HSF Challenge 25: One Metre

Argh, where did the time go? That's what happens when you always start two new projects while still working on the first... Anyways, while technically a day late, I finished my shift pretty close to on time despite my sewing ADD. Look here:

This is me without a dress form or a self-timer.

I didn't use a pattern but rather just cut out a couple of large rectangles for the body, smaller rectangles for the sleeves, two squares for the underarm gussets (I made them 15 * 15cm, that worked pretty well) and two triangles for the hip gores/godets/gussets - you know what I mean.
In my last post (about the shift) I showed you the sleeves and my beautifull flatfelled seams - turns out, if you flatfell your sleeves and forget to double-check which side is right and which is left, you end up putting in a sleeve inside out. Not sure if I'm gonna fix that, though, because as I said, you can hardly tell it's the wrong side, plus it would be a lot of work for a piece of underwear that's not even supposed to be seen. So the armholes are the only seams that aren't finished while everything else is flatfelled. I did the shoulder seams last (for no particular reason), so here's the only other time I stopped to take a picture:

Calculating, drawing and cutting the neckline. I bound it with bias-tape which doubles as a casing for the drawstring, which is some Dollarstore Polyester-ribbon I had lying around. All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my first entirely handsewn (!) garment:

Just the facts:
The Challenge: One Metre
Fabric: 1m of white cotton
Pattern: squares, rectangles and triangles
Year: 1800 +/- 10 years
Notions: white bias tape and white poly-ribbon from stash, white cotton thread also from stash
How historically accurate is it? Completely handsewn, but wrong fabric for the era (I think linen would be accurate) and the poly-ribbon... so let's say 50%. Then again, it's underwear, so as long as my hypothetical time-travelling self doesn't get undressed in public, I should be fine.
Hours to complete: at least 3 movies and 8-10 Futurama episodes, so that makes... about eight hours over two weeks
First worn: half an hour ago for the bad cell phone pictures
Total cost: I think it was about 5€ for the fabric, everything else was from stash.

A Little Handiwork

This week I took some knitting and handsewing with me, and while I made some progress, I probably could have gotten a lot farther if I hadn't brought my new guitar with me as well. As it is, I played until my fingers hurt and then didn't feel much like sewing anymore, so here's the little I have done:

I used graph paper to figure out if this would fit for the "One Meter" challenge of the HSF, and it did! While it doesn't look like it in the drawing, my fabric was actually 10 cm wider than the 140cm I had calculated with, so I had enough left over to cut underarm gussets without touching the two long rectangles in the upper right corner that are now meant for hip gussets (gores...? You know what I mean, and if not, it will all make sense in time :) )



In any case, that means that I have to have this done by the deadline sometime in december,
 which should be doable since the stuff I did so far went together pretty quickly. 

 I made a sleeve! And it only took me a couple of hours! Even though I made flat-felled-seams, can you tell?! This is the first time I have successfully sewn flat-felled-seams, I'm so proud of myself :) Still gotta hem it, make the other one, make the body, attach the sleeves etc, but so far it's a good start :)

And in case you were wondering, how the hell buttoned legwarmers were supposed, wonder no more:

One down, one more to go. I really love the colours :)
You'll hear from me next week, until then :)

Some more Regency

Let's start with the sleeves. I meant for them to be in last weeks photoshoot, but they didn't go with the dress, so I meant to take some pictures of the finished sleeves on me, which didn't happen either because I have a cold and couldn't be bothered. Sorry. So, instead, you're getting pictures from when I worked on them.

Working on the sleeves

You can see where I reduced by four
stitches at the ellbow

I knitted in rounds with yarn my mother bought a couple of years ago to make toques for my brothers, no idea why she bought so much of it.











Anyway, just the facts, ma'am:

The Challenge: #20, outerwear

Fabric: 2 balls of white yarn, I think it says polyacryl, but it feels nice and seems to be pretty warm

Pattern: none, just counting. Knitted in continuous rows

Year:  ~1800

Notions: thinking about weaving some coloured ribbon through at both ends to tie some pretty bows, the colour would depend on the dress though, so I haven't put any in yet.

How historically accurate is it? Uh... although knitted sleeves did exist, they would have been done in much finer yarn with much smaller needles. Maybe as a gift by a little girl learning to knit to her older sister?

Hours to complete: Done while watching TV or DVD's, so maybe 3-4 hours per sleeve? I really should start counting these...

First worn: not yet

Total cost: Free :D

And actually on me! The top

And the bottom

First Photoshoot

In my very first post, I talked about my very first selfmade dress, the yellow Regency dress. I drafted the pattern (not on my dressform, because it sucks, but I'll tell you about that later), figured out the closure and sewed the whole thing up; I even embroidered the bib front - only to realize that the bib was too small, there was no way to close that dress over my chest and wear it modestly, even if I had a shift and stays to go with it. So I had a dress I put a lot of work in and the only way to wear it would be for me to cut off the prettiest part that had also been the most time-consuming. Needless to say, I was very reluctant to do that and put it off, resulting in the dress sitting in a box in my closet for about a year.

At least it looks pretty on a hanger...

I recenty decided that that's just no way to treat your first big project and asked a friend of mine to come over and model it. Enter the Muse:

She made time in her busy schedule to help me show off my dress :)

I put her into the dress (yay, it fits :) ) and did her hair, which took a lot of curling and pinning and probably took longer than the actual photoshoot ;) 

Then she got her accessories: an old necklace of my mother's that i pinned into her hair (I thought it just looked nice...), a cashmere scarf (also from my mother) and an antique fan made of ostrich feathers that belongs to - suprise - my mother as well (my aunt owns an antique-store, so my mother gets some very interesting birthday gifts from time to time). I also meant for her to wear the finished knitted sleeves, but they didn't go well with the dress, so I guess I'll have to take some "modern clothes" pictures of them. The shoes are the Muse's. We simply went into the garden to take some pictures, and I think it went pretty good, even though the Muse kept losing her scarf. (I find it amazing how the girl with two brothers loves to play dress-up so much that she modeled her skill-set around it while the girl with a sister needs to be taught how to sit down with a long skirt and a scarf without almost destroying her outfit ;) )

Anyway, I had fun, the Muse had fun (at least I hope so) and here are some pictures:

Picking Blackberries

Admiring the Plants

Drinking tea

Is that a blackbird?

I think this one is my favourite, though:

This and the first one. She's just the prettiest when she laughs, don't you think?

There's gonna be more Regency on this blog soon: in my next post I'll show you pictures of my finished sleeves plus the progress on my Regency stays. Remember those?

Buchlinge

Short post, so you guys know I'm still alive. I finished my corset and will put up some pictures soon, although I'm not completely happy with it and consider changing some things. Other than that, there hasn't been a lot of sewing possible the last few weeks since the room (and cupboard) I keep my sewing things in have been occupied due to my parents' remodeling our kitchen. So I turned to knitting - a scarf for my mother, possibly as a Christmas gift - so shhh! :)

Gotta love the colour.

This is the pattern I used.
Because I (obviously) can't work on the scarf when my mother is in the room, I started another knitting project for when we're watching TV together: knitted sleeves. The dreamstress made a blogpost about her regency sleeve mitts, and, unlike her, I knit, so I figured this would be a nice and easy project. It won't be historically accurate at all, and I'm using rather thick wool, but this way I a) don't lose patience halfway through and b) can even wear them with my modern day clothes this winter (or at least I hope so). So far, I've got about half a sleeve, so I haven't taken any pictures yet.
Things I did take pictures of: Buchlinge! For the absolutely confused among you: Buchlinge (booklings) are characters from a novel by one of my favourite authors, Walter Moers. I started reading his books after a friend's recommendation, and since then, usually got that friend something Moers-related for his birthday. There haven't been any new books recently, so what to get him? I was getting kind of desperate since his birthday is this weekend, but then I got the idea: make him a couple of booklings! Freehand-amigurmi worked pretty good for the tiny minion, so why not for a bookling? The shape is pretty basic, but recognizable, so today I sat down with some blue and purple yarn and tried it. Lo and behold, the booklings:

I made the purple one second, so it's neater, but as the book says they come in all shapes and sizes, I don't sweat the difference. That's actually a tiny book they're holding, made out of cut up paper, cardboard, fabric and lots of glue - but if you want my advice, refrain from tiny bookmaking without having the proper tools, I ruined a needle while sewing the pages together ;)
I'm pretty proud of them, I hope he'll like them (and if not, I'm gonna keep them for myself! :) ).
Since our kitchen is now almost done, I think I can take hold of my sewing room again soon and will get some things done. So many ideas!

Procrastination for the win!

What does the good student do when she's supposed to study for her exams? Why, she sews, of course! Or prepares for sewing, anyway. I mentioned earlier that I couldn't remake my regency dress until I had some proper undergarments, which I intended to drape like American Duchess. But then I read this amazing blogpost by Kleidung um 1800, in which she also provides several patterns for free (go check it out if you haven't clicked that link yet, all her posts are amazingly detailed!). She even asks people to try out her method to see if it works for everybody. I got giddy to try it, and finally had some time (and materials) to try it. I scaled the pattern tonight, and who knows, if I manage my time just right, I might even get some sewing done this weekend. Wish me luck! :)

Scaling... drawing squares can get pretty boring ;)

The scaled pattern. Who knew that math could
be so usefull while sewing...

The finished pattern. I just can't wait to try it in fabric!

Reasons for writing this blog

I am a big fan of all kinds of costuming. Where I come from, carnival is celebrated for weeks and every weekend there's a ball at a different village where people dress up, get drunk and dance to (mostly) terrible music. "Historical" costuming for me started out when I tried to recreate a dress from a Victoria Francés Poster for carnival - it needed a corset, but all buyable corsets were waaay to expensive for a mere costume, so I started researching ways to make my own. The costume ended up looking terrible (by my standarts today), still I wore it: it was the first costume I had ever sewn on my own. Atfer that , I kept sewing as one of my hobbies. I did it very scarcely and hardly ever any big projects, but i kept learning. A couple of years later, after watching (and reading) a LOT of Jane Austen, I decided I wanted to make a Regency dress. Having gotten better at Internet research, I stumbled upon my first costuming blog (the hungarican chick). With the help of that post and a modern, high-waisted shirt, I drafted the pattern for my very first Regency dress (I'm way too cheap to buy commercial patterns, also I seem to be unable to use them to my satisfaction). I really like the result, although I can't wear it (at the moment) because I made the bib too small to actually cover my chest. I'm planning to take it off, cut and sew a bigger one and attach that to the dress, but only after i've made proper undergarments, so that hast to wait.

The very much too small bib-front of my dress

 Of course, there are other things I would do differently if i made another Regency dress (I only read about the diamond back after I finished the dress), but still I think it's a good start.
Another year or so later, a friend invited me to visit her hometown in july, because there's a huge renaissance festival going on, with the whole towncenter dedicated to the festival and almost all the townspeople dressed up, so I decided I finally needed a dress for that period.

This time, I did some actual and extensive research: what year was the event the town is celebrating? (1530's). What was the appropriate dressstyle for that era, and where can I find some period pictures of what I want to wear? (I ended up looking at paintings by Breughel, sometimes called "Bauern-Breughel", meaning "peasant-Breughel" because he painted the simple people's life). Sadly, those paintings couldn't show me what I was looking for, but I found another great website: Elizabethan Costume. They have tons of infos and also a lot of Tutorials, which I ended up using for the construction of my Green Gathered Kirtle:

The GGK

This is the first costume I made that is actually wearable and that I am really proud of. Even though I had to rush the sewing (I only have a sewing machine available on weekends, when I'm at my parent's) it turned out perfectly and the way I imagined it. I can't wait to finally wear it in july.

In all these years ( I started sewing sometime in 2009), the internet has been a great help for me. I'm mostly self taught, so when I encounter difficulties my first step is always to go to the internet and look for someone who's already done what I'm trying to do and has recorded the steps it took them to do it. Since I now feel I am at a level where I can actually share knowledge instead of just consuming it, I am starting this blog for other people like me who might be trying to do things I've already done.

Besides that, this blog is also meant to share my successes and failures with you, (hopefully) get and give helpfull tips and - and this would be the icing on the cake - to meet other costumers/sewers/crafters in my area, since I hardly ever have opportunity to actually wear my costumes (carnival focuses more on the silliness and, lately and regrettably, sluttiness of costumes than on their historical accuracy/prettiness).

All that said, on with the sewing!