HSF '14 Kickoff challenge!

In December 2012, New Zealand based Leimomi Oakes from The Dreamstress came up with an idea that had quite a massive impact on the internet-microcosmos of costume bloggers. She called it "The Historical Sew Fortnightly", and it consisted of 26 challenges that were due every two weeks throughout the whole year. For each challenge, Leimomi thought of a topic (e.g. "Under it all", "Stripes" or "Literature"), and the challengers made something related to that topic. What they made was completely up to them, as long as it was an item of historical clothing or accessoires and fitted the topic.
In 2013, over 80 (!) costume bloggers officially participated in the HSF, which is quite an impressive number.

I didn't participate myself because 2013 was a very demanding year related to my studies, but I loved to read the many interesting blogposts and to see what ideas people had and how they implemented them.
However, this year I'd like to join the fun and do at least a few challenges! I already have ideas for many of them, and hope that I will find the time to finish at least five.

 Apparently I'm off to a good start as I already managed to complete the first challenge, "Make Do & Mend", and I'm even on time!

#1: Make Do & Mend – due Wed 15 Jan. Let’s start of the year with a clean slate, and with a bit of a tidy up.  Use this challenge as an opportunity to get your historical wardrobe in order by fixing any little bits that have worn out and gone wrong.  Alternatively, you could focus on the historical precedent of making-do by re-making something into a historical garments, whether it be a bodice from a worn-out skirt, a chemise from old sheets, a bosom-friend from an old cardigan, or a new historical hat from an old modern one etc.  Finally, you could just those people who had to make-do by making something for a historical character who would have scrimped and saved and re-made and mended until the fabric entirely fell apart.

I had this chemisette I made about 1,5 years ago. I've never worn it before, and I also wasn't satisfied with it anymore because I used the machine on all seams. Now this is a thing I don't condemn in general (to each his own), but my own standards have risen recently. I will still use the machine for long invisible inside seams but I don't want to have any visible machine seams on historical clothing anymore. Moreover, the seams on this chemisette looked particularly messy, as I was in a hurry when I made it (and then didn't even wear it!)

Anyway, I unstitched the whole thing and restitched it by hand. There are pictures:

Ugly machine stitching. There are also yellow marks of the tracing paper still visible....

Ugly machine stitching partly undone, partly still there. Unfortunately it left rather visible holes, but I hope they will vanish with time.

front view

back view

Front detail. As you can see, I used a whipstitch to attach the collar and the ruffle, and an ordinary running stitch for the front edges.

Shoulder detail

Yes, this is a blood stain! That's the price you pay for handstitching. ;)

The Challenge: #1: Make Do & Mend
 
Fabric: white cotton lawn

Pattern: Janet Arnold "Patterns of Fashion 1"

Year: According to JA, c.1800-1825

Notions: thread, cotton string

How historically accurate is it? I think now it is rather accurate. It loses points because there's still machine stitching in the shoulder seams, the holes of the previous stitching are still visible in part, and I have no idea if I used the correct stitches. I'll give it 80 %.

Hours to complete: the unstitching and restitching took me around 4 hours (those machine seams are not easy to get rid of)

First worn: to visit the enchanting christmas market at Schloss Hof (yes, this was a few days before Christmas, but I'm still within the one-month-term)

Total cost: I salvaged the string from a parcel so it was free, and the fabric came from stash. It probably didn't cost me more then 3€ altogether.

Robe de Style - onwards!

There has been progress with the Robe de Style! May I present, the Mighty Muslin:

Compared with my model: 

Hm. I wonder if I should take it in even more at the waist, or if the more defined waist of the model is the effect of the undergarment. I guess I'll try both (I still haven't decided if I want small hoops to go under it or just tulle fluff.)

I'll also have to alter the shoulders and the curve of the skirt edge, and the neckline should be lower, but at least I generally like where the skirt is sitting. 

Lanvin Robe de style - A bit of Research

Sorry for the recent radio silence! My last weeks were completely dominated by studying for a very hard exam, in fact the hardest one you have to pass when studying pharmacy in Vienna. And I did pass, at first try!! This is a huge milestone in my student career, and while I still have several exams to master before I finish, everything from now on will be easier as this. Yay! :)

Anyway. A few weeks before the exam (when I wrote the last blog post), I still thought I could go to the 3rd Boheme Sauvage (a 20s event) which was taking place 3 days before the exam. I really should have known better by now.
I ALWAYS need every second of the last days before a big exam for crazy studying, to feel reasonably prepared, and, more important, to keep my nerves under control. So, no Boheme Sauvage for me this time.
Thus, there's also no finished Robe de style or even good pictures of my sparkly 30s ballgown to show you.

I'm already studying for the next exam, but this one is not nearly as much of a problem as the last one, so I did have some time to do some necessary research on my RDS plans.

I'll just leave out the paragraph about what makes a RDS special, there are already more than enough blogposts about this out there. You can also read about the basics in the RDS wikipedia article.

I chose this Lanvin dress from the collection of the MET as main inspiration for my RDS.

By now I have a working muslin of the upper part, but the skirt turned out to be a bit of a problem. I'm still not entirely sure where it should sit. I started out with the typical 20s dropped waist, which was waaaaaay too low and just looked silly and wrong. Right now it's about the height where low rise jeans would sit. I think I'll try attaching the skirt even higher, roughly at the height of the upper edge of my hipbone, and then decide which looks best. I promise, my next post will at least contain pictures of the muslin.

Next question: what's under this skirt?
RDSs were often supported by panniers or pocket hoops, much like 18th century dresses.

The MET provides us with this:

MET link

  I don't know what's going on here. Okay, there are lots of (probably) silk organza ruffles, but what are the white thingies on the left and the right side? The left one looks like the upper part of attached pocked hoops, but what's with the right one? I'm quite sure there should be a firmer support than just organza ruffles to achieve the typical bell like shape of a RDS.

Interestingly, it seems the MET owns two black versions of this dress, the one above with the smaller skirt and one with pocket hoops:

MET link

I was confused at first, because from afar they look exactly the same (apart from the skirt shape and visible part of the slip at the neckline), but using the zoom function you can clearly see differences at the shoulders and in the beading. Also the front skirt of the second dress isn't as heavily gathered as in the first one.

There are even more extant versions of this dress:

In midnight blue from the Kent State University Museum

And a lovely dusky pink one! This one was apparently sold by Christies. 

All of them apart from the first one seem to achieve their shape with pocket hoops or a small pannier. The hoops could apparently be attached directly to the dress, or to the slip, but I need to put some more research into this topic (there's going to be another post).

I think with my dress I'll go with small pocket hoops, but I still have to meditate about whether I want them sewed to the dress or to the slip.

What do football, the pope and a Robe de Style have in common?

For some reason, I am totally susceptible to mass phenomena (only the non-violent kind, of course!).

E.g., apart from attending the odd or two football games as there is a field round the corner from where I live and it's a nice excuse for having 2-3 beers and potato chips, I'm not interested in football at all. I'm not interested in watching most sports, but I'm particularly not interested in watching football.
And yet, when there's a European or even world championship happening, with public viewing and everyone talking about it, I really enjoy being right there in the middle, watching (and commenting on) as many games as possible, celebrating with others on the streets and becoming an all-knowing expert.

Similarly, though I'm christened I don't care much for the church, it's protagonists or it's followers. I don't think I ever voluntarily visited a church to attend mass. I have no idea at all about what the sacral decision-makers are currently up to, and I honestly couldn't care less. BUT when I found out that there's going to be a new pope and suddenly the newspapers as well as the internet where full of it, I couldn't get enough of it. I spent hours learning about the history of the papal conclave, and when the day finally arrived, I meticulously followed every newsticker, news feed or livestream I could find, to be the first one to find out who will be the new pope.

When I started out with sewing and costuming, I found my favourite eras as quickly as I found my least favourite eras - and the 1920s definitly ranked very high with the latter category. The low waist, the rectangular shapes, the silly hats... nope. Not mine. Do not want.
Then, some time ago, the Twenties craze started and eventually reached Austria. Electroswing came up. "Speakeasy"-parties everywhere, even here in Vienna! Boardwalk Empire, The Great Gatsby, Downton Abbey.  Suddenly, the costume blogs I was reading were filled with adventures in flapper fashion, and the more I saw of it, the more I started to like it.
Anyway, here's my first attempt at flapper clothing:

Some day there will be better pictures! :)

I made it after this excellent tutorial. As always with my first tries, it's not authentic, although I'm actually not sure with this one (the fabric is cotton crepe and the cut isn't too far off, I think... but then I don't know enough about twenties dresses yet).
I've already worn it 3 or 4 times on various occasions, and I just love it. It's so comfortable, and the skirt is great for swirling. :)

So for the next event, the 3rd Bohème Sauvage in Vienna on November 23rd, I'm planning to make a new dress, which, as you can already guess if you haven't fallen asleep yet and still remember the title of this post, will be a Robe de Style.
As inspiration, I chose this one from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Robe de Style, House of Lanvin, fall-winter 1926/27

I found a beautiful black shantung silk with very few knobs in my stash, and ordered a vintage sari border on ebay as trim.

I'm not sure if I will really finish this until the 23rd, as I'm currently studying for a very big exam and can only sew for an hour or so in the evenings. If I don't finish it, I luckily have a nice backup plan, which I'm not telling you about yet :P Only that it's sparkling and pink. :D

Costume recap - The Camococo

Back in 2011, a good friend had the awesome idea to make 18th century dresses out of camouflage fabric (yes, I have strange friends). As I am genetically incapable of resisting a crazy idea, of course I had to participate. Moreover, I wanted to try 18th century clothing for some time, and this was the perfect opportunity. If I got it wrong, at least I wouldn't get it wrong using expensive silk and investing hours of handstitching, right?
I quickly decided that it should be a zone front gown, and that I would use classic olive green camo fabric, combined with black poly taffeta. A huge hat should complete the ensemble.

But first - underthings! I decided to try the Diderot stays pattern from Nora Waughs "Corsets and Crinolines", and it worked like a charm.

Boobies alarm! It's incredible what these stays do to your décolleté...

Looks good, feels good. Success!

They are actually comfortable! I know, fabric is wrong, no visible boning channels wrong, metal eyelets wrong, machine stitching wrong, synthetic ribbon wrong.... but hey, the pattern is authentic! And it fits, which means I can use better materials and invest more work next time without risking that it doesn't fit after weeks of handstitching.

Now for the dress: I used an Anglaise pattern from Janet Arnolds "Patterns of Fashion" and altered the front so it would have the "zone gown" look. I decided that I wanted long sleeves, so I used a long sleeve pattern I found in Nora Waughs "The Cut of Women's clothes". For the skirt I used the tutorial at La Couturiére Parisienne and adapted it so it would fit over a bum pad. I also made a cotton petticoat with ruffles in the back to wear underneath, but I don't think the ruffles add much to the effect.

Anyway, pictures!!

The Camococo dress, complete with hair, hat, and nonsense medals I got from ebay

I'm actually not satisfied with the bum pad. It's too small.

The above two pictures were taken in Leipzig at the Wave Gotik Treffen, where I wore the dress for the first time. The hair is not at all my own hair, but an insanely curly wig, which adds a lot to the whole ensemble. 

I also made the hat from scratch - it has a buckram frame covered with black silk (yes, real silk :D ) and is decorated with organza (not silk), a metal buckle, LOTS of feathers, and a miniature aircraft carrier (which unfortunately isn't really visible on the pictures).

This year, I decided to wear the dress again to Barockfest at Schloss Hof, which is more of a carnival than a serious costume event, so I thought the dress would be appropriate. I also wore it because I don't have another 18th century dress yet, but wanted to go to Schloss Hof. However, it turned out to be the right decision, because I totally unexpected scored 3rd place at the costume contest (which I didn't even know about beforehand)! :D

I restyled the wig to look more like a "Hedgehog" which didn't work perfectly, but it's still okay with the hat ;)

Relaxing in the beautiful gardens of Schloss Hof

With my friends Eleanor Vivian (middle) and BlackAngel (right), who were both also nominated at the costume contest! Congratulations to us all! :)