Dress Journal #11: Ski Clothes!?!

     As I've posted in other places, I do not do things by half measures. I'm a firm believer that anything done well is worth overdoing, so my decision to start building historical costumes again is destined to be something.
     This all started last week, when I discovered that

• Costume-Con 39 is scheduled for April 23-25, 2021, in San Jose
• A friend is running the "Single Pattern Competition" at said convention

McCalls M2087

     Normally, I don't do competitive costuming, primarily because the thought of getting up on a stage and being judged by my peers is enough to make me lose my lunch. On the other hand, I'm at the point in my life where I simply don't care. There is no stage, no real presentations, and I can simply relax and have fun.
     There's also the matter of the pattern. The idea of the Single Pattern Competition is to work from a single or small group of patterns and make it your own. The patterns are chosen from the "Big Four" pattern companies (Simplicity; McCalls; Butterick; Vogue) and Folkwear, and then the sky is the limit. The pattern that caught my eye was McCall's M2087 from their "Cosplay by McCalls" line: it's an over-the-top fantasy coat-robe that looks completely ridiculous, and a lot like one of my bathrobes. It's that silly, so it needs to be rescued and recycled into something a bit more useful.

A self-portrait of Swedish photographer
Maya Beskow, around 1908.

     So what can be done with that silly a pattern? Some careful thought, a little research online and in some books, and I realized that this pattern is crying out to become...ski clothes. Not just any ski clothes, but something appropriate for an active American woman before World War I.
     I've got an idea, and I've got a pattern, but do I have the necessary materials? Stay tuned....