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
