The Kirsten Project | Kirsten Saves the Day

Grab your foraged berries, sit down and join me for the latest installment of The Kirsten Project. For this edition, we’re going into the woods to recreate Kirsten’s summertime ensemble based on her story Kirsten Saves the Day.

For much of this book, Kirsten spends her time in the woods near her family farm, collecting berries, fishing in the creek and getting into trouble with her younger brother. For my costume, I’ve chosen to take most of my design decisions from the American Girl catalog and the styling of the doll in her straw hat, blue and white striped dress, bird whistle and red boots - all with an eye to period correct silhouettes. Let’s break down each piece with more detail on my artistic choices with the historical references I used to create my look.

Wide Brim Straw Hat

Like Kirsten, I’m wearing a wide brim straw hat, trimmed with traditional petersham ribbon and adorned with a bunch of bright red faux cherries. I chose to use the same style of straw hood (a milliner’s term for a dome shape hat base) as my doll’s hat. After wetting the straw, I blocked it on a wooden crown and brim mold, pinned and tied it into place and then allowed it to dry. Afterwards I simply tacked the ribbon and berries into place and added a few green leaves made from raw silk ribbon.

Alternatively (and more historically accurate), a straw hat could be made by braiding the straw into long ribbon like pieces, sewing them around and around onto themselves to form the shape of the crown and then outward to the brim. This is definitely a technique I want to try one day! Here’s a great clip from Edwardian Farm where Ruth Goodman doing just this!

Summer Work Dress

For summer, Kirsten wears a lightweight cotton work dress. Creating this piece was a fun way to combine the character’s dress (which I believe was inspired by this painting) with a historically accurate adult silhouette. As I breakdown each portion of the dress, I’ll assign it to one of three categories - matches doll AND historically accurate, matches doll but without historical research and upgraded for historical accuracy.

Let’s start with the bodice of the dress. Kirsten has a squared neckline but I chose to do a more rounded shape, which I believe to be a historical upgrade. Sure, there are examples of square necklines in the 19th century, but they are often deeper (like the 1870s) or constructed by way of shoulder straps as was done in the 18th century and early 19th. Neither of those examples result in the high neckline that was used in work dresses of the 1850s - thus I opted for a round neck.

To fit the bust line of a woman’s dress (my chest is rather large and a ten year old girl wouldn’t have developed in that area yet) I used a pair of darts on each side. This is a historical upgrade based on countless examples from the era.

To capture the look of the shorter sleeve doll’s dress, I created a two piece sleeve to mirror examples I found in my research. This style of sleeve, composed of a short upper sleeve and a fuller under sleeve, was common during the 1840s-1850s. Like the doll dress, I added piping details to the upper sleeve along with a bias detail which was purely my own design decision. Adult women would have always worn long sleeves for daytime in the 19th century. For a laboring woman, sleeves provided a layer of protection - from the sun or other elements. A woman in higher society would have also shielded herself from the sun, AND from the eyes of others outside her social class. In private evening functions, it would have been acceptable to reveal the arms, shoulders and décoletté, but never in the daytime hours.

Other bodice elements like the dropped shoulders, center front buttons and cross grain waistband are both historically accurate and used in the doll’s dress.

To achieve the fullness I wanted for my skirt, I created cartridge pleats, which I hand sewed to my waistband. The doll’s dress doesn’t have the same fullness to fit into the waistband, so hers is simply gathered.

Finally, I opted to incorporate Kirsten’s growth stripes at the hem of the skirt - something absolutely used for younger girls in the 1850s, but not something you see as often on women’s skirts. I’m ok with veering from accuracy here because I feel this helps my costume capture the essence of Kirsten’s summer look.

Blue and White Striped Fabric

The blue and white stripe of the fabric is something I believe was popular in the 1980s when the Kirsten doll was designed and found it’s way into her summer look. Historically I’ve found more examples of similar stripes in late 19th/early 20th than the 1850s (again, I think this is the influence of Carl Larsson), although that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist then too, I just couldn’t find concrete examples like I have in my previous editions of The Kirsten Project. Thus, this is a portion of my costume where I’ve opted to copy the doll without extant dresses or historical images to work from.

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Cotton yarn dyed fabric such as this was sold in general stores across the country (I’ve found dozens of newspaper advertisements from this time period, like the one here from March of 1854 in Plymouth, Indiana) and likely made in the US. If it came from a Southern mill, it came from cotton that was grown, harvested and woven by enslaved labor. Many mills (in both the North and South), used child labor for their small size and tiny hands. If that sounds awful (it is!), please consider that textile and garment production in 2020 still happens elsewhere in the world under conditions most of us would never willingly endure. Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean there’s not a human cost. If that feels icky to you, consider shopping second hand, sewing your own clothing, upcycling or repurposing what you already have or seeking out fair trade clothing made under ethical conditions.

Bird Necklace and Boots

To round out my Kirsten Saves the Day costume, I’m wearing a wooden bird necklace and pair of red leather lace up boots. In Kirsten’s summer book she has a bird whistle, which is something I believe was designed for parity alongside the other original dolls (Samantha and Molly) who also have whistles in their summer stories. I have found bird whistles which weren’t necklaces or wooden whistles that weren’t in the shape of birds. I settled for shape of a bird that didn’t have a whistle function and found a small wooden bird via a cute etsy store. I drilled a small hole in the eye area and threaded some waxed cotton string through, tied in a simple knot a trimmed. My kids are already fighting on who gets to wear the necklace each day.

My boots (pictured above) were a secondhand find on eBay, but were originally a taupe color. I dyed them myself into a rich vivid red and the process was pretty easy (if you’re a neat and tidy kind of DIY person). You can see me wearing them with Kirsten’s birthday dress here.

That’s a wrap for my summer edition of The Kirsten Project - I hope you’ve enjoyed! You can see my previous costumes by clicking the links for Meet Kirsten, Kirsten’s Surprise, Happy Birthday Kirsten and Changes for Kirsten.

The Kirsten Project | Happy Birthday, Kirsten!

Spring has arrived! The chickens are laying a rainbow of colorful eggs, the redbuds have popped and the fruit trees are blooming! Warmer days lead us outside to play and prepare our gardens for the summer ahead! Between these moments, I’ve been sneaking away time here and there to finish my 1850s spring dress, based off Happy Birthday, Kirsten! and I am so happy with how the project has turned out! I’d love to tell you more about my design process and how I took the original cover art by Renée Graef and translated it into women’s dress informed by the fashion trends of the era. If you haven’t see my research posts on 200 Years of Gingham, Tiered Skirts, Girls’ Dresses, Pink in the 19th century or my intro post, I encourage you to check those out first! This edition of The Kirsten Project requires a little more description, so grab a hot cup of coffee and join me for this springtime delight!

While past my costumes (Meet Kirsten, Kirsten’s Surprise and Changes for Kirsten) have very closely mirrored the illustrations and doll clothes, I’ve taken more artistic liberties based on historical sources with the adult version of Kirsten’s springtime dress.

Let’s start with the obvious: for my woman’s interpretation of the birthday dress, I have chosen not to wear a pinafore style apron. I’ve made this decision for a couple of reasons: firstly, pinafores, like the one worn by Kirsten are almost entirely worn by younger girls (like I did in my childhood version, 28 years ago!) Secondly, if an adult women did wear an apron, it would have almost always been a practical work time covering for her dress and not a fashion accessory. Of course there are always outlying examples against the rule, but I’m happy with my choice to omit a pinafore from my version of this costume. As with past projects I have found some extant items of what I’m guessing the team at Pleasant Company may have referenced, which you can find on my corresponding research post. (All of my visual examples are on that page, so keep it open to look back to as you read this post!)

Neckline

Instead of the high neckline of the Pleasant Company Kirsten birthday dress, I’ve instead opted for a lower and wider shape and I did this to bring some variation to the project. It’s absolutely historically correct for women and girls to have worn high necklines through the 1850s but it’s also correct to see a more open shape. If you look back to my post on popular girl’s silhouettes of this era, you’ll see how this holds true. A wide neck, short sleeve, gathered front dress was incredibly popular through a large majority of the 19th century (example 2, 2.1). Sometimes these open necklines are paired with an additional layer underneath for modesty or morning/afternoon wear (example 3).

Because I’ve omitted the pinafore, I chose to using vintage crochet lace at the neckline with a slight triangular shape. I’ve found examples of this in daguerreotypes (example 4, 4.1) and I think it nicely mirrors the lines of Kirsten’s apron without being childish.

Bodice

My starting point for this dress was a commercial pattern (McCalls 7988) drafted by costumer Angela Clayton, based off of a dress from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (example 5).

The bodice is composed on a yoke, gathered center front portion and sides that wrap around the torso to a back princess seam and two center back sections. This kind of construction really reminds me of 18th Century Italian gowns because there is no side seam like we see in modern clothing. The yoke also extends over the shoulder just like an 18th century style. If you look closely you can see I paid careful attention to matching my plaid, which meant that I sewed almost every seam by hand to get a perfect flow of the gingham! The bodice is lined in white twill to give it extra strength because the skirt is very heavy. Two boning channels finish out the center back and trouser hooks and bars are sewn to the lining to close the bodice.

Even though I didn’t layer a pinafore over top my dress, check out how the front style lines both narrow in at the waist. This style of bodice was common for both girls and women, as can be seen in examples 6, 6.1.

Sleeves

In her birthday story, Kirsten wears a short sleeved dress. This presents a slight problem for an adult interpretation because women of the 1850s did not often reveal their bare arms during the day - both out of modesty and practicality. For evening attire the rules change as one is surrounded by her peers and may show more skin.

The dropped shoulder attaches to layered upper and lower sleeves and two sets of 36” of ruffles. These two sleeves are stacked on top of one another and then sewn to the shoulder seem. Piping is used throughout. Like the neckline, I trimmed the lower sleeve ruffle with antique hand crocheted trim to refer back to the pointed trim on Kirsten’s apron.

For these photos I’ve decided to style the dress without an under layer because I wanted to capture the look and feel of Kirsten’s birthday dress, but I have posed for a few shots with the dress over a shirt waist - a look shown in many fashion plates from the 1850s (example 7, 7.1, 7.2). I’ll post those in coming weeks on my instagram page.

Skirt

Kirsten’s Birthday outfit by Pleasant Company has three visual layers to her skirt - her pinafore, dress and petticoat. I’ve chosen to interpret these layers into the very fashionable three tiered skirts of the 1850s. The first tier of the skirt is 135” wide and cartridge pleated into the waistline with an additional petticoat underneath that’s built into the dress. Imagine on knee length gingham layer over a white floor length layer (which serves as the base for the second and third layers). I hand sewed the top layer and petticoat to a 1” thick strip of twill tape the length of my waist. That tape was later sewn directly to the twill lining and the bodice was overlapped and hand sewn down to each pleat.

Now back to the bottom layers! I don’t currently have a set of hoops to wear underneath but if I ever add them to my costume kit, they would really extend and widen the look of the skirt! The bottom two layers are 240” wide, gathered, and sewn down directly on the petticoat. Prior to any construction, I marked the placement of the layers. That’s because each tier is hemmed before gathering by turning up the bottom edge and covering it with the 3” wide bias detail (which was appliquéd by hand on top!) This is one element of my costume that doesn’t have any direct reference back to Kirsten’s PC dress, but was an artistic decision that ties back to historical research. (examples 8, 8.1)

Flower Crown

So much of this springtime edition of The Kirsten Project revolves around what was in fashion during the 1850s - color trends (think pink!), gingham fabric, and voluminous tiered skirts. One element that has ties to both fashion and to Swedish culture is Kirsten’s flower crown.

One of Sweden’s biggest (and oldest) celebrations is the summer solstice tradition of Midsummar. Flower crowns are worn by young and old, men, women, boy and girls. The tradition goes that unmarried people pick seven different kinds of wildflowers to make into their crowns and then put them under their pillows to dream of their future spouse. This reminded me of the following passage in Happy Birthday, Kirsten!

“Pick as many daisies as you can!” Anna told everyone. “We’re going to make daisy chains.” All eight girls fanned out across the meadow. It was the day of the barn raising and they were picking wildflowers.”

“Happy Birthday, Kirsten!” Lisbeth said. She placed a wreath of flowers on Kirsten’s head. The blossoms tickled Kirsten’s ears through her long hair. 

And although it’s not part of her outfit, Kirsten’s mom also bakes a cake called Jordgubbstårta, topped with strawberries and fresh cream - a very popular Swedish Midsommar dessert! 

Flower crowns aren’t limited to Scandinavian culture of course. Queen Victoria wore a crown of orange blossoms at her 1840 wedding and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln wore flowers in her hair for many of her portraits (examples 9, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3). You’ll find floral hair decorations throughout the 1840s-1860s on fashion plates and in lady’s magazines.

In the pioneer spirit of making do with what’s available, I used flowers I could find in my stash of old spring wreaths and intermixed those with faux flowers I bought this winter in preparations for this project. I really love cobbling together what I can find around the house and I don’t think it could have been as lovely if I had bought everything new. And just in case you’re wondering, there are seven different types of blossoms arranged throughout. I’d sleep on it, but I’ve already found my perfect match in my husband Adam, who shot most of these photos (Felix also took a few!!) 

Around my neck I’m re-wearing the amber heart necklace on a brown silk ribbon (I dyed it using walnut husks I collected from my yard!), which was a part of my Meet Kirsten look.

Socks and Boots

I’ve always loved the combination of pink with red and Kirsten’s birthday cover outfit is no exception! I searched high and low for weeks to find a pair of vintage Justin lace up boots and actually found them in a shade of taupe on eBay (see the before here)! I used leather dye to give them their rich red hue. Red shoes were popular for Victorian children, although examples of this particular color and style together were difficult to research. More often I found examples that buttoned up the outer ankle, which was a common style of boot at the time. I’m also wearing blue and white striped socks (ready made), just like the cover.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this springtime installment of The Kirsten Project! Many thanks to those of you who chipped in this winter to help me purchase my fabric and supplies that made this costume possible. And thank you to all of you that have been so encouraging in this process, including the American Girls podcast, the Serious Crafts podcast and every person who has messaged me to share their own American Girl stories over the past months! It feels good to think about a time when I was a child - safe, curious, inspired, and playful. Completing this project, photographing, editing and writing about it - has been a positive light that has kept me from sinking too far into darkness while isolated. Here’s to silver linings, the beauty of a new season and all of the good things to come.

The Kirsten Project | Girls’ Dresses of the Mid 19th Century

In the late 1820s, women’s fashion shifted from the once high empire waistlines (think Jane Austen era) back down to the natural position. From then until the 1860s, details like sleeves and necklines morph and change, but not as drastically as before or after that time period. A small waist and a wide skirt are the hallmarks of the better part of the 19th century. For children and young teens, one of the popular dress silhouettes we see relatively unchanged from 1820-1870 is the open neck, short sleeve, knee length dress as shown above and below.

It makes sense that if I dress isn’t threadbare by the time the wearer outgrows it, it would be passed on to a younger child. Our ancestors were pretty good at making precious clothing last and unlike today, nothing was disposable. Even the most ratty fabric could be recycled and sold to the Rag and Bone man, who would in turn sell it to a factory to be remade into new (albeit low quality) fabric, called shoddy.

So while women’s sleeves, waist shapes (flat versus pointed) and necklines shift, we see at least one girl’s silhouette remain relatively static. This style of dress, characterized below, is what I imagine a historical version of Kirsten’s birthday dress might be:

• Wide Neckline

• Gathered Bodice into Waistband

• Short Sleeves

• Knee to Mid Calf Length Hem

I have seen examples of this style of dress worn plain or layered over a undersleeves with a chemisette or a blouse. Sometimes the pantelettes are matching, but primarily they are white. Accessories like lace gloves appear on upper class children.

It should be mentioned that this isn’t the only girls’ dress silhouette of the mid 19th century, but it is very common. For my costume, I’ve chosen an adult silhouette that echos some of these style details (here’s an early sketch!) Do you see something in these images that reminds you of Kirsten’s birthday dress?

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See more of The Kirsten Project research HERE.

The Kirsten Project | Kirsten's Surprise

Night walks with a heavy step
Round yard and hearth,
As the sun departs from earth,
Shadows are brooding.
There in our dark house,
Walking with lit candles,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

Night walks grand, yet silent,
Now hear its gentle wings,
In every room so hushed,
Whispering like wings.
Look, at our threshold stands,
White-clad with light in her hair,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

Darkness shall take flight soon,
From earth's valleys.
So she speaks
Wonderful words to us:
A new day will rise again
From the rosy sky…
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

Good Yule, everyone! In preparation for Lucia’s Day this Friday, December 13th, I’ve recreated Kirsten’s holiday look from Kirsten’s Surprise. If you’re new around here, let me tell you more about my project! I’m recreating the cover looks from my favorite girlhood fictional character - American Girl Kirsten Larson, a Swedish immigrant to American in the mid 19th century.  I’m researching each of her main outfits through a historical and cultural lens, doing my best to guess what the designers at Pleasant Company referenced when they developed her character. So far, I’ve recreated my historically accurate take on Meet Kirsten and Changes for Kirsten and posted those looks plus my background research here on my blog. Check out my inspiration board for Santka Lucia throughout history here. 

I’m more focused on how the holiday tradition has evolved in Sweden than the Catholic origins, but if you’re into that, I encourage you to read up on it! In Sweden each town or school elects one little girl to play the part of Lucia and lead a procession. School is closed early that day so families can celebrate together (does that mean adults get out of work early too?) In some places there are bond fires to ward off evil spirits, which sounds pretty pagan to me! In Kirsten’s family, Saint Lucia’s Day is the start of their Christmas season. 

From the Sweden.se website:

The first recorded appearance of a white-clad Lucia in Sweden was in a country house in 1764. The custom did not become universally popular in Swedish society until the 1900s, when schools and local associations in particular began promoting it. The old lussegubbar custom virtually disappeared with urban migration, and white-clad Lucias with their singing processions were considered a more acceptable, controlled form of celebration than the youthful carousals of the past. Stockholm proclaimed its first Lucia in 1927. The custom whereby Lucia serves coffee and buns (lussekatter) dates back to the 1880s.

Kirsten’s holiday outfit was worn on Saint Lucia’s Day, a solstice celebration on the darkest day of the year (when the Feast of Saint Lucia became a popular holiday in Scandinavian countries, the Julian calendar was still in use, which is why Lucia’s Day falls on the old winter solstice, December 13th, and not the modern one using the Gregorian calendar, on December 21st). The eldest daughter in each family would go room to room in the early morning hours, wearing a white gown, red sash and lit crown with baked treats and hot coffee saying “Saint Lucia invites you to breakfast!” When I was a young girl, my own dad helped me make Swedish rice porridge for breakfast (using the first Pleasant Company cookbook!) and I’m so excited to make it again this week for our little family celebration!

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Saint Lucia’s Crown

There really is something awe inspiring about a crown of lit candles - I felt like a goddess carefully balancing it atop my head! 

Crowns of flowers and foliage have been worn during times of celebration across cultures and millennia. Think of ancient Greeks and their laurel wreaths or the olive leaf crowns given to olympians. In the mid 19th century Queen Victoria popularized flower crowns after she wore one at her 1840 wedding to Prince Albert. 

Lucia’s Day crowns are can be left plain or decorated with evergreen lingonberry branches and berries. I mixed a few different faux greens together and wired them around the base with floral wire. I considered fresh leaves, but I hope to bring this same crown out for the holidays year after year (eventually Beatrix will wear it!) so faux it is! Lastly I placed six inch white candles in their holders. The number of candles seems to vary depending on the structure of the crown base (and associated symbolism), but Kirsten has six candles in hers, so that’s what I went for as well!

When I started planning my crown, I knew I’d need to go further than the grapevine wreath Kirsten and her cousin fashion in the book. Aesthetics aside, my main goal was to keep all of my candles upright at the same angle and well secured to avoid any wax burns. (Be smart about using candles in any setting; lit candles should be out of reach (and off the heads) of small children)

Here’s how I made my crown as safe as possible:  first I created a paper template by tracing one of my wooden hat blocks. Once I had the perfect fit, I transferred that oval shape to thin plywood and cut it out using a band saw.  Next, I drilled holes around the crown to snuggly fit the thrifted candle holders (which were mounted to dowel rods). It sounds a little more complicated than it actually was and only took 20 minutes from first cut to drying in clamps. Check this out to see what I mean. After the base was dry, I gave it a quick coat of dark spray paint so the light wood tones wouldn’t show through. 

Gown and Sash

The white gown and red sash worn by the girl portraying Saint Lucia represents the Catholic symbols purity and martyrdom. 

For my dress I actually made two separate pieces - a blouse and petticoat that I can re-wear with other costumes (a white nightgown seems to be the garment of choice for many girls throughout history). In true pioneer fashion I’m practical AF. My blouse is the same bodice and sleeves as my Meet Kirsten dress, which is based on an extant dress from the 1850s. I made mine unlined with the hope that I might pair it with vintage Levis for modern wear too! The original dress had a very slight overlap at center front with no buttons, but I may eventually add some. I also tacked on some pretty antique lace to both the collar and cuffs.

My skirt has a wide 13 foot circumference at the hem and is knife pleated into a simple twill tape waistband with ties on both the left and right side (which I actual wrap around and tie in front and back). This kind of skirt can get a lot of mileage with both my 18th and 19th century costumes as a petticoat. 

The red sash I’m wearing at my waist (which i realize is hard to see!)  is made of left over red velvet from Bea’s hooded cape. I love how rich and old fashioned red velvet looks and I’m glad i could make use of some scraps! It’s all pined into place!

Breakfast Tray

Lastly I found a little wooden tray at the thrift shop which I painted blue just like Kirsten’s. I didn’t do any baking just for this photoshoot - I’m low on saffron for my lussekatter, so I’ll save it for making my Lucia buns on the actual day. We plan on having breakfast by candlelight on Decemeber 13th with my parents and then opening presents. Now that my children are getting bigger the yuletide season seems all the more magical! No matter how you celebrate, we wish you Happy Holidays!!