ComicCon Stockholm 2019

It was time again for ComicCon Stockholm, which is the biggest comiccon-like event of the year in Sweden. This year I didn't bring anything new, but it was the first time I wore Luna Lovegood for a big event, it was also the first time that we had the whole HP crew from Cosplay Dalarna assembled.

Friday is always a slow day. I did a stint as X-wing pilot in the Nordic Legions' booth. I decided to have some fun with make-up though, I mean how often can you wear the green lipstick you got from your sister?

Matching lips and hairband

I finally had the opportunity to meet up with the amazing Britta though, at NärCon I had only seen her in a distance when she was wearing her costume. She is definitely one of the coolest and nicest cosplayers I know.

Saturday was crazy. Simply put they had oversold tickets and let way too many people in. It was so crowded that you could barely move. The queue outside was Celebration-like, stretching for hundreds of meters. It was great fun patrolling the queue though, and it's always fun when you do it in a group. This time there were four of us X-wing pilots going around.

I also had a presentation of the Nordic Legions. It was the same set-up as in NärCon, since I think that works really well. It was a bigger crowd than at NärCon, but also more kids who just wanted to see cool costumes and not listen to the "behind the scenes" of being in one of the big Star Wars costuming clubs.

After the talk I switched to Lune Lovegood for the rest of the day, and had a lot of fun with the HP Dalarna people.

When my bloodsugar dropped I even found some candy that was straight out of Honeydukes

The whole HP gang ready for action

We also made the Heroes Cosplay Walk on, but that was a mess due to the number of people and the organizers not setting a cap on the number of entrants. We got a lot of cheers from the audience though, showing once again that a group is always appreciated.

On Sunday I was in the Nordic Legions' booth as Luna, it was my first official Reel Icons troop. There were a bunch of different characters, which always leads to fun photos, but my favorite was the little girl who came as Luna and wanted to have her photo with me. She got to borrow my wand as well, and she was really cute.

Cape off with Batman

Dancing with Haddock, Tintin, Harley Quinn and Batman

Being confused over muggle technology

This is how it works!

Force vs. magic

Unfortunately I didn't feel very well, I had had a cold the week before, and now it returned. I got out of costume and finally got some good photos of my "I heart SW"-dress that I made a year ago.

I was really happy that I had hitched a ride with Monika and Niklas home, instead of sitting on the train. I then had to stay home from work for a couple of days, but now I'm hoping that I'm finally rid of the cold. Next event will be AvestaCon last weekend in October.

Photos are also from the Nordic Legions' camera, ArtyAnna Cosplay and Tinkky Cosplay

HSM19 Challenge 9: Everyday Wear - the mustard kirtle

The HSM19 Challenge for September is Everyday wear.

 Everyday: It’s not all special occasion frocks. Make something that would have been worn or used for everyday.

I was happy that  I could use my mustard kirtle for this challenge. Even if I am planning to wear the kirtle as an underkirtle for a more grand project, my plan all along was to make the kirtle as a stand alone item that I could wear for more regular occasions, and portray a more simple woman than I have a tendency to do when I only make pretty, pretty dresses.

For all the posts in this project, follow the tag "mustard kirtle" . It is a basic pattern, two side pieces and two back pieces. The lacing holes are bound by hand, and I'm using a lucet cord for the lacing. The kirtle has loose sleeves, that I can skip when I'm using it as an underkirtle. So far I have pinned them on, but I'm thinking about adding lacing holes so that I can tie them on instead.

I wore it to the Medieval days in Älvkarley August 31-September 1. I noticed that it was a very comfortable kirtle, but I am going to tighten it up a bit before I use it as an underkirtle. The straps are a tiny bit too long to support the bust and I can definitely get it more snug. For now though it is a very comfortable everyday kirtle.

What the item is: An early 16th century kirtle
How it fits the challenge: A kirtle to be wear for every day and portraying a working woman
Material: 4 m of mustard yellow wool tabby
Pattern: My own
Year: First quarter of the 16th century
Notions: Linen thread, a 10 cm strip of wool flanell as a hem guard.
How historically accurate is it? It's all handsewn iwth period materials, I'm putting this in the 90% category
Hours to complete: 2 weeks
First worn: Laxöns Medeltidsdagar August 30
Total cost: $130

18th century fun

Today there was a talk about 18th century fashion at the county museum. I wanted to go there, and my friend Emma also wanted to go there, and of course in costume. Emma doesn't have any 18th century clothes, so she arrived in the morning at my place. We could fit her in my desert rose stays, brown pierrot and the yellow skirt I made for my navy anglaise. They all look so good on here, sure the jacket was a bit big, but it worked with some strategic pinning, it only shows how versatile 18th century clothing is. It was really fun to see the clothes in use, since there is no chance that I would be able to fit in them anymore. They are still probably the best 18th century items that I have made.

I was happy to see that I could fit in my full 1787 revolutionary though, I was worried that th coat would be too small in the sleeves, but it also worked out.

After having pomaded and powdered our hair we tried to get some nice bushy styles of the 1780s going. We both realized that our hair is actually too long to make the really good styles, but we did our best. This is actually a lesson, women in the old days didn't necessarily have very long hair because it's actually harder to accomplish some of the styles with long hair.

After the talk, were people also took a lot of photos of us we decided to go out to the 18th century mansion (Gamla Staberg) outside Falun. We were even so lucky that the house, restored to the 1750s was open so we could go in, most photos were taken in the garden though.

Inside the main building

Doing my best to imitate the fashion plate inspiration

This was the inspiration for the 1787 revolutionary

I love my hat even if it's a bit uncomfortable to wear a full day

The best look of the hairstyle. It got crushed by the hat and it's so newly dyed that it's very red even with a lot of powder

Presentation of my blogs

Hi,

some of you reading this might now that I have another blog - Historiekullan. I have lately realized in some aspects Costumekullan and Historiekullan overlaps. This is a short presentation of why I post the things I do in which place.

Costumekullan - this blog. It started out as my cosplay blog, but is now fairly divided between cosplay projects and historica recreation.

Historiekullan - the other blog. This is a blog solely focused on the 15th and 16th centuries in Scandinavia. I post here every other week, and the posts are in Swedish since it is mainly about Swedish history.

Where the two blogs overlap is when I recreate 15th anc 16th century things, not the least when I make food and bake things. Food and baking is also not strictly about costuming, which is the core of this blog. But where should I post when I have made a new 16th century recipe?

I have decided that I will continue to post historical recipes on this blog, a couple of months ago I also asked my followers on facebook if they would be interested in that. I will try and post the recipes in both Swedish and English, since some reading about them may have come over from Historiekullan.

Both blogs are just different sides of the same coin though, my deep love for the 15th and 16th centuries, but in this blog I also share my other interests and try to keep it more personal. If you are interested in Scandinavian history and can read Swedish I definitely recommend hopping over to Historiekullan from time to time.

16th century ginger biscuits have their place in this blog

The finished kirtle

After I had done the bodice it was time for the skirt. I simply used two lengths of the fabric and sewed them together with felled seams. I then did four rows of gathering threads and gathered the fabric.

The gathering stitches are not perfectly aligned, it's good enough that I eyeball them. Do not sew the stitches too tightly, it looks ebeter with fewer but larger folds in my point of view. In the photo you can see both the stitches and when I have started to gather the fabric. For a long piece like this I also prefer to divide the sections, so I don't try to fit the whole width into one superlong gathering thread.

Once gathered I pinned the skirt to the bodice and sewed it on. It is important that you catch every fold that is connected to the bodice. Then I folded the linen lining over the other side and attached each fold on that side to the lining. This not how I've seen it done in other tutorials so I don't know how accurate it is, but it works for me.

I finished the skirt by adding a 10 cm hemguard. Using hemguards is my favorite hem technique. The guard protects the edge of the skirt, and if it gets dragged and worn it's easier to just add a new hemguard. The hemguard also gives the skirt edge a bit of structure that helps hold it out  from the legs. Finally for a hemguard you don't have to calcualte a lot of extra length for the hem, which for me means saving a few centimeters on the skirt and that's not bad when the fabric is expensive. For this hemguard I used a strip of orange wool flanell.

I close the kirtle with a lucet cord made of brown wool. I first though that the wool was too elastic, so I tried with linen yarn. It was great, but I couldn't keep it from breaking after 3 cm. I then made a meter of so with a cotton string, but it just didn't feel right. I went back to the wool yarn, and decided that I could live with the elasticity. All lucet cords are a bit elastic anyway, no matter the raw material. To close my bodice I needed around 75 of lucet cord.

I wore my the kirtle for a daytrip to a semi-local medieval fair on Saturday. I had also made a pair of loose sleeves, using my standard S-pattern. The sleeves ended up a bit too long, but otherwise they were nice. I also want to come up with a way of tieing the sleeves on, and not just pin them.