Edwardian Skirt-Pants: Laughing Moon Split Skirt

This project builds on my Edwardian corset, but is really its raison d’etre. The turn of the century cowgirl. I spent the last year going down a rabbit hole of how pants emerged for settler women in the prairies - books, archival photos, endless thinking. I read a lot of books connected to women in pants - on the stage, in fashion, in TV, cowgirls, cross-dressing, transness and identity. More particularly, I read about Fannie Sperry Steele, the Lady Bucking Bronco Riding Champion of the World, I read about Caroline Lockhart, the journalist and experience-chaser, I read an (awful and lurid in tone) book about Pearl Hart, the most notorious female robber of the era. I have a whole pinterest board devoted to the turn of the century cowgirl concept. A lot of this reading elides the whole issue of colonialism happening side-by-side with changing female roles in the West, but some of it touched on it.

The pants are a whole different construction than what I am used to, coming as they do well before zippers and as we were just figuring out closures. From the perspective of thinking about the transition into pants, I think the front panel is interesting as heck. The panel on these pants is just a panel - a lined, Saskatchewan-shaped almost-rectangle with button holes. But it represented this maintenance of female modesty. In the Sperry Steele book, split skirts were frequently mentioned along with her long braids and silk shirts. Bloomers also make an appearance but were mentioned in a significantly more scandalizing tone - the split skirt with its modesty panel still seemed to read as more of a skirt.

Sperry Steele’s split skirts primarily seemed to be leather investment pieces from what I found in the book, but cotton twill was a lot more within my budget for costuming and if I recall correctly there was at least one mention of a cotton “skirt” for riding. I need to go back to the book apparently! I also had it in a nice brown tone already in stash from previous jeans-making outings. I measured out the pattern pieces on what I had left (lots, I’d purchased lots because it was flawed and I loved the colour) and thought I was good to go.

I was wrong about this and it caused a lot of delay and losing steam with the project later on. Turns out, I just fully left out the center back pattern pieces from my estimations! These are giant ass pieces! I’d already started sewing! Try as I might there was no way to fit the pieces on there. So I went back to Blackbird and asked if any of their current teaks might be similar to the 12 oz Teak. I ordered samples, which were also delayed because of their Black Friday (yuk) sales. The samples were pretty dang far off. I went to the local fabric stores. The best match I could find was a stretchy cotton with a twill ish texture. I bought that and backed it with a bit of stiff poplin and filled in the bottom back of my trouser legs. Oof, but the match is good and doesn’t draw the eye when worn.

All that out of the way, construction was easier. I didn’t do much fancy in the way of seam treatments, and instructions were solid. Sewing on a bajillion buttons with shanks long enough to accomodate the front panel or the front panel and the closure bits took a fair bit of time.

Size: I’ll dig it up if anyone comments they want it. I think it was true to size though!
Materials: 12 oz. cotton twill, twill-ish looking cotton knit, stiff cotton poplin, old bedsheet for panel backing and pocketing, ban-rol waistband, wooden buttons
Pattern: Laughing Moon Split Skirt
Next time: honestly, I might be able to size down when worn with corset. This fits reasonably comfortably without the corset as well.

Photos by Hannah Alex Photography