A Vestita for Doc K.C.

I decided it might be fun to enter a vestita in a challenge. We were to reconstruct a new article of clothing from a secondhand one. At one time or another we inherited an old brown Pendleton wool shirt. I thought it might be perfect to use for a vestita.

The first thing I did was wash and dry on hi heat this 100% wool shirt until it shrunk down to a sm woman's size. Now mind you a wool shirt of any kind is more then likely never going to be worn here. Much less one that has been "boiled". Soooo I knew I wasn't making it for myself.  I don't know about you guys but when I make something for myself or for someone else I sorta have in mind the kind of person, likes dislikes, you know those little nuances that help make a perfect match so you get the 'Oh it's perfect!! I love it!!! response. Sometimes when I'm just making something with no specific person in mind,  I'll make up the person, inventing their story as I work. For me it's a way to inject personality into a lump of materials.

It was the year of 1889 at the town of Dawson in the middle of the  Klondike gold fields. Dr. Katherine Clementine the resent young widow of D.H. Clementine has come to the realization that she is going to have to spend the winter in Dawson City as the passes are already closing with snow. Now as Katherine saw it she was faced with the fact that she now had no income, no training in the domestic, culinary,or entertainment arts, all of which make her prospects of finding work rather poor.

BUT Dr Katherine Clementine was a one heck of a good medical Dr. in fact she graduated first in her medical class. So as she saw it she would open an office in town, hang out her shingle and set up the first medical clinic of Greater Dawson City, the Klondike, Alaska. But being a very practical woman she also knew that many of the miners would rather take their chances with the town barber then go to see a female doctor. Her solution was to shorten the name on her shingle to read Doc.K.C.  (that would be Klondike Clem by the way) 

As it was getting a bit nippy Doc KC was faced with having to modify her city clothes to work up in the wilds of the Klondike. She knew she wasn't about to start wearing all men's clothes after all she still had her standards.

 

She also was pretty sure she wasn't about to wear the impractical outfits the entertainment crowd did.

What to do you may ask?? Easy she said, "I'll just reconstruct (she probably didn't use that word exactly) some of D.H.'s (those initials aren't for Darn Handsome by the way) wool clothes and add a bit of a feminine touch from my clothes." With those words the Doc K.C. vestita came to life :)

I cut the sleeves off and the collar leaving the collar band which I covered with a bit of cotton tea dyed chintz. Changed the boy buttons  to girly rhinestone ones.

A bit of a decorative stitch on the collar along with two very sparkly very blue rhinestone earrings turned buttons. I mean for heaven sakes it doesn't take that much to add a bit of a feminine feeling to a dirty grey miserable place!

Around the armholes is a bit of chintz and tea stained vintage crochet lace.

 

The bottom ruffles are tea stained muslin, chintz and a bit more vintage lace.

So there you have it Doc. KC's answer to winter clothes for the frigid northlands. And just in case you are wondering how her bedding medical career went?? Well, by all accounts. But it wasn't what won her fame and fortune. No, that came about when women all over the world starting clamoring for Doc KC to create a most adorable and ever so becoming vestita just for them!! :)

And if you believe that story, have I got a deal on a big tower and clock! Have a most audacious day filled with art no matter where you are in the world   p;)