Turn of the Century

 

I've never made secret out of the fact, that I don't really like "the" turn of the cenury, that is the time around the very late 1800 and the very early 1900, or, as the you'd call it in English, Edwardian period (with a few years of very late Victorian years). 

I could never really put my fingers to the reason, just why is that... Maybe because it is already the same century I was born? Maybe, because it is too close to us, and I do not feel the "escape from our time" layer of costuming and reenactment? Maybe, because I see my grandmother in the mirror, when I am wearing those period clothes? Or maybe simply, because of the extra weight I carry around (thanks thyroid), I simply do not feel pretty in those cothes, and in this period one can play a lot less with silhuettes and proportions like in earlier times? 

I have tried, I really tried. My friend Roland made the first skirt of this period for me, and I wore it with a loaned shirt (the hat was already mine, there was a post about in 2019).

Looking at the picture it was not bad, not bad at all, but it was not-made-by-me (do not ask me, why do I hold this one against it, LOL), and also it has a train. I had it on for an Old Car Show, and by the end of the day my wrist hurt like hell, trying to hold that train, and I swore that I will NEVER make anything else with a train... Right, I held that position until I made the black Maria Theresa dress, but that is another story.

Later that year, I made another skirt, which was not thought through, I used "some" fabric, that seemed suitable (spoilers: it was not), drew up the skirt pattern.

(picture: Sári-Győr Gizella)

By then I had my own blouse, I found in a second hand shop, with the proper petticoat, it was not bad, and my hands were finally free, it was... meeehhh. 

Even though then I used it for years. I even made a self-sewn blouse to go with it when I found myself quarantained out of the old one. 

Still mehhh, but still could not put my fingers on why. 

However, earlier this year I did loose some weight (finally, though far from "enough"), and I was still thinking. Once again I watched The Nevers, and remembered, that I actually liked the costuming of the first six episodes. (On the other hand it is such a shame what they did with the second half, it would have worth so much more. I felt like someone was deliberately tryingto ruin what was built up in the first half.). Then I looked a lot of pictures and patterns again, because I was determined to solve the issue, especially, as we had an event coming up in the fall. Last year we did a guided tour in the Róth Miksa Museum (he was a well known glass artist of the time), and we were about to reprise that. What if I go just a coupe of years earlier, and do 1898 instead of 1903?

Forever long I wanted to try the bluse/waistcoat combo, so much that the waistcoat pattern of the Black Snail company was one of the first I bought from them years ago. I knew I had several fabrics to make it from, however, I could not find the dark red grow-grain woth polka dots that would have been my first choice, but I found a few meters of cotton velveteen with a color that was between aubergine and bordeaux. 

When I cut out the skirt, I had enugh for the waistcoat, so I rushed out and got some lining, and then I went on sewing.

I used the McCalls/Angela Clayton pattern (M8231) for the shirt and the skirt, and the Black Snails for the waistcoat (0220).

 

For the waistcoat, I made a mock up, but it was almost perfectly spot on, so I did not modified it at all. 

It was lucky, that I made a men's waistcoat earlier this year for a museum, and there I already figured out how to sew it up, what to sew with where, what to turn whch was, and such.

The waistcoat turned out great, so much that I almost immediately made another one, for which I did photograph most of the steps, and I will write up a post as soon as we manage to make photos of the finished outfit.

As for the skirt and the shirt... Before I started, I asked two costuming Facebook groups about these patterns, and how good that I did. Some other members pointed out problematic areas with them. I planned to add lace insertions to the shirt, but reading how many problems others had, I forgo the idea, and decided to treat the first iteration as a wearable mock up. 

I am not sure what is the reason, maybe Angela is much taller than the average woman, or the pattern company messed up the upsizing, but the yoke part of the shirt was way to long. Ideally, it should be just above the bust, so the gathers give space for the boobs. 

Now, this reached down almost below to mine... and the armhole was waaay to long. I simply chopped off about 5 cm from the shoulders. I think it could be still a cm or two shorter, if I make it again.  The sleeves were also way too loose and too long, at my lower arms, I took out a couple of cm-s and added a different cuff. The collar was a straight up rectangle, for the lower edge (that is sewn on) I cut the arched shape usual for my collars.

There was one problem with the skirt: it was way too long (Angela really must be very tall). I chopped off about 10 cm,  turned up another 15, and it was still long, I had to redo the hem). The original had a train, it would have been REALLY helpful, if they draw a line (not more, just ONE LINE, where should be cut off for the straight, trainless version. 

The hat... From time to time I look through the FB Market and a local used stuff site, and if I find a hat that could be modified to use for historical costuming, and not too expensive I buy it. So I do have some hats waiting to be made into something. I did order some real girardi style hats, but they did not came in time, so I HAD to look for something else. My other Edwardian hat had blue and white flowers, and it is rather summery, I wanted different mood. I found this had to big, but I thought I could pin it to a bigger, edwardian hair, so I gave it a temporary decoration (Nothing was sewn on, the flowers were just tucked under the ribbon, but I ended up liking it enough to decide to properly finish it).

I feel much better in this set than any of the previous ones. Is it very different from the others? NOT. So why? I do not know. Will I make more turn of the century stuff now? Definetly. But they will be probably lean toward very late Victorian, than Edwardian though. 

Modeled pictures: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto (except where noted)

Work photoes from my phone.

67 buttons

 I promise, I have some projects that I photographed almost every step of the way, while I was sewing them, I would only need the time to write up the posts on them, however, having a few jobs, and a few time-consuming hobbies gives me precious little time...

Until then, you will have to do with pictures of finished objects, one of which had me make 67 handsewn textile buttons for it.

It was for a girl, who recently joined the reanactment foundation, who is also working in one of the museums, we sometimes have events at.

She wanted a late medieval kirtle, and while we were looking at pictures, we decided  (no, she decided :-) ) she likes those that have buttons on them. 

For base I used the pattern we made years ago, when I made my late medieval/early renaissance worker's class kirtle, and transformed it down on size considerably, then made a mock up, asked the girl to free up a couple of hours so we could fit the heck out of it to her body. 

As it was done in the period, we used two layers, the undershirt, and the kirtle.

The sewing itself is my usual mixture of sewing the long, inside seams with the machine, and doing everything else (mostly felling down the edges inside) by hand. So no machine stitches can be seen from the outside, only handstitching.

The front edges have a rather hard canvas inside, for the button-loops I used cotton embroidery threads.

The buttons were made from leftover fabric-pieces, and were filled leftover pieces that were kind of shreded to even smaller bits. 

Even if I say so myself, it does fit her rather well, and suits her perfectly. 

Here you can see the buttons up close. 65 on the dress itself, and two spare for just in case.

In the next few pictures, please see the smile, the utter joy on her face. This was the first historical piece that was made for her, and it is not loaned, or not the museum's, but hers. 

The pictures were taken, when she first put on the dress, and could not stop twirling and smiling. I was not there (I was in head-to-toe Maria Theresa mode at a different part of the museum), but so glad that Norbert was there to inmortalize the moment.

It was a joy to work on this dress, and I am happy to see this smile.

Photoes: Norbert Varga (@bodeszphoto)

Circus Princess

 I already mentioned Laura and her circus clothing, in the post about the black dress... Then someone was asking about her stuff... so there you go.

So, our "little" reenactment group (which actually works as a foundation) has a firejuggler/stunt/acrobatic subdivision, they have amazing performances, especially, when it comes to firejuggling. However, some time ago (it must have been at least a year ago, or even further before), they desided to come up with an Edwardian circus themed performance. I heard them talking about clothes, saw some finished clothes, but I was in my own world (working on my stuff, and such), Then one of the guys asked me to fix up / finish the shirt he started for himself... I ended up fully taking it apart and redoing, the decoration was just icing on the cake.

and when Laura approached me if I could, or would make her clothes. Oh well, why not. 

She sent me one picture as an inspiration, 

and then we agreed that we use the picture as an inspiration, mostly, because 1) of the time-frame an exact copy wasn't really doable, 2), I much prefer clothes "inspired by" to exact replicas, I like to work with existing, documentable elements, but adding my own twists and turns. 

Laura said, she would like to have her ensemle in the blue/green/yellow colors, so I kept that in mind, while I was hunting for other fabrics at I Love Textil, and sent her pictures, when I saw things that looked like something she described.

We've met up, went to a cople of their stores, and then bought some stuff,

Then I looked through pinterest and my old Burda magazines for patterns, but ended up drawing up my own. The patterns/ pieces in themselves were not to complicated, a short sleeved peasant blouse with a ruffle around the neck, and a tennis short, with overlapping, rounded edges at the hem. I did make a mock ups, and when Laura asked whether she could keep it for summer pijamas (of course), I knew I am on he right track.

 The secret lied in the decoration. I went to the haberdashery, picked up a bunch of trimms, and dug trough my laces/trimms box, and gout out the gold lace that was left over from Ádám's shirt.

I will not go into the sewing, as it was really simple and straighforward, however, let me point out the decoration: The blue satin shorts have lime-green edges and lace, and gold decoration. The green shirt has blue and gold decoration (all sewn up by hand, because machine-sewing it would have made it way to rigid.)

For the underbust corset we chose a fabric that has two colors, blue warp and green weft in the textile itself, and, since it looks more green than blue, the deco was blue and gold.   was made from Ora Lin's Waspie Waist pattern, which is free on her site. Great pattern, and when I approched her on Instagram about sizing, she was really helpful and fast with her answers. (Later I bought her trumpet-skirt pattern, since sewed it, but that is for another post). Two things that I should point out: since it is a form fitting garment you cannot leave out making a mock up. It is pretty much like the knitting of a gauge swatch of sewing... you can take your chances and leaving it out, but it is not adviseable. I would not even take the chance with the shirt, much less with the short, and definetly would not with the corset. The other thing: The original pattern has 6 eyelet for the lacing I used 5- and that was a mistake. MY mistake, don't take me wrong, and not something that could not be lived with, but still, I need to remember this for the next time. With the six eyelet, one could lace it as we do with regular corsets, leaving a little ear at the middle, then pull and tie the lace there. I laced it from the upper edge to the lower, and it opens up at the waist after a while. 

I think, pulling the lace from the middle can help a lot with that. Even with the 5 eyelet it CAN be laced with the bunny ear- method, only it will not fall to the middle, and you will have to try wich suits you better. 

As you can see from this picture (and also , if you roll down to the Edwardian bathing suit post - I have not mentioned there, but), I made a similar corset/belt form myself, from black. For that, I had to cut off from its width, as I was planning to use it more as a belt and less as a corset, and I have a pretty short waist, but the pattern is still great.

Then Laura went and was happy with the circus clothes, she performed a couple of times in that, but she still needed some wings for the "angel-dance" (I thing they called Isis wings in English, but don't quote me on that). She wanted the wings to be detachable relatively fast, so there was a little west made (I draped a piece of paper, mocked it up and corrected the fit there), and inserted the wings to the shoulder seams. 

I still love, how the colors are cross-referenced though the piece, those little ideas do make me happy even in my own clothing. 

Photos: Varga Norbert @Bodeszphoto

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