Tuesday Travel

 Let's go back to London, shall we? The Victoria and Albert Museum is one of my favorite places in London. I can spend days there. 

I already mentioned, that the first thing we did in London was to go there, and pick up my membership card, and then, while we were there we were walking around a bit. We contemplated to go in there to see the Marie Antoinette exhibition (since the membership card allowed us to go back to see that one as many times as we want), but then decided against it, however, we did walk around... and of course, we've seen many things this time as well.

The thing is, if you want to see the "big picture" don't come with me into this museum, because I am going for the details...

Like the lacing on this medeival dress (on the left).

The folds on the back of this early 18th century dress...

The patterns on the Spitafield silk collection.

The shoes. 

Though the gandeur of this room did not passed me...

Even tried some memuett dance steps there :-)

Even though I do have some pocket panners, I HAD TO try on the ones they had out... 

And study the way it was made.

The amazing embroidery details...

And the shirt...

The details on the shirts...

More shoes...

Sewn stockings

I could not miss the lace, of which I've seen pictures in so many books.

And an other lace I even tried replicating, but now I faced the fact, just how small its scale is.

See the bed? What was I interested in? The embroidery pattern, of course. 

More lace...

And yet another I was familiar with, because all of the books on early lace have a picture and pattern of it.

Back to the 18th century...

And one of my favorite dresses..

I am sure it would suit me so well...

And the back of a regency dress...

There are so many things, so many small details... I just cannot get enough.

Weekly patternmuster

 I spent literally hours for a sewing pattern, only to figure out that last week I did brought a sewing one, so it would be okay to show you a knitting pattern. 

Ever since I started to scour Ravelry for stranded patterns to find that pattern, I have saved hundreds of patterns in my favorites. So there will be absolutely no problem to bring amazing stuff to show you. 

This one is open in a window on my computer ever since (for weeks, even months now), because I just love it. 

It is the Ottavia sweater.

It is colorful, and perfect for those who love dtranded knitting but just do not want to deal with long floats.

Oopsie.

The horse bolted...

I was so good, with fabric (and yarn) buying, I even started a kind of list on a separate page, making a list from the incoming and outgoing fabrics...

At the beginning of the year, I did not make any big stashbusting wow, only had this general idea of trying to use up more fabric than I buy...

And then I Love Textile brought in a kamion worth of leftover bits of fabrics from Milan. 

I only got there in the second day, so the shelves were already depleted, but I still found some stuff,

Unfortunately, though there were some really nice pieces, they all were little bits, only enough for... we'll see. 

And then while being annoyed that I could not make  a new early victorian dress, I also had some ideas, which we all know get as far as me researching the idea, even getting the fabric... and then we'll see. 

I will try to update the fabric stashbusting list, but I am afraid, I already forgot some of it... ehh.

Weekly SO

1840-ies fashion is BOOOOOORING!

Now, I said it out loud. 

Here, in Hungary, it is a base-point of 19th century reenactment, both military and civilian, as 1848 March 15th is a pivotal point in Hungarian history, and the period leading up to it, is also very important. 

However, I do have to agree with Frock Flick, who call it the "Death of fashion". 

While I would not go that far, I have to agree that it is not the most exciting period fashion wise,  especially, compared to what was before and what came after. 

In the 1830-ies, when women got bored of the empire fashion, and the waist started to go back down to its anatomically proper place, and skirts widened, there were really fun pieces, giant sleeves, fun bodices, and cute hairstyles. 

Fun, foldover bodices:

Afterwards (in the late 1850-ies-1860-ies) came the giant hoopskirts/crinolins, and the sewing machine, that meant sewing time was shortened, they could literally sew anything on the dresses, and they used that without any scruples.

And what was there in between???  Boredom. 

I mean, understanding the cyclical nature of fashion, after the well decorated, fun, and sometimes exaggerated fashion of the 1830-ies, it is kind of natural, that things calm down, simplified, and fashion became demure, but for god sake, literally there are TWO style of dress, that existed. 

The fan front: 

and its variations, 

and this other style:

Back, when I made my old 1840-ies dress I was really lucky to bump into and fell in love with an 1845 dress from the Moscau Historical Museum, with a foldover stye that I adapted.

Now, when I click on something that is a tiny bit different, or interesting, and I click on it, I inevitably find out that is a) earlier/1830-ies), b) later/1850-ies fashion. 

I know, the fan front is so typical, it is worth to show to the visitors/audience, but you know me. I don't like to go where everybody goes. 

(As I wrote in my yesterday post, by now, I do have an idea what to make, but you will see that when I actually get around to make that).

MIA

There is some (indian?) story where they tell the hero, that sometimes s/he must sit down and wait for his/her sould to catch up. 

So much happened the last few weeks, with the London trip and the week of March 15th (which is a big national holiday for Hungarians, as it is the annyversary of the big 1848 recolution and freedom fight, and as a reenactors we are ever so busy at this time of the year). Don't get me wrong, I love life when it is busy but yes, sometimes even I do have to slow down and wait for my sould to catch up (all the while I am catching up with the work that I do for money :-) ).

The Tuesday Travel will -hopefully- return next week with another London Episode, now, let me show you what I did for the week.

I spent three morning in the Buda Castle with kids, 12-18 years, with a teammate and we were talking about the "age of reforms" (which is the period leading up to that 1848 revolution), me from the women's perspective, especially fashion, as in what and why women wore what they did, and my teammate talked about the same, as in what and why wore a man from the national guard from the period. 

(Pictures were made on the last day :-) )

And fashion was the theme of the week. On Saturday, we went to the Gödöllő Castle, and did the little show, on fashion history from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century, and talked about the changes. 

Norbert could not come, so no photos, but a short videoclip, just to show you, that we really have anything for every decade of the 19th century :-)

(the video was shot by my son, Chris, who stepped in as my chaffeur and support for the day)

And then, on Sunday, back to the Buda Castle, though to a different organisation/museum, where we sent the day presenting the "touchable", living history. 

Yes, seeing the pictures, it is obvious, that I already knew, that as much as I love this dress, and think of it as one of my masterpieces, I lost way to much weight for it to fit me, in other words, it is hanging on me (like, as we say a pair of bloomers on a cow).  Now, I had fully planned to make a new dress, I literarly spent months thinking about what kind of dress I should make, looked at hundreds of fashion plates, existing dresses, even movies, television films to get some ideas (see tomorrow's strong opinion about that), when I finally decided what to make I prewashed my fabric, made my mock up... Only to have it put away because some urgent work came in, so I had to cancel my plans and spend some days and nights with my computer (like my week way not busy enough in itself...)