Truly Victorian Reverie Bodice (TV449)

This bodice / jacket was long in the making. Started it around Xmas time in 2021, hoping to finish it to our annual Sisi even in the Gödöllő castle. It didn't happened, even though I did spent considrable amount of time of the family celebrations sitting in the corner and sewing, still, we didn't got back in time to put in the sleeves. 

I wore my old, velvet Hungarian dress, which I hated (see the blogpost on my new Hungarian bodice), and then before the summer lost just enough weight that it would not fit me anymore without serious rework (I.e taking the handsewn boning channels out and take it in at the sides.). 

Unfortunately I did gain back some of the weight, and the Xmas even got closer again, so I decided to finish it up, but this time - since the soutache thing went so well on the Hungarian bodice- add more than a simple edging for decoration- and then again, I did spent considerable amount of time of the family celebrations, sitting in some corner and sewing - this time silver ribbons, all 8 meters of it, instead of boning channels. 

 The velvet was a leftover piece of factory reject, crumpled and dirty on the shelves of ILoveTextile, with a paisley print that could be only seen close up, but it was just enough for this bodice. I used the leftovers of my ballgown to do the lapels, cuffs, and the turned out thingies at the back, to tie it with the skirt, that is used in the third set, the third variation now. 

The pattern was Truly Victorian's Reverie Bodice (TV449). It went together pretty easy, and needed minimal adjusting at fitting. I am not sure about the instructions, as I remember reading them once, when I started this, then promptly putting it away. I used an old, stripy cavas for lining, I brought it back from the US many years ago, and the historical flatlining tecnique. Sewn the major seams with the machine, but all the finishing are by hand (even sewn the boning channels on by hand).

I use this bodice / jacket with the corset and corsetcover I made , and also a pair of sleeves, I am not posting separately. 

And here it is at he event itself:

Photos: Norbert Varga @bodeszphoto

(Detail pics from my phone)

New Year's red - just a quick update

 Since I was asked let me just put it out here too:

Yes, I am doing it. 

I went through the patterns I saved for this, and selected one, I wanted to do since it came out: Drops Rosendal. 

I dug out these yarns from my stash:

And here is where I got with it until now. The body and sleeves are separated, and I've knitted a few rows of the body.

To be continued.

Truly Victorian Corset cover

 When we talk about the layers of Victorian clothing, we always mention the corset cover (which is a little blouse like of thing to -as its name says- cover up the corset, and soften the line the corset's enge gives), but quite often skip it, as it rarely seen. Yes, some ballgowns have the edges peaking put (or they sew lace edging to imitate that, like I did in my "Hungarian" bodice. Now, I could not put making one off any longer, and you will see in my next post why. 

Unfortunately I decided in the last minute, that I am making one, and rushed with the sewing, so no pictures about the making it, sorry. 

I ordered, printed and taped together the Truly Victorian TV107 pattern in one late night. I did not make a mock up, as my fabric was a leftover piece anyway. I found it in one of the chainstores of the factory outlets that peppers the long boulevard in downtown. They have six stores in the city, five of them along one tramline, that goes trough on that boulevard. The truth to be told I think Hungarian reenactors do hunt those stores, because sometimes there are treasures in there. I have many a dresses from fabrics picked up there. In one of the stores I go a little bit less because it is in between two stops, and I seldon get off and walk there, but in the end of november I did for some reason, and in the store of factory rejects and leftovers there was a pile of stuff they even reject, and in that pile there was two piece of white linen. You know me and and linen have a love affair, I have a hard time saying no to it, even if it is any color... much more so, if it is white. Now, these pieces were crupled, dirty, and even pieced, but I got them anyway. At home I threw them into the washing machine (linen needs to be preashed anyway), with some stronch washing detergent, bleach and baking soda, and after a hot cycle, it was lovely clean and soft. From the smaller length, I took off the narrow strip that was piece don, and put it away (It is a perfect size to do an embroidered 16-17th century coif with), and I was left with just enough to put up the pattern pieces. I also have a box full of lace, and I dug up a piece that was left over from some petticoat, which was just enough for the decoration on the front, along the neckline and one sleeve... I had another piece, but I wasn't keen on cutting that, because if I do that, I am sure next time I will miss that dearly, however as I checked, I found that it was also pieced, and the length that was sewn on was like 2 cm longer than what I needed for the second sleeve. This way I felt less apprehensive taking it off the roll. 

As usual I sewn most of the long, basic seams with a machine (after all it was for the 1860-ies, when sewing machines were already a thing), but I finished the inside edges by hand. 

As for the pattern it is straightforward, goes together quite easily, but I needed to fit the heck out of it, because the size I cut out was way to big on me. The instructions unfortunately do not give us the measurements in cm-s, only inches, and I was too lazy had no time to do the calculations.Now either I remembered wrong, which size I used for the bodice last year, or something else was up, but then again, it is much easier to solve the problem of things being to big, than vice verse. 

Corset

I've made a corset in the summer of 2021, which served me well, but last spring I finally managed to lost eough weight that it could be easily closed fully. Besides, even though we did those little metal cups on the bones, they stil managed to find their way out of the twill tape I used as boning channels. I sewed the holes up countless time, to have yet another bone digging into me at the next event. So I decided a new one is in order. Like a couple of days before Xmas, when else.  Little did I know, I will run into a number of problems. 

One of these was finding a busk. I mean I have busks home, I make historical clothes, I think I have enough stuff in my house to make anything I can think of... SOMEHOW. I mean, these busks would work in a pinch, however I found the shorter one, that is the good length for me is too weak, the stronger one is too long. It will be perfect for a late edwardian corset, once I convince myself I really need one. Until then I will make do with a mid-victorian. I started looking on E-bay, the German place I got them the last time simply diassapeared, not to mention that shipping would take weeks (and shipping prices went up to the sky in the last few months.

Then I remembered, that Taylor, the store that sells fabrics and notions for dancewear and wedding dresses was open even in the worst of the pandemic, a phonecall could not hurt, even though the last time I was there, they did not had the spoon busk. Now they did. So I went and bought one, and while I was there I bough a roll of boning channel tapes, that are so thightly woven, practically guaranteed that no boning gets through the. Then at home I used one of those I deemed to weak for a proper corset and made up a busk strip and a lacing strip that should help me with mock ups and fittings. 

My next problem was the pattern. When I do something I always keep the original pattern pieces, the mock ups, half of it usually all in one, the other half picked apart to make the pattern, and the final pattern. I thought it will be as simple as taking it off the shelf, and then I can easily modify according to my experience with the corset over the last year and half.  But try as I might I just could not find the package. I took out the boxes, I even cleaned half of my sewing room, I found interesting stuff, like the pattern for the previous (early victorian corset I made), but not this last one. 

I did find the original Redthreaded pattern I printed-taped cut out back then, but it wasn't much help as it was modified to fit me better. So I sat down and tried to copy the pattern off the working corset as much as I could, comparing those to the original pattern pieces and drawing up new ones. 

Made up a mock up from some old fabric I fould while I was looking for the pattern, noted the few small changes I wanted: I remembered and noted again, that my bust gores always work better if they are shorter that the original ones, however, I need to take out a cm or two of the waist, and add a bit of extra to the hip insert.

Coutil is not readily available in my country, I am not sure I could get it at all, even if I would try harder within the borders, so I used a pretty, small flovered cotton satin for fashion fabric, a white denim for the strength, and one more cotton sheet for the middle. I said white denim... right, I planned to used that as when I gout the cotton satin, I also got some pretty snow white (or "optic white") one, about which I was so happy, that I forgot to check its elasticity... and guess what it is pretty elastic cross-wise, which aint good for corsets. Thus I had to climb up the ladder (don't ask me why, but I keep my corset materials on my uppermost shelf), take down what I had there, which was denim, and white, but a but too yellowish to my taste but it had to make do. 

It is not in the instructions, but I did a couple of lines on the gores to strengthen them, and then stitched all the pieces so I could handle the triple layers as one. 

Did a few line on the hip insert as wel.

And more stitching

Finally cut the place for the gores, and set them in.

Sewn down the edges by hand.

Added the boning channels

And added the hip insert.

When the two half was done up, I finally added the spoon busk. Just so you know, it is not more difficult to sewn in a spoon busk than a regular straight one. You only have to be more careful at the rounded edge at the bottom.

Added edging to the bottom, added the bones (the spiral steel around the boobs, and straight ones to the other places) then a bit of lace and another edging to the top.

Added grommets to the back for lacing and it was done.

It looks like this at from the back. The little bit of wrinking means that I will have to add just a little bit to its sides, and maybe take out even more from the waist.

This is the thirsd time actually I make this pattern, and only now do I realize that I need one more bone to both side between the busk and the breast gores, and that would take out the wrinkling there. 

So now, this is not perfect either, but works under my Victorian clothes (who the hell will look for the slight wrinkling under three layers of clothing?), and I can retire the old one, and have it as a touchable show-piece at living history events, among the other, earlier, busk-less version. If I manage to loose more weight than I gained in the late fall and Xmas period, I will make yet another, improved one. I did packed up the pattern pieces and the mock-up pieces carefully, but in this house, you never know. 

 

Red, upside down

Now let's see... New year, new intentions, new everything... or not, as I start blogging again with something, I started two years ago. 

This was my "New year Luck" sweater in 2021. Never really posted much about it, and even though I tried to look for pictures of making it, not much luck there either, even though two years ago I was blogging pretty regurarly. 

Anyhow :-) I bumped into this pattern either on Ravelry or on Instagram (probably the latter, but I really don't remember where exactly).However, when I tried to buy it, I run into a problem, because it was published on the Knit Pick's site, and being from Hungary, I could not buy even the digital pattern. Which is stupid. I mean it is bad enough that they only ship into a selected few European countries (and not mine), but a digitally downloadable pattern? Come on. I've talked about it with my friend, Angela, who sent me the pattern for my birthday. 

I dragged down all my boxes that contains red shaded sock yarns, picked out what more-or less suited the list.

...and then sat down to think, because the original design was knit from the bottom up, but somehow I was not up to that... I mean I like to say that I have nothing against sewing up a knitted sweater, but when you have a certain amount of yarn (and no way of getting more- which is often the case when you knit from your stash and / or second hand yarn), top down constructions (or toe up for socks) easier to handle, to change the length for example, if necessary. 

So I took the original pattern, looked up and noted the stitchnumbers at strategic points: the number of stitches cast on (for the body and the sleeves as well), the number of stitches when they've put together the sleeves and the body, the number of stitches where the pattern finished off, and the number of stitches cast off at the neckline. Took the list and basically turned it upside down, and that were my baseline for knitting, and I also took and turned the chart upside down. 

I finished it much later than I usually do with the new year's stuff, but it seems that it takes me longer and longer each year. After finishing it, took me months to actully sew up the yarn ends.

And took me more months to actually block it up and make pictures.

There is not much explanation for that, except that I am really not happy with my weight, or my figure and the 2020-2021 quaranteen years did not helped that a bit... quite the opposite and though the sweater did fit me, it was on the thight side. 

Back a few years ago, when I did my Joyride and my Ingrid sweaters I grew to like the contrast colored cuff (in addition to the longer than usual cuffs that kind of became my trademark), and worked that into this sweater as well (also to make sure I will have enough of the red color).

To echo that I added a similar dark red band to the waistline, and also increased it more agressively, which resulted in those pointy edges on the side that are reminding me the lines of some lagenlook style. I am still working on combinging handknitted stuff and that style, and you will see the results if I get anywhere with it. 

We finally photographed the sweater last february, and do not ask me why I have not posted them. But this time of the year I am once again working on a good luck sweater, which reminded me that I need to sew up the one I've knitted last year, and that maybe it is time to show this one as well. 

Sweater is based on the pattern Happily, which is -according to Ravelry- unfortunately not available anymore.

Yarns are various sockyarns, the white one was Fabel from DROPS.

Pictures: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

Happy New year!

 So many things happened in 2022, so many old and new friends, that obviously will not everything and far from everybody will fit here (you know, that you all in my heart, though). The year was so ambivalent, with full of lovely things, great travels, friends, music, events, and still full of tensions, insecurity and uncertainty, so I don't know what to wish for the coming year. May it keep up the good things and improve on what wasn't so good. Thank you for everyone, who was a part of my last year, and here is one to the new one! Happy New Year, my friends!

Desk and socks

What socks do on my desk? Oh, well, a bunch of UFO-s are lying around, and this is just a roundup of what is around my writing desk (yeah, I have a fairly big one.) Note that these are all made from various sockyarn... I guess it isn't just a chance.

Mind you, this is not all unfinished stuff I have, nor these are the only ones I actively work on. I still have stuff in my bags, beside my bed, etc.

Do you want to see them one by one? Shall I tell you what they are? 

This is a pair of fair isle patterned mitts. Over the summer I knitted a crazy amount of solid colored knee high stockings (more on them in a later post), and there was a moment when the urge to knit something crazy difficult, and colorful stuff washed over me. The pattern is from Matthew Gnagy's knitting book, the shape is rather historical, the pattern is also have a romathic mood. The thing is I have no idea, what will happen to it, once I finish it, because as much as I love it, I don't really wear brown and orange anymore (I kept putting around the two balls were pinned together, for years - yes, it was my favorite, when I had the red hair, but is does not go with my silver), nor do I like the mitts that does not have separate fingers. 

This is some socks, from small bits of leftover yarn, my usual stuff, nothing specific. I've started it in the summer, I remember knitting on it in Kapolcs, where there was an art and music festival, but it kind of fell victim of the stocking craze.

This is... well, you all know, I have a fascination with colorful sockyarn. It might have occured that I like to mix and match them. I like to organize them into bunches, put them together in certain order (like the almost rainbow colored circle cardigan, or by colors, like the purplish neckwarmer. I keep looking for ways to use up these bits. I had a run with a "boxy sweater", which was not overly successful, which was entirely my fault, so I decided to give it another chance. Went to my stash, and picked a bunch of pink-ish colored bits and see, where it takes me.

Now, this will be a pair of socks. We've been to the Netherlands this fall, and on the way home we stopped at Prague (shall I write more about those?), and from there a pair of purple boots camme home with me... and you know me, if I have purple boots, I need purple socks. And purple everything. The yarn had no band (yeah, second hand stuff), but it looks and feels awesome, I have a suspicion that it is Opal, or similar. I added puplish blue toe and heel, to have it as high as possible, and I only have one half done, yet.

Beige-y? Sandish? Taupe? Tan? knee high historical soks, only a few rows done.

More historical stockings, this is from mustard colors and will have a clock on the ankle.

And finally, because it is almost done, my usuall crazy-leftover neckwarmer. This is the fourth (I guess) I've knitted, and still not bored of it. Or I am sometimes, but this is what I have in the car for "Blind Knitting", meaning that late night in dark roads, when I have nothing else, I knit on these. I need to sew the ends up and it is done, will post more detailed pictures. 

 Do you love sockyarns as much as I ? Do you use them for other things than just socks?