Eva's journal

Apparently hats was the theme of the day. First I made a sort of bonnet with a fabric crown.




( Another photo )Then I lined my straw bonnet.

Takign selfies while trying to show off the bonnet is NOT easy.

So, aside from taking in my stays and making a new bonnet (that needs to be lined, so to not snag my hair) I have sewn the skirt of my blue gown together, hemmed it, and started on an embroidery around the hem. The pattern for the embroidery is from the cap of my folk costume, which is dated to the late 18th or early 19th century.




I was lazy this time and just cut the place mat to shape, instead of unraveling the braid and shaping it while sewing.
The blue colour is seen in several late 18th-early 19th century pictures, though then probably made from silk, and not from cotton. Inspiration for embroidering it was gowns like this, with a dark background and colourful embroidery.


Which of course is silk, and has a much more rich and complicated embroidery. But I think my gown will look pretty with its cotton embroidery. The pattern I use is the same as on the cap of my folk costume, which is roughly from this period.

I have also bought material for another bonnet: a braided place mat and a cotton satin sheet that was reduced by 70%. It will be enough to make a summer spencer too.



The other gowns I plan are to made from a saree that hasn't arrived yet, and from this printed thin cotton:



The bonnet with purple cotton satin is of course intended to be worn with that gown.

I also bought these shoes on sale yesterday, and though the metal details aren't to my liking, I think they will do. Especially after I've painted over the brass ;)

 Yesterday my friend Alfhild came by. She had visited another friend who wants to make both regency and Victorian clothes and was really inspired to  to make some too. So we dug out my books, and then I got inspired to show my stuff and ended up openignboxes with costumes which hadn't been touched for years. They are kept under our bed, and unfortunately our cat Mysko had managed to get into one of them and had puked on my 18th century shift, and an antique lace shawl. The shawl was too delicate to wash, so I just gave up and threw it in the trash. The shift will be washed next time we have the laundry room, next week, and hopefully it can be saved. But Mysko was very cheap for anyone wanting to buy him then ;)

Anyway, I dug out clothes and I tried on clothes, and to my great joy my empire corset still works, though it has to be laced wholly shut at the back. The same was the case with my smallers 18th cnetury corset, though it should ideally be taken in at the waist - it's too tight at the top if I lace it shut, and too loose in the waist. I'll see if I'll do somethign about that, I have a partly finished robe à la francaise that I started 14 years ago, which would be fun to finish I guess.



My gown to go with the regency corset will probably be too big, I didn't take the time to try it on.

I do not say that the signs on the wall in the over a hundred years old restaurant Gambrinus in Mitte (former East side) was the best part of the Berlin trip. In fact, that was probably the company, the Ishtar gate in the Pergamon museum and the walks with one of my colleauges, who loves Berlin and know a lot about its history. And the Taiwanese restaurant on Kantstrasse. But they're certainly worth showing.


The restaurant The jaunty femaly cyclist. With international waitresses and the beautiful Else at the bar.

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Ser inte de här jättemycket ut som viktorianska kängor? Jag gör inte viktorianskt, men annars hade jag nog skaffat ett par, trots att de är i konstmaterial. (victorian-esque, reasonably cheap boots)

My latest project:




There will be ruffles - and a matching mini skirt with more ruffles.

I have to remind myself that looking at fashion plates and preserved clothing from the 19th century isn't avoiding doing my work, it is work.
However, I could need some help: does anyone have any good links for images of male fashion from the 19th century?

I just realized that I probably have bought too little fabric for my 1850s dress, so i ordered some more. The stupid thing is that I have made the flounces too short, but not much, so I might have to add another flounce and I really _love_ sewing cording to the flounces. Not. Or at least my wrists doesn't like it.
But seriously, how long should a dress from the 1850s be? We're talking a light summer dress here. And how much extra length must you add to the skirt to accommodate a couple of petticoats and possibly a small hoop skirt (I might cheat with my farthingale and a couple of flounced petticoats)?

The length from my waist to the floor is 90 centimetres (a yard is 91,44 cm) and the skirt is ten centimetres (a little less than 4 inches) longer except in the front where there's a dip.

Maybe I should remove the top flounce I have started on and move it 5 centimetres further down the skirt?

The corset still sucks in a lot of places, but I will probably just make it worse by taking it a part again. At least it gives a good shape and the bad parts are below the waist which is an area I plan to cover with drawers and petticoats anyway. The upper part looks pretty good, and I think ...eh...inviting :) So now I'm going to find something to bind it with and then put some lace along the upper edge.
The good thing is that now that I have long enough laces (took the ones from the now too big 1901 corset) I can put it on myself.
But next corset I'm going to hand sew! If I want the stitching to look good that's the way! I have said it before, but next time I'm going to make the corset from 1844 from Corsets and Crinolines. And yesterday I found an extremely helpful site, where a woman showed step by step how she had made that corset. It's here, but it's in norwegian.

I tried on the corset again today and it turned not to be a total disaster after all. It fit my friend Anna better, which was only to be expected since she has more rounded hips and a smaller and more normally shaped ribcage than I have. It looks like if I just fix some small things and finish the cording, bind the edges etc. it may do. I still want to make another corset, or more actually two, but it can wait. I'm thinking of the corset from 1844 and the short french corset from c. 1860 in Nora Waugh's Corsets and crinolines. the first of those will be made first, because I have come to realize that my favourite parts of the Victorian era is the 30s and 40s, but I like the 50s too. The overall shape is rounded and very feminine. Now I just wonder how to make the sort of lacy caps you sometimes see in paintings from c. 1850, which seems to be made of a piece of lace with a flounce of broad lace and ribbon bows at the ears. Since you almost never see the back of the head it's hard to make out how they're made. There are probably lots of them in museums but that won't help me now.