Little Boy's Breeches
By Becky Brown
"Little Boy's Breeches" can remind us of the fight for dress reform. The pattern was given that name in the Kansas City Star by someone who saw a pair of
pants in the corners.
Mid-19th century-women carried their own cages with them.
Corsets, petticoats and cage crinolines or hoop skirts impeded any movement,
exercise or work. Fashion was a pretty prison.
Elizabeth Smith Miller,
Portrait from the Seneca Falls Historical Society.
I've lightened it to show the dress.
It's hard to say if reformers actually wore gathered hems---
Turkish trousers.
In 1851 Elizabeth Smith Miller designed a costume she
considered more rational, a short dress over trousers with a gathered hem. Also important---no confining
corsets and expansive petticoats. Friends in the reform movement adopted this
rational dress--- the bifurcated garment.
Lucy Stone often wore
rational dress
for lectures on the abolition of
slavery and women's
rights.
Amelia
Bloomer in the early 1850s
Fashion plates romanticized the
realities of bloomer costume.
realities of bloomer costume.
From The Lily 1852
An accurate depiction of Amelia Bloomer's outfit.
Opponents of change were incensed by women in pants.
Hooligans saw reform dress as a call for rotten eggs and verbal abuse. By the
end of the 1850s most public speakers had abandoned trousers as so distracting
that their major message, whether abolition, temperance or votes for women, was
forgotten.
A
new confining fashion in the 1870s
As silhouettes changed through the 19th century, dress reform
advocates continued to preach rationality while press and pulpit decried the
idea of women in pants as unnatural.
It wasn't until the 20th century that women in pants became socially
acceptable.
The Block
Little Boy's Breeches
By Becky Brown
Little Boy's Breeches
By Georgann Eglinski
Georgann, a rational woman herself,
appliqued those britches.
(BlockBase #2961)
I changed the proportions a bit.
Cutting an 8"
Finished Block
A - Cut 4 squares 2-1/2"
B & C - Use the templates.
D - Cut 1 square 2-3/8"
B& C - Use the templates
D - Cut 1 square 3-5/16"
D - Cut 1 square 2-3/8"
Cutting a 12" Finished Block
A - Cut 4 squares 3-1/2"B& C - Use the templates
D - Cut 1 square 3-5/16"
Little Boy's Breeches
By Dustin Cecil
Katherine Hepburn in the early 1940s
Read the National Park Service biography of Amelia Bloomer here:
In many parts of this country women lawyers weren't free to wear pants suits or any form if pants to court until the very end of the 20th Century. "Should I wear a skirt?" is still something to think about in the court room or business because if you don't know your audience pants could hurt your cause and it's not worth the risk of offending. Progress is unbelievably slow.
ReplyDeleteWe weren't allowed to wear pants to school when I was growing up. I'm talking 1960s ...
ReplyDeleteI lived in Chicago -- cold winters! We wore snow pants under our skirts for the walk to school and took them off when we got there.
Jeanne
I remember not being able to wear pants to elementary school but it was okay by the time I went to Junior High. The 60's in Kansas City where it can also be cold in the winter. :o) So glad my daughter and granddaughter did not/will not have to face that issue.
ReplyDeleteThere's a wonderful picture book about Amelia Bloomer called "You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer!" by Shana Corey. At one point in my career I was a librarian in an elementary school, and I always read this to students in March, Women's History Month. (When I first started teaching in the late '60s, we were not allowed to wear pants! That's hard for young women to imagine. Now they have the option, and instead they dress like tarts. Go figure.)
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to court for my divorce in 1978, the judge kept a wrap around skirt on hand in case any woman dared show up in pants. I'd like to see him try that now. I'd been warned, so I was dressed "appropriately".
ReplyDeleteMarci
I remember when the bank tellers were "allowed" to wear pants in the early 70s. A friend of mine, a teller, said it was harder to catch coins that escaped her. With a skirt they always landed in her lap! We Public Health Nurses (who made home visits in those cold Midwestern winters) were finally "allowed" to wear pants in 1971.
ReplyDeleteIn 1955, when I was a first grader, I got up early one morning and dressed myself and walked to school. I was wearing turquoise pinwale corduroy pants and a cotton play shirt. My mother was called and I was made to go home and change into a dress. Boy, can I relate to this discussion!
ReplyDeleteCould anyone who has block base please creat a 6” block and post here what size the corner squares and the one middle square should be cut. Thank you in advance.
ReplyDelete