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What if Mary Poppins came in 1890?

 My next big historical project is a 1890s Mary Poppins.We know that Mary Poppins returns every so often. And we know that the original Mary Poppins film is set in 1910. We can assume 17 Cherry Lane has been in the Banks’ family for a time. Maybe she visited the Banks’ neighbor children in 1890 when George Banks was in his early 20s? Let’s say she met George at that time and knew that she needed to keep her eye on him and his family.

The Belle Epoch is not a period I’ve studied a lot, but I love it. It’s a perfect blend of the Bustle styles that came before and the Edwardian style that followed. My Constance Hatchaway is loosely inspired by this period.

For the skirt, I used Butterick 5970. I bought some beautiful Gray Herringbone Striped Wool from Burnley and Trowbridge. Sadly, it’s sold out now.  I hope it comes back in stock so I can make a matching jacket at some point. Probably the Eton jacket from Truly Victorian. A good portion of the fashion plates from this period that I found online featured matching skirts and jackets. And I loved the look.

The skirt has multiple layers. I cut the wool according to the pattern, Next, I basted the wool to a layer of tarlatan. The skirt is quite large, so that was no easy task. Tarlatan today is mostly used for cleaning the plates in the printing industry, but was used as interfacing in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. It’s a cheesecloth stiffened with glue. Not machine washable, unfortunately. The glue will wash out if it gets wet. I bought quite a bit of the tarlatan and used most of it. This skirt is a fabric eater, I tell you. Once the wool and the tarlatan were basted together, I ran it through the serger to make a clean edge. I should have added the lining before I serged it. Tarleton is rough and scratchy and really does need a lining. Even though I will be wearing petticoats with this skirt. I backed each panel of the skirt with a lining of plain black cotton. I trimmed the skirt simply with some black satin ribbon in horizontal rows. Perhaps my next big skirt will be decorated more elaborately, but I do like how this one turned out. 

And I love how the silver “pleather” belt looks. I used the Edwardian Dip-Waist Belt pattern from Truly Victorian, size G (I think). It was fiddly and annoying, but the finished result is beautiful. Basically, I cut the pattern pieces out of the silver pleather, the tarlatan, and a plain cotton lining. I attached the tarlatan to the wrong side of the pleather, using fabric glue.  I folded the pleather on all sides and topstitched the edges down. Finally, I hand stitched the lining on the inside.  I’m not quite sure if the Victorians would have had shiny, silver leather, but I love it. And Mary is not exactly a regular person now, is she? She follows her own fashion rules.


Yours in hard work, creativity, and a dash of Pixie Dust


Sarah







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