Haven't actually made much lately, just one dress which I wore to a hen's party last weekend but didn't end up getting a decent photo of me in it, so will get on to that soon, promise. Also making the bridesmaid's dresses for wedding relating to said hen's party so that will be coming up on the blog soon too.
In the meantime though, I'm going to put something out to the universe. Every morning I walk through the construction site of Wellington's WW1 centenary Memorial Park on my way to work, and every morning I think "I would like to do something to mark this too". I love the Edwardian era, I love practical clothing, and I admire the working class of all ages. I'm going to make a WW1 nurse's uniform.
Inspired by the story Glory Days magazine did on the up-coming Anzac Girls mini-series to mark the Anzac Day Centenary, I bought the book the series is based on and started coveting the uniforms.
Judging by what I've researched so far, I reckon McCall's pattern M4548 will be a good base.
A lot of the old photos of the nurses have high collars, but that would be so uncomfortable and I've seen enough photos will flat collars that I reckon it'll still be legit. Here are some of my favourite images:
The famous Violet Jessop
Queen Mary with Princess Mary
"A New Zealand Army nurse wearing an indoor uniform", Australian War Memorial archives
Some of the cast of Anzac Girls
The cast of Anzac Sisters, a play by Geoff Allen
It's just a pity I can't study the costumes in action from the series itself, as I'm pretty sure it probably doesn't screen until Anzac Day.
