The summer of Rococo: Riding Habit

After all that planning in my head, already had a shirt (two shirts in fact), an underpetticoat (I will write about that a bit later), an over petticoat and a waistcoat, and the nost complicated piece of the ensemble, the biggest bite was the riding jacket itself.

The question of the pattern already popped up, so let's talk about that. I knew exactly what type of Riding Habit I want to make, I have a Pinterest Board full of paintings, original pieces and modern reconstrucions. 

This type is very popular among reenactors, but it is more like late 1780, and no panniers underneath, 

This one os much closer, to what I had in mind, but still a bit later and much less fancier, than what I imagined.

The style of this was more like it... 

Now we are talking.... in terms of decoration... However, I wanted silver in place of all these golds.

The only problem, that though I combed through my sources of historical patterns, my options were more than limited. I do have the new edition of the 18th century volume of Patterns of fashion also the he Nora Waughn book, but I was not about to start enlarging the one in either of them.

JP Ryan used to have this style, but now, only the slightly later style is available (and that is rather expensive), which left me with...

Yes. Reconstructing History, which is notorious in costuming circles. But I still thought, I much rather use a ready-made one, since you need to fit the heck out of them anyway, and I worked with RH patterns, so what could go wrong??? 

My first step was get in contact with Kasia, whom I know from Instagram, and I remembered, she made a similar Riding Habit from the RH pattern last year, and I asked her, what should I watch out for, and she did make a collection of her stories about the topic, where I got a few points. 

Of course, seeing all the possible variations, I had to think about the decorations, and a few other decisions (folding collar? standing coller? no collar at all? the pockets should be vertical or horizontal? The decoration should be soutache, lace or braid? etc, etc, etc.)

Thankfully I already decided, that the piece of plaid linen I picked up to make "something modern", would work perfectly as lining.

Of course, I had to think about the decorations, and a few other decisions (folding collar? standing coller? no collar at all? the pockets should be vertical or horizontal?), 

Thankfully, I already decided, when I did the waistcoat, that the pice of plaid linen I picked up for "making something modern, finally" would work perfectly as a lining. 

I knew I wanted the light blue with silver, so I dug out all the silver lace, soutache and whatnot I had. 

Started with the pockets, and I used the cheat technique I thought up when I made Norbert's 18th century waistcoat: sew the buttonholes with the machine, that held together all the layers, and provided a template, a line to follow, when I went through the thing with handstitches. Later, from thecomments of a FB post I learned, that many customer does this, but as Cassandra Danz wrote in one of her gardening books (paraphrasing), the one who invents the wheel nowadays is no less genious than the one who did originally. Admiteddly, slower, but not less genious.

 

Stitching through all those layers (including a taffeta) requires strength... or tools.

The decoration around the buttonholes and the pocket-flaps were also handstitched. 

Now, I needed to make the pockets. 18th century pockets with flaps were sewn differently than they are today, when you incorporate the edging and the flaps. No, you do make a hole, with the pocket itself, and then sew the flap above it.

I used the same buttonhole technique and silver braid around the cuffs, and then had to make a decision about the front buttonholes, and front edge. Buttonholes got the same treatment with and extra loop, and for the endge I used the lace-y braid I received as a birthday present from Anna, a couple of years ago, 

Things went kind of smoothly until this point, though no matter how much I took out of the waist, there was still too much fabric left form my sway back. 

But then I had to sew in the sleeves.Which, despite looking all right in the mock up, just did not want to stit right. I took those darned things out at least five times, I was starting to get afraid, that I'll ruin the fabric, and cried through one night. At one point I was ready to throw it out of the window (of my tenth floor flat).  I bet no effing AI can do that (cry over some messed up sleeves), now, can it? 

At the end, I took the sleeves out one more time, thinking that at the worst, I'll go in the waistcoat only, and with a masterstroke I turned the hole thing, almost 45 degree. It still has some crease, but it works fine now. 

The last ting was to make a few dozen covered buttons, and sew them on. 

Fabric: I Love Textile

Modelled photos: Bodeszphoto

Short comment

 I am not sure what should I call the feeling (dissonance? irony? ambivalence? or what?), that caught me unawares this morning, half watching and listening to a youtube video, while making handmade bobbinlace, and hearing the presenter saying, that "lace these days are made by machines...".

Hmmm.

No. They are not. Or, at least not always.

Weekly SO

 My strong opinion this week is that loading up the discount supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi in the afternoon rush hour (between 4-7 PM), and barricading the isles with those huge cages... might not be the best idea,

Short Comment

When you realize you have a thing for a certain thing. 

I bought the two yarns separately, about a year- a year and a half between the two- and before I started knitting lace again after quite a few years. 
 

Weekly patternmuster (Knitting)

I am still all about lace...

This time, I am showing you a gorgeous lace dress.

It has so much I love in knitting. 

It is the Seashore Blouse (Though it is more like a tunic or a short dress for me).

The summer of Rococo: Petticoat and waistcoat

As I already said, since I was making three sets of rococo clothes, sometimes I did forget to make pictures... So the pictures of the finished items should be suffice.

Just like with the petticoat and the waistcoat...

As for the petticoat, the 18th century skirts are the simplest of things. Practically two squaresm and two waistband (or rather ties). The only trick is to balance the length, according to what kind of structure we are wearing underneath. If it is some kind of bumpad, then the back is left longer (just how much, depends on the type and size of the said bumpad), if there are some kind of panniers, then the sides need to be longer. They usually achieve this by cutting the skirt out, try it over the underwear and adjust it at the waist.

Which would require another person to help, which I did not have, and so, the back is slightly too short, but, since I left enough material at the hem, I can adjust it anytime. 

The fabric for the petticoat is the same damask/brocade (I don't really know which) that I used back in early summer, for the white waistcoat, with the tiny flowers.

The waistcoat is adjustable at the back. As for the pattern... there is none. I modified a pattern I had for the jacket (more about that, when I'll get around to write about the jacket). For the back I used linen. Just when I got the silver and blue brocade, I also scored some smallish pieces of linen (about 1-2 meters), and though i was intending to use them for something else, maybe for modern clothing this time, they suited this set of clothes much better than anything else could. 

And here is me, trying to get a breather from the blazing sun, and the heat in a bookstore... 

Fabric: I Love Textil 

Photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

Short Comment

Back to the basics. Knitting lace again.

 

Weekly SO

 My strong opinion this week is that I think it is very much contraproductive, that social media (I saw this both with Facebook and Instagram, but maybe FB is the worst offender), keeps you offering people and pages to follow.... but as soon as one does follow someone, the algorythm pushes them back and you see much less of them, than when you were only liking their posts (without following them). 

Did you noticed this, or is it only my feeling?

Ancient finds - finishing a sock

This sock has been in the making since... I don't even remember... 

I had the yarn, since.... I don't really remember, not even where did I get it (though I usually remember, even the small bits of sock yarns), but it is one of those mainly cotton (and some wool and acrylic) sockyarn I have a big box of, and I had this ball on my shelf, right next to my bed, to use it... soon. 

But it was there for years.

I also don't exactly remember, when I actuall started it, as it was "knit in the car, when dark" category, and to top it all, I knitted it with a smaller than usual dpns (however, I do remember, that those needles were bought with one of my packages I ordered from Ice Yarns, but they do not have the sizes printed on them... they might be 2 mm, or a bit smaller than that).

The socks were in that small bag I put the small knits (like socks, mittens) into, along with the minimal tools /notions I take with me - if I take that bag at all. 

If I force my mind to think hard on the issue, I would say, that most probably I started the socks right after we bought my purple boots in Prague, which was at least three ir four years ago. (I don't remember ever writing about those boots, should I?)

The socks got pushed away quite often, as I knit mostly historical stockings in the car (when I have enough light), and shorter, less shaped socks get the nighttime knitting. (Yikes, I just checked, and I did tell you this, probably more than once, last time when I showed you my other modern socks).

Anyhow, we did travel, and I had other reasons to sit in the car, or places, I did not want to take the much bigger historical socks (or did not want to think about knitting, just knit in the round mindlessly), and they did get finished. 

Weekly Pattern Muster (Sewing)

 

This week I am bringing you the Paris Top from Fiber mood. 

It has a foldover cut and ruffles, so it has a flattering cut and a bit of romance. 

The 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.

P.s.: I was asked, what do I do about thee lace when I wash the shirt... do I take it off? 

Well, no. I wash the shirt with hand, then iron it carefully, using spay starch on the lace parts,