Another round of rococo

 This time for a friend :-)

Bob joined our group last year (after many years of deliberation), and she works hard on building her own historical wardrobe.

But she also loves yellow. And for years I had a plan in my head, and being who I am I also did have the fabric for it, though there was no hope or plans me ever wearing yellow. But for some reason this yellow fabric jumped me in the chain of fabric stores I keep mentioning, and I had this picture in my mind...

I also had these two dress saved on my 18th century pinterest board.

And at a tipical way of mine, I started to see the whole dress with different accessories, with white petticoat with a straw bergere hat, and then with black petticoat, with black bergere hat, that could also served as a historically accurate bee princess costume. 

Back then I offered it to a few people in our team, and one of the girls thinking about joining us for our 18th century adventures seemed interested, then she changed her mind, and the fabric languished on my shelves for years.

Then came Bob, whith her love of yellow, and a need for her own 18th century dress. So I grabbed the opportunity and/or Bob, and would not let go, until she said yes, we can make the dress for her. 

I am afraid, since this was a pet/dream project of mine I did not let her work on it as much as she would have liked, but alas...

We used the same Aidah pattern as I did for my striped rococo dress, this time with a different view/waistline. 

I asked Bob, what would she think if we cut the back, so the stripes would make a chevron pattern?

Is it historically accurate? Not really, but it will look ever so cool. All right. 

Since this was my 4th Italian gown (and the 3d Aidah), things went smoothly, though we did had a bit of time with the pleats.

Proof that I did let Bob not only work on her own dress, but sew with my industrial sewing machine:

While Bob were pondering whether to use a white petticoat or a black one, I bumped into the perfect yellow cotton, and she also said yes, that is what she wanted, though she did not know it before :-)

With the decoration, originally I had wanted to use the pinked ruffles I used on my red dress, with some embroidered rose deco, but then we had a bit of fabric left of the yellow oe we used for the petticoat, and I asked, what if we use it for the decoration... 

And then I asked, what if we use the striped on the unicolor for the dress, and the unicolor on the striped version for the skirt? (Oh, I have suspicion, that grows stronger every day, that I have adhd, but that is how it works. It starts on a small piece of thing, like a picture, a fabric, and then I build a whole thing, a whole many layered outfit around it, where everything goes with everything and everything has a meaning,)

We prepared miles and miles of ruffled deco, pinned part of it on the bodice to see how it should look, and let Bob take it home and sew it on, so I'd have time to make the pink striped dress for myself.

I was so happy that someone liked my yellow striped dress idea enough to go with it, and then wear it. I also hope Bob enjoyed to work on it it with me, even if I would not let her sew as much as she'd liked. Sorry Bob, next time.

The underwear (shift, under-petticoat, pocket, bumpads) are Bob's work.

Pattern: Aidah gown by Scroop patterns

Fabrics (for both dresses) : I love Textil

Photo (Modelled photos): Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

I've written about my red dress HERE

About testing the Aida gown's pattern HERE and HERE

About my pink striped dress HERE

Weekly SO - the color of the year

 Strong Opinion, because I am quite opinionated.

Let's talk about something that stirred the creative side of the Internet last week... Pantone's Color of the year choice for 2026

If you do a little search, even if only on Instagram, you see there are a few who welcome's the decision, but the majority screams: It is boring! Everything looses color these days! We want real color! White is not even a color technically! 

And whatnot. 

And I am like, wow, finally! 

You all know, that I love and crave color, but then, all the while, I love, LOVE white. True white that is. Not "woolwhite", not "Natural", not "off white", but true, blidingly bright, snow white that is often called "optical white". 

And while I am sick of everything is safe beige, which I find absolutely boring, true (optical) white is not. 

Yes, I do know that white is not "one color", but all the colors all together , also that optical white is not even really "white", but an ever so muted (a very faint shade, very low saturation of) blue or purple, which our eyes see as white. However...

For me that is "true white", which I do not find being a "safe" solution, a coward solution, a boring one either. 

For me white is clean, brave, trustful and hopeful. 

I think I do not have to explain the clean, but why I think wearing (and/or using) white is brave? 

Because if you do you take it on yourself to be seen. To be totally visible. Recognised. Be noticed. Be different. (Can you imagine me in all white at a hard-rock concert, when like 95 % of the audience wore black, and the rest wore dark colors? I did that. Do you know why the lead/singer of my favorite band -which is not a metal band mind you- says, he always knows/see me when I am there?)

Also it is taking a chance. Taking a chance that as soon as you take on that piece of white clothing you might ruin it. As soon as you step out of your door, someone else will ruin it for you. Because it can happen. And do I care? Not really :-) As the ad says, "My mother washes with Persil". Though I not necessarily washing with that brand, I do have several detergent to wash whites, Chlorox, and stain removers, etc.

Which brings me to trust and hope, because wearing white also mean that you trust and hope that whatever happens you can wash it out, you can clean it up. 

With all the crazyness in the world, white offers a moment of calm, a base for all other colors, and point to start. 

Don't get me wrong, I love colors more than the average people, I dream of colors, especially in winters, when everything gets colorless and / or dark, but then, at certain times, like in the summer, when everything is colorful, I crave white. 

So in the sea of complaints and dislikes, I welcome the color of white.

What skating and corsets have to do with each other?

 A big fall that is what. If you remember, we went to skate in historical/ Edwardian clothing.

What I haven't told in that short post that I fell twice that afternoon. Yes, the ice is slippery, and I am outof practice. The first time it was not that bad, but the second time I fell harder. My arm and shoulder hurt for weeks afterwards, but I was suited up properly (I wore wrist and knee protectors - they were invisible under the clothing, and I need my hands more than I care about full accuracy).

However, when I got home, and undressed, I immediatly learned what happens to a corset-busk, when you fell, like I did.

This is what. The thread in the stiching, that held in the busk broke, and  there was nothing to hold in the metal closure. I thought about fixing it, but that would have been just s much work as it would take to make a new one, and that was more work that I was willing to put in a corset that was starting to get too big on me. 

For months if I needed to wear some corset for an event I wore the corset that I made one size up, I mean, when I was bigger that in the spring (you see, I had to talk about me loosing weight, because it will keep coming up), and I used the corset with the teared out bust to show people that yes, you can do all kinds of sports in corsets, and they will die, but will not kill you.

Also the couple size too big corset I used as an example, that no, you do not need to thightlace yourself for the corset to do its job (which is not making you thin - I know, I promised a post on corsets, and it IS coming).

But then I lost even more weight, and I could not put off making one for my current size.

First I had a decision to make. Busks are nor cheap, nor available in a good enough selection. The one I really like, a somewhat wider but definetly stronger staight busks are not available within the country. Yes, you can order them, but that is expensive. In the one place in budapest they  are actually available you can buy the narrow straight ones and the other one that is widening, toward the bottom (the "spoon busk". Spoon busks are not really accurate for the 1860 period (they came into fashion about 15-20 years later), but that is what is avaliable, but they are expensive. 

So I had to decide either to buy a new one or take the old corset, with the teared out busk, and I open it fully and reuse the metal. 

Then I thought, as we say it in Hungarian that if it is a goose, it should be at least a fat one, and not only used the busk iself, but I also took out the boning and reused them too. 

Wow, I actually not only managed to make some pictures of the sewing, but I even found the pictures, yay.

Oops. these picture sare actually for the corset I made to go with the purple dress. Anyhow the shape and the techiquest are the same.

The secret of the Redthreaded 1860 pattern is, that it is made from relatively few pieces. The bigger front piece is cut on the bias, that helps it to conform to the shape of the body, and the shape of the hip piece helps emphasize the hips.

I made this at the end of september, maybe very early october, and I did not lost much weight since then, however now I can completey close the corset, which means, if I stays more less the same weight, I can demostrate the "corsets are not making you hard to breath" kind of trope with it, or make a new one 

Weekly Pattern

 This week I am bringing you not one pattern but a whole book, and with it a designer. Since I said out loud about a designer that I do not particularly care for I have been asked, then who are those designers I like or even admire. 

So, let me give you: Kate Davies. I follow Kate since I had regular Internet, and always admired her patterns. 

I've knitted her Owl sweater at least three times, her Peerie flowers and Sheepheid beanies many times over among others.

Yes, her patterns are rather colorful, and the photographs of her stuff is always esquisite, and even her "simpler" pieces have something extra, something interesting in them.

I have a couple of her books, and the Yokes is my favorite. I have yarns (and plans) for at least three of the patterns in the book, and I can imagine wearing each and every one.

If there is one tiny complaint I could have, is that Kate prefers the bottom up method, even for round / raglan yokes, But I can live with that.

On gaining weight and losing it.

 All right, I've promised months ago to talk about how I gained all that weight and how I lost some of it. And I've tried, I've tried to write about it, I've tried the short version, with pictures like this:

And a really long version, but that felt like oversharing, and I was wondering, if you would care about that at all...

I do not want to totally avoid the topic, not only because you can see it on the pictures, but also, because it has consequences like me picking out a skirt from my closet and have it falling off, or having to remake or make new historical dresses, because the old ones do not fit me anymore.  Also, I cannot avoid sentences, like "I started /made this when I was XX kg heavier".

2023 - 2024 -2025

At the end, I decided on a compromise. I've wrote the long version and kind of hid it on a separate page, so, if you are really courious, you need to click on THIS link to read it. Commenting is not possible there, but if you have a comment, feel free to leave it under this post.

 If you are not interested, turn the page, just come back tomorrow, when our regular programming will return. 

Short Comment

Just a picture, and instead of no comment, since I just cannot shut up: a short comment,

In which this week, we see what happens when I don't have the *right* lining material, and the fabric store is having a black friday sale.... Oops. 
 

Accessories: tiny purple hat

On teh painting of the Woman in the Purple Dress we can se ethat she has SOMETHING on her head and that this something is purple and black, but not much more can be seen.

It can be something like a headdress, a coif, but taking into consideration what for and by whom the dress will be used (for mueum events) I was looking for a solution that can be used EASILY. 

That is wha I made this tiny hat, with a hairclip. 

The base came from chine, and I used some leftover fabric and lace from the dress and purple feathers for the decoration.