50 years ago is history - right?

One can argue about fifty years ago being historical, but it really is - trust me! I'm a historian. No matter how much I would prefer not to think of my childhood and youth as "long ago" and "history" it is.

While that may make me feel a bit uneasy, it is at least a justification for adding my latest project to thei blog. Because it is a costume from a movei that was made in 1973: The cult horror/musical classic "The Wicker Man"

I love the film, but that's not the main rason for making the costume: ever since the late 1980s I have been very fond of hippie clothing, and the last 15 years I have even developed a strong liking for more mainstream 1970s fashion; I guess teaching fashion history makes you appreciate most periods, for their own sake.

So this outfit worn by Britt Ekland as the character Willow, ticked all the boxes for me: hippie-ish, but most of all an example of the folkloristic traits in 1970s fashion, which came as a result of the hippie counterculture.

She is wearing a peasant blouse, a tired skirt made from green, red, blut, and a brownish purple fabric in the same flower print.

Details, showing more of the waistcoat.

When I first stated thikning about making this outfit fie-six years ago I thought that it would be easy to find quilting cotton with the same print in different colourways. It wasn't.

In the end, this spring, I decided to do something about it myself. So I ordered a stamp from the seller Catfluff on Etsy

First I printed the fabric with green textile paint, and then I painted flowers in white, pink and light blue with a paint brush.

This was done on quite a lot of fabric, since the lowest flounce on the skirt is 8 metres X 27 centimetres, and the waistcoat also took some fabric.

The green, red and blue fabric are all thrifted bed sheets, btu for the brown I had to order new cotton broadcloth. And I had to make do with brown, because the original dark, brownish purple was nowehere to be found.

Anyway, I am very happy with how it turned out. These photos are taken (by me) two hours before our annual viewing party of "The Wicker Man".

The Water Elf photos

Hubby took lots of photos, and I am very happy with almost all of them. Since I don't want to bore you I won't post ALL. Just too many ;)

The cloak that I am wearing in some of the photos is my husband's wool cloak that I made over a decade ago. The belt is a piece of trim, that I beaded last week. And the gown is actually a 1930s gown from rayon satin, that I also made, and beaded. I made it with the photoshoot in mind, but I thought that it would be nice to make something that you can use for other purposes too. And this satin just screamed to me that it needed to be a gown with the skirt cut on the bias.

I felt like a very pretty water elf - and with the sword, like the Lady of the Lake.

This is how the gown looks when not used in a fantasy setting:

And in this video, which I haev shown on the blog's facebook page, you can see why I love a bias cut gown - the way the fabric moves is amazing. Also, the gown has no zipper or buttons, the bias makes it elastic enough to get into anyway.

New year's dress à la 1919/1920

Like everyone else I have seen all the posts of: "next year the 1920s starts again" or something similar. And they are all of them illustrated with imgaes of women in dress from ca 1925/26, when the dresses were at their shortest.
And that didn't really sit right with me, so when I decided to make a 1920s outfit for my New years eve with the family I looked at images from 1919 and 1920,even if they were harder to find on the internet. I think that I may be a little more 1921 than 1920, but I was also limited to using fabric that I already had: a remnant of velvet and a second hand table cloth which was made from embroidered tulle.

 

Here you can hopefully see the velvet roses at the hips.

I am very happy with how my hair turned out.

Some of my inspiration images:

For the general shape, with the tunic on top:

Tea dress pattern from Butterick 1919:

A photo of Tyra Eriksson from Vänersborg (which is rather close to my home village) from 1919. From Vänersborg's museum, via the Digitalt museum website.

New Ideas Quarterly from 1918

Vogue fashion plate June 1919

Les modes de la femmes de France 1919

1920s day dress from Butterick, for the waistline and the focus on width over the hips

A lovely evening gown from 1920. The waist is below the natural waist, but not yet at the hips.

French fashion drawings, February 1920:

 

Les modes de la femmes de France, 1920

I really, really wanted to make a robe de style, but unfortunately they are from later in the 1920s. But there will be more opportunities - maybe even to wear a 1920s gown outside the home ;)

Merry Yule!

I prefer the older word, mainly because it's the same in Swedish (Jul) - but whatever you celebrate, I hope that you're having a good celebration.

Those of you who follow this blog on facebook know that I am currently on sick leave from exhaustion, and that my best friend since 40 years id undergoing treatment for cancer in the throat.

So I don't have much energy for sewing, or really anything. But I made a new dress for yule, from some eyelt fabric that I bought at a second hand store. I wanted to keep as much fo the original shape as possible, sinne the eyelet pattern had direction, so it's made from one ractangle as skirt, another one as most of the bodice, shaped with darts, to the waist, and then straps in front and a yoke in back, plus sleeves. it is no particular period, but with this hair it looks very 1940s-early 50s.

I am alos working, very slowly on a 1919-1920 dress for New Years. Maybe it will be finished. I'm usign a remnant of velvet and a piece of embroidered tulle that was a second hand table cloth that I got from my best friend as birthday present. But I need lining fabric, so tomorrow I am braving the hordes down town to get that.

2018 costuming year in review

The traditional summing up of what I have done is this year guided by the instagram hashtag costumingyearinreview.

Yesterday I was very busy so I will have to make two subejcts today. The first is the summing up:

January
The first costume that I made in 2018 was this Italian 15th century gown.

About the same time I finished my daughter Valeria's gown based on the one that Eleonora di Toledo was buried in. Including an embrodiered camicia.

February
In february I remade one of my old gowns for me (though now it is too small instead, so it will be sold) and one of my youngest daughter's gowns for her.

March
In march I went to New York, and I painted chests. No finished costumes apparently.

April
Then there was April, and a very early Double Wars (starting on the 5th of May) meant lots of preparations for that. The first thign was a night cap from wool, lined with linen.

May
The final days of April I started on an insane project: to make a 16th century Saxon court gown in less than five days, from materials in my stash. This is the result.

My Genuese outfit from c. 1330 was also finished in May:

It was already a little tight in the bust then, so I have now pieced it under the arms to make space for my again bigger boobs.

June

In June I made a new spencer to wear when I visited a late 18th century house with my friend Anna.

July

In July I made a late 18th century open robe from printed cotton, and a matching cap and hat.

August
More Regency happened in August. In the beginning of the month I had surgery on my foot and spent a lot of time on a couch. So I hand sewed a cotton gown from the first decade of the 19th century, and a new cap. I also made a cap for Anna, as a birthday present.

September
In September I hand sewed a linen shift with short sleeves and a half linen/half cotton sleeveless over gown, both from 1370s Italy.

I also went to the Abbegg Stiftung for a conference on Early Modern dress.

October
In October I went to Drachenwald's Autumn Crown and to Nürnberg and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum for a study visit.
I made a just-for-fun project in the form of a Landsknecht cheerleader outfit.

And I also started sewing on my 13th century aqueton, a quilted shift.

November
On November the 15th I had my stomach cut open an a titanium net inserted to keep my intestines on the inside of my muscles, not outside. This is a rather big thing and I'm still in recovery. I have however done some knitting, and finished the skirt part of a 16th century German gown (can't make the bodice until my torso is back to some kind of normal).

I also did a lot of hand quilting on my aqueton.

December

I made a pair of 18th century stays for one of my dolls.

And I finished the aqueton! Today!!!

This doesn't mean that the Golden Egg project is finished. I need to write both more detailed blog posts and an article for Dragon's tale (Drachenwald's newsletter) and I have more research to do, this has made me very inspired to make more quilted garments in the future. I also need to wear it to see how well it works as protection against cold, since that is what the original presumably was for. I plan to sleep in it at Double wars, but I need to do some testing outdoors before that. When my surgery has healed more.

Now I have to figure out what was the best acquisition. Not sure if I bought anything though.