The Plaid Wool Fringed Shawl

 In the fall of 2019 I came up with a brilliant idea - I would make a shawl to wear with my new 1840's wool dress! A nice large woolen shawl, it could be worn with all sorts of different dresses from throughout the 19th century - it would be perfect!

I dove into my books to research shawls. If I was going to make this thing I was going to make it right! My family had a re-print of an 1890's Sears catalogue we'd recently picked up and I read all the descriptions of the shawls for sale in the catalogue.

60" by 60", plus fringe, most of the descriptions read. 

I went to my wool stash to see what my fabric options were. After rejecting several fabric cuts because either there wasn't enough yardage, or I had the fabric earmarked for something else, or I didn't like the plaid for this project, or the fabric was too narrow, I finally decided on a gray and red plaid wool I'd picked up from a thrift store for a couple bucks a few years earlier. (I picked it up at the same time I snagged the wool that became this skirt)

The fabric was a full 60" wide, and there was enough of it to cut a full 60" square and still have some fabric left over. So I cut out my square. (And a few months later I used the leftover fabric to make my Hogwarts-inspired bonnet.) Now all I had to do was fringe it!

Now the "proper" way to fringe a shawl is to un-ravel the fabric for a couple inches all around the perimeter. But is that what I did in 2019? Oh no. I was unaware. I made my life much harder than that. Don't get me wrong, I did unravel fabric. . .

A lot of fabric, but. . .

It was not along the edges of my shawl.

I was worried that if I unraveled the edges that would reduce the dimensions too much, I really wanted that 60"x60" + fringe shawl, so I decided at add on fringe instead of unraveling my fabric.

 Along the two edges of my shawl that were not selvedge edges I sewed a very tight zig-zag on my sewing machine to keep the fabric from unraveling. Like I said, there would be absolutely no unraveling the edges of my shawl!

Then, I unraveled my fabric scraps, and cut my unraveled threads to a uniform length.

I sorted the threads by color, then threaded a couple at a time onto a large craft needle.

And I used the needle to thread the threads through the fabric along the edges of my shawl.

Then I knotted the little bunches of fringe in place. 

Making sure, of course, to match the fringe color with the color of the plaid at each location.

This way, when all was said and done, it would look like the fringe had been created by just unraveling the edges of the fabric.

Yep, just by unraveling the fabric, with a few extra steps thrown in.

Honestly, at the beginning it was pretty relaxing and fun, matching up the colors and knotting the fringe onto the shawl.

The completed sections of fringe were just so satisfying to look at!

I started the shawl on a Monday, thinking I'd have it done by that Saturday to wear to a Halloween party. (Thank you date stamps on photos and old blog posts to remind me of the details!)

I did not. In fact, one month later, I only had about 18" of the fringe done. 18" on one of four 60" sides. That's less than one-eighth of the way around the shawl! Barely more that one-sixteenth if my math is correct!

Unravel the fabric.

Cut the threads to the correct length, sort by color.

Knot onto the edge of the shawl and repeat. I definitely lost momentum. This "fringe the shawl" idea became very tedious. I wished I'd just unraveled the edges of my wool like a normal person! But it was too late to do that now. I'd started the shawl this way, I was going to finish it this way! I'm stubborn like that.

For the next 4 winters (2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022, and 2022/2023) I picked up the shawl between other projects and continued adding fringe. Honestly, knotting the fringe on wasn't too bad. It was the running out of fringe, or running out of one particular color of fringe, and having to unravel more fabric part that got annoying. 

Finally, a couple years in, I figured out a method that worked really well for me. Rather than knotting on the fringe one section at a time - dark gray, white, dark gray, red, dark gray, light gray, dark gray, red, dark gray, white, dark gray, lots of light gray, white, more light gray, and repeat (I bet it was tedious just reading that.) - and having to stop every time I ran out of of one particular color to unravel more, I would just work with one color at a time. I would knot on all of that color I had unraveled.

Then I would pick another color and knot on all of that color that I had unraveled.

Until I has whole sections filled in! (As time went on I also became less obsessive about making all the fringe the exact same length.)

I made some real progress with this method! And finally, last January, over three years after I began this "It should only take me 5 days of knotting on fringe in the evenings while watching TV to finish" project, I actually finished it, by knotting the final bunch of fringe - one strand of each color - onto the final corner of the shawl.

It was done. My big woolen shawl was finally, finally, finished and ready to wear with all the costumes. And what did I do with it?

 I put it away in the closet. After over 3 years I was tired of it. It took too much time!

This winter however? It's finally doing what it was made to do.

It pairs quite wonderfully with my 1890's wrapper (Which I wear around the house "just because" probably atleast once a week!) It's just the thing to throw on over the wrapper on mild winter days to run outside and do quick animal chores.

And on these very, very, cold winter days we've had recently, I've been wearing it even in the house, while sitting by the fire.

Despite the literal years it took me to make, I've very glad to have this thing - though I will never, never, make a shawl like this again!

Every single year I worked on this thing I picked a Historical Sew Monthly theme it would fit if I could get it done in time. After many themes (it would have been perfect for) came and went, I was left with the 2023 options, and I picked challenge #3:

Focus on the Fabric!

Because really, what else is there to this shawl? It's all just one single piece of fabric, with fringe, made from the fabric, knotted on to match the design woven into the fabric. 

What the item is: A fringed Shawl

The Challenge: Focus on the Fabric

Material: Wool Plaid

Pattern: None, just the dimensions of the shawls in an 1890's Sears catalogue as reference

Year: Pretty much the whole Victorian era

Notions: none, all the fringe came from unraveling scraps of fabric, so it's really all just the fabric.

How historically accurate is it? The fabric and dimensions are accurate. My fringing method? Probably not. I believe it would have been more accurate to unravel the edges of the shawl to make the fringe, rather than unraveling fabric scraps to get the thread then knotting those threads onto the edges of the shawl to make the fringe. When I began this project 4 years ago I valued dimensions over method. Thus a project that took way too long to finish.

Hours to complete: Too many. 4 winters of working on this thing between other projects.

First worn: This winter I guess. I don't have a specific date I can recall.

Total cost: The fabric cost me $4 at a thrift store years ago.

A Brocade Victorian Waistcoat for my Husband

 Of course I have plans for my husband to dress up in historical clothing with me. How could I not?!?!?

Thankfully, he is fully on board with this plan! I just need to make him the clothing. By now I thought I'd have at least one full suit made for him, something from the 19th century. . . but there's this thing called time. Somehow sewing dresses for myself, my sister, and my niece has taken up the time I've had to sew for the most part, thus, my husband of (almost!) 5 months still lacks a full Victorian suit. One of these days I will change that, but for now. . .

He does have a waistcoat! I made it for him over the summer as a birthday gift.

It started as a partially assembled renaissance vest, or doublet, or something, given to me in a tub of fabric by someone who used to be very involved in the SCA. I thought the colors in this brocade would go very well with the purple top hat I made my husband for Christmas last year. (Who cares if the purple top hat is not historically accurate, it's getting worn with anything 19th century I make for my husband!) 

I began by disassembling the whole thing so I could re-cut it using a Victorian pattern. 

I used the Laughing Moon (or Bijoux Patterns, as this one is labeled) Men's Romantic and Victorian Double-Breasted Shawl Collar Vest pattern as my starting point. I've used this pattern several times for my youngest brother (the most recent version can be seen in this post) so I'm familiar with how it goes together and confident in the results it gives.

I laid out the pattern pieces I'd traced off in my husband's size over the pieces of the renaissance vest I'd ripped apart. The double-breasted front pattern pieces were a bit too wide to fit on the front pieces front pieces of the vest, so after looking at extant 1850's brocade vests online I decided to adapt to the pattern to be single-breasted.

    

I cut the fronts of the new vest out of the fronts of the old vest.

I cut the shawl collar out of the back of the old vest, and cut the welt pocket pieces out of the old collar pieces.

I adapted the collar piece to fit the new single-breasted fronts.

I cut the backs and linings out of some plain brown broad cloth from my stash and the facings from a brown linen-looking fabric, also from stash.

For the closure I chose some metal buttons I bought in Japan two years ago.

I finished all the hand sewing on the vest on my husband's birthday.

I stuffed the pockets with his favorite candy, wrapped it up, and gave it to him that evening.

He loved that I'd made it for him! There was just one minor issue. The vest was considerably too short. It ended above the natural waistline. 

I'd run into this issue with the pattern when I made the vests for my brother. My brother, however, has always been in the smallest sizes this pattern offers, so I just assumed the smaller sizes were drafted shorter because the pattern company assumed smaller men would also be shorter men. Well, I was wrong. If the smallest sizes were a little short, the larger sizes were very short. I was going to have to figure out a way to lengthen this vest if I didn't want my husband looking ridiculous while wearing it.

(And yes, mid-19th century menswear featured a higher waistline than modern menswear does, but even taking that into account, the pattern was still too short for my 6'1" husband and almost 6' brother.)

After a bit of brain storming, I came up with a plan. In the bins of fabric I was given by the SCA people I found a bit more of the brocade the vest was made from.

I seam-ripped apart the shoulder seams and added several inches of fabric there to lengthen the vest as un-obtrusively as possible. 

I added the same amount of length to the back of the vest by cutting straight across the back from armhole to armhole and inserting a strip of fabric there.

To make the collar fit the lengthened shoulder straps, I added a strip of fabric to the center back, then stitched everything back together.

The adjustments only took a couple hours one afternoon and now the waistcoat fits pretty darned well!

He wore it for the 150th anniversary celebration of the little town we've been going to church in on the weekends we go visit my parents.

It pairs with his top hat pretty darned well!

This pairing is making another appearance this weekend as part of my husband's Halloween costume! 

Any guesses what he's dressing up as????

Since I made this waistcoat from a previously started vest of another era, I'm using it as my entry for the Historical Sew Monthly challenge #4 The Costumers New Look.

What the item is: 1850's Waistcoat
How it fits the challenge: It's made from a previously cut out and partially assembled Renaissance vest. I re-cut and assembled it to fit my desired time period.
Material: Cotton brocade, poly/cotton blend broadcloth, some sort of synthetic linen-look fabric.
Pattern: Laughing Moon Men's Romantic and Victorian Double-Breasted Shawl Collar Vest pattern, with alterations to be single-breasted.
Year: It will work for 1830's-50's impressions.
Notions: Thread and metal buttons.
How historically accurate is it? The cut and overall look are good. The materials aren't exact. The construction is mostly machine done, which isn't accurate for the era. I'd say about 50%.
Hours to complete: I don't know, I made this months ago and didn't really keep track. I started and finished it within a 4 day time period, sewing a couple hours each day, then went back later and did a couple hours more work to get it to fit right, so maybe 10-12 hours total.
First worn: August 23, 2021
Total cost: The fabrics were all given to me free of charge by someone who was de-stashing. I spent $2 a couple years back on the buttons that were used. The thread came from stash, and as this didn't use too much thread I'll add $1 for that, for a grand total of $3.