FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Motor Maids
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
When it came to choosing a book for my entry this year, I wanted to choose something that fit a few criteria: 1- a contemporary piece of literature from a different era 2- written by a woman 3- about a woman or girl doing something cool, and 4- be something I was kind of already interested in making, with bonus points for a book I already owned. A look at my shelves led me to the Motor Maids series by Katherine Stokes, published in the 1910s. The Motor Maids are four high school girls who drive across the country (and a few others), along with their chaperone.
I chose the character of Billie to base my costume on. Billie owns the car and is the main driver and mechanic. She was raised traveling the world with her engineer father. In the first book, The Motor Maids School Days, Billie is described as wearing a short red silk petticoat and I took that as inspiration for my costume.
To design my costume I consulted another book, The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor by Dorothy Levitt, published in 1909. This seemed like a book Billie would have owned and followed, so I took advice from Levitt on what I should wear for a motoring trip.
Outline the construction…
The 1910s is a new era for me so I wound up making 11 articles of clothing including; combinations, brassier, corset, corset cover, petticoat, blouse, skirt, duster, gaiters, cap, and veil. Dorothy Levitt, in her book The Woman and the Car, recommends avoiding lace on your undergarments, as it will just wind up itching you before you’ve gone a half dozen miles. For this reason, I put a minimal amount of lace on my underclothes, as I could picture Billie removing all the lace and floofs from her underthings. I made a short red silk petticoat as it was specifically written that Billie was wearing one in The Motor Maids School Days. This seemed like an odd choice to me, as Billie is a bit of a tomboy and favors practicality over fashion, but it was such a fun detail I had to make it a part of the costume. I thought Billie must really like red, it is also the color of her car, so I made red a detail color throughout the outfit.
The rest of the costume was designed to be functional and hardworking. I chose a skirt with large pockets so that Billie would have lots of options on where to stash wrenches, maps, or chocolate bars.
With this costume, I worked with silk, wool, and linen for the first time. In the past, I have always worked with cotton. When possible I chose patterns that were reprints of original patterns.
Well done! perfectly wearable outfits. I especially like the blue skirt … nice deep hem
and the red buttons on the blouse
Awesome costume! So cool
Wow! I just love the whole outfit. Especially the coat. Making a duster is definitely on my list.
I’m going to have to look up this series now!
Standout! Excellent, characterful outfit!
What a great outfit! I love the pops of red throughout and that you even took time to make gaiters! I can imagine your character loving the look.
I love this!! You’ve done a great job with the theme, interpreting and designing the outfit, well done!👏 I’m in LOVE with the colour combo!
This was one of the first I saw and is still one of my favourite whole ensemble looks. That duster coat is gorgeous and I love this era – and their love for buttons. The hat is great fun. I really like the music that you’ve put on the video – perfect.