The many lives of a blue dress (and a weekend program)

 Back, when I started with historical dresses and reenactment, aside from a trial piece, the first gown I made was a TARDIS blue dress with Roses.  If you know me, I always loved no only to compose my outfits -even the modern, civilian ones- carefully (up to the point, when my shoelaces go well with my hairpins), also hide - or put them in plain side) references. 

It was ever so fitting that my first "time travelling" dress was the color it was and decorated with roses. 

I dearly love that dress, and used it to the point I though, if I see another picture of myself in that blue blob, I am going to puke. 

I made other historical clothes since, a lot of them, but that firts one is still dear to my hear. However, when COVID came I gained so much weight it did not fit me anymore, and I also wanted to do something new, so when I we did a program for the Vígadó, I made a Hungarian ("court") bodice for the skirt. 

When I first bought the fabric, I didn't really know, just how much I will need, and I bought a lot of it, so I had enough leftover for at least two more bodice. Thus, it was still *that* blue and I managed to hide some roses in the decorations. 

Next Christmas I decided, that I had enough of feeling cold in the Gödölő castle, and I made a jacket to wear with the skirt, which also seemed a succesful solution, and I used that combination many times.

But then I started to loose weight, and by last Christmas, that weightloss was enough for all my previous bodices to hang on my. Literally to fall of my shoulders, and crumpling above my boobs. Something needed to be done. 

Back, after the first couple of years, when I started to get bored of the blue dress, I bought some tulle, decorated with roses (just to keep on the theme), with the intention, of renewing the dress sometimes in the future. I felt that point in time arrived last december, so I dug it out of the stash, and I made a new overskirt, and using the very last bits of the taffeta, combined with the tulle a new bodice.

The overskirt was made without a pattern, I just made it up, and at the points, where I pulled it up, I added some roses from the cutoffs. 

For the bodice this time I used the truly Victorian pattern, which time and again proved to be a really good one. By now I used it a number of time, in wastly different sizes, and always needed only minimal fitting. In place of a proper Bertha (the wide collar like of thingie around the shoulders) I added a wide ruffle, just to repeat the fabric used in the overskirt, and I added a puffed oversleeve.

Now, the sleeve could have been a cm or two longer to properly cover my tattoos, but as I said, it was the last bit of fabric I had left and I used every available cm's of it. It actually covers the tats, which only shows, if I am not careful to raise my arm. On the other hand, I do have a bit left over from the tulle, so I might just ad a narrow ruffle to the sleeves to completely hide the ink. 

This weekend I will take out this dress again, and use it in the coronation weekend, an event in the Gödöllő Castle, commemorating the coronation of empress Sisi, who was also the queen of Hungary.

Come and see us there, if you can. 

Long story even longer (historic thigh high stockings)

 It goes back to a couple of years, when a reenacting friend in Italy bought some knee high stocking from me, then last year asked me to knit him a thigh high one, which I posted in a few reenactment group, from where a guy from the US found me, asking me to knit him not one but two pairs, from pure wool. 

Then I started searching for proper yarn, that is not to thin (as I knew the knitting will be loooong and boring enough), and not to thick. I found some New Zealand wool on Etsy that seemed okay, and were available in the colors I got asked for, I ordered them and waited. 

A few weeks later the yarn arrived and I started knitting, but as we already agreed, knitting these stocking are incredibly boring, as all you knit is stocking stitch, around and around, with some shaping thrown in. 

I started with the black ones, and I knitted them on trips (we did had quite a few events last year that required travelling), but sometimes bordeom got the better of me, and put them aside... 

I finished the first pair in November, and then asked a friend to modell them for me, for some pictures. 

He is a reenactor, quite tall, and smewhat thinner (younger and more muscular) than my customer, but pictures we had. 

And then I started again with the dark, brick red yarn. Seeing that the black pair almost reached up to the crotch of the tall friend, I knitted the reddish one a few rows shorter.

Then we started to investigate shipping options, but each and every one was worst than the other. 

By then it was about a year, since I received the advanced payment, so I just threw up my hand and said, lets just ship the safest possible way and be done with it. Of course, it cost me and arm and a leg, but I just received the confirmation that the package arrived safe and sound, the recepient is happy with them, so that is one thing off my list. 

Weekly SO

 My strong opinion this week, that our healthcare system is in deep shit. 

God save those who get in ER in really life threatening situations. 

However, most of the people who work there are heroes.

Sorry

I could have known that with may reenacting season will start and I will have very limited time to post...

What I dould not know, that besides dealing with work, sewing and events (4 in twelve days,yikes), I will also have to deal with health issues, from cold gotten at an event where there was rain all day, to the gallbladder/gallstones issues induced other problems, which not only took me out of comission for a week, but made me end up at the emergency services of the close-by army hospital, where I could observe the stateof our healthcare up close and personal. I am not fully ready to talk about that yet, the thing is there was no surgery at the end, I was allowed to come home, but then further unvestigations/exams, etcs will be necessary.

Anyhow, 

If not with the frequency of my winter-posting, I do have quite a few things to show you, so...

To be continued.

Weekly Patternmuster (sewing)

 The Joti Duster coat

Though where I live spring and fall gets shorter and shorter every year (except this one, when spring is long and unusually cold- at least I feel like it is), but we still need something for those times when a T sirt is not enough, a coat /sweater is just too much... 

These light, cape like coats are perfect for that. 

Disclaimer: I have NOT sewn this pattern (If I would've, I would write about it in a different post), so I cannot say wether it is a good pattern, how the instructions are etc. I come acrosss them when I searching for something, and I like them for some reason.

Weekly Patternuster (Knitting)

I admit, there are posts that I write ahead of time, trying to make a bit easier to have a more-or less regular and predictable blog.. 

The weekly patternmuster column is such, and I wrote three of them last week (among other things to be able to close a couple of windows on my browser), and I am sitting here comfortable... when I realized that those are sewing patterns, which -in theory- come every other week, thus I have no pretimes post for today...

At the same time, as I said, i am trying to find a knitting pattern from which my mom knitted me a sweater not long before she died, and while I am doing that I saved a TON of favorites in Ravelry.

Ugyanakkor, ahogy említettem, miközben elszántan próbálom megtalálni azt a kötésmintát, amiből anyukám kötött nekem egy pulóvert, mielőtt meghalt, rengeteg kedvencet mentettem el. 

Like this scarf , which I want to remember because the pattern reminds me very much to the one that sweater had.

Winterwonder scarf. 

Looking at it more closely, it also reminds me of the  Venezia sweater but maybe it is not as dense...

Disclaimer: I have NOT knitted this pattern (if I would have, I would write about it in a different type of post) so I have no idea how good the pattern is. I just come across it, when I was searching for something else and I liked it).

Weekly So

This week (and generally, always) I stronly oppose (umm, hate), that Facebook 8and the likes) wants to select what comments do I see. I understand that they the additional half minute I spend on the page with changing the setting to "all comments" is important for them, but thankyouverymuch, I am a grown woman, and I don't need anybody to decide for me, what is "most relevant", just gimme all the comments and I will roll and skip what does not interest me. (BTW it would not be such a bad thing, if either "all comments" or the "most relevant" could be set as a default setting (and it would stay that way).