Costume plans 2025

 So normally I start the new year with a lot of plans of what I would like to do, but to be honest this year I don't really know. I feel like I have everything I need for historical costumes at the moment, and I don't have a cosplay project that gets me super excited and just wanting to start with it. It's also a fact that money is tighter, and good fabrics are just getting more expensive, and I don't want to just shell out a lot of money for a project that I'm not totally commited to.

Still there are a few things I am thinking about.

A new pair of cuff warmers. I have already started on these. I felt that the cuff warmers that I made in December were a fun project that only brought joy and had me go creative and just do something for fun. The next pair that I'm making I have decided to let them take their time, but I am also going to challenge myself and only use new embroidery techniques on them, compared to the last ones that were made with chainstitch that I feel totally comfortable with. This will be a slow project that I will have on hand to keep my hands busy and when I don't do anything else.

One or two tops/blouses. I was so happy with the skirts and the dress I made in the autumn to wear for everyday. I can't just use skirts and dresses so I have decided that this year I will find one or two patterns for tops/blouses that I can play around with and start making more clothes for myself, this is also a challenge for myself to buy less readymade clothes.

Female tusken. This project has been on my project list for so many years now, but now I have decided that I will finish it this year. To be honest I don't think it's much more than a full weekends job left, I just need to commit to it.

A lengberg bra and supporting underkirtle. For historical projects this year I need to make myself a bra, and then of course I want to make a lengberg bra. My breasts have changed a lot with my weight loss and I need the support, at the Medieval Week I also bought a wonderful undyed wool to make a proper underkirtle.

Toadette. Yes I want to make Toadette as my next SuperMario character, it would be so fun to just run around in it. For me the most complicated thing would of course be to make the hat, but otherwise it looks like a fairly simple project.

For my husband. For my husband I would love to make a proper schaube to go over his 16tth century clothes. This needs to be a discussion on if we want to invest in that much new wool that would be needed to make it good. I also want to do some fixes on his landsknecht uniform but that shouldn't be too much work. 

My 2024 costuming year in review

 So it's time to look back on the year and see what I have made. When I think back to this year it feels as if I didn't do a lot of things for myself, since my main focus was on my husband's landsknecht costume, then I realise that I still got quite a lot of things done.

This is my favorite photo of us from Medieval week in Visby, which was my main costume even this year. I made all the clothes that my husband is wearing, I remade my pink gown totally and I am wearing a new hat and new socks.

This was another of our events, a 1524 evening feast, and here I am wearing my blackwork cap that I finally finished and a whitework apron that was also totally new, and my husband got a new pair of hose more fitting for a burgher.

When it came to my cosplay, rather than 16th century, projects I did make my winter version of Princess Daisy from Supermario.

It was a fun and cozy costume, but my computer was dead when I made it so I never got to post any in progress posts about it.

With my changing body after my gastric bypass I could make a comeback with a lot of my older costumes.

In May I once again wore TFA General Leia at ComicCon Summer in Stockholm

And both at NärCon and Bokmässan I wore my admiral Daala

Bokmässan, which is the biggest literature event in Northern Europe was a new experience, and the most fun part was that I could share it with my husband, who was there as a writer.

Then, as is quite usual I think, in the autumn some new unplanned projects came along. I got the chance to patten test the new 1916 Seatoun skirt from Scroop patterns.

It was fun to dress up in 1910s fashion again, it is one of my favorite fashion eras but I simply don't get the chance to dress in it enough.

I also started to make everyday clothes, something I haven't done a lot of previously, but I started with the Summit dress from Scroop Patterns

And after the Seatoun I also made both modern versions of the skirt pattern, the Tara with and without pinafore.

I also made some small things for the HSM 24 challenges, that I have posted about in a previous post. So all in all it was a pretty productive year, even if I am missing the big impactful costumes for myself, the landsknecht was pretty impressive though.

The HSM 2024 recap

 This year I managed to finish all the challenges for the Historical Sew Monthly. Of course it helped that I had a big project, my husband's landsknecht, that I could use for many of the challenges, but it was still fun.

Here are links to this year's challenges

January - Just peachy

A new gollar

February - Seasons of fashion

A quilted petticoat

March - Made to move

A generous apron

April - Colours of nature

A pair of trossfrau socks

May - New Clothes from old

The pink trossfrau gown

June - Up your sleeve

A landsknecht doublet

July - Always in style

A pair of 19th century mittens

August - stripes and dots

A pair of landsknecht hose

September - New stitch in town

A docken barret

Oktober - UFO spotter

a blackwork cap

November - worn by all

A pair of short hose

December - That's a wrap

a whitework apron

All in all the HSM challenges have been firmly planted in my 16th century wardrobe, and even more in my husband's wardrobe, and the theme has really been pink and red. One thing I have learnt over the years with the HSM though is to not plan too much, if I have projects that fit with a challenge that's fine but I don't really go out to find projects in order to fit them with the challenges, well maybe the mittens this year was a case of what can I do that will fit the 12th and final challenge. 

The Historical Sew Monthly is a great community and I am happy to be part of it. 

HSM challenge 7 - always in style

I did it! This year I actually completed all 12 HSM challenges, I think that is the second time I have managed that. The final challenge that I needed to finish was the July challenge - always in style

Make a garment or accessory that is appropriate for more than one historical period… or even a historical piece that can be worn with modern clothing! (Note that the piece should still be ‘historical’, not just ‘historically-inspired’

In order to come up with what I should do I started thinking around. I did just finish a shift that would work for several historical periods, a shift that I had forgotten about and found in a box with just the hemming of the neckline left, but that would also be a bit boring. Then I started thinking about mittens. My wrists are always cold so I have an assortment of cuffwarmers, but I can always use more. Fingerless mittens have been used a lot. I have made a pair of long 18th century ones and some folk costumes in Sweden still have them as an accessory. This autumn Lina Odell also released a book all about doing embroidered mittens with inspiration from folk costumes. Now for the HSM challenge it should be historical and not historically inspired, still I didn't copy a specific pair but rather used several historical parts as an inspiration.

Photo by Hilding Mickelsson/Hälsinglands museum, cc-by-nc

Most preserved mittens seems to be black with silk embroideries. I was sure that I had some black wool, but I was wrong, so I was really happy to find this example of a mitten that was made in another colour.

Photo by Hälsinglands museum, cc-by

This pair of mittens has a typical pattern, made with silk and using satin stitch, stem stitch and herringbone stitch, in Swedish plattsöm, stjälksöm och flätsöm. The mittens also has a pointed tip that is folded back and shows a silk lining.

I started with taking a pair of mittens that I use at work and simply trace it to make a pattern. This is a very simple design, just one seam and a hole for the thumb rather than a sewn thumb. The shape has come from several years of use and molding to my wrist and hand.

I cut out the pattern in a scrap of wool and added the point at the top. I also drew out the base for the embroidery, deciding not to be too accurate but instead being ok with not totally symmetric and perfect pattern.

Most of the embroidery actually felt like just doodling with needle and thread, rather than with a pencil. I didn't have any silk so I used cotton, in the colours that I had at home. I also used mostly chain stitch, which is also a common stitch in folk costumes and that I am simply better at than stem stitch. I also used satin sitch. The raw edges were folded under once and also attached with more chain stitch.

The backsid of the mitten with the simple green row of chain stitch. The most tricky part was actually to attach the point in the right spot. For the lining I used a scrap of poly brocade, that is an historical pattern. I was a bit dissatified with the placement of the point, it didn't end up as centered as I would have liked.

Me wearing the finished mitten, that I also now use at work instead of the old grey ones.

The finished pair of mittens. Compared to the originals I have simplified the design, but I also now want to make more pairs that are more inspired by historical examples. It would be fun to have a pair inspired from my mother's folk costumes, which have a lot of circles and flowers in chainstitch and one inspired by the embroidery on the cap and bag for my own folk costume, which has a flowers in chain stitch. All in all it was a fun project and I can definitely see me making more of these out of scraps of wool.

What the item is: a pair of mittens from the second half of the 19th century
How it fits the challenge: The mittens are from the 19th century, but I am using them with my every day clothes at work
Material: 0,4 m wool
Pattern: my own
Year: ca 1850-1880
Notions: cotton floss
How historically accurate is it? 60% - they are not as elaborate and they use cotton floss and poly brocade instead of silk, they are also a bit too long compared to the original.
Hours to complete: Made over a weekend
First worn: to work on December 17th
Total cost: stash project but probably around $6 if bought new

HSM24 challenge 2 - a quilted petticoat

 There is something with the month of December and my creativity. I always end up making projects that I didn't have any plans for and yet I most say some of them also give me the greatest joy because there aren't months or weeks of planning and choices behind them, they are more of "make it work"-projects.

This week was no different. We finally got some decent winter weather with temperatures well below freezing. I talked to a colleague about that I should get myself modern insulated overskirt, quite popular in the winter here. She said that a friend of her had gotten a nice one in wool, and not the regular puffy versions. Well that got me thinking...

And the February HSM challenge is Seasons of Fashion: Make something designed for a specific season, whether that be a meteorological season (ex: winter or summer, or the dry/rainy season) or a cultural season (ex: Carnival, the London social ‘Season’)

I have always dreamt of a beautiful matelasse and embroidered 18th century petticoat. I haven't had the time or energy to make it myself, and the perfect quilted bedcover that I know is out there, has so far eluded me.

The dream

Looking around at digitaltmuseum.se, which holds digital collection from a lot of museums in Sweden including Nordiska Museet, I found quite a few examples of more simple quilted petticoats, called "stubb" in Swedish. Many of them are later, second half of the 19the century or early 20th century, and they are usually quite worn as well, obviously made from pieces that have been patched together.

Petticoat from my hometown of Falun
photo: Dalarnas museum

A common thing between them semmed to be that they are not quilted all the way to the top of the skirt, and some have a nice decorative binding at the lower part of the skirt. 

I decided to make one, I would use the 18th century style, with openings in the sides and tied together with ribbons, but I would do it more in style of the later skits and quilt rather than embroider the fabric. I also really liked the binding at the bottom.

Then it was time to rumble in my stash, and I immediately knew that I wanted to use a quite stiff green wool fabric that I have, since I don't consider it suitable for historical projects, both the stiffness and the colour is off. For the quilting I used an old cover for an ironing board and since that wasn't very wide I also added a fleece blanket for the wadding. On top of that was an old Christmas curtain from my mother-in-law

I definitely left the historical materials for the inside, but again this was what I had at home. I quilted the pieces together with the machine, and then it turned out that the curtain was really good. I didn't have to mark out the sewing lines but used the star pattern as guidelines. Still the wool fabric was a bit short, for a modern skirt it would have worked, but I wanted it to really go to at least half my calves. Time to rummage in the stash again, and now I decided to use a nice 18th century reproduction print that I bought more than a decade ago. I figured that if I really just cut out fairly narrow strips I would still have enough of the fabric to be able to make a nice jacket out of the fabric one day. I used a strip of fabric to the top, and bond the lower edge with the same fabric. I then knife pleated the top, which of course was easier since it was the cotton and not the thick wool, into a lining of the same wool as the main skirt. Finally I added ribbons to the side so that I can tie the skirt around the waist.

The finished skirt, which is an 18th century petticoat, but back in those days it would probably not have had extra strips of the expensive cotton. As a bonus it will work as a petticoat for folk fashion throughout the 19th century, and I am planning on using it on cold winter days as well with my modern clothes. I was really wondering if I would put this as challenge 2 or challenge 7, which is "always in style"

Me wearing the petticoat under a regular 18th century skirt. I loved how puffy and big the skirt got with it.

What the item is: a quilted petticoat
How it fits the challenge: It is a quilted petticoat to keep warm during the winter
Material: 1,8 m of green wool, 0,5 printed cotton for the outer, a lining of 0,7 m cotton felt and wadding.
Pattern: My own, but basically I just cut fabric in strips and pleated to the lining.
Year: 18th century
Notions: sewing thread
How historically accurate is it? The style is historical, but modern construction and on the inside it's all modern mateials so I would say 30%
Hours to complete: 5
First worn: As a petticoat on December 8th for a Christmas fair.
Total cost: stash project, but probably around $60 if bought new

The Tara skirt with and without pinafore

Earlier I pattern tested the Seatoun skirt from Scroop patterns, but to be honest I was even more excited about the modern skirts, the Tara skirt, and especially the Tara skirt with pinafore. I loved my corduroy pinafore skirt that has now become way too large, so it was time for a new one.

I started with the Tara skirt without the pinafore though, since I figured that would be the easiest pattern and I could learn how to make it before making the more complicated version.

For the fabric I used a silk noil from Gårda textil in a pink check pattern. I made it in size 42, which worked both for the Seatoun and my Summit dress, so I guess for Scroop patterns I am a straight 42. The pattern gives an option for flatfelled and french seams, and for this one I used the flatfelled seams. I think they are a bit tricky, and I wasn't able to totally catch the folded fabric in the second seam, especially on the curved seams. 

I made two alterations to the pattern. One was that instead of the narrow turned hem in the pattern I used a hemfacing, following the instructions from the Seatoun skirt. I also raised the pockets. I did that by copying the pocket placement lines from the skirt pattern piece and making a pattern template from it that I then pinned to the skirts and drew new pocket placement lines from. This is also when I realised that I am lopsided, no matter how much I measured the pockets didn't end up level, so in the end I had to use my eye measurement to get them level. 

The pockets are bagging out, which is a feature, and sometimes when sitting down there is a bit of risk of things falling out of them. I also realized that my hips are a bigger size, so it's a bit of a squeeze to get the size 42 waist over them when I get dressed, and in fact I could probably take the waist in a bit but then I wouldn't get the skirt up.

Then it was time to to the Tara with pinafore option, At first I had planned to make the other version of pockets, but I read that one of the pattern testers couldn't fit a phone in them, and I want nice big pockets at work. This fabric was also a silk noil from Gårda textil, but this was stiffer and heavier, it also frayed like crazy. I love how the stiffer fabric holds out the skirt, but it was problematic to work the waistband with this fabric compared to the pink fabric in the other skirt. I cut out the B length instead of the fuller length version and when it was time for the pockets I moved them more to the front and sewed them on flat against the fabric instead of having them bag out like in the pattern, and what I did with the pink skirt. 

For this skirt I used french seams, also a chance to get a bit of variation, and I think the french seams worked the best. Since this fabric was fraying so badly it would not have worked with any other seam. The only thing I changed there was to use a 2 cm seam allowance rather than the 1,5 in the pattern.

If I make another version of this skirt there are some things I would change with the pinafore. I would have liked to have the straps a tiny bit wider, which shouldn't be hard to do by just increasing the width of them. I would also make the pleats on the bottom a bit deeper and add two pleats at the top, to make the pinafore sit more smoothly. This isn't a criticism of the pattern, but simply a fact that we are shaped differently and I could get the fit even more snug with some small changes.. Also when it was time to fasten the straps there are no real directions on how long they should be. I tried them on and sewed them on, but now after having used the skirt for a couple of days I think that I could have made them a few cm shorter. I might take them in a bit, on the other hand it's easy to get in and out of the pinafore when they are bit on the loose side.

Here is my triple of Scroop skirts with the Seatoun, Tara, and Tara with pinafore. This is a straight forward and fairly fast pattern. After I had cut out the Tara pattern pieces it took me two evenings to make the skirt without the pinafore and three evenings to make the pinafore version. I could probably have done both of them in one evening less, but I didn't feel the need to push and stay up late when I didn't have a deadline. Also it didn't help that I did some stupid mistakes and had to unpick the waistband twice on the blue version, and the pockets on the pink skirt also had to be unpicked and resewn on. 

HSM 2024: Challenge 12: The white work apron

 Going through the list of HSM challenges for 2024 I realised that I have project that I haven't posted about, and that would fit with the final challenge "That's a wrap".

December: That’s a Wrap: Make an accessory or garment that is worn by wrapping it around the body.

In september I started to learn whitework embroidery by working on a an old linen apron. I finished the apron in October, just in time for the 16th century party that me and my husband attended. Since it is an apron I wear it by wrapping it around me and tying it in the back, so that's a fit for the challenge.

I also realised that I didn't take any photos of just the apron, or just me, and now I've packed it away for the winter. Anyway you can see the line of whitewok in the botom of the apron.

The Challenge: December "It's a wrap"
Material: An old linen apron
Pattern: My own, I very much used the instructions from the Royal School of Needlework stitchbank
Year: 1520s
Notions: Linen thread, was
How historically accurate is it? Around 95% (all period materials and stitches, I'm just not sure that they were ever combined in this way)
Hours to complete: a month of having the embroidery at hand while watching tv.
First worn: A 16th century party in October
Total cost: This was a pure stashproject and made from a repurposed older apron.