HSM 2020 : Sewing secret

Earlier in May Marlene that I've met through Cosplay Dalarna shared a photo of her early 1900s skirt and that she wanted to go to Hildasholm in costume. I of course jumped at the idea, since I also have some outfits from the early 1900s. Well then I decided that I wanted to finally make the 1916 outfit that I've wanted for some time, it is one of my favorite fashions. So I quickly ordered Wearing History's e-patterns for the Elsie blouse and 1916 suit, and some fabric for the blouse. I had already found a piece of purple cotton sateen that I could use for the skirt.

Hildasholm in Leksand was the summer cottage for the famous physician Axel Munthe and his much younger wife Hilda, and when they separated Hilda kept her attachement to Hildasholm. The house was built in 1910-1911 and since Hilda was from England it's like a little island of arts and crafts-style in the middle of Sweden. I think the whole house is adorable. I also happen to know their chief guide there, through work, and when I mentioned that we had planned to go there in full costume he got so happy and told use that he would give us the chance to eat and drink in the salon. We had planned to go last week, but the weather forecast was dreadful, so we pushed it to today, even if the weather didn't look promising. We got there and it was quite nice, unfortunately the rain started pouring down when we were walking in the garden, so we didn't get any photos from outside the house.

We had tea/coffee in the salon, and got to sit on the original late 18th century Sheraton set, while drinking from the antique china and using the same linen as the family. The napkins had "AM" for Axel Munthe embroidered on them We were both a bit nervous about using the napkins, especially since we had first gotten a quite messy tomato/mozzarella bread roll.

 During the tour we got to try on some original hats. The black one was worn by Hilda Munthe and the cream one was worn by Swedish queen Viktoria during her visit. When trying the hats on it was obvious that they were made for much larger hairstyles, since the crown was way to big for my modest hairstyle.

I'm wearing the Elsie blouse. I'm not going to make a full post about it, since there are better descriptions of it out there. I made sure to look at Wearing History's youtube videos about the blouse. If I make another version I would probably take it down a size in the front, it's very poofy, and make it a bit longer so that I have a bigger skirtpart to tuck into my skirt. On the indoor photos I'm wearing a cardigan I found at a regular streetchain (Lindex), since I needed something more than a blouse when the temperature was just hovering around 10 degrees Celsius. I had no time or fabric to make the jacket for the suit.

The skirt is the skirt from Wearing History's 1916 suit pattern. I did screw up printing the e-pattern though, since I did manage to print it doublesided. When I realized that the skirt gores were quite regular gores, I winged them and used the same pattern piece for the front and backs, I just added some extra width to the back pieces so that I could get some pleats in the back.

The HSM challenge for September is Sewing Secrets: Hide something in your sewing, whether it is an almost invisible mend, a make-do or unexpected material, a secret pocket, a false fastening or front, or a concealed message (such as a political or moral allegiance).

When I was making the skirt it happened that I realized that I didn't have enough fabric. Thanfully I'm short enough that I could use the shorter length of the pattern, and it was long enough for me. Fo the belt though I just could get the double pattern pieces now matter how I tried. In the end I added a seam in the center back and that way I could get at least one side of the belt in the same fabric as the skirt. I needed somethng else for the inside of the belt though. When going through my stash I had found a quite ugly green linen fabric that I used for the hem facing. Now I started thinking that my skirt is almost purple, and the suffragettes used purple, green and white as their colours. I decided to make a fully reversible belt with the purple on one side and the green on the other side.

So when I go about my ordinary business I can use the purple/burgundey side of the belt, and then I can switch to the green when I want to get political. This also inspired me to make purple trim for my hat. The big buttons are also non-functional, since the skirt is closed with some hidden snaps, also a sewing secret.

As a bonus, when I started working on the skirt I actually took the pieces to the treadle machine in our miner's cottage. And if I wanted to be there and use it, I had to look the part.

It was the first time I tried a treadle machine, and I had problems getting started on it. In the end I did sew the inner waistband on the treadle, but did the rest on my modern machine. Also it was 30 degrees the day I used the treadle so I was basically melting while sitting there.

The Challenge: Sewing Secrets

Material: 2 meters of cotton satin, 0,5 m green linen, 0,2 m cotton duck (for the inner waistband)

Pattern: Wearing History 1916 suit

Year: 1916

Notions: Güterman thread, 6 velvetcovered metal buttons, 3 sets of snaps and 1 hook and bar for the closure.

How historically accurate is it? Around 60%

Hours to complete: 2 days

First worn: On a visit to Hildasholm July 8th

Total cost: Around $40 (If I had bought all materials new, everything except the buttons was from my stash though)