While I’m full steam ahead working on the next HSF project, I figured I give you a close-up of another Allers patterns journals.
This one’s from maj 1912.
Two lovely day/walking dresses.
Love the intricate collar.
Some crocheting ideas.
Crocketed lace on dress.
Some simple needlework patterns.
And some children’s fashion.
A really long coat. I also like the strapping golf player in the background.
Yesterday it was once again time for the annual cultural festival in our town, and I had agreed to join the historic dance team for their recital. Last time I’d performed on the festival was about 8 years ago, together with my friend of the young national dance team (and when I say young, I basically mean any dancer under the age of 40).
This time though, I would not wear my national costume, but my new regency gown compleat with velvet west and bonnet.
I started getting ready by curling my wet hair the evening before, and let it set over night.
This is how I looked when I woke up (way to early on a Saturday), and started to get ready.
I did some light make-up and fuzzes around with the hair, to get something similar to curls in my short bangs.
All dressed up and wearing my new bonnet, I thought it looked pretty decent.
Then it was time t take the bus downtown to the meet up point for the festival.
Sadly the weather was not at all co-operating.
And the dance area was cowered in water and extremely slippery.
Two wet gents testing the floor.
The teams about to perform all gathered and made them self ready, while huddling beneath rain coats, umbrellas and shawls.
Clara and Maud, in matching self made bonnets and happy despite the weather.
Then the dance program started.
Beginning with the classical dance team, in their lovely national costumes.
The two ladies in this pic are wearing identical jackets and two variations of the “Skedevi” costume. (left: the summer costume in white and pink cotton, and right: the sunday costume in red wool). I would love to make that jacket for myself – I do have the pattern…
Then it was time for the kids
.
You need to be pretty devoted as a parent to agree to do this things.
The next team was the “polske – team”, with their beautiful and addictive dances in 3/4 beats. 
My friend Annica (whose wedding I attended in late may).
Then it was our turn.
We did a short variation of our usual routine, and were happy once we put our jackets back on.
The team I liked the most were the swing dancers.
They looked to be having so much fun, and really rocked the style (some more then others).
Then we got a short show from a bride to be on her bachelorett party. 
And yes, of course she could swing to.
Then it was time for another old school dance team, “the Morris team”.
I guess it could have been pretty cool, if they had all been on beat and perfectly choreographed. But as it were, the noise those bells and sticks made was not exactly my cup of tea…
We also got to see a team from Denmark.
Look at those embroidery. So nice to see some new to me national costumes.
And a team from Norwegian.
Our neighbors to the east, are known for their lovely red and black national costumes covered with heavy jewelry.
As you can see from this photos there was not many on-lookers except the dancers waiting for their turn. this seams to be the routine on these cultural days. And as a friend said: I have no idea why we do this year after year, since it’s just society for mutual admiration.
And I guess that’s why it’s been 8 yeas since I last did this recital.
But I did get a photo of me and two old time friends.
Katarina (in the middle), was my dance teacher when I was a kid. And Annika (who also was in the kids dance group), are now a board-member in the dance organisation, and dances so often and long that her shoes are falling apart…
Once home again I marveled over my extremely stupid looking “mössfrilla” (hat hairdo).
I also discovered I managed to tear my dress.
Well, thats just another one for the mending pile.
Now to get ready for next weekends event.
There are some things that have been bugging me with my new regency ensemble lately. Some of them I’ve told you about, and some I kept for my self – until now.
Look at that hideous bust dart.
This weekend I’m to once more do a dance recidal, and I wanted to wear the yellow gown again. So now was the perfect time to do something about the errors in the outfit.
So last night I finaly picked up the seam ripper and got to work.
I started with my regency corset from last autumn. The corset itself are great and I love the fit and the shape it gives me. But the combination of wear and way to weak fabric have left the boning poking through (and often as not stabbing my thighs.
So I decided to mend it. Starting by un-picking some of the bias binding. 
And stitched on a tiny rectangle of sturdy twill fabric. Then I re-stitched the bias-tape.
Even if it’s a bit bulky it wont show through the lose gowns which will be worn on top.
When finished I also discovered the eyelets where about to lose their grip of the fabric.
Guess I will have to consider making a new one soon.
Then I moved on to re-working the bust of the yellow volie dress.
When I wore the dress for he first time I noticed The gathering at the bust was somewhat to far to the sides, so I un-picked the under bust seam and moved the gathers 1,5 cm to the middle.
Then I stiched the seam shut and pinned the lining back on.
Once the bust was done, I continued on to the sleeve – which I didn’t had had the time to finish, but left raw.
I used a ivory bias-tape to cover the seam allowence.
And lastly I re-worked the bust on the regency west. I decided to scrap the darts and instead gather the fullnes to get a nice shape to the bust.
I basacly did the exact same thing as with the yewllow dress, un-picking the under bust seam.
Gather the with to the waistband.
Then finish the wastband…
… and lining.
I’m not sure it will be that much better, but I hope it will turn out to be an improvement.
(I also re-trimmed the bonnet, but you ill have to wait until my next post for pictures of that).
And of course I asked my sister to take some photos of me wearing my new spencer/west paired with my yellow voile gown and new bonnet.
Photo: Maria Petersson
By the time it came to start on the HSF challenge 15, The great Outdoors, I was pretty drain sewing wise. I knew that if I was going to compleat this year of cahllenges I needed to give myself a break and make something simple once in a while.
So I decided to make something I’ve been thinking about for a while – a regency spencer.
But then I realised that I only had scraps left of lovely brown coton vevet I’ve wanted to use. and I did like the idae of buying even more fabric.
So I re-calculated and decided to make a sleveless spencer instead. And while I was at it why not turn it in to a west compleatly.
I used the Simplicity 4055 as a guide to get the overal line right, since I wanted the west to go over the yellow dress I made from the same pattern.
I made some changes, like added a dart and re-shaped the back.
Then I cut it, made a mock-up and tried it on.
It fit pretty well, but I didn’t really like the high neckline.
So I marked the new neckline and cut.
Ok, so it looks pretty stupid in these pictures but I like the tought of the lower necline and the dress showing.
When the pattern was fitted properly, I started to cut the fabrics – velvet, cotton lining and cotton twill for interlining.
I stiched the back seams and basted the shoulder and side seams together.
A first version to try on.
It fit perfectly, even though the new lower neckline didnt really show due to the seam allowence.
I didn’t like the bust darts though, so I marked hem for shortening.
I toyed with the idea of skipping the dart and gather the bust instead. But decided it looked to bulky on the velvet. So I restiched the darts instead.
Then I putt in the lining, fideling a bit on the arm holes.
The last piece to attach was the waistband, which I stiched to the lower edge.
I made one edge of the wasiband longer to make a cross over clouser.
Before turning the west right side out, I made sure to notch all the curved seams to make everything lay nice and flat. 
I used a regular bath towel when iron the velvet as to not crush the pile.
Lastly I attached some buttons and the hooks and eyes for the clouser.
The finished piece (paired with my yellow regency gown):
Just the facts:
Challenge: 15, The great Outdoors.
What: a regency spencer/west
Pattern: I used Simplicity 4055 as a guide, but re-shaped it quite a bit..
Fabric: 0,4 m of brown cotton velvet and 0,4 m brown cotton for lining (both scraps left over from previous projects) and 0,4 m of cotton twill for interlining.
Notions: Thread, two buttons, 5 hooks and eyes.
How historical accurate: not much I fear – even though it is compleatly hand sewed. I havn’t found any sources on this kind of wests.
Time: about 8 hours.
Cost: Basicly free since everything was leftovers from previous projects but if I would have bought it now it would probably be about 150 Sek (22 Usd).
First worn: For photos in the middle of august.
Final thoughts: I’m not happy with the bust. It looks rediculus and I have no idea how to fix it. Perhaps gathering will be my only alternative after all.
Two weeks ago I manadged to get one of my sisters to help me take some photos of my new Steampunk outfit.
I originaly planed to wear it at a steampunk convention in late june, but the event ended up to expensive and I couldn’t attend. But since the outfit’s done I figured I like as well take some picturs of it.
To be fair I didn’t need to do a lot, besides put the pieces togeter out of my already existing wardrobe. I used my 1880s trained evening bodice as the base, and paired it with pants, boots, belts, lots of make-up, and my new “steampunk” accessories. Then I was good to go.
I had lots of fun on this photoshoot (I love to play around in my costumes instead of just stand there looking pretty), and I think we got some realy good pics. Enjoy.
Photo: Elin Petersson
A saturday in mid july me and my sister dressed historic for a “Victorian Picknic”.
The weater was way to hot for anything other then bathing suits, but we did manadge to put together some pretty good outfits that we hoped would keep us from melting all togeter.
We arrived a bit late, and was suprised to se there was only a few other people dressed in somewhat historical outfits at the meeting point. And sad to say it wasn’t the spectacular event’s I’ve been used to lately.
The people attending was realy nice, though I think we all wished there had turned up a few more of us costume nerds.
I wore my 1850s crinoline, green 1840s skirt, 1890s shirtwaist and a new staw hat, I bought the day before on sale from the kids department.
I did feel quite good and comfortable despite the eclectical outfit.
My sister wore an even more “made up” outfit, in a red 1880s corset (which I haven’t posted about), my 1890s suffraget skirt, 1901s black swiss waist, a modern bolero and a masqurade top hat.
Strange as the combonation may be, I think she looked great. And judging from the cool poses she keept doing, I can only asume she feelt pretty good too.
A cool and somewhat more Goth interpritaion of Victorian fashion.
And a nice and cute Baby Doll/Japanise (I’m not sure what this style is called) early 20th century dress.
Cute couple.
And a pretty regency gown, made by the wearer herself.
The whole event was a bit underwelming, but it was quite nice to just walk around and chat in the park. But when the rain came we all feelt it was time to go home. I do hope there will be more of this kind of relaxed events in our town, and that more people find the time to attend.
And a group picture of all 8 of us.
And as usual me and my sister took som time to get some nice photos.
First up’s sis.
Then it was mine turn.
And of course I needed to get some photos of the evening bodice too.
Photo: Maria Petersson
While working on the Paisley skirt I had trouble deciding what kind of bodice I would make to go with it, a daytime or a evening bodice. And with a long vacation from work ahead of me, I thought “why not make both?” And so I did.
Starting by drapeing the low-cut, of the shoulder, evening bodice.
Working on the daybodice and evening bodice at the same time, I made pretty good speed, cutting and sewing the mock-ups. I also minimized the amount of times I needed to put on the corset by trying on both of the mock-ups at the same time.
The fit was a bit underwhelming, and I ended up lenghten the bodice at the waist by 3 cm, re-shaping the shoulder, changing tha bust seam and adding another 5 cm to the front tab.
A pic to get a sence of how it would look.
After cutting all the layers out, I basted the twill to the paisley, and started to sew the pieces togeter.
For the evening bodice I decided to use piping in the seams. I made my own using cut bias-strips and cotton cord.
The piping serves to give the garmnent a more finished and historical look, and at the same time makes the eye accept the breaks in the print better. So apart from the extra work making and putting them in, it’s a win win situation.
Piping basted to the seam-allowence.
Bodice from the inside with piping in all but the side seams.
Then I tried it on, to test the fit.
As you can se it dosen’t really close in the back. That was fixed by letting the bodice out a bit at the sides, and re-arranging the back edges.
I then started on the lining, sewing boning chanels in the seam allowence.
And then I sewed the lining to the bodice, turning the whole thing inside out. 
Then it was time for the sleeves.
I gathered the bottom into smal cuffs, and stitched a gatering thread at the top, to make it easy to insert into the arm hole.
Then I cut the seam allowences down and covered the edges with a bias-strip.
And as you all know, if you don’t have enough to do already, you make sure to give youself some more work…
While cutting the sleeve allownece I accidently manadged to cut a piece of the sleeve away. (if you look closely you can se the hole (big as a thumb) right by the seam about half way up the sleeve.
Crap!
I had not enough fabric to cut another sleeve, and I was almost finished with it anyway, so I decided to mend it.
Using a smal scrap of fabric, matching the print, I stiched the hole up. Turning the edges over both on the outside and the inside. And now it hardly shows at all.
Phew.
Then I continued on with the eyelets.
Lots of maked eyelets to sew…
I worked on them, one at the time, while waching series on tv.
I must be getting better at this, since several of the holes actually look pretty decent.
I then put in the bones, and stitched the lining shut.
The final thing I had to decide was which trim to use. I had several metres of a golden fringe, and a smal piece of the brown fringe left.
I like the brown the best – which ment I could’t make another row of fringe on the jacket :-(.
Well I can always buy more later, if I decide I whant some more.
The finished dress:
Just the facts:
Challenge: 14 – Paisley & Plaids
What: A 1850s cotton evening bodice.
Pattern: None, draped my own.
Fabric: Hard to tell, since I cut the skirt and daybodice from the same fabric at the same time. But if I had to guess I’d say 0,5 m of paisley, twill and lining.
Notions: Thread, buttonhole- thread, 5 m cotton cord for lacing, 5 m cotton cord for piping, 4 m syntetic whalebone, and 1 m of brown syntetic fringe.
How historical accurate: I don’t know – I made it to look the part. But it is made using modern techniques and material. Even though a cotton evening bodice was probably what the les whealty women wore, I’m not sure she would have chosen such a loud print.
Time: Same as above – not sure, but my best guess is about 10 hours (the eyelets took a great deal of time).
Cost: I estimate the cost to about 100 Sek since everything was from stash.
First worn: Only for photos. But I do hope I get the chance to attend a Dickens teamed bal of some sort…
Final thougts: I like the bodice and it fits quite well, even though the eylets are a bit smal and needs an awl for lacing.
And I could not wear my new chemise with it since it bulked and showed to much. Did they use special evening chemises in the 1850s?
The day after I finished the Paisley gown, my sister helped me dress up to take some nice photos of it.
I’m wearing the skirt and day bodice, paired with my new white bonnet and chemise, crinoline and petticoat.
Photo: Maria Petersson
Fashion Through Herstory 