RSS Feed

1910s Edwardian Wool Suit

I love the Edwardian era and the Wearing History 1910s WWI suit pattern seemed smart and cozy. 

3D873E11-B0BE-4567-AD90-AA14344025C7
1E9D50E6-EE1B-4C26-B1EF-3EBDA0731651

I liked the big lapels, sailor collar, and tulip-shaped pockets and cuffs.

AB119FB6-9259-4C3C-A8CD-B5D731A2A21B

I used a gray and black houndstooth wool for the skirt and accents and a yellow wool for the jacket. The black buttons are vintage Czech glass buttons and the the yellow ones are vintage handmade.

6399A312-27A4-4D95-AEC8-FFFC483EB605
27D58852-097A-4F2B-97CE-982EFFDBE036

There are different options for collars and pockets in this pattern.

The skirt is made according to the construction methods of the era where there’s an internal waistband that actually holds the skirt up. The waistband you see on the outside is attached at the top but not at the bottom, allowing for the gathers in the back of the skirt to hang loosely. 

7EE1FE73-F2EA-49AC-998A-3D72E50EB371
7A811B00-2301-487E-BB56-C343998D18E2

I made myself a matching hat which was pretty easy! The base of the hat used the same pattern as the jacket belt. I wrapped it around my head at a jaunty angle and pinned it to fit. The center of the hat is just a giant pleated rosette with a pompom hiding the center hole.

D9926C7F-17BA-48C9-A37A-97DACFEAC92E

I’m afraid I took my photos while it was getting dark quickly during winter, so they are a bit grainy.

B91953ED-CBAB-4AE0-B041-3C5017CC1D8A

Some sizing notes: This is based on an antique pattern from the period.

  • The original skirt is quite long (great for tall people) but WH includes a cutting line if you want a shorter version of the skirt. I am 5’6″ and cut the shorter version.
  • The shoulders of the jacket are rather broad. I had to take in the shoulders a little bit to reduce the width.
  • The jacket is very full and loose but this is intentional. Shaping is done by the belt. You do not need to cut a smaller size; it is supposed to be a bit tent-like. (For security I have some hidden snaps in the jacket and hooks and bars in the belt).

Materials:

  • 3 yards gray/black houndstooth wool: $31.50 plus tax and shipping from Fabricmartfabrics
  • Pattern from Wearing History: $28 plus tax and shipping
  • 4 yards yellow wool: $65 including tax and shipping from a FB destash group
  • Vintage yellow buttons: $6 + tax from a marketplace
  • Vintage Czech glass buttons: from eBay; I’ve had them for years and don’t remember how much I paid
  • Thread, snaps, etc. from stash

I’m not quite sure of the total cost because items 1 and 2 had shipping bundled with other items; I don’t have receipts for everything, and I have leftover wool in both colors, but I hope this gives you an approximate idea of what it will cost you to make your own. Thank you for reading!

02D0951B-1787-49DA-9B8B-52A9E6D51C30
Advertisement

About freshfrippery

Blog @ freshfrippery.com. Instagram @freshfrippery. I believe costuming is about helping others so I post tutorials when I can. I am happy to provide all patterns and tutorials for for free on my blog. It is absolutely optional, but if you would like to donate towards my domain registration and the data costs of hosting the many photos on my site, consider buying me a “coffee”: https://ko-fi.com/freshfrippery. Thank you!

15 responses »

  1. Love all the tulip shaped accents. I’ve always liked yellow and grey together. Excellent!

    Reply
  2. Cute! The yellow is bright and cheery. I love the creatively wrapped hat. It looks great and has the right feel. 🙂

    Best,
    Quinn

    Reply
  3. Oh, this is so charming! I just love the details and the pert little hat! With it being wool, it looks very functional and almost modern at the same time…perfect for a winter walk.

    Reply
  4. Absolutely gorgeous. Love your fabric and color choices.

    Reply
  5. Early 1900’s clothing is usually my least favorite- but this is SO STINKING CUTE. I LOVE the buttons (!), and your color choices are always spot-on. The HAT!! ADORABLE, bravo!!

    Reply
  6. So gorgeous! I’ve been on a 1910’s kick lately and this is basically my dream project, love the colours you chose and that hat is perfect!

    Reply
  7. Pingback: 2020 Costuming Year in Review | Fresh Frippery

  8. Just realized the hat is a wrap belt. How delightfully clever.

    Reply

Thanks for your feedback! I read and respond to all comments. If you don't have a Wordpress account you may not know that I did. Please check the "Notify me of new comments" box to be sure!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: