I really like the edwardian fashion of 1900-1910 and want to make some patterns of clothes I could wear with those elements as a little project for myself. What elements could I incorporate to make it obvious of the time influence? I'm partial to the pigeon chest illusion but don't know if there are other things I should try
Sorry if this doesn't make sense it's 4am. I love your blog!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying.
I'm assuming you mean you want to make clothing for everyday use? Edwardian working/middle class day wear and sportswear are probably a good sources to look to, since those were practical and not too expensive and elaborate for everyday clothing today either. It also sounds like you're not planning to do like a full as close to historical as possible Edwardian look, with like all the supporting layers etc? To get the Edwardian look exactly right you would need of course corset, petticoat and some padding, and all the other undergarments. But if you're going for a more history bounding look that's not necessarily trying to be super historical, you can definitely get pretty close with the right cuts. The first ever historical clothing I made was an Edwardian walking skirt, which did sell the look surprisingly well, even though it was not at all well made. I'll probably pull it apart and resew it once I get the change.
Shirtwaist was the stable of casual women's wear, worn but working women, for sports, and for casual day use. They came in many different forms, they could be very plain and very much following the men's styles (except with the fashionable silhouette for women - pigeon chest and full sleeves) or very elaborate with tons of lace. Very high neckline fashionable especially early in the century. Pigeon chest was achieved with the corset and corset cover (that could have ruffles to fill the chest or be just gathered well at the chest), but you do get pretty close with the cut and gathering of Edwardian shirtwaist. Here's couple of examples. The more masculine styles often had either cravat, tie or a bow, like the first two examples. (The first example is a photo from around 1910, possibly a little after 1910.)
High waisted bottom was important part of the look on it's own but also to highlight the pigeon chest. A simple skirt with high waist and princess cut was used often with a shirtwaist, for walking dress and many sports. Here's couple of walking skirts (first is probably an upper class promenade skirt as it has such a long hem). They were very fitted at the waist, where they could rise very high and quite straight at the front and much fuller at the back. The shape of the skirt is usually more fitted around hips and flares towards the hem.
The sports skirt was roughly the same shape, though usually shorter (sometimes quite short) and less fitted. The waistline is also at the natural waist instead of above it since fitted very high waist hinders movements a bit. Here's some examples. First tennis and golf wear, then hicking gear, more tennis wear and finally croquet wear.
A fairly popular version of the skirt was also a pleated skirt, where the pleats are sewn down around the hips to get the silhouette where it's closer fitted on hips and flares at the hem. Here's couple of examples of that.
Another option with shirtwaist is the split skirt, or pantaloon skirt - trousers basically. They were worn for riding a bike mostly. Split skirt is trousers, but made to look like a skirt with the fashionable silhouette. They sometimes had a detachable panel at the front that could be put there once you got off the bike so it looks very much like a skirt. Here's first an example, where the split is concealed behind the front panel sort of. And then one with detachable front panel pictured from front and back.
For a casual Edwardian outerwear the option that highlight the Edwardianness is imo bolero. It captures the high waisted pigeon chest look better than longer jackets (which were used as seen in some of the examples. The two of the walking dresses above have such a bolero. Here's one fairly simple example of an extant garment.
One last accessory that helps sell that look is the corset belt or Swish waist, which could be basically a decorative underboob corset worn over clothes or a narrow belt made from fabric with a basque or pointed waistline. This changed with fashionable silhouette (earlier in the decade they were generally more narrow and later generally more wide but there's overlap too) and the specific style. With the corset belt, you can achieve the overtly high waisted silhouette with a skirt that has natural waistline and highlight the waist as well. Here's several different styles of varying widths illustrated.
Lastly here's couple of rough patterns of Edwardian walking skirts, which I used to pattern that walking skirt I made years ago (I like to always pattern myself, which probably is not the smartest choice when I was a beginner and likely contributed to the walking skirt not being so well made).
Hopefully this answered your question and you get some use out of this! And good luck with your sewing!
