19th Century Dressmakers and How They Worked || One Woman is Twice Two Soldiers, Episode 7

[@AmericanBeautyCorset]

Now, don't forget that women who were employed as domestic house servants were required to provide their own uniforms. During the day, they could wear a cotton uniform of a modest color blue or gray was recommended. After 5, a domestic class had to change into a black uniform with starched white apron and cap. She had to have sleeve guards, in case she was asked to work in the kitchen during a dinner party. Most domestics actually lived on the premises and had one day off a week. So before you could actually start working, you had to go to a dressmaker and have your uniforms made.

[@KatelynKearns]

Yes, servants did provide all their own clothing, which meant they had to have appropriate clothing before even getting paid.

[@ProfoundConfusion]

This was true but only for domestic servants who worked in relatively affluent households. Most servants worked in very ordinary households. I recall a statistic that 1/4 of households in New York employed a servant. (Hired girls & housekeepers on American farms didn't have a dress code. They wore what they had .)

[@KatelynKearns]

@@ProfoundConfusion I also find servants having 'uniforms' varies by time frame as well. You don't see it much mentioned in the early 19th century, by the mid 19th century you're more likely to see recommendations for 'sensible' colors for servants' clothing (brown, black, gray, etc.), and you see more mentions of a general uniform by the late 19th century. That's why it's so hard to speak about a whole era or century-things change a lot within that time frame!

[@kristenhurst683]

The description of the sewing profession has not changed. You are never paid what you are worth, expectations are high, and people think it's easy (so why don't they do it themselves?).

[@KatelynKearns]

As a professional seamstress, I know a lot of collogues who do still have the same issues.

[@sashag572]

And there are still wild fluctuations between periods of overwork and practically none

[@KatelynKearns]

@@sashag572 Yes there is! I had nothing all summer and then 4 large orders all at once. (Part of that is dealing with state budgeting but for different sites. The state distributes money all at the same time, even if the clients approached me at different times through a 6 month period).

[@amandapittar9398]

So, so true. Whilst doing some complex stitchery on a garment I had made, a friends new wife ( we will gloss over her other shortcomings as a person) peered at my sewing room, my garments, my embroidery and said “ oh, how domesticated “ this is 2024. From one woman to another. I was appalled, not at the comment alone, but at the categorization of my craft/art to a domestic and therefore worthless activity. Oh dear. It makes it so hard to be friends with such a limited and ignorant mind.

[@agnieszkasiemaszko1896]

Sewists should be GRATEFUL they get paid at all for what is basically play/entertainment/pasttime. Expectations should be even higher cansidering you monetize an activity that should be called needlePLAY. It is one of easiest things one can do and still earn money (only 'artists' and actors have easier pretend-jobs - none of you should get ANY money for basically playing like toddlers all day)

[@ilexopaca9835]

Your Kitty sounds so lovely ♥️ My cat is often quiet and communicates through touch/body language more. It is so nice to hear a vocal kitty!

[@KatelynKearns]

Oh, he's very vocal. Both of my cats are very vocal (one is an outside cat though due to bullying the other house critters).

[@funvideosriddellrye4296]

so sorry to hear that you are hurt by allergy and uncomfortable. It has happened to me with ragwort. Very interesting information on dressmaking.

[@KatelynKearns]

It cleared up in a few weeks and no more problems since. I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

[@lilykatmoon4508]

I’m lying in bed watching this on my phone with my dog on one side and my cat on the other. My cat was very intrigued by your cat about 10 minutes in, and I had to pause to let you know that you needn’t apologize for animal noises as far as I’m concerned. They rightly deserve any and all pets.

[@KatelynKearns]

Most of my talking videos begin with me petting my dog just off camera. If you ever see my hands moving just below frame, it's because there's a dog there demanding pets. And yes, the cat likes to input is own opinions into whatever I'm talking about in each video. He's a chatty one.

[@lesleyharris525]

Thanks for another interesting video, I felt sorry for the young lady who had worked hard for her silk dress and then it was useless for her, ❤

[@KatelynKearns]

I did, as well! The moral of the story was about the evils of vanity and want of "useless" things, but it still seams so unfair.

[@susandavis3270]

Fantastic episode!!!

[@KatelynKearns]

If I can remember, we can do a dressmaker at work video this next weekend!

[@susandavis3270]

@@KatelynKearns YEEEEESSSS! That would be fantastic!

[@coranova]

Cat meows 😻 😂🧡🧡

[@KatelynKearns]

Oh he loves to come up and make his presence known!

[@angelaross1]

I love this. Very informative and fun.

[@KatelynKearns]

Thank you! I very much enjoyed researching for this one.

[@Boudica-um9um]

Hearing your cat is so cute

[@KatelynKearns]

He certainly likes to make his voice heard!

[@pippaseaspirit4415]

I bet I know where that dressmaker went wrong! She forgot she hadn’t included seam allowance in the pattern!

[@pyewhackett1598]

I would blame the customer who neglected to follow #1 rule: ALWAYS double check if the pattern includes seam allowances. It was not until turn of the century for it to be standard to include seam allowances in patterns. Sewing patterns before 1900 did not usually include seam allowances. The home sewer needed to add them.

[@KatelynKearns]

@pyewhackett1598 the dress was patterned and made up by the dressmaker, so the customer was not at fault in this situation. Now it could have been the dressmaker who patterned the dress handed it off to a lower dressmaker who worked for her and that person neglected to add seam allowances, but the customer had no part in that.

[@KatelynKearns]

It's either that or she mixed up Lydia's pattern with another smaller customer's but I'm guessing it is the seam allowance issue. It's foreign to me why Lydia could not go to the dressmaker and have her fix it or at least get her money back since it was a dressmaker issue and not a customer problem.

[@Axeo19]

That looks like poison ivy or sumac. Try steeping chamomile tea and soaking a wash cloth in it and applying to the area once the tea is cooled.Oh and typically it's really good to wash with Dawn dish soap after doing anything with plants you're not sure about. This cuts the oils and you're less likely to develope a rash :) You can also use it on your clothes for the same reasons.

[@KatelynKearns]

I'm not sure what it was. I know it was not poison ivy because I don't react to poison ivy at all (we have it all over the property. I can roll in it and not have a reaction and my husband can just walk outside and get covered in a rash). We have sumac everywhere as well and I've never reacted before but I've also never purposely touched it so it could be that. But it flared up just a day after I was picking grapes so it had to be something around the vines. I'm usually very aware of all the plants I touch and nothing around the vines concerned me but there may have been something hiding.

[@pyewhackett1598]

You look beautiful, despite the alergic reaction. Heal fast Katelyn and make more great video's.

[@KatelynKearns]

Thank you very much! Reaction is gone by now and everything is back to normal.

[@therewillbecatswithgwenhwyfar]

1:53 oh I'm so sorry see you're having an allergic reaction! I have had intolerances/non-anaphylactic allergies were quite a while. I am already gluten and dairy free and because I was a nurse in the 90s I have developed a latex allergy turn into cross allergy I had my first anaphylactic response to cashew few weeks ago. I wish my immune system would work on attacking pathogens more than food and environmental allergies. 😅

[@KatelynKearns]

I'm so sorry! Allergies are the worst-especially food allergies where cross contamination can happen quite easily. I'm glad to hear you're better after our anaphylactic response!

[@birgitelisabeth9661]

Do you know how to get a pattern for an old fashioned bonnet?

[@KatelynKearns]

Can you give me a more specific time frame and do you want a sunbonnet pattern for a fashion bonnet pattern? I have different recommendations for different time periods and style of bonnet.

[@birgitelisabeth9661]

@@KatelynKearns I want to sew a bonnet that women used to wear when working in the field and garden. I am in the process of designing my own pattern right now. I am planning to make it entirely the way they used to make them in the 19th century, without any type of elastic and drawstrings to allow for adjustments while wearing.

[@KatelynKearns]

@@birgitelisabeth9661 So you want a sunbonnet! Sunbonnets varied a LOT in style (an 1830s sunbonnet looks wildly different from an 1860s sunbonnet, which looks very different from an 1880s sunbonnet, etc.) so there is no way to have a sunbonnet that works for the whole 19th century. If you're looking for 1830s-1880s sunbonnets, Marna Davis has amazing patterns that she drafts right from her originals. www.etsy.com/shop/WickedStepmothers?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=949021892&from_page=listing&search_query=sunbonnet

[@corinnecox6855]

⁠@@KatelynKearnsMay I piggyback off this comment and ask for a recommendation for an 1840s fashion bonnet pattern? Thanks in advance! I love your content!

[@KatelynKearns]

@@corinnecox6855 For fashion bonnets, I always recommend Danielle at Timely Tresses! www.timelytresses.com/store/c24/1838-1853.html#/. I know Danielle in "real life" and not only is she very kind and helpful, she is extremely knowledgeable and takes her patterns from her collection of many originals.

[@amandapittar9398]

Everyone who has a little furry friend who is a petpig will understand..😊

[@KatelynKearns]

I cannot tell you the amount of times I have to refilm things because he is constantly interjecting. :)

[@sarah-kk4om]

I think I’d probably have been a dressmaker if I’d lived in this time

[@KatelynKearns]

It's a lot of work but it would likely have been my profession as well.

[@marym.1567]

Fascinating. Do you know anything about the lives of enslaved seamstresses? When they were sold how were they described and did they sell for more? Was it common for slave owners to enslaved a seamstress? Or the lives of free blacks seamstresses in the North? Were there traits/stereotypes associated with these black women? How did their wages compare with white seamstresses and dress makers?

[@KatelynKearns]

I only do living history in the south, so I can speak *somewhat* on enslaved seamstresses but not at all about freeman seamstresses (although Mary Todd Lincoln employed Elizabeth Keckley and that may be a good starting point for research). On the plantation I docented at for years, there was a seamstress for the family. She was NOT a dressmaker-just a seamstress. There's a distinction there. The family purchased their clothes elsewhere (I have a sneaky suspicion they went to New Orleans for professional dressmakers because I see the wife and daughters taking several trips to New Orleans throughout the years and I do have records that the aunt did have her dresses fitted in New Orleans but then the patterns were shipped off to Paris, made in the latest styles, then shipped back to her.) and then the home seamstress (I believe her name was Nancy but my records are still missing after moving 3 times last year so I'm working through finding them again) did things like mending, *maybe refitting*, seamstress work for the other enslaved people on the plantation, and more "menial" sewing work. In the early 1830s years, there were also spinners and weavers on the plantation who did make "slave cloth" but I don't think they were still doing that by the 1850s and 1860s because by that point, calico cloth had become cheaper than having it home processed so a lot of plantations went with calico. The plantation was out there away from towns so it would have been difficult to go into town to see a white seamstress for the small work which is why I believe they employed a seamstress. Unfortunately the Texas slave schedules don't often list the skills so I don't know how similar it was for most other plantations. Most of my enslaved research has been very Texas specific and each individual plantation operated so differently from the others, it's hard to nail down "this is what they did" because it's more often "this is what sometimes happened" if that makes sense.

[@marym.1567]

@@KatelynKearns thank you for your thoughtful response. I was actually thinking of Elizabeth Keckley when I watched your video. It’s interesting to think of seamstresses and more so dressmakers as venue of class or race ambiguity/fluidity. Dressmakers were valued and skilled people. And how fascinating that your research has been Texas specific. My ancestors were enslaved in Austin County and I’d love to hear more about your research. I’m currently working on a project about enslaved people who were transported to Texas during the civil war as a means of “safeguarding” them from the advancing union army.

[@KatelynKearns]

@@marym.1567 My research has been Brazoria county, specific and mostly revolving around one family who owned about 5 plantations in the area and were part of Austin's Old 300. I'm not sure if it will be of any use to you but there is a book specifically on slavery in Texas. I bought it but haven't had time to read it yet. It's called An Empire for Slavery.

[@Liselledeiane]

For the “paid out” portion, that may refer to the dressmaker having to acquire the material or some portion of it herself. It is still common practice for businesses to reimburse employees for business purchases made from their own funds. Hubby has gotten “paid outs” for equipment purchased for the store and that is how it was termed then.

[@KatelynKearns]

You're probably right! That was a common practice back then as well I just had not seen that term before. Thank you for teaching me that!

[@elizabethclaiborne6461]

You need Kenalog cream. Benadryl isn’t doing anything, it it? Virginia Creeper will do that sort of reaction, if it progresses to super itchy dry skin you need an oil moisturizer and a steroid shot.

[@KatelynKearns]

The Benadryl did help. It was really bad before I started the Benadryl. It cleared up a few days later and I've been fine since. Thanks!