Shut up it is still summer...

No, it is actually not. Looking out of the window, there is that relentless rain, that means, fall is inevitably here. Now, until I come to terms with it, I will show you some stuff from the summer, that have not appeared here. 

Like the Edwardian Bathing suit. Which - of course- has its own story. Since the last time I asked some of you told me, that you like better if I talk more about what and why I did, the thoughts going through my head, so here you go. A ton of talk.

Last year, at the Savaria Historical Carnival, at the evening procession, we have been in head-to-toe, in early Victorian clothes, stuck between two mostly steampunky firejuggler groups, and  not only were we bored out of out heads, we must have been looked like that too. We've started discussing what else could we do, that could be more lively, more interesting, I had some ideas, others had some ideas, and when the team finally settled on the edwardian bathing theme, I was NOT amused. 

There are some reasons, that the "turn of the century", the Edwardian period is not one of my favorites, I might talk about that in more detail in another post. But I was like "No, please, not AGAIN, those bathing suits are dark, they would not look like much at an evening procession, I do not want to look like my grandmother AGAIN, etc. But as a good reenactor, and a good teamplayer, I did started to research those bathing suits, and I do have a full Pinterest table on them. I guess that is no suprise that I also had a couple of different fabrics to make them, if I do decide to do so.

Still, the summer was fairly busy, so I could have had the perfect excuse, at least to myself, to trying to get out of it, and it came that at the last week, I had a choice to either prepare the material I wanted on the turn-of-the-century sporting in my country, or make the dress, and then, Dóri, the leader of our group said, she rather have me pretty, than smart, in other words, she would prefer me to make that dress, than prepare the smart material, and I bowed. Okay, I will make the thing. 

I knew that those summery bathing suits would not have to be handsewn, and they could have made with modern methods. So once I have the pattern, I can sew mine in relatively short time. Looking through the pictures I collected on that Pinterest board, I also realised that it does not have to be black, or even dark colored, so I selected the red polkadot fabric I had in my stash, which turned out just barely enough, I had to use some other materials for backing the collar, and the edging of the sleeves, and still not had left enough for even a tie or a bow, but that is fine. 

However, since I really had to sew them fast, no pictures were made of the making, but I have a few of the final result. 

I started to use the Folkware pattern as a base, but... It had an overall and a skirt, and I wanted some bloomers and a dress, so stuff, like dressing up and/or going to the bathroom would be easier, so I ended up only using the front and the back of the bodice, then completely redraw it to a dress, and took my old bloomers pattern... You know, the one, I drew up, when I first started to make historical clothes, and did the victorian underwear for the ballgowns... I used that pattern many times since, and it was time for it again.  

For buttons I dug through many boxes and I found some I brought home from Miami... Now, we moved back from there in the late nineties, and those buttons were old, when I bought them in the flea market in Ft Lauderdale. 

As for the dress itself, if I would had the time to make a mock up, I would've adjust the fitting, and if I would have to make it again, I would get the polka dot linen I have my eyes on Etsy instead of the cotton popeline, but it was okay for as it was. At the early morning of the day, when we left for the event, sometimes between 4:20 AM, when I got to bed (after I finished the stuff and finished packing up, and put up my hair on curlerls), and 5:30 AM, when I got up, because we had to leave early, to get there in time, I rememebered Dóri mentioning that she got some badminton "balls" with real feathers... and remembered, that my mother's ols badminton racquets (she was a badminton player, when she was young) are hung up in my living rooms... So I grabbed them, and threw them in the car. 

I have to admit, that, at the end, the whole thing turned out much better, much more fun than I anticipated. Here are pictures to pove it.

Pictures are as usual, by the ever so wonderful Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

Lilies

 

THIS is a Florentine lily, a Lily of Florance, aka, medici lily.

THIS is a bourbon lily, or Fleur de Lis.

... and THIS is my shawl, I bought in Florance.

With Florentine/Medici lilies. 

Just Sayin'. That is all for today. Thank you. 

(For those, who wanted to convince me, that my italian renaissance dress and this shawl are inherently incompatible...)

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.