Florence’s pantaloons

 Don’t you love the title of this post, yes this post is all about Florence’s pantaloons, but first a little explanation about my plans for Florence’s new outfit. I want it to include something old, something new and as much past history in connection with to those who have been part of Florence’s 140 years that  I can possibly stitch into the garments.

Her pantaloons are possibly as old as she is, although I don’t think they were what she wore originally. I have bleached them and pleased with how they came up although some repairs are needed, on examining them I decided that there were definitely two different needle women's stitching to be seen, at this point I realised they had been made from part of another garment and it was easy to know where they came from as I had a similar garment here a baby gown from the 1880's. (note the feather stitching on the sleeve band, same on the pantaloons.)

This is the sleeve of a christening gown known to have been worn in 1887 by Charles Reginald Westfield ( and again in 1968 by his grandson Barryn Westfield)

The sleeves of a baby gown had been used to make here pantaloons.  Turning them inside out the original seam of the sleeve is a tidy French seam with hand stitches so tiny I needed a magnifying glass to see them and the rest of the stitching includes some rather large back stitches that have definitely been done by a different needlewoman. I needed to unpick the waist stitching in order to make repairs and now the shape of the original sleeves can be seen. 

 My plan is to leave as much as possible of those stitches as part of the history of the garment and just mend the waist and  put it on a proper waist band with a button fastener.

 Research found this example of a child’s pantaloons from the same era as Florence’s.

Mending the damaged fabric, I could see where holes had been made to thread elastic through and there the fabric was in pieces, I was tempted to to treat them as would have been done in the past, which was what was done when a child grew a piece of fabric was inserted between the top of the pantaloon’s fabric and the waist band. In my research into pantaloons I found examples of this.

In the end I decided just to re-enforce the fabric with patches and add a waist band with a button closing, this extra fabric of the waist band made them a better fit as previously they had not come up to the waist on the doll. Florence has quite a long body. 

Next garments will be to make her a chemise and petticoat.