dress, late 1830s, metropolitan museum of art, daguerrotypes of women and girls in mid 19th century dresses

The real root of The Kirsten Project has been for me to try to untangle the mystery of how each aspect of Kirsten’s costume came together and to make my best guess on what Pleasant Company used as an inspiration, all while staying true to early photos and extant pieces of 1850s fashion.

Luckily, when it comes to Kirsten’s dress, we know exactly where to look… remember the early catalogs and the girl sized dresses you could buy to match your doll? On Kirsten’s page an ecru printed dress was shown with the following copy:

“This antique dress was Pleasant Company’s inspiration for Kirsten’s wardrobe. Made with loving care more than 125 years ago by a mother that took pride in tiny stitches, it’s hem faced in coordinating fabric, a practical, thrifty way to use precious scraps of material, but such a pretty touch that we did it on purpose when we recreated Kirsten’s dresses for you.”

This extant dress is also shown in the “Peek Into the Past” section at the end of Kirsten Saves the Day and in Welcome to Kirsten’s World 1854. If you look closely you can find picture credits (right behind the title page back at the front). This dress is from the Wisconsin Historical Society and thanks to a gift from Pleasant T. Rowland herself (the creator of Pleasant Company and the American Girls), the entire children’s clothing collection is available to view to the public. God bless the museums that post their collections online - it’s a priceless resource for costumers like me! It took me just minutes to scan through the collection before I found the dress that inspired Kirsten’s! The description of the dress reads:

“Ecru-colored cotton, printed with a half-drop pattern of small red and brown radishes on a ground of small scattered brown spots; hand-sewn; slightly above natural waistline, with inset self-fabric band, 1.5" wide, with pattern going the opposite direction from the rest of the dress, and piped on both seams; bodice is gathered into the waistband in a section in the center; calf-length skirt is cartridge pleated into the waistband all the way around; long and full bishop-style sleeves; 1.5" pleat taken in above hem of skirt; narrow band collar; various calicos used to line hem of skirt, waistband, and bodice; center back opening closes with 5 white cone-shaped glass shank buttons from neck to waist, and two metal hooks and eyes at the waistband.”

women and girls in printed dresses, radish print child’s dress, 1853-1857, wisconsin historical society

The signature elements I will recreate in my adult sized dress (which are also very similar to the dress shown above from The Met) are: dropped shoulders with piping on the armscye, full sleeves pleated into a cuff, fan pleating at the center front (gathered in the girl’s version), piping at the waistline, gauged/cartridge pleats to attach the skirt to waist and finally, a printed hem facing that differs from the body of the dress. I’m using a sewing pattern that has been made from an existing dress dated between 1856-1862.

While the original dress is ecru with a small radish print, Kirsten’s dress is described in Meet Kirsten as “patterned with little red flowers” and has a blue background. My guess is that the blue, paired with the red stripes of her traditional Swedish apron, created a very American look for Kirsten. This shade of blue was also pretty popular in the 1980s when the character was created. While there are a lot more examples of brownish tones during this era, as seen at left, some blues do survive. I’ve created my own adult sized print based on the description of Kirsten’s dress, illustrations from her series and from the doll’s original printed dress. I can’t wait to reveal it to you in the final photos of this project!

Extant examples of blue print fabric from the mid-19th century (Top LEFT 1845-1850 MODE MUSEUM HASSELT, TOP RIGHT 1867-1869, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, CHILD’s Dress 1850-1855, Metropolitan museum of art)

EDIT: This post was original written in 2016 but I’m reposting it now to correspond with the #FallforCostume challenge I have been participating in on Instagram. Also! A lot of you have mentioned to me that your dolls’ hair was all frizzed out and these are proof mine was too! She was sent to the doll hospital for a new mane towards the end of the time I played with her!

As a little girl, I went through what I can best describe as my “pioneer” phase. I was absolutely, completely obsessed with the nineteenth century. I wore bonnets and bloomers (to school!) and relied on the American Girl and Little House on the Prairie books for guidance into my “old fashioned” life.

It all started when I received an American Girl catalogue in the mail. My best guess was that it came in the mid-90s and it was pretty much the only way I spent my allowance for a good five years. My neighborhood friends had their own American Girl dolls and I wanted one so badly, but my parents thought they were too expensive for an all out gift, so compromised with me. If I saved for half of the price, they’d match it and order the doll. I can’t remember how long it took me to save, but on a chilly day in October, I went into my parents bedroom and told my mom I was ready to order my Kirsten. She had me count out the dollars and coins to make sure I had the right amount. She picked up the receiver of the telephone, paused, and hung it up. Then she reached under the bed and pulled out the burgundy box with Kirsten inside. Just recounting this memory makes me want to cry! It’s hard to put into words what that doll meant to me and how her story shaped my childhood. That October afternoon was easily one of the best memories of my young life!

It wasn’t just the doll, but the history that went with her. For birthdays and Christmas my mom would sew me and Kirsten matching dresses. Sometimes they would be new designs and color patterns, but mostly the dresses sewn for me were made to match something from Kirsten’s series. Underneath I wore petticoats and pantaloons, thick black tights and lace up boots. Around that time my grandma gave me a box full of handmade undergarments that her neighbors had brought over from Germany in the late 1800s. Even though they were made for adult women, they were tiny and fit my tween size perfectly. I now see how learning about the fashions of the 1850s influenced my love for costume history!

In addition to the clothing, a lot of my childhood pastimes directly corresponded with the era. At this age I took up hand sewing and quilting - mainly pillows but I also made a full sized quilt when I was ten! I wish I had photos of those pieces here, but they’re all safely stored at my parents house - I’ll grab some snaps next time I’m visiting!

I didn’t stop with quilting - I also dyed my own fabric using locally (hyper local - mulberry trees from our backyard) berries. I crushed them into muslin fabric to create a pinkish tone and from that, I cut out and appliquéd a little heart onto a pillow - the perfect size for my pint sized doll.

In the kitchen, my dad helped me make apple raisin porridge out of the Kirsten cookbook and I churned my own butter (using a pint of cream, a marble, a Ball jar and tons of shaking!)

I loved going to antique stores and visiting historical sites and especially my aunt and uncle’s 1885 farm house (we took our wedding photos there!) We even took a family trip to Colonial Williamsburg when I was in fifth grade. I still have dreams of working on a historical farm, even if it’s only for a week or a month. Adam and I have been very into a BBC collection of shows based on that concept - Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, Tudor Monastery Farm… we love them all!

In researching for this post, I did some googling of Kirsten books and images and the nostalgia that crept in was so heartwarming. Opening the window into this world of history has such a special place in my heart. I really really loved that doll and her story and pretending that I was a little girl in pioneer times. I loved getting dressed up in historical costumes and doing old timey things.

Now I see how much my parents encouraged me and supported my interests - reading, sewing and cooking alongside me! I hope I can do the same for my own kids someday… maybe my little girl will play with my Kirsten doll too.