I joined the Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge because I needed goals to push me out of a state of inertia I was in. Right now though, I find a have too many goals and I’m feeling a bit swamped! We are having a Victorian fashion show and tea for Mother’s Day at work and I have one dress for sure that I need to finish (it needs the skirt). I’d also like to finish the bodice and hat for a second dress (but it is not mandatory). That dress may get put on the back burner. I was hoping to get an entire swim suit done for the Challenge but that wont happen. I’ve reassessed and decided to just try to get the swim shoes done for the By the Sea Challenge. One needs to make one’s goals manageable, after all. I did get all the material for the entire swim suit today.
I went with traditional colors. I didn’t go for wool, which is often found in museum pieces because it is just TO HOT here in the summer to wear wool! I figure that swim suits worn in hot climates were possibly made of cotton, but they just didn’t survive to make it to a museum. The bulk of the fabric is 100% cotton but some of the lining and trims needed to be blends because I couldn’t find pure cottons in the color I needed. Hey, there were some synthetic fibers in the 1890s….may be not the exact ones I bought but they did have them. I have basically one big chain store to choose from for fabric buying so I’m constrained by my own budget and what they have to offer. Now lets see if I can get this thing done before the snow starts flying again!
Oooo, I love the colours! Very ‘star spangled banner’! I’m excited to see how it turns out.
Those colors were pretty common for swim suits in that era. I think it will be awesome to wear it on the beach one day!