A summer of Rococo - Riding Habit Shirt

Before I made any big decicion about the Riding Habit, I  started to work on, what I thought the simplest item... the shirt. 

I thought an all out ruffled shirt is, what I want. But then, I have not made a historical shirt for myself (at least the traditional "men's cut" shirt, I did not)... I had a piece of nice, optic white cotton linen fabric, and I started with handhemming the ruffles. 

(I have no idea, why this picture is out of line, and I cannot make them line up... sorry.)

And then I made the collar and the cuffs.

And then proceeded to sew up the shirt, but I cannot find any pictures of the shirt itself, only, when I tried it on later, with the waitscoat, I saw, that the nexk-ruffle, with the high closing waistcoat might not be the best idea.

I left it as it is, but the thing would not leave my mind, also, I was just finishing up a longer piece of handmade linen lace... 

And I was thinking, that I spent about two years making that lace, and how I am always going on, making lace that I CAN use, so here is the perfect opportunity, and how cool would it be to have my own handmade linen lace on my shirt? 

Thus the last evening, before we left for the event, (just after I got home from performing / doing living history at the world famous Island Festival /Island of Freedom... it had many names since it started), I dug out from my stash a fairly old (probably bought it before Covid) linen, that was thin, almost like some gauze, then cut out and started sewing the shirt

I've put it together enough that the machine sewn seams were done, and I could finish the seams, and other stuff by hand, which I did in the car and the hotel. 

Because just to make my life easier, about two days before Norbert decided, he wanted to see/photograph the partial eclipse, and we left a day more eralier, than we planned...

Here I am in the hotel-room, cutting the thread after sewing up the last button. 

The shirt on a hanger on the hotelroom's door...

and on me:

I did take both shirt with me to the event, but it was VERY hot and I grew rather attached to the lace cuffs (which will have an effect later on, but that is a whole different story), so I washed it at night, and wore only the lacey one. 

However, I am sure that I did not made the other one for nothing, as there WILL be an event, when I will need both, besides, if nothing else, it did serve as a mock up, now, I do know, what size I will have to cut my pieces, if I want to make another shirt.

A Bee in my Bonnet: The summer of Rococo

The series, where I share parts of my ADHD brain's thought processes, the things that occupy my mind and/or how I come to some decisions about an outfit, or a piece of clothing be it modern or historical.

I spent most of the summer of 2026 with rococo...

One of our favorite event (and one of the biggest one in our small country) is the Savaria festival, in Szombathely (at the Western edge of the country), where - since the city is built in Roman ruins- the base is Roman history, but since it evolved to an all period thing. 

It has a few main attraction, like the big firejuggler show on the first evening (the juggler/ artist /gleeman team of our group is one of the foundations of that, since the beginning - I am not in that team, so I can brag about them shamelessly), the roman gladiator shows, and the evening processions on Friday and Saturday evening. Our team usually does one or two shows, usually short, funny sceenes, interspersed with dances, though last year we did a cooperation with the juggler team too). 

Usually we do a different period every year, either the organizers ask for something specific (in connection with a certain annyversary), or we offer them something that they (usually) accept. 

However, in the procession through the city, no matter what we do, no matter, how historically accurate we are, we cannot compete either with the loud, steampunk-ish fire jugglers (not necessarily our team), with the -tonally not HA- Isis dancers with their led-lighted wings, or with the dwarf ponies of the hussars... in short, we usually feel kind of invisible. 

Three years ago, when we did the Edwardian swimming gears, the first year it was fun, and not only we enjoyed it, but the audience also seemed to like it, however, the second year it was not as as fun.  So last year, we were - once again- talking about what we should do, while we were seeing some -suposedly- rococo groups, in theatrical costumes, where the man's breeches were some short trainers, the women were no proper underwear, no stays, and if anything, they had round, circular crinolines...

We knew we can do -much- better than that. 

So this year, we set out to show, whatth ereal rococo looks like. Since I am the one responsible for the period, meaning that I collect most of the knowledge, especially fashion-wise, besides, I made the most 18th century clothes in the group... It was almost natural, that besides of my own outfit, I made things for two other teammates (and lended one of my old sets to another). 

I will show you all of those, and in order not to be all that boring, I will try to intersperse them with other stuff. 

Originally, I planned to do a silvergray Robe a'la Francaise (you know, "the flappy TV stealer" ), but then, after a fairly long deliberation, I decided against it. As for our daytime program, we planned an 18th century fashionshow, where we wanted to show a wide variety of 18th century styles. I already made several Fracaise gown, so making another one was not a challenge, and I also knew that there will be at least one, but maybe three other gowns of that style (because I actually was sewing one for one of my teammates, and I already did one for Anna, and I knew that the leader of the group is also planning one... I spent days flicking through Pinterest, Instagram, historical portraits, movie stills, to figure out what would I like to do.  Of course, I wanted it to be showy, fancy, with lots of decoration. 

That was the time, when I scored a piece of gorgeous sky-blue taffeta in my favorite store of the I Love Fabric chain, I already had a piece of white... brocade? Damask? for a skirt (as I would've needed a contrast colored sjirt under the francaise too) and then a few days later a piece of brocade, that was silvery light blue and silver, and the patterning had roses and deer-heads... DEER Heads.

That started a train of thoughts... Deers - hunting  -horseriding - and there the light blew up like a fireworks... A Riding Habit!!! 

There are several versions of riding clothes in the 18th century, the late 1780-ies, early 1790-ies redingot, the 1770 version, and the earlier, 1760-65 version, and this is what I choose, because they are worn over panniers (and nothing screams 18th century louder than those wide skirts), and the jackets/coats have very pretty shape, and can be decorated to all my heart desires. 

Also, first, I thought, since it is just a coat and an 18th century petticoat (which is literally made from squares), it would be simpler, than any style of dress I could think of. This was also the argument with which I sold the idea to Norbert... But then I realized, how wrong I was.

Aside from the regular underwear (shift, stays, panniers, under-petticoat), it will not only need an over-petticoat and a coat, but also a waistcoat and a ruffled shirt. Yikes. (aside from the two sets of clothes I promised to my friends). But my brain is my brain, and once an idea gets stuck in it, and it is  a challenge and it has a deadline... 

I started with - and incidentally ended with another shirt, and I will show these tomorrow. 

Weekly SO

 AI pictures creep me out. 

Unfortunately, I happened to tell someone (umm, ADHD made me blurt out my first tought), who tried to illustrate an otherwise perfectly valid point with an AI picture, and she attacked back that what would I think if she'd tell me on my pictures whether she likes them or not.... 

1). She is welcome to do so, especially, if she finds ANY AI picture (others do that time-to time).

2). My pictures might not be perfect, but they are REAL. A real human took them, and they are not even photoshopped, and in the cases that the topic of the pictures are my clothes, those clothes were made by human hands as well. 

3). No water and electricity was wasted on making them.

4). The person is actually pretty and beautiful. With one telephone she could have made a so much better pictures, than that AI crap was.

5). This is not an opinion about her body, her talent, but the fact that (generative) AI is steeling, and using (generative) AI is simple laziness. 

6). I actually liked her page and content, but I am not interested anymore. 

Weekly Patternmuster (Knitting)

This week I am bringing you a lace cardigan, with a free pattern.

The Brenda Cardigan.

It is a cardigan, it is lacey, and to top it all, it is free... who needs more than that? (Okay, time, I know).

P.s: I just realized, that the name "Brenda" also have a meaning for me.... Like Brenda Walsh, from 90210... I practically learned English from that series (and also from the X files, and some soap operas), and I always rooted for her caracter.

Weekly SO

 My strong opinion this week, that I absolutely hate the fact that when one is looking for a place for an event, s/he cannot find ANY price (online or otherwise). Not even preliminary prices or ballpark figures or estimated prices, just to know, if it is worth to think about the given place further.

The ALL want you to write for an estimate, but with that they might be wasting their time as well as mine.  (Also, it is generally said, if you have to ask an "estimate" for the price, you cannot afford it).

Small spencer

There are a number of ways, you can make a regency outfit different. We could see that with my first white dress and the overdress...

For this simple white dress, to elevate it to an evening dress, or even a ball-gown, I only needed to add a small sleeveless spencer.

The fabric is a small piece of embroidered taffeta. I knew that one of the fabric-shops had a small piee, that was highly discounted, literally for years, because there were lines of sun-fading on it, when I went there, they used the piece for decorating a mannequine in the shop-window.

However, for this spencer I only needed small bits of pieces, so literally begged them to take it off and sell it to me (it didn't even had a pice anymore, they just blurted out a number, and I said okay, thats fine.

(Pattern was draped by me).

Photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto.
 

Weekly patternmuster (sewing) ... and a dilemma

 A few weeks ago, my computer totally crashed me, that meant, that all of the couple hundred open windows, some of them showing patterns I wanted to put into this "column" was lost.

And now, when I am looking, and putting words into search engine, so many things come up I like, but most of them makes me wonder, if they are bad AI patterns. 

For one, I want to collect patterns I like, maybe for later use. 

But then, I do NOT want to support anything AI related.

I have no way to check if those patterns work or not, even if they are made by AI or not. 

I said it enough, that most of the time, I only use patterns as a starting point, and do make mock ups, so not perfectly made patterns are no problems for me. 

So, what do I do now? 

For example, here is THIS pattern.

I like how it looks, I do love assymetric, foldover things, I would consider making it. 

BUT, it is supiciously cheap, and I suspect it is one of those not-good AI patterns. 

I know, I could make it work, but should I suggest it to others? 

What do you think?