Documentation for my c 1790 gown

 It took over a year, but I have now made a page for my striped 18th century gown. It is here:

Variations of the 1780s

 After making my 18780s outift I realised that I wanted to trim the robe along the sides, and that I, if I did some piecing, had enough fabric to make a matching petticoat.

As you can see it is worn wit a yellow grosgrain ribbon as belt. The ribbon is also vintage and thrifetd, like most of this outfit.

I also took some photos with my white broderie anglaise petticoat, and the blue stomacher.

I didn't have the time/energy/inclination, to do my hair properly for these photos - but there will be other times. Now I am going to make the alterations that I need to do to make it easier to get it to fit right.

A 1780s outfit

 My sister had decided to celebrate her 45th birthday with an 18th century party. And of course I ws going to go. (Her husband's birthday was celebrated with a 19th century dinner in 2023, you can see my 1830s outfit here)

I got rid of my old 18th century stays, made after Nora Waugh's interpretation of the Diderot drawings from the Encyclopédie, when I lost all that weight six years ago. Which probably was a bad idea, since I gained it all back again. (Link to a good blog post about Diderot's and Nora Waugh's stays) 

But in any case I wanted a slightly later type of stays, and decided to do something that I have never done before: not only buy, but actually USE a commercial pattern. I have bought patterns before, but never actually used them ;)

I had heard lots of nice things about Scroop Patterns, and their Augusta stays , and also seen a lot of people making them on Instagram, so I ordered them. This was another first for me too: This is the first pdf-pattern that I have used  (mostly because I normally make my own patterns)

And I am so happy with the pattern. I have a weird body: narrow straight shoulders, large boobs, a very wide rib cage that angles out at a 45 degree from under my boobs in front (the combined effect of arthritis and pregnancies), a very non squishable waist thanks to a titanium net covering all of my stomach after a hernia, a long torso and high hips. But the stays fit me without alteration, I think thanks to the clever placing of the boning. To make them more comfortable I chose not to lengthen them, but becauase of that long torso they still look proportional.

Stays, all hand sewn. Because I am insane, and because I was influenced by Myra Lea (link to her Instagram) while having lunch in Stockholm in October.

I am also wearing Scroop Patterns free pattern for a false rump here, and a petticoat that I made from a decorative bedsheet with a wide broderie anglaise flounce that I found at a charity shop.

Actually, everything in this costume except the silk, which was a left over from another project, the pink ribbon, the boning, the fabric for the blue pettitcoat and stomacher, the yellow ribbon and the plumes is bought from charity shops. 

The shift is a linen bedsheet, the inner fabric of the stays in hand woven linen fabric, probably intended for towels, and the gown is a rayon satin that probably was made for furniture.

The fabric for the blue petticoat is deadstock fabric from Gårda Textil, a local fabric shop which has a lot of both vintage fabric from their own history, and more newly aquired deadstock fabric. I cannot guess when it is from, it could be any time between the 50s and the 90s.

The trim around the sleeves and neck is probably from the 1940s, and I bought it at a charity shop over twenty years, intending to use it for an 18th century gown. Sometimes things just take time.

The cap was made for my very first 18th century costume in 2007. But it wasn't properly starched and mounted, just gathered with a ribbon. Now it is very much starched, it feels like paper, and luckily survived being carried on public transport a slightly rainy evening.

2007:

2024:

This is the frist time I have tried 18th century style make up, and made a try to powder my hair. I am very much fond of it.  Not having any eyeshadow or mascara seems strange a tfirst, but I think that it looks pretty.

I didn't really have the time and energy to make false hair pieces or get a wig and style it, so I just curled my hair and then back combed it a lot.

I haven't done any serious backcombing since the 1980s, and it was much easier then, with a layered hair cut. My hair is too long all over but the cap hides the not so good looking back of the head where I mostly pinned hair in place.

Then I added powder, both normal powder and some rice flour, because I didn't have enough powder at home. As a first attempt I think it looks good enough.

And it lasted through five hours of dinner party, the cap photos above are taken when I was leaving.

And this is from the tram on my way home. Still raining a little.

Update on the folk costume page

 The page about my folk costume has now been updated with info about, and photos of, the new bodice, and some new photos of the older pieces.

Finished folk costume bodice

 The new folk costume bodice is finished.

Like my other folk costume bodices it is made from a hand woven half wool (cotton warp, ought to be linen, but you can't get that these days)

In the second photo I have pulled up the kerchief to show the embroidery at the back.

Making a new folk costume bodice

 Unfortunately both bodices that I made for my folk costume have shrunk in the closet ;)

This summer I inserted panels at the side of my newest bodice, to be able to wear it for midsummer. But since most of my weight is gained in front this isn't optimal. But it was wearable

I am also wearing a new silk kerchief, and a new reproduction cotton print apron. Both these were found at charity shops. I have also made a new linsey wolsey skirt in green, which is  avery popular colour in theprobate inventories from this time and place that I have been working on the last two years.

Anyway, while I can wear the dark blue bodice there is no way I can fit into my old checked one. And I like the checked ones better.

The original for my old checked bodice, called "Viste"

Since the fabric for both bodices and skirta have to be hand woven, and I don't weave, I am lucky that there is some of the  fabric for the other variant of the checked bodice than the one that I already have available.

This one I can buy fabric for, it is the bodice variant called "Åse"

When I did my first bodice I mainly enlarged the original. Now I have both changed shape and become better at pattern making, so for the new one I will adapt it more to my large bust. The other one worked, and looked good, but since my weight gain isn't symmetrical it will look better if I add more in the front.

So after my first preliminary mock-up from a sturdy polycotton twill. Then I also made a wearable mock-up, intended to be worn as an example of popular dress in the period, if not part of the actual costume. For this I used a hand woven half linen, and a piece of rust coloured wool twill, both thrifted.

I sewed most of it on machine, though none is visible on either outside or inside now that it is finished. 

There are some smaller things that I will change when I make the real thing, but I am happy enough to use it as a pattern for the new bodice. 

The "real" one will be made from much stiffer fabric, and have more boning - the embroiderycontaisn boning channels.

The Viste bodice was lined with unbleached linen, but the Åse one is lined with a striped fabric. I am not going to look around for hand woven linen for this, but will use a thrifted striped cotton.

To make the birght colours a little duller I soaked the cotton fabric over night in strong tea. Not as dark as the original, which had black as groudn colour, but good enough for me.

I have cut out the lining now, so that I can place the pieces on the hand wocen fabric on Wednesday when I go to Nossebro and will be able to buy tthe fabric.

Visiting a mid-18th century ship in mid-18thcentury clothing

Last week hubby and I visited Götheborg of Sweden, the world's only replica of an 18th century Ostindia ship. It was built 20 years ago, as a copy of a ship that sank outside Gothenburg in 1745. 

I had for some reason never been to see the ship, and I thought that it would be nice to dress up for it. So I hand sewed a mid-18th century working class outfit. You can read all about it, and get patterns for the cap, on its page.

Here are some photos.

Folk dress of the late 18th century

 While working on a lecture about my folk costume and the studies I have done of rural manners of dress in that area i realized that I never posted photos of my green frieze (vadmal) skirt and jacket that I made about a year ago. The fabric is from Korps. Jackets and skirts made from green frieze is very common in the probate inventories from the time and period that I have been studying. It is a very strong green, but it is close to preserved frieze skirts from another part of Västergötland, and it was as close as I could get.

I made the pattern based on several preserved alte 18th century folk jackets, and the skirt is made the same way as my red folk costume skirt. All hand sewn of course. 

The jacket is closed with lacing in the lining, and then pinned shut.

The jacket is worn instead of the sleeveless bodice in colder weather. The apron is striped cotton, a thrifted curtain, the head scarf is also thrifted, but the neckerchief is bought from Folkdansringen Göteborg.

Summing up 2021

 At first I thought that I hadn't done much in 2021. Except for hiking, biking, ice skating, swimming, and slowly getting back to working.

But apparently I did quite a lot of stuff, and unusually much for other people.

Last year's summing up was thematic, but this year I will do it by month instead.

January
In January I started on my biggest costuming project this year: what ended up to be not only one, but two Spanish 12th century outfits. Or one and a half. I spent much of the time embroidering on the sleeves on my shift.

The first part to be made was the surcoat, which is called pellote. All hand sewn, from silk and lined with wool.

February
The embroidered 13th century Spanish shift, which I made slightly supportive by quilting to layers of linen together in over the bust area, and making it tight was finished in February. And it turned out that I shouldn't have bothered: the saya keeps everything in place just fine.

I also made an everyday dress from Indian cotton. It took some clever pieceing to use the borders.

This dress was part of an obsession with making modern wear inspired by c. 1900 reform dress. This obsession continued into March, where I made three reform inspired dresses for everyday wear.

The coldspell in February put a little bit of fire under me, so I also made an early 17th century doublet, and and attempt at 17th century Dutch headwear, to take some photos of me ice skating. 

More about that here- with a video!

March

The obsession with reform dresses for modern wear continued.

Here I am actually two of the dresses at the same time. A pink cotton dress with painted flowers on under a blue dress in cotton batik from Bali. I lived in that blue dress much of the year.

The pink dress on its own, I mostly wore it with the tie belt.

The third dress is also from cotton, with a lovely flower trim that I bought in a charity shop. There is also vintage two-coloured cotton fringe at the bottom, from Göteborgs Remfabrik. In the top photo I am wearing a grey jersey top with a slight puff sleeve, that I also made. The belt is borrowed from a coat, since I hadn't made a belt yet.

With a blouse from H&M and a tie belt.

I also made a new regency petticoat in March, since I felt that I couldn't use the same petticoat that I made in 2006 to all my dresses. This one is in silk, so a little bit more fancy.

And I made a new, totally insane dress from c. 1815 (more here). 

It still lacked the insane hat, from the fashion plate that was my inspiration, but it will come further down in this post.

April
I made a red blouse to wear under the blue reform dress. Here yopu also can see the blet that I made for it with the same trim as on the dress.

But mostly I was busy with work training, and as much hiking and swimming as was possible ;)

May

In the beginning of May I made my first 15th century Italian dress for a couple of years. It was also the first time I did hair taping for many years. It is hand sewn from hand wocen cotton and cotton/linen mix ( the sleeves). The bodice has a lining of tightly woven linen to make it more supportive.

I also made a reversible sleeveless spencer and a turban to wear with my Regency ballgown that I made in December 2020. (Page about the whole thing here)

The other side of the spencer got its first outing when hubby and I went to a cabin in the woods, and took some fairy inspired photos - you can see them here.

June

In June I finished the first of my 13th century Spanish saya encordatas. It is hand sewn from striped wool. And I made the rather special headwear.

I also made a dress for midsummer. It's a lovely, thin Ajrak cotton from India.

July

I went on a biking holiday. And made new shorts for this, from an African print that I bought when I visited a flea market at an allotment garden.

I made a hand sewn medieval linen shirt for my husband from linen sheets (modern, hardly used) that I found at a charity shop.

I also finally acquired fabric for the everyday apron, and and another bodice for my folk costume, more on that later.

August

By August my 13th century Spanish clothes were all finished.

These outfits have quite a lot of documentation, and detail images on their own page.

While I didn't blog about it until September I made a new white muslin dress, and a petticoat which only has straps insted of a bodice in August.
I also made a canezou  (a sort of over blouse)  from old linen curtains that were a gift from a neighbour, and a cap from some kind of weird broderie anglaise pieces that I found at a charity shop, plus remnants of an old dress.

Photos with various accessories: the canezon, my sleeveless spencer from May, and another velvet bodice from last year.

In August I also made modern garments:

A skirt for me from green cotton, and I painted a border with flowers and grasses along the hem.

I made a skirt for my best friend, because this piece of batik fabric that I found at a charity shop just screamed her name.

My mother's partner, who flies a lot and has his own small plane turned 75, so I made him a shirt.

And I made the everyday apron for my folk costume, and also gave the web page for it a much needed overhaul.

September

September was apparently a month dedicated to two things: empire, and my folk costume.

I finished the insane hat for my checked dress from c. 1815, and took photos, but I apperently haven't posted them, or updated the webpage.

 

I also made a 1790s round gown. Bad photo showing the whole thing:

Photo and video when I have actually put on some more appropriate things to wear with it.

In the folk costume field I made the new bodice, and two new aprons, and also embroidered a piece of tulle that is part of the headwear, and which I have had the material for for 20 years, but never got around to making. I thought that it was going to be more difficult than it was.

Again, much more info and images here.

I also started on 16th century (and viking) clothing for my friend Måns and his son Vidar.

October

In late October I went to the Netherlands for Drachenwald's Crown Tourney (SCA stuff). I have some photos here, including of my outifts, which weren't new, but I looked pretty.

I made matching waffenrocks for Måns and Vidar, plus a shirt, and a viking wrap coat for Vidar. Unfortunately I have no photo of the viking coat. You can see the waffenrocks if you follow the link to the photos from the Crown Tourney. Here is a photo of Vidar's waffenrock.

I also made a spencer from pinted cotton.

Finally I took some new fantasy photos that I am very proud of, even if the only new thing really is the black belt with silver paint on.

 

November

November meant lots of inspiration for SCA things, and mostly sewing for other people. I made another shirt and two braies for Visar, and a shirt and a pair of braies for Måns.

I then realised that I also needed new underwear, so another shift was hand sewn from the same thrifted linen bed sheets that I made Rickard's shirt from in the summer.

Wearing 12th century to Autumn Crown also made me realize waht I wanted to make from a piece of really thin turqouise silk that I had: A 12th century undergown.

The wool belt is from Svetlonoska Weaving.

I also made no less than four red caps. You see, when you travel almost four days together in a car to and from an event with the same people you are bound to become very silly. So durign the trip my travel companions and I founded the informal household Haus Rotkäppchen (Red Riding Hood), named after the cheap, but good Germna bubbly of that name. And of course everyone needs to have a red hat when drinking.

So I made viking caps for Erich and Elisabet, and a bycocket for Daniel.

For myself I knitted a small cap, based on Italian 14th century art. 

I have made a pattern fopr it, which will be posted here in February.

My friend Johanna liked my cap so much that I knitted one for her too.

I also made a modern apron dress.

December

December means making the annual christmas themed photoshoot - and clothing.

The cape and skirt are made from an old 14th century wool gown that I made in 1998, and which doesn't fit me anymore.

I also made a christmas apron from a thrifted curtain, and a wool skirt for my folk costume and a modern apron dress. And knit a new scarf from thrifted yarn.

 

And finally: I made a very ...erhmm... useful headpiece from a plastic diadem, cable ties, spray paint, glue, star foam stickers and insane amounts of glitter.