Hello and welcome to SnappyDragon, where we are sewing Victorian athletic clothes!
I love modern wide-leg trousers and have wanted to make a late Victorian split skirt for a while,
the sort of thing worn for cycling and other sports around the turn of the century.
I’ve never made shaped trousers before, so a mockup will be essential.
However, thanks to my fickle health, this mockup was basted by hand,
modified, and then promptly abandoned for several weeks.
Finally ready to get back to work on the split skirt. So we have a mock-up, and let's take a look
at what it actually got us. I made this mock-up by hand because, well, I wasn't feeling up to getting
out of bed. It's just all of the pattern pieces cut out of a sort of firm stiff cotton muslin to
give an idea of fit. I really only needed the top section that fits over the hip and the top
of the legs to get an idea of how it fits there. I am in terms of body type what one might call,
uhh, “blessed of strong glute muscles” on account of a combination of genetics and ballet classes.
And I frequently have a problem finding pants that fit in the low hip so I was worried that the rise
on these was not going to be the right shape. And I was correct, it did need a bit of adjustment.
Here's the curve on the pattern piece. And, I mean, without disassembling this mock-up . . . I
have taken a slightly different shape of rise curve. So I’ve clipped into the seam allowance
and then changed the rise curve and brought it lower, so I’ve got basically an additional inch
that it is further away from my body. When I put the mock-up on and pinned it closed,
before I made this adjustment it was mostly fine until I started like really moving around in it. I
tried taking some really big steps, I tried doing some lunges. Stuff that would normally cause most
trousers to, shall we say, creep up uncomfortably. And it only started doing that then. But I don't
want these doing that at all. Curving this out and adding that additional space
should help. Most of what I’ve read about, um, “glute” adjustments on trousers, shall we say,
says that you need to add whatever extra fabric you're taking out here, you need to add it back
in elsewhere. I just need to transfer this deeper curve over to the pattern piece and then I should
be ready to cut these . . . trousers? split skirt? whatever you want to call them, out!
I’m making these from a lightweight strawberry-red wool twill that was gifted to me by the wonderful
Katie of Latina Living History. It turned out to have a little bit of spandex in it,
which I normally would not buy but will quite happily accept as a gift. That is how I got the
idea to test these out, since I do yoga at home most days. They are basically going to
be Victorian yoga pants : stretchy, comfy, and good for movement. I’ve already worked out in a
Victorian corset to prove it’s possible, so why not do yoga in a split skirt to prove the same?
There are eight panels total : two each of center fronts, side fronts, side backs, and center backs.
They go together a lot like a skirt, which shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did.
I’m pinning the long seams in pairs,
but leaving the inseam between center front and center back open.
Past V didn’t know this, but a mistake is currently being made here. If you line up
the notches on the center front and side front panels, you get an extra inch at the top of the
center front panels. The correct thing to do is line up the notches and cut the excess off,
as I discovered when I lined up the top edges and had to go back and fix it. This pattern has
a lot of variations for the front closure, so I think that’s why that extra is there.
This pattern has 5/8-inch seam allowances instead of the half-inch I’m used to, so this magnetic
seam guide will remind me of that. Viewers who get nervous every time I sew over a pin will be
happy to see that the seam guide forces me to take them out! Also, I use silk pins, which,
on the two occasions ever I’ve hit one with a needle, they just bend. Highly recommend.
Next come all the long construction seams, so now seems like a good moment
to hand things off to Sponsorship V so you don’t get too bored watching me sit here.
Working more movement into my life means I also need to be paying attention to eating better. And
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I am going to finish my dinner! So I will send you back over to Sewing V to see what she’s up to.
All the panels have been sewn together in pairs : side front to front, side back to back, et c.
Sewing the curved rise seams looked like it would be easier now than later on, so I matched both
front pieces and both back pieces to eachother at the center and pinned the curved seam. So far I’ve
used a regular straight stitch for the long seams, since they won’t need to stretch lengthwise.
Now the fronts and backs are laid flat on top of eachother,
right sides together, and the outseams can be pinned and sewn.
This way the inseam can be done in one go, starting at the bottom of the left side,
up to the center and down the right side.
I’m using the same method I always do to add a placket : Two rectangles of the appropriate
length, one twice as wide as the other. The wider one will extend an inch past the center
back on the right, while the narrower one goes on the left as a reinforcement facing. To prevent
the inner layers pulling away from the outer ones, I’m padstitching them in place by hand.
I put them on to do a test fitting and I figured out that they they *almost*
fit perfectly. I want to nip in the sides a little bit just because it's gaping a teeny
teeny teeny bit in the waist. But also, the the front rise was falling a little bit weirdly,
and I think it's because of that extra inch at the top that I should not have included and I did.
So we'll have to pull the front pieces out and sew them back in lined up slightly differently.
I went back and looked at my mock-up and compared them and I actually don't know whether I included
that extra inch on the mock-up or not? Also, on the mock-up I wasn't paying terribly close
attention to the front rise because I was too busy making sure the back rise had enough room in it.
So that's gonna be some annoying seamripping and then a couple more long straight seams to sew,
but it's not the end of the world. You make mistakes, then you learn how to fix them.
I tried the same waistband method I used on my Morticia Addams skirt : wrapping
the fashion fabric over a piece of twill tape for stability.
But that was actually super uncomfortable to move in, soooo I ripped it off and made a new one.
This is just a strip of the red wool with the stretch going around my body.
It’s folded in half and one seam allowance is pressed in.
The short ends are sewn together, and the long un-pressed edge attached
to the waist with great care so one doesn’t stretch more than the other.
For this seam, I am actually using a stretch stitch on my machine.
The inside folded edge is felled down by hand,
and the closure is finished with several hooks and eyes.
To test the split skirt out as athleticwear, I wore it with a thrifted sweater in the style
of 1890s sports sweaters. No corset though, because I’ll need too much core mobility. I
picked a yoga video, turned on the camera, and put myself and the split skirt through their paces.
And, yes, I am actually working out on camera here, so please pardon the weird exercise faces.
My mobility was great, no worse than in modern athletic clothes.
I actually like these a bit better than most athletic leggings because they’re so loose,
there’s no resistance from what I’m wearing. The only issue was not stepping on the hems,
but that happens with modern wide-leg yoga pants too.
This was a super fun project, and these will be a regular part of my wardrobe for both ordinary
and athletic use! Thank you for joining me as I conquer my fear of sewing trousers.
Tell me about your favorite clothes for movement down in the comments,
subscribe for more adventures in real-world uses for historical garments,
and click the like button while you’re at it. I’ll see you again soon. Bye~