fashionthrougherstory

1880s Evening Hairstyle

Published on January 26, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory1 Comment

The “accessory” for my 1880s evening gown which caused my head to hurt most was the head itself. Who the h-l do you get a lovely opera style hairdo with my short and klingy hair.

This was what I wanted

I tried a lots of different alternatives. Like faux hair and braids, curling and twisting but nothing got me even close to what I needed to achive.

So I reluctantly pulled out my “new” wig. It is from the same company where I bought a lovely long haired wig for my medieval hairdo, but this one is just horrid.

Promo pic.

And in real life.

It is so plasic looking in both the colour and the shine, it feels realy “costumy”. And besides it is way to big. The only “good” thing about it is the fact that it don’t have bangs. But with two days left to the bal, I needed to give it a try.

So I re-read the chapter on “late victorian hairstyles” in Historical Wigstyling, and got to work, testing the methods on a smal piece of the wig first.

Roling a piece of “hair” to a thread spool (I curently don’t own real hair curlers), then setting it, using steam from my steam-iron.

The result looked perfect.

Time to move on to the actual wig.

I started by separding and creating some bangs, which I curled on hairpins and and more spools of thread, and then secured with pins.

Then I covered the rest of the wig with a cotton sheat and steamed the bangs, letting it sett over night.

Then I just grabed pieces of hair, twisted, pinned and braided until I got a cool looking hairstyle.

But when I put it on my head it looked ridiculus.Like something from a Tim Burton movie.

No! Lets try again.

Trying to keep the hair a bit more to the back of the head, and not so much upwards proved to be a lot easier. So now I got a nice, elegant hairdo.

But once again: Nice on the dummy – Stupid on me.

I feelt like a ginger prostitute in some movie about Sparta. Not good.

Right about now I started to panic.

It was the evening before the bal and I was totaly lost.

Thank good for internet, and lovely helpful people, who told me the hairstyle I was trying to build was not really 1880s (more 1870s) and that this is what I should be trying for instead.So after studing a few more pictures of simular hairstyles, I feelt it would be do-able using my own hair and some false hairpeces.

I also wanted to wear this tiara, since I wouldn’t wear any other juwelery.

So, I grabbed my siccors and cut all the remaining hair of my old (lovey) wig.

Buying some proper haircurlers.

And got to work curling and steaming again.

I then curled my own bangs on smal stripes of fabric, soaked them in wather and sleept on it.

The next morning I removed the curling strips.Then I put a cap on and got on the train to the capital, and the bal.

When arriving at my hotel I emedetly started working.

Begining to make smal tufts, in my own hair, to secure the faux bun onto. Cowering the back of my head with a hair net, to keep all the short flying hairs in place. Then I loosened the faux hair from the curlers and started pinning and winding them into a bun on the back of my head. I then frizzed the bangs some more, and attached the tiara with bobypins. The last step was to attach a few hanging curls on the back of the bun.

And the finished hairdo

And it still looked pretty hours later.I’m so happy with how it turned out, and even got some nice copliments on it. Maybe next time I don’t have to worry so much.

1880s Evening Accessories

Published on January 23, 2014January 27, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory2 Comments

When attending a grand bal you do need some more stuff then a beautiful dress.

Yes, today we will discuss accessories.

This is what I will be wearing (besides from the gown).

A pair of ivory opera glowes. They really should be made of leather but what do you do, atleast they are in a nice syntetic style which don’t look to shiney and plastic.

The mandetory fan. I was looking at big feathery ones,but they where either in the wrong colour or way outside my pricerange. So I will get yet another use out of my ivory lace one.

The shoes will be my American Duchess Kensingtons, decorated with some leftover fabric. They are about 100 years to early, but they are both comfortable and in the right colour so they will have to do. Besides, I will be wearing long skirts.

As a bag I plan on making my own “reticule” out of some leftover fabric from the bodice, but I haven’t started on it yet. I’m thinking something like this.

As outerwear I will be re-using my brown velvet cape (it will be the 3 outing).

And maybe some shawls, and neckpieces depending on the weather.

I have decided not to wear a necklace (because of the style on my dress neckline) , but are thinking about some earings and maybe a brosch in the front neck.

Hm, I need to think a bit on this. But the victorian motto is “More is More”, so I may just have to take some time tomorrow away from my busy sewing schedule for shopping.

Past Sewing “Rooms”

Published on January 21, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory3 Comments

Last time I told you about my favourite room in our new apartment, and I think most of you are in total understanding about how great it feels to have a place dedicated only for sewing (and drawing). But for you how don’t know, I will show you some of my past sewing “rooms”.

But first I think I will tell you about my machines and favourite tools.

This is my sewing machine (Husqvarna Emerald 122), and she’s been faitful (and I to her) for the past 8 years. And hopefully she will stay true for a couple more years, even though the noises she makes make me think she soon will need to slow down and retire.

And this is my overlock/coverlock (Singer Quantum ?) which I bough 5 years ago with my sewing ernings. I’m not as in love with her as I should be, but I guess I never really taken the time to get to know her poperly. She works just fine (even though she sometimes refuses to sew over thick and bulky fabrics). But latley I’ve been abandon her more and more thue to my historical sewing.

This is one of my best buy ever – A steaming iron (Tefal turbo pro). I can have her working all day, and only have to refil her once or twice (without turning her of), and she still never complain or overheat.Sadly she did die the “never stop steaming” death 6 months ago, when something broke inside and she just flooded the room with steam and coulden’t be stopped. So I replaced her with a cousin (which I hate, and dont have any picture of).

I bought this pin-cusion in a dollarstore and she’s been living on my sewing table ever since. Both pretty and useful.

On thing every seamstres needs is some good pressing tools. I love this “tailors ham” and uses it as often as I can. I also just got a “sleeve board” and that’s great working with pants, shirts and shorter straight seams.

I keep my threads in a handy box sorted by collour and type (buttonhole thread, extra strong ect). This photo is old, and I think I will need one more of these boxes now.

Extra points for guessing the use of this cushion. Hint: It’s a floor cusihon… …I use it when cuting fabric on the floor, saves my knees a lot of pain. I acctualy bought this a H&Ms “Home” department 5 years ago, and it’s been great.

***

And now onto my past workspaces.

When I was young, and still lived at my parents house, I use to take the sewing machine (a borrowed one from an aunt) and set it up on the kitchen table. This proved a bit tedious since at every meal I needed to clean it away, and then reset everything once the meal was over.

When I grew older me and my boyfriend’s first apartment was a 2-room, with a fairly big livingroom, where I used one of the corners for my sewing space. Looking at it now it look so messy.

But I did had a big table to set the machine on.

Back then I had this “great” way of storing my up-coming projects – in plastic bags on the floor next to the dressform. Omg, and my boyfriend didn’t leave me. At least I did have a bookshelf for my sewing books.

Only at this time I only had this many sewing/fashion books (half a shell).

“The messy creative process”. But I do remember that chair – It was so old and uncomfortable, having spikes from the seat almost coming through the fabric. You didn’t have those massive sewing spurs that goes on for hours and hours on that chair, I tell you.

Then we moved to a smal 1-room flat, and I needed to choose wisely on which of my sewing things to take to our new home.

Here I got a smal corner behind the beed and the bureau. And do notice the newspaper suffed under the leg to keep the dreadful table somewhat stable.

Doing my pattern drafting at our coffé table.

And the ironing at the window, beside the kitchen bar-table.This was insane, and I missed my dressform a great deal, but it only lasted about 1,5 years.

Then we moved again – and once more we setteled for a 1-room apartment.

Sadly I couldn’t find any pictures of my workspace, which lasted for about 2 years. But I can tell you this 1-room apartments had suprisingly many rooms, like kitchen/sewing room and living room/beed room/saloon/dining room/sewing-in-front-of-the-Tv-room. I basacly had my stuff everywhere.

And now we are living in our 5th apartment – and I finaly got my very own sewing room.

And you know – the smaler your space are, the bigger the dresses will be.

Me (5 years ago) working from under a pile of tuille.

A Room of my Own

Published on January 19, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory5 Comments

My sewing have been on hold for about two weeks because we have been moving.

It is quite frustrating getting this crazy urge to sew and then realising everything you need is un-optanable in the bottom of some box, somewear.

But the move is not all bad, in fact it is great (once we got everything in order). We are up-grading from the various 1-room apartments me and my boyfriend use to live in to a 4-room, and you all know what that means – A sewing room for me!

I think that’s the thing I’m most exited about. And I need to force myself to split my time to get the other rooms in order too – not just “my” room. But it is fun to try to figur out the best way of putting the furniture to get the most out of the (smal) room.

So lets take a look at what I got so far. A cheap bookshell for varyous sewing tings, and boxes of tooles and fabric. All within close reach.

Yesterday I picked this up at a hardwear store. It’s ment for carpenters to keep their nails and such. But it is also perfect for buttons, snaps, ribbons, zippers and everything else you will need.

I also got a sewing table (were both my machine and overlook will live), only to be used for that purpose. (Ignor the bags under it and sthe plastic bag keeping it somewhat stale.)

One of my demands for this room was a wardrobe. And as you can se I’ve stuffed it full. The bags and big boxes conains fabric and will be sorted and stored in our basement.

And I need at least one shell for my historical shoes.

The rest of my costumes are stored in lovely boxes like these ones, sorted by decades or style, (undergarmnents, headwear, 18th century dresses, ect.)

This next thing is something I’ve been dreaming about for a long time.

To get all my fashion and sewing books gathered at on place.And now I have it. One hole bookshell for my sewing literature (there are also some books about art, design, textiles and historical people).

These two shells are reseved for my historical costuming. I think I will need some more books, to cover the holes in the ranks.

And trying to be a bit more organized this year, I got a whiteboard to write all the necessary “keep in minds” on. Like HSF challenges, costumers info, up-coming events and what I will wear (and need to make) for it.

And as my cuting/drawing table I got this arcitects table from my boyfriend (It has a glas insertion, which can be lit from beneath, to help copying drawings). Sorry for the mess.

(Last week I was busy polishing up my portfolio for aplications to a school).

And the best way to get a overview of yor work is to trow them all on the floor (ehm, no).

And this week my room has changed again.Now the focus lies on the 1880s opera gown, and trying to keep track of both time and money spent on the dress.

The dressform also fits into the room (barely).

But I will continue to do most of the handsewing in the couch watching movies.

I’m really happy about my sewing room, but I guess it will take a while to figur out exactly how to keep everything in the best way.

A Box of Lace Heaven

Published on January 17, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory4 Comments

I was planing on showing you my favoutite part of our new apartment today but decided this post was so much more important.

Today I picked up the most awsome pacage from the post office. – A box that I recently won biding on an on-line auction. And since I’m really terrible at that kind of biding I don’t do as much good deals as I would like.

But I had a good feeling on this one.

So I hurried home (determend to not get to disaponted if the containt didn’t live up to the expectations) and put it on my sewing table.

The package containd a shoe box full of all sorts of different pieces of lace.

Ok, so far so good. The auction had called for a box with about 50 asorted lace pieces of different lenghts.

But when I started going through it, I found lots of pieces I didn’t expected.

There was atleast 7 (!) lace collars of different shapes and sizes.

I mean, look at this awesome little collar – probably prevousley attatched to a little girls dress.

And this “peter-pan” collar with its double layers.

And this one is just darling.

I also found these two pieces – which I’m not sure what they are for. But I’m guessing the big one is a collar or fichu of some kind, it’s about 70cm long. And the little one could be a sleeve cuff (sadly I only found one in the box).

What do you think? Could it be a single cuff, It is the right size, or is it something else.

And don’t you just love the end of the bigger piece.

And then of course there was some regular lace in the box as well.

Here are a few of the wide widths.

And some of the one of lesser widths. The top one is starched, and feel almost like papper. And the one on the bottom says “1,5 m hand made lace” and “20 sek” (2Usd).

And what would a lace collection be without some colored speciments.

And since this box of magic seems to have belonged to a great horder/seamstress the wonders don’t stop there.

I got plenty more.

I guess I will decorate lots of my costuming pieces with lace this spring.

What I payed for all this magic? – 45Sek (5Usd).

To make-do a 1880s Petticoat

Published on January 15, 2014January 16, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory7 Comments

And so we start of the new sewing year with HSF14 Challenge nr 1: Make-do/Mend.

As I stated before, I’m determend to try to fit the challenges this year in to my list of items which needs to be made. So with a bit of bending the rules on this challenge, I got to use it for that 1880s ruffled petticoat I desperetly need for my up-coming balgown.

I’m thinking something along these line. (pic from Iza of http://adamselindisdress.wordpress.com/ you should check her out to.)

For this challenge I made a petticoat out of a bedsheet.

I started by ripping the sewn hems of it, and throw it into the washer.

I used no pattern – only some diagrams and pictures for reference. And cut the skirt pieces out of half the sheet.

And the ruffeling pieces from the rest, making them bigger and longer further down the skirt.

I sewed gathering thread on all the ruffels using a strong button-hole thread and sick sack stitch, hemming them at the same time.

This technique makes it very easy to gather the ruffels later on.

Then I hemmed and measured the spacings of all the ruffels.

Then I gathered all the fabric and stiched it down on the back piece of the skirt. And lastly I Sewed the front skirt to the back and stiched on a cotton twill tape as a waistband.

And then I tried it on – and I hated it.

It is way to narrow in the front (making me look huge) and the ruffels need to be at least twice as fluffy.

And I do think something is of in the lenght proportions of the ruffels.

Well here it is on the dressform looking a bit better but still way to slim in the pouf department.

With a night to sleep on it, I do think it will work for my purpose, but I know it will probably go straight into the re-make pile once the present event has past.

Just the Facts:

Challenge: 1 (2014) Re-Make.

What: A ruffeled bustled petticoat made out of a bedsheet.

Year: About 1870 – 1890s.

Pattern: None

Fabric: One white cotton bedsheet – 1,5 x 2 m.

Notions: Thread, strong thread (björntråd) and 2 m of 1 cm wide cotton twill tape.

Historical Accuracy: So so. The style and siluett is about right, but I’m sure the ladies of the day knew not to scrimp on the fabric in this kind of grmnent. Maybe 4/10.

Time: 4 hours.

Cost: 90 Sek (10 Usd).

First worn: Around the house for photos (and testing the toile for the gown…) But it will get a proper outing on january 25, for the gran bal at the opera.

Final Thoughts: I think this petticoat was to much of a rush job to begin with. I wish I had taken the time to make it proper and use enough fabric to get a nice ruffeled bustle. Instead I spread the ruffels to whide and gathered them to losely. It’s a good thing it will be hidden beneath the skirts.

Re-make of the Flowery Jacket

Published on January 13, 2014 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

This is my first entry to the HSF14, and I submit it as a “Light Entry” for the 1th challenge: Make-do/Mend.

Ive been so pre-ockupied with all my other sewing and work and moving recently, so there has really not been any time left to fix those litle things thats been bugging me about some of my costumes. But now I finaly got the time (at relatives on chrismas) to finish the re-modeling of my 18th century flowery jacket. You can reed more about the original jacket here.

I loved this jacket ever since I made it 2 years ago, even now when I lernt a bit more about historic clothes it’s still one of my favourite items. But latley the fit of it have been bugging me.

It’s a bit long in the back and the gromets really need to be covered with thread.

And this challenge gave me the motovation I needed to finaly get it done.

Since there’s not much interesting going on in the sewing I forgot (read: decided not to) take any process photos. But I did snap one with my phone on christmas-eve when working on the eyelets.

Finished:

Just the Facts:

Challenge: nr 1 – Make-do/Mend. (Light Entry)

What: Fixing some issues on a 18th Century Jacket.

Pattern: None this time (originaly from Baumgarthers “Costume Close-up”)

Fabric: None

Notions: Sewing thread and ivory buttonhole thread.

How Historical Accurate: Not much. Re-modeling and re-fitting of clothes was common practice, but since gromets didn’t even existed back then I’d say 3/10.

Time: 3 Hours

Cost: 30 Sek (2Usd)

First Worn: Hopfully this summer for picknicks and plays.

Final Thoughts: The back of the jacket, do look very short on my dessform. But I decided that’s because she is somehow lening forvard, and I have a realy straight posture, which causes my back to look shorten then it realy is.

“Oskarsbal”

Published on January 11, 2014 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

As I metioned in my prevous post I just recently decided to go to the grand bal at the Opera in the end of january.

But what is it?

It will be a night at the Opera in 1880s style, with white tie, evening gowns and loots of fans and juwelry. Lots of the people I know from erlier costuming events will be there and they tell me it’s the event of the year.

There will be food, music, dancing and loot and lots of people in glorius evening wear.

The offical website of the bal (In Swedish).

Honestly I have no idea what to expect, but I will tell you all about it afterwards.

This will be my first grand costuming event and I so looking forward to it. (Now back to the sewing room).

1840s layering

Published on January 7, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory2 Comments

This is beginning to become a series, but I think it is good to show the amount of clothes and layers there is to most historic costumes.

Often you only se the gown and can only guess there are some foundation underneath, but exactly how many petticoats do it take to get that special silhuet, and how do you keep warm during coold winter weather.

So this time I will show you the different layers of a mid 19th century woman of everage wealth.

Let’s start fully dressed in: Gown, bonnet, cape and apron.

When you remove the outerwear we got more of a indor look in: Gown, apron and coif.

Then we remove the apron and bodice to find a warming undershirt (should be woolen but I make do with ordenary sporting clothes).

And under the skirt there is a warming quilted petticoat. You can also wear additional petticoats on top of the quilted one for warmth and to ad more widht to the skirt.

Beneath the petticoats there are a hoopskirt and a bumpad – which both helps the skirt to get the desired shape. (I use a modern bridal hoopskirt, but you should really use one made for this purpose).

And as the layer closest to the body we find the chemise, the corset, blomers, stockings and lacing boots.

Because the mid 1800s are a relativly new era to me, I’m still in need of the proper corset and chemsie. But for now, the late Regency (1820-1830) undergarments I do have works just fine.

New Years Dress 2012/2013

Published on January 5, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory2 Comments

Since I didn’t had the time to make something new for New Years eve this year I will show you the dress I made and wore last year instead.

Early on I knew I wanted to make a dress to wear to the New Years party, so as usual I searced the internet for inspiration. I found this dress, and figured I make somwthing simular.