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    Cycling Skirt and Cape 1

    Uploaded by

    Hermenegilda Kociubińska
    This document contains instructions for Pattern #4, a cycling skirt/cape sewing pattern inspired by a 1896 British patent. The full circle skirt converts into a cape by using the waistband as a high ruché collar. The lightweight design could be rolled up and attached to bicycle handlebars. The pattern was based on the work of sisters Mary and Sarah Pease, who patented a combined skirt/cape to allow women flexibility in their cycling attire while facing disapproval from some in Victorian society. The document provides historical context on women's cycling fashion and progressive designs that pushed boundaries while maintaining practicality and safety.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Cycling Skirt and Cape 1

    Uploaded by

    Hermenegilda Kociubińska
    198 views41 pages
    This document contains instructions for Pattern #4, a cycling skirt/cape sewing pattern inspired by a 1896 British patent. The full circle skirt converts into a cape by using the waistband as a high ruché collar. The lightweight design could be rolled up and attached to bicycle handlebars. The pattern was based on the work of sisters Mary and Sarah Pease, who patented a combined skirt/cape to allow women flexibility in their cycling attire while facing disapproval from some in Victorian society. The document provides historical context on women's cycling fashion and progressive designs that pushed boundaries while maintaining practicality and safety.

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    4. Cycling Skirt and Cape 1

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    This document contains instructions for Pattern #4, a cycling skirt/cape sewing pattern inspired by a 1896 British patent. The full circle skirt converts into a cape by using the waistband as a high ruché collar. The lightweight design could be rolled up and attached to bicycle handlebars. The pattern was based on the work of sisters Mary and Sarah Pease, who patented a combined skirt/cape to allow women flexibility in their cycling attire while facing disapproval from some in Victorian society. The document provides historical context on women's cycling fashion and progressive designs that pushed boundaries while maintaining practicality and safety.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    198 views41 pages

    Cycling Skirt and Cape 1

    Uploaded by

    Hermenegilda Kociubińska
    This document contains instructions for Pattern #4, a cycling skirt/cape sewing pattern inspired by a 1896 British patent. The full circle skirt converts into a cape by using the waistband as a high ruché collar. The lightweight design could be rolled up and attached to bicycle handlebars. The pattern was based on the work of sisters Mary and Sarah Pease, who patented a combined skirt/cape to allow women flexibility in their cycling attire while facing disapproval from some in Victorian society. The document provides historical context on women's cycling fashion and progressive designs that pushed boundaries while maintaining practicality and safety.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 41

    BIKES AND

    BLOOMERS
    VICTORIAN WOMEN'S
    CONVERTIBLE CYCLE WEAR
    SEWING PATTERNS

    #4 CYCLING
    SKIRT / CAPE
    A cycling costume inspired by
    Mary & Sarah Pease's 1896 UK Patent #13,832

    BIKESandBLOOMERS.COM
    A Victorian convertible cycling costume inspired by MARY ELIZABETH & SARAH ANNE PEASE's 1896 UK Patent #13,832

    PATTERN #4
    CYCLING SKIRT / CAPE

    D E S I G N F E AT U R E S

    This cycling garment is one of the more radical designs


    of the time because the skirt completely comes away from
    the body. The design consists of a full circle skirt that
    converts into a cape - the waistband turns into a stylish
    high ruché collar. If made in a light fabric the garment
    can be rolled up and attached it to the handlebars with
    the gathering ribbon.

    THE INVENTORS: MARY ELIZABETH & SARAH ANNE PEASE

    Mary Elizabeth and Sarah Anne Pease, of Sunnyside,


    Grove Road, Harrogate, Yorkshire, Gentlewomen
    registered a patent for ‘Improved Skirt, available also as
    a Cape for Lady Cyclists’ on 11th April, 1896. They were (Full circle skirt and cape)
    sisters. Mary was 23 and Sarah was 25.

    The Pease sisters are some of the younger patentees of


    the period and their design reflects their exposure to the
    changing social context. Many women were interested
    in wearing more 'rational dress', especially for physical
    activities like cycling, and some replaced their skirts with
    bloomers or knickerbockers. In doing so, they pushed at
    accepted parameters of how and in what ways women
    could be in and move through public space. However,
    this was not always a socially safe or comfortable act.
    These kinds of costumes catalysed a range of reactions
    from people in different places - from verbal to sometimes
    physical abuse. While many may have wanted to cycle in
    bloomers, without a skirt, they were made acutely aware
    of the need to have a back-up plan. Mary and Sarah's (Skirt gathered at the waist) (Cape gathered at the collar)
    combined skirt/cape was just that. It enabled wearers to
    choose when, where and how they cycled and, to some
    extent, limit exposure and have some control over the
    more extreme reactions to their cycling activities.

    “The rational dress now greatly adopted by lady


    cyclists has one or two objections inasmuch when the
    lady is dismounted her lower garments and figure are
    too much exposed.”
    Pease sisters (1896)
    f
    Patent illustration: Accessed at the European Patent Office Online Database, www.epo.org/index.html.
    VICTORIAN WOMEN'S
    CONVERTIBLE CYCLE WEAR

    SEWING PATTERNS
    Victorians enthusiastically took to the bicycle. Yet women had to deal with many
    social, political and material challenges to their freedom of movement. Cycling in
    'ordinary' dress could be dangerous as it wrapped around pedals and caught in wheels.
    Wearing more 'rational' cycle wear, such as shorter skirts and bloomers, was more
    comfortable, but not necessarily safer as some parts of society were threatened by the
    sight of this progressive 'New Woman' carving new modes of gendered independence
    in public space. Onlookers sometimes hurled abuse and stones! However, nothing was
    going to stop women from cycling. In response, some creatively protested against
    restrictive ideas of how a woman should act and move in public through their clothing,
    by designing convertible costumes that enabled wearers to switch from street wear
    to cycle wear when needed. Luckily for us, these inventive women not only imagined,
    made and wore radical new forms of cycle wear - they also patented their designs!

    Six sewing patterns in this collection (comprising a total of nine different garments)
    are inspired by convertible cycle wear patents lodged in the 1890s by inventive British
    women. They form part of an ESRC funded Bikes & Bloomers sociology project led
    by Dr Kat Jungnickel at Goldsmiths, University of London, with Rachel Pimm, Nadia
    Constaninou, Alice Angus and Britt Hatzius. More about the lives of these fascinating
    inventors is in Bikes & Bloomers: Victorian Women Inventors and Their Extraordinary Cycle Wear
    (Goldsmiths Press). Along with the book, these patterns bring to life some of the
    inspiring cycling, sewing and suffrage stories that have helped shape how we cycle
    today. They also (still) provide useful ideas for functional clothing that works on and
    off the bike. We look forward to seeing what modern sewing cyclists make with them.
    f
    PATTERN COLLECTION

    PATTERN #1 PATTERN #2 PATTERN #3


    PULLEY SKIRT SEMI-SKIRT CYCLING SUIT

    PATTERN #4 PATTERN #5 PATTERN #6


    SKIRT/ CAPE SIDE-BUTTON SKIRT BLOOMERS I, II

    BIKESandBLOOMERS.COM
    B VICTORIAN WOMEN'S CONVERTIBLE CYCLE WEAR
    B
    SEWING PATTERNS

    PAT T E R N # 4
    CYCLING CAPE / SKIRT

    Pattern #4 is for a full circle skirt that transforms into


    a cape. The waistband converts into a stylish high ruché
    collar. This design combines all the benefits of a cape and
    a skirt and can be attached to the handlebars with the
    gathering ribbon. Requirements: 5m fabric, 1.5m woven
    cord/ribbon, 10m bias tape and 2-8 buttons.

    This pattern is approx BIKES & BLOOMERS CONVERTIBLE


    UK size 12 and will CYCLE WEAR SEWING PATTERNS:
    need to be customised # 1 – Pulley cycling skirt
    to fit as required. # 2 – Cycling semi-skirt
    Minimal instructions #3 – 3 -piece cycling suit
    are provided. See our # 4 – Cycling skirt/cape
    mistakes, workarounds # 5 – Side-button skirt
    and suggestions at: #6 – C ycling bloomers I, II
    bikesandbloomers.com
    All sewing patterns are free to
    RESEARCH PROJECT download. Profits from the sale
    of printed patterns go to the
    Kat Jungnickel
    London Bike Kitchen, a DIY
    SILK LINING ARTWORK workshop. Please share your
    Alice Angus cycle wear creations with us on
    #bikesandbloomers
    COVER PHOTO
    & www.bikesandbloomers.com
    Charlotte Barnes

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