Maria Theresa

 A note of warning... this is really long winded. If you are here for the pictures, just scroll down to the bottom of the page.

The 18th century caught up with me... It always fascinated me (in fact, it is my favorite period, right after the renaissance), and when two years ago there was that wedding where "come in some/any historical dress", I made my red dress with the notion "if I have the dress, the event(s) will come too". Sure enough, last year there was two for Mare Temporis, and I wore the red dress for a couple of other times too (like for the historical market, and such). Also we could see, that there is interest, from our teammates to do 18th century stuff, and from venues to have us do living history in 18th century, so at the yearly assembly for the foundation the decision to make an 18th century subdivision was made, and this year we had even more invitations.

In the meanwhile I did develope my 18th century wardrobe, added an Outlander set, did the petrol-colored dress, and I added the green jacket to use with its petticoat.

However, about a year ago I had an idea... I was thinking, that we ARE in Hungary, and who is an important and recogniseable personality in 18th century Hungary? who, incidently has white hair, and wears a lot of blue dresses? Maria Theresa, that's who. 

I went to highshcool in the eighties, when the socialist regime was still in power, and I do not remember learning much about her in our history classes... except she is a Habsburg, and the Habsurgs are the opressors of Hungary, thus we do not like them, and her either. 

Duh, as usual, the truth is so much more complicated, and the more I read about her, the more complicated person she seems. 

Anyhow, here I was happy with my idea, thinking of blue rococo dresses... and then, when we had to narrow our target period down, I suggested the 1770-ies, because MT still lived then, but the dresses were - in my opinion- not only the best, but the widest possible selections... I mean, the older style francaise and court gowns were still in, but the newer style closed front English and italian gowns were already coming in, there were polonaise-es, there were caracos, jackets, a lot of things to choose from. I was also thinking, okay, her husband died in 1765, but mourning rules were more lenient in the 18th century than in the Victorian age, so she probably wore black for a year, and then she changed into dark purple, dark blues and dark silvers.... 

And then I've read some books about her. And more books. 

NOOOOPE. After her husband died, she wore black to the rest of her life. Ughhh. Black is so not my color. You rarely see me in black, even in civilian clothes, unless it is a base for something really colorful, I do not wear black, and never wear all black. But here I am in the trap I cornered myself into. 

I really have nobody else to blame, but myself. I said we should do the 1770-ies (okay, the others agreed, but still), I wanted to be Maria Theresa. But then, I would not be me, if I would not confront something like this head on. I consulted Lívi, one of the leaders of the reenactment group... Would it be better to make a light blue/silver dress and make Maria Theresa recogniseable to everyone... or make a historically appropriate black dress, and giving us opportunity to talk about her as a wife, as a mourning woman, about the mourning customes of the 18th century? We agreed in the latter choice would be better for the first round. 

So black it is. 

I was also going back and forth about the style of the dress. As much as I like the style, I knew it would not be - probably- a closed front italian gown. They came into fashion later in the 1770-ies, and the queen was not exactly fashion forward. However, all the paintings I found about her mourning days, show her from the front, which is an open front, with a stomacher, that has bows, but they do not show the back. That left two style, an open front english gown with a stomacher, and a francaise. I was leaning toward the english gown, that en-furrow back is enticing, and I didn't felt I am ready for  a francaise. But, but... It is THE queen. In fact, she is the empress.  she needs something regal, and I learned from making stays, that (at least, for me), they are not *that* big of a deals, and those who made them (you-tubers, I am looking at you) making them look a lot fussier, than they really are. But still, it is a francaise. They look so complicated. I think this is the place to tell you to lighten the mood, that we (between me and N. and my son) call those dresses that have panniers underneath "TV stealer-dresses" in reference to that meme circulating on facebook. Francaise dresses are the "TV stealers with the flapping back".

In the meanwhile, I encountered some private egsistential crisis, kept questioning myself, and, partly as a result, ended up taking on a lot more work than I should have. Or not, it depends from which viewpoint are we looking at it. I like  fighting deadlines, I like being able to do things nobody would think possible. A many page translation overnight? Yeah, bring on. Two concert one day, at the opposite end of the country? Hello, I am coming, Two different event, in two different period, many hours drive away? I am in. An 18th century jacket at half a day? yeah. 

And then, Laura, one of our firejugglers, for whom I promised some stuff turn of the century circus stuff, asks, if it is possible to make her clothes two weeks before we agreed, because an event appeared for them, and it would be cool, if she has the thing she could wear... Oh, right. Okay, I might not have the new dress I wanted for the Győr event, but everything for our team, right? 

So I gave up on introducing the empress in the Baroque wedding, but then someone cancelled a two - maybe three days worth of sewing work. Now, that felt bad, and I don't even know why. When I originally accepted, there was no deadline, except "sometimes in the fall", but now they wanted a conrete date within a couple of weeks, and, I could not promise, with full honesty, that the stuff would be ready by then. I knew, most probably (knowing myself) it would be done, but anything can happen. Anyhow, there was a couple of extra days... 

You know, I am not the one to shy away from a challenge, so at a crazy moment, I said, darn it, I am going to make that black dress. And I am making it a francaise.

Over the years, I watched so many videos on making that style (and other 18th century stuff), and I had a few thoughts... 

• I am sure that even though, they are not simple, they are a lot less fuss, than most of these videos making them look like. 
• I am sure, there is a healthy mixture of machine and handsewing to make it viable to do in a few days.
• I am sure that even though there were general styles of making things, each and every mantua maker had her own style of putting clothes together. 

As a base, I used the simplicity pattern by the American Duchess, and looked a lot at the instructions of the book. Also, I did had in my mind the ton of videos I watched (Inlcuding the one made by the Encahnted Rose, Minji Le, The Petticoated Swashbuckler, A Janeite sews, among others (whew, glad that Youtbe keeps a history of what you watched...), and then did, what felt right for me. 

Sorry, I am bad at photodocumenting my sewing, especially, when I only have limited time... 

Started with the mock-up of the bodice lining. When that fit as I liked, I redraw my pattern. One of the difference from the Simplicity AD pattern and the book, that the Simplicity version had the shoulder strap added to the front, while the book had a separate strap. I kept the added version, but redraw the line. Then, I had a desision to make... I had a relatively stable linen, I use to line stuff, and I had a nice, heathery one, that looked great with the black taffeta. By now, who read my blog (or know me), one of my pet peeves is how the inside of clothes look like. I know historically they don't always cared. I know, historically they did not had things like zig-zag and/or overlock machines. But still. It makes me feel so much better, if something I made, looks good from the inside too. I decided to combine the two fabric, and made the lining double layer, and baglined, I also used lacing (as I saw in Minji Lee's video), instead of ties.

This is probably is not the most historically accurate solution, but gives a nice, stable base for the dress.

Then I cut out the main fabric, and started the most important, most visible, most anything part of the francaise style dress. Those back pleats. The long lengthwise seams were sewn with the machine, but the pleats were stitched down by hand.

Then, added the front skirt, and the front of the bodice. The skirt was sewn by machine, but then the edges turned under and tacked down by hand. The bodice was sewn on by hand. 

I fiddled the most with the pleats of the skirt parts, if I put them where the pattern said, there was a big crease at the waist, but I finally found where they sit fairly nicely. 

Once I figured out how to work the upper neck edge (where there are a LOT of layers. because of the pleats), adding the sleeves should have been easy-peasy... however... and this is again, all my fault. I found the sleeves way to wide. so I took some of that width out, but not with a straight line, but an arched one. Mistake. It looked, like I've ut in the sleeves to the wrong armhole... No matter how many times I changed the right and the left sleeves, they turned toward the back... It took me several try to figure out what I messed up, but then, the sleeves were sewn in, and the next step were the decorations. 

I knew, I did not want to overdecorate, as I will have an embroidered petticoat and stomacher anyhow. but that simplified ruffle still meant that I have to cut to a scalloped edge (with a special pinking shears AND scallops) pull about 9 meters long stip into about 3 meters long decoration... 

I bought some tulle-roses on a tulle ribbon from e-bay, which needed to cut apart, and applied to this ruffle, by hand, and adding the whole thing to the dress.

Then I made the petticoat from the embroidered taffeta, I had according to the simplicity pattern. 

And then the stomacher, to which I added a horsehair canvas and boning to give it hold, and a backing from the solid black taffeta to make it reversible, tough then I decorated its upper edge with the leftover tulle roses and added those bows. 

So that was it. The dress, and the caracter Maria Theresa debuted in the Baroque Wedding of Győr. with a great succes. 

P.s: When I first dressed up fully, Anna did my hair, and we were walking in a narrow street from our dressing room to the main square of the city, we passed a little girl with her mother. The girl exclaimed:

"Mom! It is the EMPRESS!!!" Then I felt, it was all worth it. All the sleepless nights, all the needle pricks inmy fingers. Now, we can go home. Of course, we did not, but you understand...

Hair: Anna Erdei

Modeled photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

Rococo

 Right, I am pretty much caught up with the rococo.

I've been sewing a lot of 18th century stuff this year, not only for myself, but for some of my teammates too...

There is a huge project I want to show you, I am only waiting for the pictures to come back,

but until then, I am wondering... I started to write up the post, but it become a looong and winded proze about a bunch of hows, and whys, and I am curious, if you would want to read it, if you want to know some of the thought process,  how do I come to a decision to sew something, what to sew, what from to sew it and how, or you want the pictures and I should shut up? 

So, how shall it be? 

Until then, here are some more pictures of our small, but growing 18th century group within Mare Temporis, photographed in Vác, at their event, in July. And just wait until our pictures shot last weekend in Győr will come back... 

Emergency sewing

 In other words, what do you do, when a day before the event, you realize that you lost enough weight to have the dress you just made a few months ago, hang on you.

I have dealt with weight changes over the last few years, I have quarantined out of my edwardian blouses, and realized that a day before the event as well (yeah, I should check my clothes sooner, I know), I had to turn in the boning and the hooks and eyes on my red dress because last years spring rush of Intermittent fasting was succesful, even if it was not long lasting.

And so it happened that I made my lovely Aidah gown early this year. However, I managed to find a much better doctor (GP) and I did got some help (if not a full diagnose yet) to some of my problems, and some medicine (for my blood-sugar and/ or insulin) problems, and finally loosing some weight. It is still difficult as hell, and I still have issues, but for the first time a long time things look more hopeful. 

Anyhow, the topic for today is not my health issues, but the state of my wardrobe, and my quickie solution.

I made a full petticoat to go with my Aidah skirt, made the ruffle and the decoration all around, thinking, I can use it separately too if there will be a need. I also had a piece of green taffeta in my stash. I meantioned that store chain often enough before, called I love Textile. The manager of one of the shop's wrote to me sometime in february I believe, that she got a small piece of taffeta, do I want it? Of course. By small piece she meant that smaller than the usual minimum six meters I buy from these stuff, only about two meters. And it was GREEN. Green is so much NOT my color. I hardy ever had any green clothing... It is not entirely missing from my wardrobe like yellow, but there are ony a piece or two here and there. It was a big step away from my usual safe corner of blue, but it went well with the fabric I made my Aidah gown from. 

I also had a piece of cotton, I got it from a friend, thinking, the print would be fine for 18th century, but then it is way too thin for anything than lining, or an underpetticoat. The coloring though went well with the green taffeta, so I had put them away together, to make something of. 

Then last week, a day before we went to a baroque/rococo event, I was trying to decide what to wear (my "outlander" stuff... nahh, too hot. My red dress? Naahh, as much as I love it, it looks... with its primary colored printed red cotton, it clashes Nóri's aristocratic mint green dress, and I would loved if the group appears more... more in one style, not all over the place. That is partly I went for the more aristocratic taffeta with the Aidah gown. So I've tried that one, and ... oops, it is waaay to big, and you can see that at the boobs and the neckline...

However, my friday night was more-or less free. I already had the pattern, I made my outlander jacket from it, though I wanted the "other" version the pattern offers, and I needed to make a new mock up to fix the fitting issues caused by my weight loss. (No, I was not going to buy another, smaller pattern. As much as I like the JP RYAN patterns, I resent the fact that they only come in one size). 

Unfortunately, it was late, and as usual, I was concentrating on sewing (and doing it fast), so no pictures of the process itself. But here is the finished result

I do love the print of the lining, which is sewn in by hand.

In the rush (I was sewing the hooks and eyes on around 4 AM) I even forget to irion out the marks for the hooks.

I think, I still have to practice my handsewing.

The jacket is closing with hooks and eyes, but I am afraid, I will have to put them deeper, because there was a slight gap at the front.

Modelled photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

1840-ies bonnet

 Things are... well as usual for the last few years, busy for summertime. I try to balance, life, love, work, reenactment, clothes, music, concerts and whatnot... 

And sometimes I do fall off the vagon. 

But I do make things... even if I blog about later. Much later... even years later. 

This bonnet is not the latter case, it is actually it is... lets call it medium term. 

I've made it in march, as preparation for the annual round of 1848 events around the annyversary of the revolution. 

I ordered the base straw hat over the internet, bought some light blue ribbon, raided my stash of artificial flowers for some blue and a few white ones, and handdyed a bit of pure silk fabric for lining. 

Since I bought the hat that mostly correct in shape, I didn't had to start with cutting and reshaping it, my "only" job was to decorate it. 

I lined it with my handdyed silk, added some blue lace.

The ribbon decoration is folded with the help of a fork, you can easily find tutorials for that in Pinterest. 

When I asked about historical clothes, I say two things that can define whether what you wear looks like some costume, or something out of the period. No, it is not if you sew it by hand or not, neither is you only use natural dyes, or things in that line. 

For me, it is the right underwear/ understructure, and the accessories. 

While I am pretty good about the underwear, I have a tendency to neglect the accesories, and with this piece (and some others that are planned for the near future, I aim to remedie that. 

 

Men's 18th century breeches and waistcoat

 I made new clothes for N. 

After last year's succes with the early 17th century... and under "success" I meant that he wore the stuff, he did not feel "strange" or off in them, he did not "stick out like a sore thumb" from the rest of us... Anyhow, after that success, I went a step further. We were supposed to have at least two event in the Napoleonic era, and two in the late 18th century, and I wanted to include him in those I did some careful considerations and decided to make him a set. 

What I had to consider, when choosing the pieces? 

One that in reenactment you "can" dress in clothes from a somewhat earlier period, but not later. Meaning that, like in 1860, you could still wear 1840-ies stuff and be old fashioned, but not 1870-ies stuff. 

In all his life N. only wore jeans and T shirts. In our five years together I only saw him in a suit twice (at a wedding and at a funeral, and I made him change back to his jeans and shirt at the wedding after the service at the wedding). Also his figure is not average. I mean, he is the sweetest man on earth, but fitting him is a nightmare. At the moment it is important for him, that his clothes cover his belly. So the much shorter regency waistcoats and tailcoats -for the moment- they are out. 

Also I have to consider that he is running around with a modern camera and a gigantic objective, so full-out historical accuracy is out of the window to beginn with. On the other hand, I want him WITH us, with our group, I want to walk around with him and look okay. 

So putting all that into a pot and cook up something is no easy feat. I wanted to put him something that is nonedescript, general, comfortable enough for him, but still have the late 18th century wibe. (and it has pockets. It must have pockets.)

So I've decided on the breeches and waistcoat from about 1770-1780, with the intention of adding a coat later on.

My inspirations were pictures like these: 

Now, while I like to think myself as a fairly adequate dressmaker, seamstress, I must admit, I am mediocre at fittings and by no means a tailor, much less a man's tailor. I do know how to draw up patterns, I even know some about how to modify them, but I really do not like to do them, I try to avoid that step if I can, so whenever it is possible I use already existing patterns and modify them, when / where needed.

I choose the Blacksnails pattern for the breeches, and the JP Ryan for the waistcoat. 

In the second half of the 18th century, men's waistcoats got shorter, therefore first only part, then more and more of the crotches of their pants were exposed, however they thought it is indecent to show the front opening, thus they used a flap construction that is a bit strange to the modern eyes. Discussing the question with N. we decided on the Blacksnail's pattern (0719) - from here I will refer to it as the BS pattern-, because its flap is wide, goes across the full belly, thus seems to hold it more, N. liked it better.

First I needed to modify the pattern pieces, because even the biggest sizes were pretty far away from N's measurements. It was easier to enlarge the BS pattern, because it came in many sizes, and I only needed to put a line to the key points and go out from there. 

For the waistcoat pattern I needed to add a considerable curve to the front edge to accomondate N.'s belly. Of course I made mock ups, and I took apart the breeches so many times I lost count. The waistcoat was somewhat easier (or I managed to get grips how to modify that pattern better). 

Unfortunately, we were getting alarmingly close to the time we needed to leave for the Netherlands, for the Bourtnage events, so I don't really have pictures of the  process, only of a few details. 

This is more like a useable trial piece (if it fits, if he likes to use it, etc. I have plans to make something from better material), for late spring / summer events, so I used a nice herringbone linen I had in my stash.

Sewing is my usual combination of machine sewn seams, and hand finishing.

Of course, I've started with the P. logo. It is an ongoing joke between us, see my earlier posts about his clothes. 

The small watchpocket in the waistband.

Even after making a mock-up and redoing it countless time, the waist / flap ended up being to big, later I took out the part that is pinched in the middle on the pic.

18th century breeches were pretty thight at the leg and the knees, added width at the butt allows enough room to sit down,crouch and such, hence the famous "diaper butt".

Eyelets and a tie allows adjustment at the back.

The tiny thread badat the bottom of the slit to stop it from breaking apart fully, if there is some undue stress.

The button holding up the flap.

Finishing the buttonband on the legs.

And the buttonholes

And the finished breeches...

For the waistcoat, there is also the starting point, the Logo.

For the outside I used the same herringbone linen, but for the waistcoat I also needed lining, and something to stiffen certain parts. There is a lucky story, as after one of my rounds in the store-chain, that sells factory rejects, leftovers and whatnot, N. asked me if I found something. "of there was some sandy-beige-y linen, but I did not buy it, as you know, I love white, and colorful linens, but wouldn't know what to do with that color..." and he looks at me, with his blue eyes wide open and sayin... "You act like you've never dyed a piece of fabric before..." and then the pin dropped, I got my phone right away, asking the girl in the shop to save it for me. When I got it home, I prewashed it, even ironed it, but then it was on the shelf for months and months... but now it was perfect... and I didn't even had to dye it. The other lucky find were, that another store of the same chain had a roll of horsehair canvas, which was great to stiffen the edges, and the pocked flaps. Yayy,

Unfortunately, there was a bit of paint and a tear (for the price I paid for the linen it was nothing), I only saw after cutting out the back, but hey, as we say, piecing is period, so I did not recut the whole back, only the damaged part, so there is an extra seam inside. 

Now, looking at the pictures on my phone I see that there are even less of them from making the waistcoat than of the breeches, none of the pockets, (even though there are pockets not only at the breeches, but at the waistcoat too, only the handsewn stitches I used putting in the linen lining. 

And the one, showing, how I cheated with the buttonholes. I do not have anything against handsewing buttonholes, even though I am far from being really good at them. One of my problems is, that wherever buttonholes are put, there are usually many layer of fabrics. The outer one, the lining, some stiffening layer, and for me , it is so hard to hold the needle in a way so it would catch all the layers. I am always afraid that I miss the bottom fabric, and it would fray, keep turning the fabric, to look under it, which takes time, and it stresses the fabric. and makes my stitches even more uneven... 

So I thought what if I make the buttonholes with the machine, that would hold all the layers together, and act as a guide, and then go over thode stitches by hand. 

Yayy, it worked. Next time I wil probably lay 2 or 3 strand of thread over the machine stitches, before I sew them over, but hey. Good enough. 

And finally, the finished breeches and the waistcoat photographed in Bourtange:

P.s.: the tricorn umm, cocked hat: a cheap hat off the internet, soaked in warm water, and sprayed with starch. I pinned the edges up and let it dry throughly. I sewed on the ribbon, a few stitches fixed the sides, and then made a small cockade from the leftover pieces of ribbon