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When you think of “history”, do you see a series of black and white photos in your mind’s eye? I confess that I sometimes do. That is why I love to explore the past in a tangible way. For me, that entails clothes! In past posts, I showed you how to make suffragette picket signs and sashes. Now, it’s time to put together the rest of the outfits…

…In color! As with any organization, the suffragette movement chose its colors very strategically to convey its message: Equality for women. To my surprise, I learned that the main color used by all American suffrage organizations was yellow! Later, the National Woman’s Party was the only group to adopt purple, white, and yellow (gold): “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving.” The Suffragist, December 6, 1913.

Well, I happen to really like purple, so I decided that we were members of the National Woman’s Party. Simple as that! And, would you look at what I stumbled upon at the Dollar Tree? Pre-made purple bows on hair clips!

You know what you can also find at the Dollar Tree? Hats! (In the spring and summer, that is.) I got two matching ones for Eliza and Annika. (One came via the thrift store.) All I had to do was snip off their pink flowers and slide the purple bow clip onto their white, elastic hatbands.

Voilà! I did the same “cheat” on my mom’s hat (center), and Emma’s (tan straw hat on the left). Emma’s hat was borrowed from my husband’s grandmother’s costume collection. This particular hat had a convenient loop of ribbon on its band that made attaching the bow a cinch! Easy-peasy suffragette hats on the cheap!

My hat took a little bit more work. (Of course!) I snipped off its white and yellow sequined flower. Those stitches had also held the brim up. So, I took needle and thread and re-stitched that part of the brim back to the crown of the hat. I made the last 3-4 stitches large and loose to make a loop for the hair bow to slide through and stay secure.

If photographing kids has taught me any lesson, it’s this: Give them something to hold, aka “props”! (I plan to discuss this further in a future post.) In brief, props serve as toys that the kids can play with, while also helping them to get into character. Physical items can help the costumes and setting to merge into a cohesive story. The props I selected for this photo shoot were bouquets of yellow roses.

A variety of flowers are associated with the woman’s suffrage movement, with yellow roses and sunflowers being the most popular. I selected these yellow roses from the Dollar Tree, since they would be durable.

Let’s put it all together and make our costume ensembles, shall we? It’s actually really difficult to find historically-appropriate dresses with sleeves. All of these outfits are assembled from blouses and skirts (my mom and me) or sleeveless dresses layered over blouses (the girls). Here is Annika’s little outfit. I’m pretty sure her shoes only cost a dollar. I already had the tights and vintage pinafore. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a blouse in her size or a good under-dress. (The pinafore was sheer with eyelet holes all over. It really needed some kind of layer beneath it.) Then, it occurred to me: I could use a larger-sized girls’ blouse! The sleeves and collar worked with the pinafore, and the shirt’s length also functioned as an under-dress. I’m not gonna lie; I felt pretty clever for coming up with this “cheat”!

Next is Eliza’s outfit! She’s already gotten some mileage out of these shoes, since she also wore them in our 1960s family photo shoot. In fact, I like to make sure that each of our girls has a pair of black and a pair of white dress shoes. This carries us through the year for church, and it also takes care of footwear for lots of costume looks.

Eliza’s blouse is a vintage one that I used to wear! (Wait. Does that make me vintage?) Her darling, eyelet dress is a Hanna Andersson piece I found on eBay.

Emma’s dress was an amazing find. I scooped it up for twenty-five cents at a thrift store sale!

Under her dress, Emma wore another vintage blouse from my childhood wardrobe. (Maybe I am old!) Tights, white shoes, a hat, flowers, and a suffragette sash and picket sign completed her ensemble!

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Speaking of great thrift store finds…(Okay. I’m always talking about great thrift store finds! This one is really fantastic, though.) Look at this gorgeous blouse with pin tucks and insertion lace! I have been looking for a blouse like this for YEARS. This piece is a treasure that will, henceforth, have me covered for looks from 1890 – 1920. The only flaw was the small, brown stain on its front. Fortunately, a soak in OxiClean took it right out!

The skirt I paired with the blouse definitely wasn’t the cheapest thing I’ve ever found at a thrift store, but I couldn’t resist its lace panels.

I completed my suffragette look with my modified hat, white knee socks, thrifted belt, vintage shoes, and, (of course) a picket sign and sash.

My mom’s outfit was also made of separates. Her skirt was a $5 vintage find.

The rest of my mom’s outfit came from various thrift store excursions, except for her blouse, which I bought on eBay. Her shoes deserve a special mention: vintage ballroom dancing shoes make excellent costume footwear for multiple time periods! They can be found in all sorts of colors and heel heights. Keep your eyes peeled for them!

If you’ve made it this far, you may be wondering, “What is up with all the white?” Well, lots of women in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods already owned white blouses and skirts as parts of their everyday wardrobes, especially for summer wear. These were clothing articles that were quite accessible and made a big statement when worn during parades, demonstrations, etc.

Additionally, the suffragettes wore white in a deliberate attempt to bolster their feminine image. Opposing propaganda sought to paint a negative image of them as aggressive and masculine. By contrast, men who supported women’s suffrage were depicted as hapless fellows left at home, holding the babies and wearing the skirts. When suffragettes gathered en masse, they were literally sending a strong cultural message of bright hope, purity, and femininity.

Speaking of gathering, I hope you’re ready to see the pictures from our suffragette parade photo shoot! Grab your sashes, hats, and picket signs and join us in the march. See you there!

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What would a Suffragette be without her sash? Before we make our own, let’s do a little research!

During my image searching and reading, I learned that the colors associated with women’s suffrage in America were primarily gold and white. Purple, white, and gold were worn only by members of the National Woman’s Party: “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving.”

Top: Rare Silk Suffragette Sash made for the Women’s Political Union, NYC, 1910-1915 – Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques. Bottom: Suffrage Sashes, 1913-1917 – Emilia D. van Beugen, photographer

As you can see, suffragette sashes were made in several different color configurations.

Weren’t these women gorgeous? I could (and did) stare at their exquisite clothes and accessories all day! However, everything they wore was part of a strategic message, so let’s get to work on making our own, wearable slogans.

To start with you need ribbon! I used:

• 2-inch wide, white satin ribbon
• 1-inch wide, purple satin ribbon
• 1-inch wide, gold satin ribbon

Once I had the ribbon, I draped it over my dress form to determine how long the sashes should be. (Side note, my dress form is the best $25 I ever spent on Craigslist!)

I cut the white, central ribbon at fifty inches long, and placed a pin to mark where I thought the letters should begin. Eliza helped me with the stickers. I would have loved to use iron-on letters, but I couldn’t find enough at the store, and I didn’t have enough time to order them.

I knew there was no way that the stickers would stay on these sashes, long-term. So, I put a bit of Fabri-Tac on the end of a toothpick and dabbed it under the edges of the letter stickers. Then, I sprayed everything with clear topcoat. As it turns out, these adhesive attempts were inadequate, but more on that, later!

Once the glue and spray dried on the white ribbons, I prepared to sew on the gold and purple ribbons down their sides. I did this by overlapping the colored ribbon edges with the white, central ribbon by about an eigth of an inch. I learned to leave a bit extra of colored ribbon past each end of the white ribbon and trimmed it to match the white ribbon after I sewed. This is because the stitching tended to shorten the ribbon, a bit.

After the gold and purple stripes were stitched, I trimmed all the ribbon ends to match in length, and applied Fray Check to prevent fraying.

At this point, I thought I was done. However…The letters started to pop off as I bent and flexed the ribbon during the sewing process. They continued to peel away during the photo shoot. Amazingly, I only lost one letter completely. This is kind of a miracle, considering that I had to hold Annika a bunch, at the end! So, once we got home, I tried another glue in my arsenal: Elmer’s Craft Bond Tacky Glue. This worked amazingly well. This is the only glue I would use if I were starting over!

And that, my friends, is how I made our suffragette sashes! We wore them over our right shoulders and fastened them with safety pins. In my next post, I’ll show you how I put together the rest of our costumes. Until then, keep marching (and voting) to make the world a better place!

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Good morning, dear readers, and welcome to the 100th anniversary of the of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution! That’s right: Women have officially been able to vote in the U.S.A. for one hundred years! While this is something to celebrate, we should not forget that our sisters of color still faced many unjust hurdles in claiming their equal rights.

 

One hundred years sounds like a long time ago. But is it, in the scheme of things? As I pored over these inspiring images of our brave fore-mothers, I wanted my girls and I to join them. In fact, our children are about to embark on a study of U.S. History. What better way to start the school year than by staging our own suffrage parade? However, we were going to need more than just costumes. I mean, just look at these amazing photographs of real suffragettes! Clearly, we needed some picket signs…

…So, I made some! Here is a sneak peek of the finished results. I thought it would be interesting to do a side by side comparison with a black and white version; for old times’ sake. *Ba-dum-ching* Anyway, read on to see how you, too, can join the march with your very own suffragette picket signs!

I wanted something lightweight and durable for the board part of the sign. So, I snapped up two of these seasonal, hardboard signs at the Dollar Tree. I planned to use their plain backs as the fronts of our signs. Next, I went to the hardware store and bought two, 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 36″ wooden stakes for the sign handles.

Once I got everything home, I removed the price stickers which, of course, didn’t want to come off. They left a sticky residue on what I intended to make the front of the sign. This would never do! Fortunately, rubbing alcohol removed the gunk.

Even though the colorful parts of the signs would be painted over and turned to the back, I decided to try to remove some of the glitter on the lettering. This handy sanding block was very comfortable to use. It did a good job of getting rid of most of the glitter.

Now, it was time to paint! And, wouldn’t you know it, but it was pretty much the hottest day of the year. (It’s basically a rule that I only spray paint when it’s either below freezing or broiling.) So, it was obviously not an ideal temperature for spray painting, but what’s a girl to do? Soldier on like a suffragette, of course! I got Rust-Oleum Universal All Surface Paint in Satin White and the companion Clear Topcoat in Dead Flat.

I spread out some newspapers, in the backyard, and weighted the corners with rocks. Then, I sprayed both signs, starting with the colorful sides that were to become the backs. Once those had thoroughly dried, I sprayed the plain sides, which I intended to make the new fronts of our signs. This took a lot more paint than I thought, so I ended up having to finish with some old, white spray paint I found in the basement. It ended up spraying in tiny globules, which gave the sign a grainy texture. This would be a disaster for some projects, but I decided that this just gave the signs some character.

After everything dried, I moved on to the lettering. I am not one of those fancy, hand-lettering people! The idea of free-hand painting “Votes for Women” on these signs intimidated me. *SO* I decided to measure everything and use stickers and glue.

This ended up being quite time-consuming!

Using my trusty T-Square and some masking tape, I figured out the center-line and line spacing marks I would use for the letter placements.

Then, I lay the T-Square across the sign as a straight-edge rule to guide my “lettering”. I placed the middle letter of each word, first. This was the “T” in “VOTES”, the “O” in “FOR”, and the “M” in “WOMEN”.

Once I finished placing the stickers, I carefully removed the masking tape. In order to make the letters stay more permanently, I dabbed a little Fabri-Tac on a toothpick. Then, I gently lifted part of each letter sticker enough to spread a bit of glue to it, before pressing it firmly back to the sign.

I let the glued letters dry overnight. In the morning, I centered the wooden handles on the backs of the signs and secured them with masking tape. Then, I used two, short, wire nails to attach the signs to the handles. I paused in hammering when the nail head got close to the freshly painted surface. To protect it, I put a bit of masking tape on the nail head before driving it home.

A quick top-coat spray finished the job!

And, there you have it! These suffragette signs are easy to make, and would be perfect additions to a Halloween costume or a school project. I look forward to sharing how I made our sashes and assembled our costumes in future posts. Until then, Friends!