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.

Melisandre out at night

 This weekend the county museum, Dalarnas museum, organised "Dalarna fantasy and folklore festival" and for the Saturday evening the Cosplay Dalarna group was inviter to mingla in costumes that fit the theme.

I really just have one fantasy costume so of course I brought Melisandre. I even upgraded my torch with some red LED lighta that I simply hid at the base of the flames. 

The best indoor photo setting was the preserved library of Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. 

I did take a selfie with the best of Selma outside the room.

Most fun though was to take photos outside in the dark, even if it was quite cold in this costume.

After all the night is dark and filled with terrorn.

The Seatoun 1916 skirt

 Did I have the time to thrown in a random project last month? No. Could I stop myself when Leimomi Oakes of TheDreamstress and Scroop Patterns asked for pattern testers for a mid-1910s skirt? Also no. I already have the Scroop Patterns corset, petticoat and blouse for the time period and this would be perfect to get a whole outfit finished. The fashion 1915-1917 with the crinoline revival and swishy skirts is probably my absolute favorite historical era, after all it's no coincidence that I modelled my wedding gown after it. 

Leimomi said that it took her around 4,5 hours to make the skirt, so I figured it would a fairly straightforward project, and it was. It would have been even easier if I had chosen another fabric. I used a very dark navy herringbone twill in cotton, and it was so dark that all the seams simply disappeared. I couldn't see them, which led to me chosing a simpler finish on the long seams and missing some when installing the placket. I really like Scroop Patterns because of the instructions though, they are so so easy to follow and I know that even if something feels daunting I could just take a breath and follow the instructions step by step and I will end up with a nice end result.

The changes I made to this pattern was that shortened the skirt with 6 cm at the hem and I used slightly larger seam allowances on the waist belt. I made a size 42 and my belt ended up 92 cm instead of the 91,5 if I had made the pattern with the indicated seam allowances. 

Another thing that I changed was that I raised the pockets. Mostly to make them reachable for my arms, but it also had the bonus of covering my wonky sewing at the bottom of the placket. In order to mark the new placement for the pockets I simply cut out the pocket placement marking from the pattern and placed it on the skirt until I was happy with where it was, then I marked it on the skirt and sewed the pocket on.

I am wearing the skirt with a Wearing Historys combinations, the Rilla corset, the Ettie Petticoat, my own pattern of a corset cover and the Selina blouse. This combination of clothes really illustrates the changes my body has gone through the last few years. The Rilla from 2017 is size 44 and it is slightly too large now, I had to fully close it in the back and I could have cinched it some more if I could have. The Ettie is made in size 48 or 50, and in order for it to stay up I made a hole in the casing for the elastic and then shortened the elastic quite a lot. This large Ettie was maybe a bit too large to get all the fabric properly under the skirt, it felt a bit bulky, especially since it is starched. The Selina is a size 46 and it definitely feels too big now. The hat is a summer straw hat from H&M that I've simply added a giant bow and some feathers to.

The pattern is now launched at Scroop Patterns and it also comes with a modernised version, the Tara skirt and pinafore. I was so happy with the Seatoun that I have already bought fabric so that I can make the Tara versions to use as everyday wear.

A 1520s master miner/burgher couple

 Since I first started to make 16th century clothing I have wanted to make clothes that could have been worn by the master miners in Falun. Master miners were part owners of the mine and owned their own smelting furnaces where they produced copper, they then sold it. There was a wide variety of economical rank and they can be compared to landed gentry, with some being very rich and some just scraping buy. Over all they can be compared in wealth to the burghers of the towns around the Baltic sea.

My impression of a master miner's daughter back in 2018

When David entered my life I started out with making him a coat, but then we have concentrated more on the landsknecht style, not the least because he really wanted a landsknecht outfit and I mostly do events with the landsknecht group Stockholmsfänikan. 

Anyway this weekend Stockholmsfänikan and Proknekt had a party, and even if it was landsknecht themed, we decided to go as master miners, also because it's October and David didn't want to wear shorts and I felt that I for once could wear my longsleeved green gown without dying from the heat. Also for once I was not cooking so I could wear my blackwork cap and a white apron without risk of putting stains or scorch marks from the fire on them.

I have made a new best apron, that is white and with both whitework and blackwork and I wore my blackwork cap and black furline partlet. For David I had made a new pair of long hose, and instead of his usual blingy hat he got to borrow my red and more simple hat. A good reason to have accessories that you can mix up, and his headsize is the same as mine when I'm wearing a wulsthaube so that works out really well. He is also wearing the hairnet that I am wearing in the top photo from 2018, once again accessories are so good for changing up your costume.

The hose are mainly machine sewed from a quite small piece of wool. I used the pattern for the landknecht shorts but simply lengthened it. I am glad that my husband is fairly short, and still the hose legs just reaches his ankles. I will see if I can piece together the scraps that are left to make them go down a bit over the foot, even if there isn't enough fabric to make them footed hose. I have alsoe piecred the fabric up under the bum and the codpiece and flag that its attached to to make it work. They are held up by being connected to a sleevless doublet, I might add sleeves to it in the future but it is quite comfy to have just the west under the coat. It's up to him to fix a pair of proper shoes though, that isn't something I can make for him. 

A fun and different Star Wars troop

 This year the Swedish garrison was invited to Gothenburg Book Fair, which is northern Europe's largest book fair and a huge cultural event. The theme for this year was "space", so we were invited to hang around and spread some space fun, especially in the area designated for children's literature and the like. 

We had a small booth but most of it was mingling around with visitors, and unlike a comic con and other kinds of science fiction convention I thought this was even more fun, because the visitors were really surprised and it was something fresh, unlike when people are more or less expecting us to be around and show off our costumes.

Since Gothenburg means a long journey by train I wanted to pack light, so I brought admiral Daala. Here I am in the Elsa Beskow diorama, Elsa Beskow is a classic 19th century children's author where the images are as important as the text in a way I guess she can be compared to Beatrix Potter.

What really made me travel though was the fact that my husband, who is an author after all, were there as well, so it was the first fair/convention we could be together. Well I trooped with the garrison, but when my troop duty was over I could change clothes and be with my husband and our other friends who are in working with literature in different ways.

Scroop patterns summit dress

 I rarely make clothes for everyday wear. I simply think that my finishes aren't good enough. But when Scroop patterns released the "Summit dress" I felt that this was a pattern that I really wanted to make.

With my changing body after my gastric bypass last year I need some new clothes. I wanted a new autumn/winter dress. I have also wanted a dress that is  nice and neutral, but gives an air of historical fashion when doing lectures. The pattern is based ont he 14th century Herjolfsnes finds, but with modern construction methods and an option between modern lantern sleeves and historical sleeves, and different skirt lengths. I have made a simple medieval gown by measuring and cutting rectangular and godet pieces, with this pattern I also got a medieval pattern that I can use if I want to make another one, I only need to replace the machine sewing with handsewing and lengthen the 3/4 length historical sleeves.

The basic pattern is a very loose fitting dress. The size chart contains both your body measurements and the measurement sof the finished garments. I was exactly on the size 44, but having seen the tester makes I went down a full size to 42, and it is still very loose. I could probably have gone down another size on the main gown, but then the arms would have been on the small side. If I make this as an historical pattern one day I will probably go down to 40.

With the original pattern there were two things I wanted to change and that was the length and the sleeves. To shorten the dress I used the view B length, but I also shortened it 8 cm by the "shorten/lengthen" line on the lower part of the pattern. I didn't just cut off everything at the hem since I wanted the full width at the bottom. The sleeves, both the historical and lantern version, are 3/4 length, and since I wanted to use this in the autumn/winter I wanted to have full length sleeves. The lantern sleeves would make it hard to wear a cardigan or something over them to keep warm.

I made a quick pattern for where the bottom part is the length of the sleeve opening on piece K - lower sleeve, the lenght is the length of my forearm and the width at the top is width around my wrist. In a spur of th moment I added the point at the end of the sleeve. I added a facing in the same fabric instead of hemming it, to keep the nice point, and then sewed my pattern piece to piece K before sewing pieces J and K together as the pattern called for. 

The finished sleeves

The pattern for the bottom of the sleeve

The sleeve right side out

The sleeve wrong side out, with the facing

The sleeve is just enough wide at the wrist that I can get my hand through, so I don't need any closures there.

I definitely prefer to wear the dress belted, and that also gives some oppportunities to give some pop of colour to this rather plain dress. I usually wear a lot more colours and patterns in my everyway wear, this dress I can match with different belts and thights to keep it fun.

The dress is made up of a wonderful wool/viscose blend that I found at a real bargain online, so in the end the dress cost around $35. The patterns instructions were easy and good to follow, the mistakes that I made were totally up to me being sloppy. The one advice I would give for anyone making the dress is to switch the order and insert the back godet before the front godet. That was the most fiddly part of the pattern and my back godet went in better than the front, since it was the second one I made.

If you are curious about the pattern Leimomi/the Dreamstress and creator of Scroop patterns has one post about the pattern and two full posts about tester makes, here and here. 

And for full disclosure I have been a pattern tester for Scroop patterns and it is probably my favorite pattern makers out there, I bought this pattern with a discount code that I got from answering a customer survey earlier in the summer. This was the first time I made something from its range of modern patterns rather than historical patterns.

Learning whitework embroidery

 After coming home from Visby I have been a bit both worn out from sewing, and restless from not having something to do. All the work I put in with making David's landsknecht meant that I got used to sewing a couple of hours every day, at the same time I don't know what to do right now. I don't need any historical clothing, and also don't have the inspiration to make something that I will just put in my storage, and I don't have a huge inspiration for a cosplay project either. I have made some progress with my female tusken, but when it was clear that I am going to miss the remaining conventions in the autumn I don't feel like putting on some extra drive into it.

So I decided to learn how to do whitework embroidery, and started with drawn work. Now I am not a person to make a sample, I am too impatient and wanted to make something I could use. Since I don't have a fine, white 16th century apron I decided to take the apron that I whipped together last year, but didn't have time to do anything with and add embroidery to it.

I started with drawing away threads, and this was the most fiddly bit.

Now I am unto separating bars of the remaining thread and this is slow, but fairly simple work. Quite nice to do while watching tv.

As for whitework and the 16th century there are definitely examples of white on white embroidery from the early 16th century. From the end of the century there are loads of wonderful, lacy aprons and other examples of drawn threadwork, white on white embroidery and pulled threadwork. I don't want to go for the late century though. The Sture-shirts have drawn thread work on them, and they are from the 1560s. It might be that the simply style was just coming into fashion then.

This drawing of Dürer from 1475 shows a faint line on the edge of the apron. It's impossible to say what kind of decoration it is, but at least a line of embroidery shouldn't be too out of place for the early 16th century judging from this. 

To help me learn the teqhnique I am using some of the books I have at home, but I am also very happy for the Royal School of Needlework's stitchbank with their clear instructions and images.