A Bloomer Costume and The Fashionable Dress from Which It was Made: Circa 1851-1853

This pattern was derived, with permission, from an extant garment in the textile collection of the San Diego Historical Society in San Diego, California. The original bloomer costume was made by Mary Thurston Stickney. We know this because of a footnote in the book, Records of a California Family, Journals and Letter of Lewis C. Gunn and Elizabeth Le Breton Gunn, written by Anna Lee Marston in 1928. Anna Lee Marston was Mary Thurston Stickney's niece. Miss Stickney was a Quaker and Quakers did wear bloomers.

It is surprising how many women wore the bloomer costume. Many years of research was gathered for you, the public, to understand the bloomer costume as a garment and not a political statement. The research to document who wore the bloomer costume and where it was worn would fill volumes. It was a very practical garment. The Background Notes in the pattern are a fraction of the research.