By the Beautiful Sea...

1890 Victorian Bathing Suit When I first started looking for Victorian dress patterns, I stumbled across a pattern for an 1890 Victorian bathing suit. I instantly fell in love, and I bookmarked it  under "future projects".  I kept revisiting the site, there was just something about that outfit that I found irresistible. But, I had no where to wear an outfit like this, and it required quite a bit of fabric, so I hesitated.  I think I lasted about a month before I bought the pattern.

Bathing suits from Victorian times were much different than bathing suits today. For starters, they are worn over a corset.  Secondly, they are a bodice attached to bloomers, with a front opening. Sort of like the first prison jumpsuit. Except they generally didn't come in safety orange.   But, since trousers were absolutely inappropriate for women to wear in public, the bloomers are covered with a skirt.  (It wasn't until World War I that pants became acceptable for women to wear, in spite of Amelia Earhart's earlier attempts to buck fashion trends and encourage woman to wear utilitarian clothing.) Thirdly, the bathing suits were generally made from a lightweight wool.  When wet, they could weigh over 20 lbs. Between the weight and the corset, swimming was nearly impossible.

I wanted to go with the traditional look, but didn't want to invest in wool, so I found a navy blue linen that was perfect in both the heavier weight and the color.  I also picked up white linen for the panel inset at the neckline, and a white braided trim.

A vintage bathing suit from the Musee McCord Museum in Quebec

The outfit has to be one of the easiest ones I have sewn.  The bodice is directly attached to the bloomers; the skirt is a separate garment.  The bodice has a lining in the upper back that encloses the shoulder seam, and gives a bit of sturdiness to the garment.  The sailor collar is made of both fashion fabric and a lining; first the trim is sewn on to the fashion fabric, then the lining is sewn to the collar.  This gets turned right side out and ironed, then it is sewn on to the neckline of the bodice. A collar facing is sewn on top of the collar at the neckline, then turned under and sewn to the bodice, enclosing all open edges.   For the sleeves, I sewed on the trim, hemmed the edges, then added bias tape for the elastic.  Gathering stitches along the top end provide the puff, and help fit the sleeve exactly to the armscye.  The bottom edge of the bodice was pleated, then basted. The  bloomers are four pieces; two fronts, and two backs.  The outside seams are sewn together, then the inside seams. Finally, the two pieces are sewn together at the front and back.  The top part of the bloomers were pleated, then basted. I sewed the bodice to the bloomers with the raw edges on the outside of the garment; then the waistband was sewn onto the front of the garment to cover the seam allowance. I hemmed the bottom of the bloomers, and added elastic in the hem. The skirt is simply constructed; a front panel, two back panels, all sewn together using flat-felled seams; the bottom was hemmed, and trim sewn on; I pleated the back tops, with stacking pleats at the back enclosure.  The waistband has a half lining sewn onto the inside of the front; it has three buttonholes to hold the skirt onto the front of the bloomers.  I sewed trim on the front side of the waistband, and then attached it to the right side of the skirt. Then I folded it over to the inside of the skirt, enclosing the seams.  The cool thing about the skirt is that there are no visible raw edges along any seam line. To finish the garment, I sewed the white inset panel, and attached it to one side of the bodice neckline. The other side is attached using buttons; corresponding buttonholes are sewn into the neckline of the bodice, under the sailor collar. Ties were sewn, turned out, and attached to the neckline.  Buttons and buttonholes fasten the front of the bodice and bloomers; and buttons were added at the waist and in the center back.

The finished suit without the skirt

The finished suit with the skirt:

Once again, the bald dog has to be in the picture.

Bloomers!!

Overall, I'm very pleased with how this turned out.  I love the fabric choice, and the fit is perfect.  It's super comfortable to wear, and it's just a really neat historical garment. My only complaint with it is that it's not terribly user friendly; in order to get out of it, first the skirt has to come off (four buttons around the waistline), then the white inset panel has to be unbuttoned (three buttons) then the six buttons down the front have to be undone in order to step out of the garment.  Roughly translated, that means this might not be the best garment to wear while imbibing lots of fluids. But I am still going to find someplace to wear it, because I really love it. : )