Napoleon and his time

 The Napoleonic (Regency) era is popular in most of the world, but we don't see much of it in Hungary. Yes, people know Jane Austen (ahh, the period/costumes they use in Jane Austen movies), and nowadays Bridgerton even more, but not much of either the history, nor its fashion. 

For men, there are some groups that reenact the Napoleonic wars, but for civilan life... it is close to nonexistent. 

Our group did dresses back in 2018, when there was that ball... upps, I have not written about that ball...

But there are pictures of those dresses (a plain white one and a blue oversress from saree-silk) in THIS post. When I made it, I had no pattern, and not much help with fitting. As much as I loved them, in every combinations, there were probems (the overdress was too wide, it kept falling off my shoulder)... To top of it all, I lost enough weigth that those things would've fallen off, even if they fitted me well in the first place. 

Last fall, when we went to the Palmanova Napoleonic event, I scratched the itch I had ever since I saw a video on Instagram about a size adjustable event, and made THIS dress. And then I made THIS spencer to go with it.

But this year, I wanted a "traditional" white muslin, regency dress, the one I started with many years ago, but much better. 

I was trying to find some pictures of the making, but (as usual? or as the typical ADHD way?) there is none, most probably, I made the thing in a hurry.

Interestingly enough, when I first saw the video of Amber showing the wrap around dress, I was completely enchanted by it, even asked her if she had a pattern for it (no, unfortnately she did not, though I would've bought it at once). However, I forgot about it, but Instagram somehow threw it before me, just as I was thinking about making this new dress. (Amber's insta reel is HERE)

As usual, I dug through my fabric collection, knowing that I have light, white fabric for at least 3-4 regency dress, and found a swiss dot one, I bought years ago (like in around 2017-2018) in I Love Textile.

I started out with a Black Snail pattern, but I modified that pattern so much, that its mother (umm, original designer) would not recognise it. 

I did make a video of the closure, but Blogger would not let me upload it (it says, the file is too big). 

I will try to make a reel out of it on Instagram, and link it here, somehow. 

But then, I also put the two picture (one of the old dress and one of this new one) to be able to see the difference. 

When I started making historical clothes in 2017 I was sewing for many decades by then. I thought, I knew everything, if not everything, but enough to... By now, I know I was brave and full of myself, and I had so much to learn. 

But that is also a lesson. No matter what are you doing, and how long you are doing it. There are always things to learn, and it is not a shame to redo things, to do things again, (and again, and again), just to be able to do it better. 

Fabric: I LOve Textil

Photos: Bodeszphoto

Time for socks....

So, we are back from Prague (too), and though we still have an international event to go, it is much closer, and shorter, than the Italianor the Czech trip was.

I am trying to get back to a more regular rutine, which also means, more regular posting...

Also the time is here, when I start to change my short, cotton socks to handknitted ones. 

Yes, I wear my socks. I wear my handknitted socks from the end of September, until about April, continiously. (and yes, I do wash them, in fact, I wash them in the washing machine. That is the only handknitted item I put in the machine, everything else gets washed by hand.

Anyhow... new socks. I started them earlier this year (much earlier, like in january, or maybe even last year???), because short, modern socks are things I can knit in the car, even in the dark (yes, I knit the historical stockings in the car as well, but during the daytime, as they need to be shaped, so looked at, at least once every round- though I did become much better of that too - meaning, keeping track of the zig-zag -and the connected decreases- in the dark, but then, that is a topic for another post). 

While we stayed in Prague, I got to the point with the (historic) stockings I am working on, where it needs light, and attention (turning the heel and picking up the stitches for the feet), and I was too tired on the way home, so I dug out the modern socks I stopped working on months ago. It seemed less of an efford to pick up the stitches and trying to figure out where I was with them, than turn the heel of the historic stockings. (Also, I am running out of the DPN's I am using for socks and stockings, I needed to free up some). 

I could see the advantages of having a system for knitting these simple socks a standard way of doig them, so I could easily find my way back, even after months of neglect.

Thus happened, that two pairs of short-ish socks, the ones that go into my fall shoes, and shorter boots, got finished. 

Actually nothing special abot them, both of them were made from leftover yarns I keep picking up in the second hand shop, they are not simmetric, as the Yarn Harlot says, they are fraternal twins.

Both have their toes, heels and cuffs from a different, solid color, I found going well with the colorscheme of the base-yarn. 

Yarn: random, unidentified sockyarn.

Needles: 2,25 Knit Pro.

Obelix at Orfű

 It was one picture, but ended up a longer story...

There is a big historical festival, and its main point is the evening procession.

The foundation is there for many-many years by know, however, with more-or less visibility...

What do I mean by that? If the procession have huge roman legions at the beginning, a walking band of brass wind players, and you have fire jugglers before you yelling yelling "to infinity and beyond" every 50 meters, and small, child sized ponies behind you... with a smallish group (10-20 people) no matter what you wear, you are kind of invisible... 

And we arrived to wearing the turn of the century bathing suits one year (read its full story here).

And while we were originally talking about it, some of us tried to convince Norbert to wear one of those tank topped, stripy things much like these ones:

To which he just grumbled: 

"Right, and you know how woud I look like in that? Like Obelix..."

Our leader found it so funny, that she literally fell under the table laughing, and the idea stuck... 

That year, in our Xmas party, we did a little sceene, in which N. was Obelix (but messing up everything like having a beard, making Getafix (me) a women, etc... 

Of course, I made his dress for that... (don't even ask... I could not just use any blue/white striped material, the exact width and number of those effing stripes were... how sall I put it... 

Non-negotiable. 

I ended up sewing together stripes of white and blue fabric

(and let's not even get into how *I* ended up making the only more serious piece of costume).

Anyhow, we did the sceene, N overstepped his shadow appearing on the stage AND even talking, he was cute and all..

And then those stripy pants were packed up and forgotten... almost. 

Last year when we went to the Orfű festival (its kind of an alter-rock fest, one of our favorite), I started to nag N, how fun it would be if he would dress up like Obelix for a day... 

Of course, knowing him, his shyness, and all that I did not much hope I can get through him... 

But loo and behold... This year...

He did. 

The festivalgoers LOVED him. 

He had so many pictures taken, and, I think, he had fun. 

Now, I can retire those pants, knowing, they weren't only used ONCE... LOL.

Weekly SO

My weekly SO (Strong Opinion), is that I am ever so glad, that nowadays, the 1st of September (the traditional "end-of-summer" "school-is-starting" "new-season-is-starting" time, the kind of "real-start-of-the-year-time" has no meaning for me anymore.  I have been tied to it for the longest, my shcool years, my son's shcool years (with only a few years respite between those).

I remember the feeling, how I could NOT enjoy the August 20th celebrations, because they ment the end of teh summer, the thightness in my stomach, the feeling of "The End"....

But now my son is also well out of shcool, and absolutely NOTHING ties to that date, our reenactment season is still on, the weather is still warm...

Weekly patternmuster (knitting)

Which means a sign, that I am coming back... slowly, but surely.

My days are still hurried (like I have about two days to do about a week's worth of translation), I still need to wash up a bunch of clothes, and then pack them up, before we leave for Prague... But yes, I always say, life is beautiful, when (a lot of things) happening in it. 

In other words, a true Saggitarious way, I will sleep when I am dead. 

Anyhow, I am here, already drank my morning coffee  can of Coca Cola, had my caffeinated painkiller (formerly known as Algoflex Duo that unexplicably dissapeared from our pharmacies), now only brought in from either Austria or Germany by a totally different name - but it is still the only thing that can deal with my morningheadaches).

So, I was thinking for days how to come back, and since today is Monday, the Monday weekly patternmustern seemed to be innocent and easy enough. 

As for knitting, I am still waiting for the "pendulum" to move out the utterly boring, basic colors (i.e natural beiges and grays), and utterly boring shapes. To simplify things I opened up Ravelry to see, how many pages of patterns I have to look at to see something that makes my jaw drop. It took about 5-6 pages to see something I opened seperately thinking "okay, these are not bad" (but then again, NOT jawdropping). And it took me the 9th pages to see this one.

Now, this is really something. 

Jawdroppingly gorgeous. 

The Baltic Storm Sweater.

Wow, wow.

Would I knit this? Absolutely. It is special, it is colorful.

Will I actually knit this?  Maybe not in the near future, but that is only because the serious lack of time. 

While I would not say I cannot do Intarsia (and I suspect, this one does have a serious amount of it), I am not as proficient in it as in other colorwork techniques. 

However, reading the description, it is a top-down sweater, with a round yoke and there is more than 70 projects of it on Ravelry. So, I am not saying never. It IS certainly something I would attempt one day. 

It ain't over yet

The last few months were incredibly busy, incredibly tiring, but also pretty satisfying, from many points. Of course, there were mishaps, problems, and all that, but looking back, I think, wow, I cannot believe, we did all that. 

And just as the title of this posts say, it is not over yet. Not the events, not the work, nor the summer. 

I do have to say out loud, that I am ever so glad, that the 1st of september does not effect me anymore, not even through my son, it (or these last days of august) does not fill me with dread, the feeling of everything is over, and the feeling of hate school and school-season.

And while I am trying to wrap up things, I think about coming back to the blog, with full intensity.

I do have many things to tell you about, many things to show you (though, some of you could catch a glance of some things on FB or Instagram), and now I am wondering, what order should I put them...

Timewise? The oldest first and catch up? Start with the least impressive things and go to the ones I am most proud about? Or just random? 

What do you think? 

Also... What are you most curious about? Events? Travels? What I was making? 

Weekly patternmuster (sewing)

 Still looking for the perfect pair of barrel leg...

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