HSM2020: Challenge 4 - Local, an 1890s blouse

The theme for the HSM challenge in April is local

Support your local industry and your local history by making something that (as much as possible) uses materials made locally, or purchased from local suppliers, or that features a garment specific to your part of the world.

For that reason I decided to go to the only local fabric store in the area, the one in my neighbouring town, yes I live in a town with any craft stores. So I went to Rosa Huset in Borlänge. I usually don't go there, since I don't have a car, but at the moment I'm taking care of my mother's car. Once at the store I realized that it would be a bit difficult to find good fabrics for historical costumes, it mostly had knitted fabrics and very modern prints, great selections but not what I was after. In the end I found this floralr print in cotton, and since I have been thinkging a lot about 1890s clothing I decided to buy 2 meters and make a blouse or shirtwaist out of it. Now floral prints were not common in shirtwaists, but they do exist, it was a lot more common with white or other solid colours for the shirtwaists. Still I liked the print and wanted to use it.

For the pattern I used my basic bodice that I did for a shirtwaist back in 2015. Since then I have gained quite a lot of weight, but since the pattern was meant to be poufy it still fit, I did add a few centimeters to the center back, but didn't do anything to the front. I also want to be able to wear this blouse without a corset, since I'm planning on using it at work in or 1897 cottage.

I cut out the bodice, and realized that there was one big issue, the neck opening was quite large, and I wanted it to be snug with a high collar. I did add a dart in the center back to see what difference it would make.

The dart was good for shaping, but I woud need to take in a lot more. Since there would be a lot of fiddling with the neck I decided to finish the rest of the bodice first, so I would be able to close the blouse.

The front sides where turned in twice and then I sewed the buttonholes, by machine, and the buttons. Now it was time see what I could do with the neck opening. I started with taking in quite a bit at the shoulder seam, thus raising the whole bodice upwards. I then cut out a collar piece from my TV493 pattern and tested how tight I wanted it to be. When I had a good fit for the collar it was time to match the collar to the neck opening. In the end I added four darts, two at the back and one on each front and that gave me the fit I wanted.

 This is the pattern for the collar, I had to tweak the TV493 pattern, so that there was a bigger difference between the bottom and top of the collar, that was also done with two darts. That way the collar naturally curves out towards the neck, and that helped mas that the neck opening should probably have been even tighter. The collar is quite soft since I didn't use any interfacing, just two layers of the cotton fabric.

 This was the bodice with the collar. Unfortunately the work with the neckline, and the raising of the shoulder seam had shortened the bodice. I might have to add a peplum to it, to keep it from riding up over the waistband of the skirt when I'm wearing it, but I will see if this is ok first.

For the sleeves I started with a sleeve pattern that I had started to workon for my Daisy dress. It's based on my standard short 18th century sleeve, but I had made it bigger to get a puffy sleeve. This was a good test to see if I need to make it even bigger for Daisy (yes, she needs really big puffy sleeves). For the lower sleeve I used the sleeves from TV493. I really like that two piece sleeve that is slightly shaped.

The upper part of the sleeve

I sewed the upper and bottom part of the sleeves and then attached them together before adding them to the bodice.

The final thing was to hem the sleeves and the bottom of the blouse.

The HSM facts

What the item is: An 1890s blouse
How it fits the challenge: The fabric, thread and buttons were all bought in the only fairly local fabric store I have access to
Material: 2m cotton, 11 wood buttons
Pattern: It's Frankenpatterned from the 1911 Dressmakers guide and TV493
Year: 1890s
Notions: thread, buttons
How historically accurate is it? The pattern and shape is accrate. I have used modern sewing thread and it's all sewn on my modern machine. Floral blouses were around, but monochrome was more common. All in all around 50%
Hours to complete: one day
First worn: Not yet, since all events are cancelled for the near future
Total cost: $20 (the fabric was 50% off)

1890's summer photos in the snow

Today my work had decided to do our photos for the upcoming summer and the 1897 miner's home that we are going to have open for the visitors. There were some challenges, like the house not being finished and the clothes not having arrived, and last but not least the fact that the winter decided to make a comeback and there was a layer of snow in the ground.

The lack of clothes was fixed by me bringing my own 1890s clothes, I am planning to wear them in this setting as well. I wasn't wearing the clothes, I'm simply used too much when it comes to publicity and it would be more about me than the character. Also my hair is stil bright pink and red, something that I will change before the summer but not yet. Thankfully we had the great Tilda who came, fitted in the clothes and was a real champion in the quite cold weather, it was also really windy.

She is wearing my Edwardian shirtwaist, a generic skirt  made from a pair of curtains and my timeless linen apron (that I'm using for everything from the Middle Ages until today).

It looks so fun pretending to have a nice and warm summer day, while the crew is wearing winter clothes and there is snow on the ground.

Brown food is good food - a week with 1890's lunches

The last week I was home in isolation due to coming down with some cold symptoms (I feel fine now). Since I was working from home I decided to take the time to actually try out some food that was eaten in the period 1895-1906 in Falun, since the museum where I'm working are aiming to build up a living history part dedicated to that time period. Most of the food is very hearthy and simple with few ingredients.  Since I'm not doing hard manual labour for me it was definitely enough to have lunch, and then just a very light dinner because I was still full from the lunch. Also my dinners were almost all vegetarian, since the lunches were severly lacking in vegetables and it feelt good to eat something that wasn't just different shades of brown and beige.

The recipes are with one exception taken from the book Dalmål - från barkbröd till björnstek, by Kerstin Ankert et al., but I have modified them to be more suited for one person, and for a modern stove.

Sluring  - a recipe after Anna Johansson, wife of a brewery worker,  in Falun 1906.

Served with some crispbread and pickled greens

2-3 slices of thick bacon
200 ml milk
150 ml wheat flour

Fry the bacon in a pan and remove it but keep the fat in the pan. Mix the milk and flour into a batter and pour it in the pan. Let it simmer for 20 minutes and stir from time to time until it turns lightly yellow. Eat with the bacon.

This tasted as expected, and I like bacon so it was good.

Korngrynskaka or barley pudding - a recipe after the worker Axel Petterson in Fredshammar 1897

I forgot to take a photo of this dish

100 ml dried barley
1 small onion
1tblsp golden syrup (ljus sirap)
30 g butter/margarine/fat
300 ml milk
salt

Grease a baking dish and pour the barley into it. Chop and fry the onion in the fat until golden. Mix it with the barley and add the syrup and some salt. Pour the milk over it and put it in the oven at 175 degrees Celsius for 45-50 minutes, or until the barley has soaked up all the milk and is soft.
I don't like fried onions in gratins, some of my least favorite dishes in the traditional Swedish kitchen have golden syrup added to them so I was really sceptical, but it tasted surprisingly good.

Kolbotten with sauce

Kolbotten - recipe after Lena Johansson, a miner's wife, in Falun,1906
3 slices of bacon
150 ml flour
150 ml water
salt

Mix the water and flour and let it rest while you fry the bacon in a pan. Remove the bacon and pour the batter into the pan. Put a lid over the batter and let it fry on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, turning it once to make it even on both sides. The result is a quite thick pancake.

Sauce  - a "common dish for workers in Borlänge at the turn of the century"
25 g of fat (margarine/butter/bacon drippings)
1 tblsp of flour
200 ml water
one small onion
chives
salt

Use the same pan that you used for your bacon and kolbotten. Add in some more fat and let it melt. Whisk in the flour and when you have a thick paste you add the chopped onion and water. Whisk the sauce so that it is smooth and let it simmer on a low heat, be careful so that it doesn't burn, until the onions are soft. Add chives and salt for some extra flavour. The original recipe doesn't have chives, but it's such a common herb in other recipes from the same time so I didn't feel bad for using it.

Eat the kolbotten and bacon with the sauce poured over it. You can also substitute the kolbotten for boiled potatoes.

Klimp with mesost-sauce - recipe after Listen Mårtensson, wife of a painter, in Falun 1906

Klimp is basically the Swedish form of small dumpling, it's a great food because it's very cheap and filling. In Sweden it was common to cook the klimp in soup or stews and use them instead of potatoes or bread.

Klimp
50 g flour
30 ml milk
pinch of salt

Whisk the flour, salt and milk into a smooth batter. Boil up a generous amount of water, with salt in it. Take a spoonful of the batter at the time and drop it into the boiling water. The klimp rises to the surface when it's cooked through. It has a tendency to stick to the bottom so it might be good to use the spoon and make sure they can rise up.

Mesost-sauce
Mesost or in Norwegian brunost is a cheese made from the whey, and usually contains some amount of goats milk. It has a sweet taste that is a bit toffeelike. I really don't like mesost, so I used messmör (mes-butter) which is a softer, more mellow spread also made from whey but without any goat's milk.

1 tblsp fat (margarine or butter)
1 tbslp flour
200 ml milk
1 tblsp mesost or messmör

Make a roux from the fat and flour and whisk in the milk. When yout have the consistensy that you like add the mesost and stir it in until it as melted into the sauce.

This was sooooo good, and definitely my favorite dish of the week. I added some chives to the serving.

And finally something sweet to go with all the savory dishes

Bärkaka or berry cake - from a description Selma Ström's Hemma på Elsborg, a book about growing up in Falun around the year 1900.

Spisbröd

25 g margarine or butter
400 ml flour
1 tsp baking powder
0,5 tsp salt
200 ml sourmilk (filmjölk)

100 g frozen berries (or fresh if you have them, should be lingonberries but I used a mix of currants and strawberries)
golden syrup (ljus sirap)

Melt the margarine/butter and let it cool. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the fat and the sourmilk. Take up the dough and use a rolling pin to make really flat round cakes and prick them with a fork. Fry the cakes in a dry and hot pan, around 2 minutes on each side. When they are finished place them under a towel to keep them warm.

Heat the fruit until it's soft and mash it with a fork. Take a cake and spread a generous layer of the berry mash on it and sprinkle some golden syrup over it