My green dress

I realized that I have not really shown you my green dress, except for in a few pictures.
It is made out of a thinner tabby weave green wool from medeltidsmode.se and is completely hand sewn with linen thread.

I have based my model on Herjolfsnes no.38 from Greenland. I am not a fan of the GFD dresses but still wanted a dress that follows my body so this model with lots of panels in the side seemed perfect for the shaping over the bust. I Know that the original herjolfsnes dress was not made as a tight garment but I choose to make it tight anyway.
The reason for not liking the GFD is that I do not like how really tight they are, in my world clothing needs ease. A garment that have no ease tend to look like it is to small for the wearer. I have seen a lot of really nice GFD but with my bust size it tends to look like a over stuffed sausage. And also I prefer to have the front edge straight on the grain, that way I know that it will not warp under pressure and most GFD use the fitted front. My green dress is tight but not so tight as the GFD. I wear a modern bra under my dresses because I need that support but do not want to wear a dress that is that tight.

I have also chosen to make more of a grande assiette type of sleeve as the Moy bog dress, just because I wanted to try it out. I have also made e two part sleeve with the so called “elbow hinge” from the pourpoint of Charles de Blois that cottesimple.com describes.

In the making my armholes turned out to big. But sewing some gartering threads and then using steam on it solved this problem a bit, I love wool.

I have also chosen to make it with buttons as the Moy bog dress, because buttons are pretty and I like sewing buttonholes.

Lots and lots of buttons!

This was my first medieval dress ever and I wanted to try out everything I had read about ;)

Under it I wear a simple linen under dress, It might look a tad bit short, but with this length you don’t get the problem with a wet linen hem against your skin when walking in wet grass or on rainy days. Wet linen is not that nice.

There are some things that I am not 100% satisfied with on this dress. The fit in the armhole is one, but after a few times wear it moulded to my body and looks better then from the beginning. So I really like this dress, it is my first try but the shape of it works well on my body and the many panels in the sides makes it easy to fit.
I love the amount of width in the bottom that is due to the panels. One might think that it is wasteful to make but when cutting it out there was a minimal amount of waste. When laid out on the fabric correctly the only scraps you get is in the neck hole, armhole and thin strips in between the pattern pieces.

 

princess of the forest

So I am at a new school now, studying tailoring in Uddevalla, direction woman.

I wanted to share some pictures I took last weekend of my friend Bella in my raw hide crown and a lace dress I made.

 

medeltidsveckan 2011

Promise to say Hi! to me at medeltidsveckan if you see me.

 

The striped kampfrau

This year is the first year in my life to go to Medeltidsveckan (medieval week) on Gotland and since I have NO medieval clothing what so ever this spring have been very much about making a few outfits for me to wear. My favourite fashion turned out to be the German kampfrau fashion. It just fits me so well and I just love it and I am well in the way of making my first dress.
But I just had to convince Bella (the girl in the pictures of my last post) who is also going to medeltidsveckan for her first time that she totally needed to be a kampfrau to. That was SO easy especially as I offered to actually sew her outfit for her and that it could be black, striped and not that colourful. She does not wear colour that much and sticks to the black outfits with mixed in grey tones.

The outfit is very much inspired by this painting by Bonifacio Veronese from around 1540

So what I made for her is a three part outfit; skirt, blouse and a bodice. All machine sewn, historical accuracy was not the important thing but a pretty dress that when worn looked correct.

The blouse is a really simple one, made up after a pattern you can find here (is is in Swedish)
It is made in a nice white linen fabric from Medeltidsmode, they have the best collection of wool and linen fabrics I have found in Sweden so far, and the woman who runs it is so nice and really cares about her customers.
The neck and sleeves gathers with a cord, so super simple but still nice.

The skirt is made out of wool, also from Medeltidsmode.se, it is just strips that have been sewn together to form the skirt and then pleated onto a waistband, the skirt is lined with the same linen fabric as in the blouse. I know that it should feature a under skirt in stead of a lining, but Bella wanted a low maintenance outfit, so I decided on less thing to put on is a good thing, so therefore a lined skirt. The waistband is really thick due to the many layers of wool.

Another thing that is not accurate with this skirt is that it features a hidden pocket in the opening of the skirt, Bella wanted a safe pocket to put her phone and money in.

I bribed my little sister to model Bellas skirt and blouse for me “if you do this you can borrow my red nail polish”.

The bodice was to small for my little sister so you just get to see it flat on my bed in stead.It is made out of wool and lined in linen.

It has a hidden lacing in the front, spiral lacing of course and reinforced with two strips of flat steel boning. Ignore the wonky seam on the side of the boning, I stitched in the ditch in the front and that is how it ended up.

To not make it gap when worn, is is fastened with small stitches here and there in between the lacing.

Detail of the sleeves.

It have been slashed at the elbow.

And this is how it might look when worn, the front looks uneven but is is not, I was lazy and only tied the bodice together with a string in two of the holes and because it is spiral lacing it goes uneven when just tied in two holes. Better pictures will probably be taken in week 32 at Gotland so you will see the finished outfit on Bella after that.

 

the bone dress, or the Mucha/Gaudi dress

In school we had a project where we should find an architect/building to take our inspiration from. I have had a picture of Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí in my inspiration folder for ages so I choose to go with Gaudí as my inspiration. And then down the road in the research process I found Mucha, how could I have missed Alphonse Mucha for all these years.

I wanted to use the bone like pillars that hold up Gaudís buildings and the draped fabric and flowing hair of Mucha to make a dress.

paper bones to play around with the bone design.

several toilles was made to make sure that it fitted my friend Isabell that had promised me to model it for me. It is interesting that a small bust is in need of so much work with the toille, and that that work is in such a different way from a large bust which is what I normally work with.

The bones that I used is chicken bones that is leftovers from a bunch of nice meals. They have been cooked and cleaned and here they are drying, later I painted them and lacquered them. I could have bleached them as you normally do, but chicken bones are so brittle so I did not want them to be more fragile then what they already was.

To be able to sew them onto the dress they have been filed down to be flat on the backs and thinner and the small holes was drilled to enable the sewing.

The top of the dress is made out of white leather that is prepared with a new kind of tanning process called “wet white”. It is a organic tanning process which is much better for the environment than ordinary chrome tanning. Where chromed tanned leather can make it’s wearer allergic and is highly environment damaging, wet white leather can be recycled and it can also used as fertiliser if prepared right. Another plus is that it comes in white naturally, chrome tanned leathers are grey, vegetable tanned leathers are a really light brown at best. To achieve white the leather these must be finished heavily which makes it loose a lot of leather character and almost always turns out looking like plastic.
Another plus is that it is not as sensitive as vegetable tanned leather, I was able to press the seams with with a hot iron, something that a vegetable tanned leather really do not appreciate.

The leather is amazingly soft and drapes just like fabric, it is truly amazing. One downside is that people do not think it is leather at all due to it looking so soft and white without a coating.
I have lined the top part of the dress with cotton coutil, to make sure that it holds the breast in place and do not stretch the leather and making it to big.

The bottom part is a really light and see-through silk fabric and the skirt has about 8 meters of fabric in it, I wanted it to be light and flowing.

All the pictures are taken by me in an abandoned house that is just around the corner from where I live, click them so see them in a larger format.
Model: Isabell

 

bära bäras

not 100% sure how to translate the title of the project, “bära” is Swedish for carry, but also to wear, and “bäras” is to be carried, oh well we’ll just leave it at that I think. This is the big project of the autumn.

So this project was about being inspired by a character or a fairy tale/folklore, and then make one garment for protection, one practical accessory  and one jewellery for beauty.

This is what I wrote about my work:

One reality
I have picked the best from fairy tales, folk costumes and turn of the century (1900). To reflect on a person from my world, “make pretend land”.

My reality created to be worn in your reality.

This is how it looked at out exhibition, at least my corner.

I decided not to pick a specific fairytale or person but to make my own character and I also wrote some text to it and made an actual book that I illustrated.

Once upon a time there was a girl that had no clear place in our world.
-Home is where my heart is. She said to the white bunny.
-The life of a rose seem so dull, a rosebud is always forced to become a rose. What if actually want to become a dandelion?
- A rose is never just a rose my friend. There are not two roses that are exactly the same; they are all different extraordinary individuals.
Answered the white bunny.

She was a traveller, always on her way somewhere but never in a hurry.
Taking the time to see every flower and stone she passed on her way, always willing to take a break and lay on her back and listen to the world around her.
-Dear Mr. Fox, I do so wish that one could take a photograph of a feeling. That way one could go back and feel the same thing again and again. That way one could always be happy.
-If that was possible, some people would always be sad my dear friend. Said Mr. Fox

She was a peaceful being both in her mind and heart. Always trying to treat all beings with respect and curtsey
-Dear Calf, sometimes I think that everything around me is moving so fast. That people are living their lives only to get to the next day, weekend or year. How do the people have the time to even breathe today when they are so stressed about tomorrow?
-Yes Dearest said the calf. Very many people in our world need to learn that today is just as important as tomorrow. That living everyday full out and not just live to come to tomorrow is important. You can never get back a lost day, living everyday gives you the opportunity to actually live a full life. If one is not careful one will perhaps end up with having lived only half a life.

-Dear foxes, I am so truly happy. Here we are with the opportunity to lie on the grass and breathe fresh air. There is nothing more in life that I wish for than happiness.
-We are fortunate in this part of the world to have that opportunity. Remember that not everyone is as lucky as we. Answered the foxes.

Only people without imagination escape into reality

And here are my pieces, I did more pieces then what we were asked to create.

A bodice made out of 1,5mm vegetable tanned leather that first have had a lace fabric pressed into it with a hydraulic press and then colours and distressed.

The coat is made out of wool and have a skirt that one can drape if one want it. It also have the same kind of leather that have been through the same process as the bodice. The leather parts have been hand sewn onto the coat.

The dress is made out of cotton have have a lot of different lace sewn onto it. It is meant to be like a diary, that the lace have been collected over time and that the dress is not finished yet.

The bracelet is made out of two silver spoons and leather. I wanted to use metal in my project but as I don’t know anything about working in metal I chose to go with the theme of collecting things.

The glove is made out of wool and is edged with white rabbit fur, the embroidery is also in wool and the motive is inspired by Scandinavian folk costumes

The fox collar is made out of a real fox. It is a wild Swedish fox hunted by a Swedish hunter, it does NOT come from a fur farm.
I understand that fur upsets a lot of people, I understand peoples reasons and I probably shares a lot of those arguments. But I ask of you not to scream murderer at me or write abusive things to me about it. This is a animal that have lived happy in the forest all its life and is is shot by a trained hunter. Please understand that hunting does not work the same way in all countries, keep in mind that Sweden is a small country and that we have very strict rules about animals and hunting. And because we are such a small country it is so much easier to enforce the laws then for example in such a big country as the united states.

The face had been destroyed in the tanning process so I decided to embroider the face with small glass pearls in stead. Every pearl have been sewn on by hand, one at a time. The fox have also been sewn so that it lays again the body in a good way.

 

a whole bunch of dresses, and some more

I am really LOUSY at keeping this blog updated, sorry as usual, but at least I KNOW I’m lousy at it.  ;)
But I bring lots of new photos now, because it is not like I haven’t done anything during my blog silence.

So I begin with the striped dress.

This dress is made out of striped stretch tulle, really nice and heavy thing, not all that stiff as tulle use to be. And there were a LOT of ruffling involved in this dress and a lot of fabric, about 10 meters of fabric, that is about 10,9 yards

The hem of the dress is about 22 meters (about 24 yards) totally crazy!

The good thing about the tulle is that you don’t have to hem it at all, the edges stay clan and crisp anyway.

Another good thing about the dress is that since it is only made out of tulle, one can have it all year round.  It is cool in the summer with just a under dress or as this, with a polo and wool tights in the winter.

On to my favourite dress at the moment, a long maxi dress with empire waist.

The top of the dress is made out a tin wool fabric, I just love this fabric it is so thin that you can wear it in the summer and since it is wool you do not have to wash it at all, one just needs to hang it out to air and it becomes all fresh again. Wool is really a fabulous material.

The bottom is a thin cotton fabric.

I got this fabric from a old lady who had bought it in when she was young, I just love it.

The buttons in the back is covered in the same fabric as in the skirt.

As I liked the long dress so much I decided to make a short version of it to.

The skirt fabric is an old curtain.

I miscalculated the skirt part so it ended up to tight, so I solved the problem by putting in a half circle in the back, made out of the same fabric as the top.

I need more casual dresses so I made this one.
It is made out of jersey fabric for the top and the bottom is actually a skirt I have had in my wardrobe for ages but never use.

The jumpsuit is something I wanted to to last summer, but never got around to it. It is made in a wool fabric, but a thicker one so it is a bit to warm for summer, but good for rainy summer days, or autumn, this will be GREAT this autumn.

One can pull it up to, then it looks just like a dress.

As I don’t have a serger at the moment I’m encasing all my seam allowances in bias tape, I love how clean it gets

The last dress was something I made for myself but that I miscalculated so gravely that it ended up being something like three sizes to small, it just sat really funny on my body.

My dear little sister was nice and helped me get some nice photos of it.

It is made out of a thin viscose fabric and a lot of satin bias tape.

The inspiration to it comes from the 18th century “chemise a la reine” and one can choose where to tie the removable band, in the waist or under the bust; wherever you feel like.

The chain in the back prevents the dress from falling of the shoulders due to the low back and the full sleeves, it is totally removable to make washing easy.

Late nights when I try to sleep but can not, I sometimes make these small notes on sewing for myself to remember good ideas that would disappear after a good nights sleep. This note is about how to sew the ruffles onto the dress so that the raw edges gets encased at the same time.

And at last, I remembered that I had not yet showed the smocked leather belt on a real person yet, so here you have it on a body!

 

I took a deep breath and dived down once again

Into the 18th century!

So I have been quiet for some time, school starting again and a new year to, this new years resolution, sew and wear more dresses the same as last years.

So what is all this about 18th century, well but yes, I had that grand plan about the green Madame Pompadour dress last winter, but it was to much money for the silk, not the right colour was anywhere to be found and it all ran out in the sand.
But an internet friend showed of her new pink robe a la francaise and I totally fell down into the deep sea of 18th century clothing. Last plan was a robe a la francaise, this time I’m going with a robe à l’anglaise with zone front and different coloured skirt (and zone front to) this way I don’t need to buy all the silk at the same time, smart thing right :P

So first I needed to finish my pair of stays I started February last year but never finished. The only thing left was to deal with the shoulder straps and bind the top. The shoulder straps did not work with my body and the issue seemed hard to deal with at that time, I was just to lazy. So yesterday I researched the internet for a while looking for sources for pair of stays without the straps, since I have seen people do them before so I hoped that there were some historical sources to support that. I found a bunch of drawings and over at http://www.laracorsets.com I found that her two oldest corsets both had no straps.

So I just chopped my of to! It took about 1 hour to take out the steel boning and trim them to new lengths, cut of the straps and some of the back and then bind it.

And then I needed a pattern for the dress.
I had gotten a new book this Christmas it was “A History of Costume” by Carl Köhler and it actually had a diagram over exactly what I needed, the diagram was easy to follow and it was easy to draw a pattern from, I just needed to fix it to my size but that was easy to. After one mock up I had a nice bodice to work from.

Then I made a makeshift bum roll out of scrap fabric and pleated some fabric to see how much I might need for the “over dress” part.

I am making the dress “en fourreau” so ignore the incorrect shape of the “tail”, It will also have more seams in the back but since they are not shaping anything I ignored them in the mock up.

 

2009

So one is supposed to summon up the year that have passed and here comes my 2009

January

I came up with a new version of my burned books necklace, did some embroidery. I started on a pair of stays and pocket hoops but it took me quite some time to finish them up.

February

I made a steampunk inspired shirt, finished my striped jacket, became 21 and therefore made a cake, posted my panties tutorial, printed on fabric, made a gray wool dress and thought that I would finish the pair of stays soon. (it is not done yet ;))

March

I started march out with making a summer dress, then I made another dress to, I had a mini photo shoot all by myself on my balcony, I covered a corset in vintage buttons, I posted my “Victorian skirt” tutorial, I made more pretty necklaces, I wrote about the school I studied at and I also made some bows and purses.

April

I made a rag rug, my sister turned 13 so I made her a cake, I was busy working with a final collection in school, I entered a competition and won my own sewing machine and I started to weave damask a technique that I totally loved.

May

May was a bad month for me, my father passed away and that made me tired and I had no energy, to be able to keep the school work up I did not tell my teachers or classmates about it either, I had no time for being sad or being treated different since we were at the end of the term. I did some some things this month, I posted a tutorial on how I sew my corsets which is the thing that is most visited post in my entire blog and I covered a second corset with buttons.

June

This month was mostly about dresses! I made a swim dress, we had a fashion show in school, I made a organic cotton jersey dress, I started on a new damask fabric, I made a dress for my fathers funeral, I made a dress out of the damask fabric I made, I made a dress with cherries on it, I made a carpet bag and I finally got around to taking pictures of the finished panniers.

July

I worked all of July so there was not really a creative month for me but I managed to make a tutorial on how to make a balloon skirt, drafted my first corset pattern for someone else then me and I also made steampunk hearts.

August
I did not make anything this month, but I moved and started a new school.

September

This month I did not make anything either, I felt bad about it and made a tutorial on how to make a pencil skirt and a tutorial for a really simple skirt.

October

My new school started in the end of august but I ha no time blogging about stuff until October, crazy crazy but fun fun! I tried out hands on new machines, made a leather rose, I made a green dress, I started on and almost finished a striped corset, I learned leather working techniques and how to colour leather, I made a wool balloon dress that became my definite favourite this year, I made a apron out of moose leather, I started some projects I never finished as this ruffle petticoat and this wool dress and I tried my hands on book binding.

November

Busy in school making stuff I had no time for blogging but I managed to post about how to turn leather scraps into useful things, I also translated my corset sewing tutorial to Swedish and made a peter pan collar drafting tutorial.

December

In December I made a lot of stuff but I have not posted about all I made yet. I did make a Xena outfit for a costume party at school, I did a lot of Christmas related stuff, chocolate, gift wrapping and “knäck”. I also made a gray dupion corset. built stuff out of cardboard, a Christmas dress, I finished the striped corset, I smocked a lot of fabric, and some leather to and then I also bought a kick ass pitcher that costed so much more then I could actually afford as a poor student.

 

Christmas dress

Merry Christmas to you all!

We Celebrate Christmas the 24 of December in Sweden, and open our presents in the evening :)

As a tradition I make a dress for Christmas every year, this year is is a dark green velvet dress.

A balloon skirt and in stead of sleeves it has a cape. The lining is red and I just love it!