A cute summer dress - Burda 6133

 Sometimes it's fun to just do something without a great plan or deadline. Since I have said that I will try to not buy any clothes this year and summer seems to be finally showing up I really wanted a new summer dress. My favorite dress of the last few summers is definitely too big now, I can wear it belted and I will see if I can take it in, so when I set out to buy wadding for project Toad in the only fairly local fabric store, I also decided to pick up something that would make a nice dress.

First I needed to find a pattern. I wanted a base pattern that wasn't too complicated, but still more interesting than just a sack with a belt. I also wanted a pattern that I could see myself modyfing and working with to make other dresses. In the end I went with Burda 6133. I liked the flare sleeves, but I could also see how I could change them for more regular sleeves. The panels in the skirt and the bodice also added interested and I could see how I could combine different fabrics for the bodice and the skirt for example.

I picked up the fabric in the store, and this is what really is the joy of physical shopping. I am normally not very fond of florals, but this was a more modern floral, and the colours matched my har perfectly.

The pattern was a dream to work with. Burda nowadays does a lot of its patterns as e-patterns, so I bought it and printed it. The pieces weren't terrible large, so I didn't have to tape too many pages together at ones, that also meant that it was fairly easy to place on the fabric and cut out as well. The only thing I will say about the pattern is that I didn't see, or I missed the notches for the front and back of the sleeve.

The fit of the pattern was interesting, especially for me that hasn't worked with a big pattern company pattern in a long time. I bought the pattern in the size that I have when buying clothes, which was the largest available for this pattern. Then I took a look at the measurments given, and according to them I should have a size 2-3 sizes bigger, my waist measuremnts was almost 10 cm larger than what was recommended on the pattern. commercial patterns have a lot of ease in them, and in the end the waist fit perfectly. The only thing is that it is slightly tight over the bust. For future use I will probably just use a slightly smaller seam allowance at the front bodice seam. I used 1,5 cm and 1 cm would probably have made it even better. One things about the pattern is that unlike all other commercial patterns I've worked with it didn't include any seam or hem allowances, so I had to add them in myself. For the length of the skirt I used the B length, but I added 4 cm, which made it end up somewhere between the A and B length.

The pattern was really easy to sew. I don't think I even looked at the pattern instructions. The most complicated thing is to install the invisible zipper in the back. The one thing I changed from the pattern was that I didn't close the slit in the front, instead kept it open, and I used bias tape as a hem facing instead of regular double folded hem. In all it took me one evening to cut out the pattern, both from paper and fabric, one day to sew the dress, I then had it hang over night before hemming the skirt and sleeves.

For once I actually took care to make sure that inside looked nice as well, normally I just zigzag the edges on the inside. I want this to stand up to a lot of wear and washing, so for this I encased all the seam allowances. Where I could I used french seams, which is starting to get a favorite seam of mine. It doesn't take much longer than first sewing the seam and then overcasting it, especially on straight seams, and almost all seams are straight on the pattern. Where I could I rolled the seam allowances up and sewed them so that now raw edges were visible.

All in all it was a fun and easy project I can definitely see myself using this pattern more and make dresses in different lengths and with different sleeves from it.

Toad hat covering

 The hats are of course not meant to be white, it was time for them to get a fabric covering. By now the hats had grown so large, both with the raising of the foam and the wadding, so I decided to make a new pattern for the fabric, rather than trying to use the old one.

I simply added a piece of pattern tissue on top of the hat and while feeling with my fingers where the seams were on the inside I traced it on the outside.

Here is a comparison of the original pattern for the foam, and the finished fabric pattern. It is pointier in the top where it will go together, while the bottom is more blunt since that will go to the head opening.

For fabric I used a sports lycra, the kind you use for swimwear. The fourway stretch is very forgiving, and I also liked the sheen of the fabric. When I cut the pieces I didn't add any seam allowance, but then when sewing them together I used 1,5 cm. This was perfect to make the fabric stretch over the hat and take away any bumps.

It still looks bumpy and and uneven here, but that is because I haven't closed the top. I can't do what until I have installed some way of helping with wearing the hat, and I can't do that without my husband since I need to fit that on him. Since I still haven't got the fabric for my own hat that means that I have to make a halt in this costume project. A good thing is that I could just eke out the hat pieces from just 1 m of fabric, so now I know how much I will have to order for myself, since the fabric is quite expensive and I can't see myself using it for anything else I don't want to buy extra fabric just in case.

Raising the hats

 So when I last posted about the Toad hats I had cut them in half because I wasn't happy with the proportions.

The original hats

To make the hats taller I added around 10 cm of a foam where I had cut them up. 

I didn't just glue a piece of foam in the gap, I glued the foam strip to a larger foam strip, and it is mostly that one that is glued to the inside of the hat that keeps the foam strong enough. An unexpected result of this extra piece was that it helped to make the hats more round.

I think the husband actually looks a bit scared of the hat.

The next step was to cover the hats in wadding, to hide all the ridges in the foam. I started with glueing the wadding sheet to the middle of the hat. I used wood glue for this, worked perfectly.

I then folded the fabric over the edges, and where there was extra fabric I pinched it, like when you make a fabric dart, and simply cut the excess fabric off.

With the increase in height and the extra wadding the hats are now quite heavy, so I've stalled the project. I need to come up with a good way of fitting the hats to our heads as comfortable and stable as possible, while also making sure that we don't stress the hats too much when wearing them, or taking them off.

And here are the hats in their current state.

I couldn't even fit the hat in the frame when I took a selfie.

Leksand medieval fair

 Over Ascension day it was the Medieval fair in Leksand and me and my 16th century group in Dalarna were there. For the first time my husband also joined us and slept in a tent. I didn't bring any new clothes, instead this year the focus was on getting the interior of the tent more practical.

This is one half of the tent. The new addition was that I had bought a big basket, where you could put your clothes when undressing, that way they were all in the same spot instead of being spread all over the floor.

The other part of the tent and I am so happy with my new pantry/food storage.

It started out as this bathroom shelf (Råggrund from IKEA). I then covered the sides in a linen curtain. In the shelves I could have everything in plastic containers with good lids to keep bugs and other stuff out. The top pegs in the corners also worked great to hang aprons and handkerchiefs from. It's not historically correct in any way, more of a LARP standard, but it worked and I'm happy with it. I can't do carpentry work, but I am good at assembing IKEA furniture and sewing, so I used the skills I have to make something that cleared up a lot of floor space in the tent and that felt a lot more hygienic.

I was so happy that my husband enjoyed the experience, and he said that he slept like a baby. One thing is sure as much as I like my friend Emma, who I usually share the bed with, it was nice to have a husband (and a lot of wool blankets) to snuggle up to when the temperature dropped to around 4 degrees in the night. The trick to keep the heat was one duvet, four wool blankets a hot water bottle between us, and to sleep in a modern but warm hoodie and flanell trousers set.

Much of my time was spent cooking food. I usually use Leksand to try some medieval recipes that I've made in my modern kitchen, before I make them in a larger scale in Visby. This time there were some success - my homemade gnocchi, chicken in cumin sauce and the fish stew, and some total failures - when I tried to make cheese with rennet and it refused to curdle. 

Keep an eye out on my historical food blog for more information about the food.

Supermario toad hats

 So I am making Toadette and Toadbert for me and my husband, from Supermario.

This weekend our cosplay group had a build weekend, meaning the whole Saturday and Sunday could be dedicated to making stuff, and I decided to start with our hats.

The pattern for the hat was developed from a paper patern for making sphere in six parts. I had previously started with making paper versions to see if I could get the shape that I wanted.

This was me trying to get the proportions right from the paper pattern.

This was the shape that I felt happy with in the smal scale. That V-cut out was very important to shape the top and bottom part of the "donut".

After this it was time scale up the pattern, and I did that in cardboard.

Here are the steps in scaling up the pattern, with the pattern getting bigger and bigger. Then it was time to work with foam. I used 5 mm EVA foam to craft the hats. I started with the hat for my husband, and it was definitely a learning curve. For him I made the V cutouts fairly short and wide and it was hard for me to close them.  For my own hat I made the V cutouts longer and thinner. It was much easier, but I felt that I lost some of the shape that I wanted to have.

This was the final results, but I was not happy with them. They feel too much like hats, or squashed donuts, not the tall rounded shape. It is hard to work with proportions for such a non-proportional character like a Supermario toad, but I defintitely felt that I wouldn't be happy with this. 

So for now I have cut the hats in half in the middle, and my plan is to insert a strip of foam there to make them taller. I am out of foam though so I will have to wait until I can buy more before I continue. I am also a bit worried about the hats staying on. They will catch a lot of wind in this size, and even they feel good when we are standing, i amthinkint that we need to be able to attach them to our heads more securely, but not using a strap under the chin or something like that.

The plan after that is to cover them in felt/soft foam before covering them in fabric to get the finished result.

May the 4th on TV

Last Sunday it was of course May the Fourth, and I hadn't planned to do anything more than watch the latest episodes of Andor. But when Swedish garrison was asked if we could be on TV4 Nyhetsmorgon, basically the biggest morning show on national TV, and I was asked to take care of the talking of course I said yes, I was going to be in Stockholm over the weekend anyway. I chose to go as a pilot, since that is the most iconic costume that I have, except for Princess Leia.

It was fun wearing the pilot again, for the first time in several years. I even brought my best boots, the East German military boots that are both too big in the foot and to small around the calves so I can't walk or march in them, but they look the best when standing or sitting.

They had quite a nice backdrop and even smoke in the studio. I got to talk about Star Wars day the costuming clubs and the charity work that we do.

I was talking and the other troopers looked cool. It was a fun thing to do on a Sunday morning. I

HSM 2025: March - black and white

March: Black and White (2014, 10th most popular): Draw on the opposite ends of the shade spectrum to create something in black, white, or both.

If there ever was a decade I didn't think I would wear it would probably be the 1930s. All I am thinking about with the 1930s are glamourous silk and slinky gowns, and a tall columnar shape, something I definitely don't have. Then I made the Ngaio blouse from Scroop patterns, and decided that I wanted to make a 1930s skirt.

I bought the 1930s day or evening skirt from Wearing History. It seemed simple enough, and I also liked that the period instructions called for a zipper. The pattern is from the later 1930s, when the skirts had started to get wider and less column like. Now the Wearing History patterns are cleaned up version of the originals and you need to know how to sew to use them. I wasn't too happy about this pattern, but I don't know if it's me or the pattern. First off I didn't measure my waist, but used my jeans size, and when I held up cut out paper pattern there were quite a lot of cm lacking for me to get it round my waist. I lengthened that pattern piece, and I also added to the skirt pieces, since I had also cut out them according to my jeans size. In the end the skirt pieces ended up too large, I had to gather them a bit to get them into the waistband. That is probably the reason why the skirt isn't quite as figure hugging over the hips as I would have liked it to be. 

Another thing with the pattern is the length of the skirt. I have short legs so I am used to having to shorten skirts, but for this I had to shorten it a lot. I cut out 12 cm from the paper pattern, before even laying it out on the fabric, and then i cut another 8 cm from the skirt before hemming it as well. All in all I cut out almost 20 cm to get the length I liked. It is a bit on the shorter side for the 1930s, but it is well below the knees. I maybe should have been a bit more conservative when cutting off the fabric before the hemming.

A belt and beret from a second hand store and my new 1930's shoes and I could pretend that I was out at a seaside resort.

What the item is: A late 1930s skirt
How it fits the challenge: Made in black, but with a white zipper
Material: 2,5 m of poly/viscose blend
Pattern: Wearing history 1930s day or evening skirt
Year: 1938
Notions: zipper, hook and eye, thread, interfacing for the waistband
How historically accurate is it? 75% the materials (fabric and interfacing) take it down
Hours to complete: 2 evenings
First worn: For a photo shoot Aprild 26th
Total cost: $40

And as a bonus - here is my original entry for the 2014 black and white challenge

A 1930's blouse for everyday wear

 This year I am trying to go a year without buying new casual clothes. It's not a promise or aim that is set in stone, I just want to see if I can size down my clothing consumption, due to a lot of reasons. Now I haven't been a huge shopper for clothes, but some new dresses for summer and winter and it adds up. I will buy outdoor and sports wear if I need it and underwear and stuff like that though. The idea came in the autumn when I made the Tara skirts, but I then realized that if I want to make more of my own clothes, then I need to step up from dresses and skirts and actually start making tops and things to wear on the upper body. I haven't done much of that kind of sewing , I don't think it's fun to make something that I could just as easily buy cheaper and that wouldn't look so homesewn. I started to look out for pattern that I could use and bought the Ngaio pattern from Scroop Patterns.

I liked that there are no closures, you just pull it over your head, the gathered front adds some interest to it that make it stand out from what you can buy in a store, and it had sleeves. It is inspired by the 1930s, which isn't my fashion decade at all, but I bought it to make clothes for everyday wear.

I had the pattern and then at our cosplay meet on Tuesday there was a box of fabric that said "take home and reuse". Most of the fabric pieces were too small to be able to use for any clothes but I found three larger pieces that I liked. Today I decided to make the Ngaio and discovered that there wasn't enough fabric. One of the fabrics was big enough to get everything but the sleeves, so I started with cutting out that, and then with some piecing I could also make two sleeve pieces.

When I had all the pieces cut out in the grey/floral I used them to start puzzling out on the other fabric, which I actually like even better and was more excited about. I realised I couldn't get the whole blouse out if, so I will have to make the back in another fabric, but that might be in another post.

I spent the rest of the day sewing up the grey/floral. As usual with Scroop Patterns the pattern went together so well, and the instructions were really clear. The sizing is also spot on, I am a size 42 with them, and I didn't do any adjustment for the fit. I made one small mistake in that I have actually cut out two right sleeves instead of one right and one left, but I don't think it's really visible.

The final result is a really comfy and casual blouse and now I feel the need for a nice 1930s skirt to go with it and the other blouse that I have cut out and only need to sew up.

Constructing a 16th century bodice with the bara system

 So I have said that before I make my next bodice, gown, or whatever I need to make a pattern that actually fits well. I wanted to restart from scratch rather than using my old pattern pieces. Since I made my first 16th century gown I had also heard about the magic of a curved front bodice, that can support the bust, and the bara method. 

Well it was time to see what I could do. The first explanation of making a curved bodice pattern was in a landsknecht facebook group, and that started with a modern bodice that fit well, and then you altered that to remove darts and princess seams. Well I haven't sewn a modern bodice in a long time, and it looked just as fiddly as starting something from scratch. I then found this pattern and tutorial on Magnifica Sylvie la chardonnière blog - Research dumping grounds. I will say this even if I personally haven't felt attracted to the SCA, as an historical costumer I am very much indebted to all the wonderful people in that group who share their knowledge freely with us all through their blogs.

The pattern was built around the "bara"-system. I had heard about it and now I decided that it was time to dwelve into it. The bara system is a measurement and pattern system as used in Spanish manuals from the late 16th century. Mathew Gnagy of The Modern Maker has created a modern instruction on how to use it and published patterns based on it. The basics of it is that you use your own measurements (chest, waist, hip and length) and create a tape for each measurument, that tape is then divided into pieces (quarters, thirds and so on) and since it is all based on your own measurements it makes it possible to make a proportional pattern only using those four tapes. He explains everything in his book "The Modern Maker volume 2"  I also bought volume 1, since I didn't quite understand which one was best. Volume two is all about creating the pattern and lets you set up your own bara system and then use that for several patterns, the volume one is about construction one specific garment, a man's doublet and has more information about the construction of the garment. There is also a volume 3 that is all about the handsewing techniques needed, but I haven't bought that one (yet). In order to make your own bara and understand the pattern drafting you need to buy the Volume 2. 

So on Sunday me and my friend Emma set out to create our bara measurements and make a bodice pattern.

Creating the different bara tapes was quite straight forward, but it was good to have one person doing the dividing of the tape, and one person reading what should be done and then mark it. When doing the third tape it happened that I said "I know what's next", and then Emma said "no, it's this step".

There was one measurement we had a problem with, but thankfully the Research dumping ground pattern had a mathematic formula that we used to calculate it. Then it was an issue of measuring and drawing out lines and connecting the dots. The one issue we had from the bodice pattern was how to find out where to put the waistline on the front, but with the help of the book rather than the pattern we figured it out.

This was my first draft of the bodice, and it is the best bodice pattern I have made. If the plan was to make an overgown I would just have scooped out the neckline and made the armholes larger (I hadn't been too careful when drawing them out so that they ended up small has more to do with me than the pattern).

I want this to be a bust supporting underkistl though, so I needed to get it tighter. To help with the fitting I added a zipper in one of the side seams, so that I could really sew the front closed, and not just pin it to fit. I definitely needed my husband to help me close the zipper, so even if I do the fitting myself it is a two peson job, and knowing that I should probably have put the zipper in the back so that I could fudge with the side seams as well. During this process I also decided that this kirtle will have be closed in the sides, since I haven't done that before and I hope that will help with creating a smooth and supporting front. I am also doing the fitting over a thin cotton top, since the kirtle will be worn over a shift. The most important thing is that you get a really tight fitting band under the bust that acts as a bra band, and will keep everything else from riding up or down. I could take in around 2,5 cm on each side at the front jus under the bust to get that fit.

My main issue so far is wrinkling over the bust. It starts just over the the tight fitting band. I am starting to think that when I took my chest measurements, I did them too tight, on the other hand all the measurements except the main bust, that is built around the chest measurement fits really well. 

Hee is the first bodice pattern, with an adjusted armscye and neckline, tigher under the bust, you can see the seamlines moving inwards.

Here is the origional paper pattern to the left and the new one to the right. There is a very visible curve outwards over the bust. The next mockup will use this new pattern, and I might also adjust the sideseam to get some more room over the bust

And here are the front and back pattern pieces, I have done no alterations to the back piece since it fit perfectly from the start. I really want this to end up perfect and I am almost there, so I will take the time to make more mockups before cutting out the real pieces. It is already a lot better than the bodices on both my pink gown and mustard kirtle though,

Female tusken photos

 So as usual it was so much fun finally being able to try your new costume for the first time. The weather was lovely, so I brought my husband and decided to go to work for some photos.

It was fairly easy to get into the full costume, even if it of course helped to have someone help you with things like holding the gloves and wraps, since those are put on after the mask when your vision is quite impaired.

After the more formal photos it was time to have some fun with my tusken baby

Taking the costume out for a spin, before it's time to actually wear it to an event is good. For this I learnt that it's quite light and comfy, and I feel more mobile than in my old costume. A bad thing though is that when I lift my arms the bodice of the undergown shows, that's in another fabric than the skirt. I need to fix that someone, but since the skirt is quite long it will probably not be a problem to shorten the bodice quite a lot and raise ths skirt. I also need to do something about the sash and belt that keeps the bag on, I need to combine them into one piece so that the bag belt is always hidden under the sash. The final thing I need to fix is the bump on the back of the skull, I still ned to take in the top part of the hood to make it lie more smootly against the head.

And a final thank you kiss to my husband, who hasn't even seen all Star Wars film, but was nice enough to come with me as a photographer.