My directoire muslin gown is finished

And I managed to fix my hair and get dressed in 15 minutes, just to have some photos taken before rushing off to discuss tomorrow's big anti-nazi demo with some friends. Then it took three hours to crop the photos, try to get the colours rigth and find lots of documentation for the ribbons, the trim and the stuff I want to make next to wear with it.
All of that can be found here.

1790s progress

I've gotten enthusiastic about the embroidery on Valeria's camicia sleeves, so I haven't worked much on my white muslin dress. Add to that a really bad flare in my arthritis on Monday (fever, puking from pain etc), which fortunately has gotten better with the help of prednisolone and not much has happened with my white cotton muslin dress.

Yesterday hiwver, I attached the skirt by had while listening to an audio book and today I tried it on.

Ignore the shift, I just threw the nearest linen shift on and the neckline is both to high and too narrow.

And I will use a longer ribbon. And have sleeves, obviously. I have made those tonight, but not attached them yet. I tried it with the velvet spencer too, I think I will mostly wear it with something over it, my immediate plan is an oper robe from printed cotton.

But first sleeves.

Green Italian ca 1480-1500 over gown

As I have mentioned before my rose pink Italian 15th century gown was really made just so that I coul have something to wear under historically inspired gown I made for my wedding; to make the outfit hsitorical and not just Pre-Raphaelite fantasy. Like the undergown it was of course too big now, so I had to take it in, and this is the result - som quick photos taken indoors.

This is how it looked when I wore it last time, before re-making, in 2012.

And at the wedding in 2003:

Today this arrived:

Costume, with my latest article! *bounce* bounce*

I also got a hat in the mail

It will probably be remade heavily.

Some more photos of our directoire/empire costumes

Alfhild in front of the front gardens and entrance to the house.

Me by the secondary entrance and with the main gardens behind me.

A selfie of me and Anna

The Empire picnic

Today I and some friends and new acquaintances had a picnic in our gowns from c 1800-1815, at a lovely summer villa outside Gothenburg, built in 1796: Gunnebo House.

First Anna, Sigrid and I went on the guided tour and then Gunilla, Alfhild, Vigdis and Ingela joined for the picnic.

Anna had worked hard the whole week, and stayed up sewing until five o'clock on Saturday morning, but her silk gown was finished in time, and very pretty. 

The bonnet/jockey cap was my birthday present to her, made from silk habotai.

Me, posing in my embroidered cotton gown, and a new silk bonnet that I made on Thursday and yesterday, and a velvet spencer also made this week.

The rest of the gang

From the left: Ingela, Vigdis, Alfhild, Gunilla, Anna, and me.

After the picnic Anna and I walked a couple of kilometres (in our stays, gowns and bonnets and everything) through the woods to a lake to take a swim.

The hair pins removed.

We also picked a few mushrooms.

Checked gowns 1800-1815

I love checks. Especially tartans - in fact my -not-so-secret superpower is to spot tartan clothes and fabrics through other solid objects. But other checks are fine too.

So, as much as a help for myself as for others I decided to post my favourite fashion plates showing checked gowns from the period 1800-1815.

Costume Parisiens 1799-1800 (an 8)

The Italian fashion journal Corriere delle Dame 1808

Madras dress, Costume Parisien 1800-1801 (an 9)

From Journal Fur Fabrik Manufaktur, Handlung und mode, 1801.

put up by Europeana

English Afternoon dress 1801

English Morning dresses June 1802

Costume Parisien 1808

 Costume Parisien 1812

Costume Parisien 1814

Costume Parisien 1815

I am extremely grateful to the Flickr-account "Scene in the Past", which provides so many fashion plates from this period.

La Belle Assemblé: "Sea side bathing dress" from 1815. This dress was not used for actual bathing (the hat sghould be a giveaway), where people appear to have bathed in the nude, in shifts or in special bathing costumes made up of tunics and wide trousers.

from Regency World.

Not a gown, but who can resist a checked spencer? Costume Parisien 1811