥰🥰
This would be a FABULOUS wedding suit!
This suit is downright charming and full of personality and style. I love it.
I literally just gasped and squee'd. It is SO PRETTY! The piping/braiding is TO DIE FOR. 😍
I need this set, but in a wide-leg trouser version. 😍
I'm wanting to make something that I feel comfortable in in day-to-day life & something that I'd feel exceptional/fun in while visiting the Titanic museum. This may just be part of my inspiration for whatever 1912 history-bounding getup I end up making (yes, I know 1917 fashion differs for 1912 fashion)
What a beautiful suit! Hats off to the young lady who made this. Jerry rigging out of the things she had available when the proper materials weren't around. Ingenuity and talent all in one.
Also, you have gained a new patron. I am joining for my daughter who has just completed her first year of costume making at Wimbledon School of Art. I'm both proud and jealous of her and the opportunities she has to look over the colleges wonderful collection of antique clothing and a career in costume.
Keep on as you are going Abby. Your love and enthusiasm for clothes is infectious and great to see. Can't wait for the deep dives into seams, fastenings and trim.
Your comment about provenance just reminded me that I should write on acid free paper, and stick it on the bag holding the flour sack fabric my grandmother gave to my mom. (It's the "pride and joy" of my mom's very tiny fabric collection.) I intend to give it away to (hopefully a museum) when she passes.
I fell in love with the white Victorian summer tea dress look. So much so that I had one made for my wedding dress.
Abby, your enthusiasm makes this video so much fun and it so good to know these lovely antiques are in good hands!
Thanks so much for the validation about the appearance of the back of embroidery projects. I loved to embroider when I was in elementary school. I felt like a proper young lady straight out of Little Women. Then a family friend flipped my work over to check the back and tsk-tsked it! I didn’t know the back mattered. I admit, it broke my 9 year old heart. I tried to be neater after that, but never got the passion back.
What a lovely journey through your eyes on this suit! It's so beautiful and intricate.
OMG that soutache braid is so amazing!!!!
Gorgeous. Thank you for sharing your inside construction knowledge. This piece is a GEM! Interested in maybe following the construction on this one! Very much enjoying your channel so far.
This is Stunning ,all the patterning on the jacket and the skirt is beautiful ..I love this ..The ladies Grandmother certainly knew how to sew 😀
Oh to be a fashionable late 19-teens lady in 2020.... but gods that dress is so stunning it's on my list to make now.
OH MY GOSH! This garment is absolutely STUNNING!! I have not sown in decades that this garment makes me want to pull out my machine and try sewing again!
Watching this made me feel so much better about my own dressmaking skills. It's good to know that people have always made boo-boo's, but just made it work anyway. (I recently had a similar experience making some crop pants.)
This is my favourite unboxing so far...this ensemble is simply stunning. Some gals love their fancy ball gowns but give me the over-the-top embellishments on simple blue linen, any day. You are so fortunate to be in a position to be able to acquire and preserve these wonder treasures of the past.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Griffy is just precious. I also love ur furdaughter as she reminds me of my late fur daughter trunte!
So crazy to see how much the fashion changed from the late 1800s to the early 1900s!!
This is fascinating as soutache braid is usually sewn in the centre groove and this is sewn on one side, gives a different feel.
If you make a pattern I truly hope you share it, this seems like an amazingly fun sewing and embroidery project.
Yes Griffy is a very good boy! He looks so happy and well adjusted now😽💕.
I saw in the thumbnail that it wasn't THE red dress so I was already laughing at the substitute before you addressed the matter. How about a sew a long of a red summer weight suit/dress. It is a gorgrous color on you so you cant go wrong with yet another in your closet. I had zeroed in on the late teens as my preferred era, so I was happy that you gave it some love. Between the war, the suffragette movement, the flu...women were absolute bosses then.
I love the details she did, and then the stuff she skipped like the basting.
OMG I want to make this outfit. Blair, your grandmother was amazing. Please, please, please, Abby, draft patterns of both the garments and the soutache and make them available!!
Oh, I would certainly like to have a dress like this. Need to find pale blue linnen asap. And then spend about twenty years for the embroidery...
The colours are beautiful! Also these videos have surprisingly helped with my perfectionist demon. Thank you.
We shall slay that demon with primary resources! slay! slay! ❤️
Thank you for sharing and thank you Blair. That decoration is unbelievable!
God, I want one! Blair's grandmother is a girl after my own heart
I love the soutache and gotta love that grosgrain facing hehe
(I've never seen one so tall either, I've used curtain tape in a couple of skirts because I find commercial interlining not good enough)
Curtain tape. I shall look into that.
Oooh! That is so pretty - it looks so light and airy; the colour blue is gorgeous and the cream embroidery is such a lovely colour choice to augment the suit. I do love your enthusiasm too :D Thank you for sharing
If only I could construct this in a week! So gorgeous! Making it in pink once I have some breathing room
This is beyond words. Thank you, Abby. Thank you, Blair.
Oh my God, this is sooooooo gorgeous! Totally agree: everyone should have one!😍
I know I’m late to the par-tay, and I haven’t read any of the other comments either.... but, given the basting stitches are still in place, perhaps the item was never worn, perhaps that’s how it has survived. Oh, I just wish that I could be there sometimes, just to experience the item in person.
To know the feel, and the weight of the fabric, the smell (not always) to have a complete sensory experience.
I really love these videos, I love your insights into how and/or why something was done a particular way (or not as the case may be).
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and your knowledge with me. I’m enjoying being along for the ride (yee-haa!!) take care of yourself 🙂🐿
Like the rest of the 247 other viewers, I love this suit! I totally support making a pattern of it.
I'min love with that dress, adding it to the list of things to make!! Highly possibly at the top.
I feel super validated by this garment. Also, I want to recreate it. And I think I have just the right amount of self-loathing to get me through the project should I embark on it.
It was lovely to see what was done all those years ago. TY.
I never thought balene would still be used in the 1910's! How interesting, would that be recovered from an older garment or was whalehunting still a thing at the time?
Since this suit was remade from something earlier, there is a chance that they reused the baleen from the earlier garment as well....hmmmmmm now I'm pondering on this...
@@AbbyCox haha if only carbon dating were easier/cheaper
I literally died in the best way possible at the first shot of the video. AMAZING! How fun :) I love love love these unboxings/tours of antique extant garments
That is absolutely, utterly, completely gorgeous!
If you do end up pulling a pattern for this, I would love to try to recreate this as well! Those lines are so gorgeous!!
I love the colour and the little squiggles of braid along the edges! It's a gorgeous suit, but I think I'd be driven mad by the temptation to trim all those loose threads on the inside.
YES 1910's fashion is so good! I love the silhouettes and draping, and the construction details and all the many many buttons.
I'm one to leave basting stitches in, but even I was like "damn girl, maybe we should trim these..." when I was looking at the stitching 😂 Just *wait* till you see the 1910s number that I'll be sharing for Halloween - it's 1910s Vamp Goddess 😍😍😍😍 - the 1910s is just...ugh...so good. so so good...
I would absolutely be down to make one of these beauties if you felt inclined to pull the pattern. That soutache work is giving me such joy!!!!!!!!!!! Also I love how wonderfully human the inside stitching and piecing is.
Hum. You will have to make a summer version of THE red dress and another sew along !!! ♡♡♡♡
My grandmother was born in 1893. She was a young woman in the time this dress was worn. I have only seen two pictures of her during that time. In one she is wearing a dark skirt with a wide collared shirtwaist and in the other what appears to be a lightweight white dress with lots of lace or embroidered trim (I don't know the correct terms). She is standing in the sunshine with her two cousins who are wearing similar dresses.
I love this videos!! That outfit is stunning. I have decided to collect vicariously through costube. Though I did want to be a conservator when I grew up we were never near a university to take the course. So this way I get to see things up close and look at the construction and not worry about my lack of knowledge. Or my lack of storage space!! Thanks for taking us along
Never did any historical dresses, but now I just want to join you remaking this lovely assemble!
I think the selling point on the chain stitch sewing machines was an "elastic stitch" and also you could pull the seams apart easier if the garment was going to be re-made. And on really lightweight material the seams had less chance of puckering. I used to sell treadle sewing machines on ebay and it seems like one of the gals on a treadle sewing machine website told me that, and it makes sense. Willcox & Gibbs sure sold a lot of machines and and they were almost unchanged in the nearly 100 years they were in business. Singer and others made them as well, but W & G must have outsold Singer by a lot on that one.
I would so love to wear this suit. But if I made it, I wouldn't do all the details. That would just be too much and I would never finish it. I love the wide waist band and find that they fit a lot better than the tiny modern ones most clothes have now days. 😞
I am so glad that Blair sent this to you, Abby! It's beautiful!
As this is my first comment, I will share that I came by way of Noelle of Costuming Drama, but have heard of you before that I think it may have been Miss Bernadette Banner. 🤔
Anywho, love your videos. Especially when you show a new piece being added to your collection of antique clothing. Love seeing you go over them and show them to your viewers!
Absolutely love the blue ensemble. The details are lovely!
Just FYI, Promenade Fabrics carries quite a lot of vintage ribbon and has some 6" wide ribbon sometimes, though it may not be white.