Costuming Claire from Outlander: Season 1 (c. 1945)

It’s no secret that I’m a HUGE fan of Outlander (books and show) and a HUGE fan of Claire’s character.  So much that I’ve costumed several of her season 1 looks in 18th century Scotland, working on a couple  season 2 costumes from her time in Paris, and working on pieces from her versatile season 3 costume as well.  For fun, because that’s why we do it, I also duplicated her white dress that she wore on her journey through the stones in the very first episode of season 1.

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I searched high and low for a comparable dress pattern and found a similar (though not exact) pattern from the 1950s on Etsy.  The only size available in this Vintage 1951 McCalls 8762 Dress with Keyhole Neckline pattern was smaller than I could comfortably fit into so I knew I had to modify it to accommodate my curves.  The pattern called for 3.5 yards, so I bought 7 yards of eggshell colored wool crepe looking cheap polyester just in case I royally screwed it up.  My line of thinking was: make the dress modified to my size, figure out what worked and what didn’t, use the first dress as her dirtied “after time travel” version, then make another pristine dress the “right” way.

I found the belt and shoes on Amazon and the shawl on Etsy to complete the “before time travel” outfit.  When I travel with costumes, I like to also wear these accessories with modern clothing, so to minimize packing, I don’t look for legitimate vintage shoes and accessories, I look for something in between.  So what I ended up purchasing was a simple 1/2″ Skinny Faux Leather Fashion Belt, Brown | S – 30″ and slip-on vintage “looking” Lustacious Women’s Almond Toe Side Buckle Stacked Heel Ankle Loafers, light brown leatherette.  I purchased the shawl from KnitPlayLove on Etsy where I’ve bought my other Claire crochet/knit pieces (hi, Esther!).

Since I didn’t get to wear this costume at DragonCon this year, no thanks to Hurricane Harvey, I brought the costume with us on a recent trip to Savannah, Georgia.  We took a very chilly stroll through Forsyth Park across the street from our hotel so we could get a few quick pictures of it before I dirty it up to make it into the “after time travel” version.  We’re heading back to Scotland in September 2018 and I would like to find some standing stones on our trip.  Alas, the dress will be remade properly for its “before time travel” version.

So what did I learn from my attempted modification of a vintage 1950s dress pattern into a 1940s screen accurate dress?  My keyhole at the neckline could be smaller and thinner, the closure should be a pearl button rather than a hook and eye, I should attach the chest pattern pieces to the skirt pattern pieces so the fabric will be seamless at the waist, and I need to add an inverted pleat at the bottom opening of each sleeve (if there’s a technical term for this, please tell me because I don’t know it).

Outlander inspired costumes also on the blog:

Costuming Claire from Outlander: Season 1

Outlander Inspired Druid Lanterns (DIY)

Costuming Claire from Outlander: Season 3

Costuming Outlander Inspired “Cross Creek” Claire

Costuming Claire from Outlander: Season 1 (Additions)

Costuming Captain Black Jack Randall from Outlander

Costuming Claire from Outlander: Season 2 (& the Red Shoes)


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One Reply to “Costuming Claire from Outlander: Season 1 (c. 1945)”

  1. omg this is amazing! i would love to sew my own claire dress.
    would you mind sending me the link to the pattern to my mail address? dahi(dot)koch(at)email(dot)de

    thank you!!!

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