A short visit to 1922

 I've started to learn myself to take more and more chances to dress up in historical dress. Yesterday there was the 100th anniversary of the Vasaloppet ski race, and to celebrate it the organizers had decided to make an anniversary race where the participants had to do the race in the same conditions and equipment as in 1922. Since the Swedish covid restrictions were lifted on Wednesday the organizers were very happy to invite the audience to cheer on the race, and to come in old fashioned clothes.

I wore my one hour dress, my handmaiden velvet cloche and a furcoat that I have inherited from my grandmother.

Here is a video of the winner, who finished the 90 km in around 7 hours.

Overall it was a nice little daytrip, and it is always fun to dress up.

HSM20 Challenge 5 - Basic; the one hour dress

It feels like I'm just starting a lot of project at the moment, but I'm not finishing them. For that reason it felt good to make a quick project that I started and could post the result of in less than 36 hours. It was ready in less than a day, but I needed to get photos so it took some more time.

Today I was away on a workshop for doing educational time travel. Basically it's when you take children on a journey back in time and let them pretend what it would have been like to live then. The workshop had a very vague "bring some old fashioned clothes with you" on the invitation. I started thinking about what I would wear, very aware that the people doing the workshop would wear some pretend late 19th century. Then in the invitation it also said that we were going to make a time travel ourselves to 1920. I don't have any 1920's clothing, since it's probably my least favorite fashion decade. Still when I did my regency gown I discovered that a fashion that I didn't really like actually wasn't too bad, maybe it was the same for the 1920s. I decided to make a 1920's frock. I was aware of the "one hour dress" that pops up a lot in 1920's fashion blogs. This is one tutorial from the Closet Historian. Therer are many others out ther if you google "one hour dress".

Since it's still pretty cold here I wanted to make it longsleeved instead of short sleeved, and after some feedback in the Historical Sew Fortnightly group I got assured that it was possible to just lengthen the sleeve part. The one hour dress is a really basic pattern. One long rectangle for the sleeves, one square for the bodice and one rectangle for the skirt. I followed the advice to cut the bodice and sleeves in one piece and the skirt as a separate piece. As for fabric I dug into my stash and found that I had a pretty big piece of linen that I could use. I would have preferred cotton but I didn't have enough of any cotton fabric. I cut out the pattern and had it sewn together in less than an hour. I then tried it on and it felt like I was wearing a sack of potatoes. I was not happy and swore over the ugly 20's fashion. I decided to take it in, and it looked a lot better. I still wasn't happy though, but I finished the neckline and the sleeves and I hemmed it. Then just before I went to bed I decided to remake it again, and take it in a lot more. The skirt part was taken in with 40 cm! and the bodice part was also taken in around 4 cm. In the end the bodice part needs to be just big enough to be able to pull it on and off, there shouldn't be more than a minimal amount of ease over the bust and/or the hips (depending on what's biggest. Too much fabric in the skirt also made it look too baggy, with less fabric it looked a lot better. I think I have added around 20 cm on each side that was pleated into the bodice as close to the side seam as possible. So this is a lesson for big girls like me, it might sound safe to add fabric, but in fact too much fabric makes it look more like a big sack.

This dress meets the challenge because the pattern is very simple and basic, I now also have a basic 1920's gown that I can dress up with some pearls and other accessories, or dress down with an apron. I didn't get any photos but I started out wearing it with a silk velvet cloche and I looked like the rich relative from town visiting in the country, and then for the time travel I put on an apron and was ready to work. I'm still not convinced that the 1920's is a suitable fashion for people with my biody type (XL with a protruding tummy and a big bum)

This was the open air museum that we were at. It's a number of buildings from approximately 1750-1960, even if the last house is mainly used as an office.

One of the houses is furnished like the 1920's. It was still pretty cold so I also wore a long knitted cardigan, and I had knee high woollen socks and a pair of wool leggings on as well. For shoes I used my standard black discrete shoes that I basically use for any time period when I don't have any period correct shoes.

What the item is: a basic 1920's frock
How it fits the challenge: It's the basic look for the 1920's that can be both dressed up and down to fit the occasion.
Material: 3 m purple linen
Pattern: The one hour dress pattern
Year: 1920
Notions: Polyester thread, polyester bias tape to bind the neckline and sleeve cuffs.
How historically accurate is it? The pattern is accurate, but I'm not knowledgeable enough in the time period to know if a dyed linen like this would have been used. Linen was around and purple was around, I just don't know if they were combined into one type of fabric.
Hours to complete: 5 (including the almost total remake)
First worn: March 16 for a time travel workshop
Total cost: It was from stash, but the fabric had probably cost around $30 if bought new.

HSM 15: Challenge 3 - stashbusting, or the handmaiden cloche

When I started planning this year's projects I said that I didn't know what I was going to do for this challenge, but that something would probably come up. Then after the blue challenge I was so happy with my muff that I decided that I wanted to use the remaining piece of fabric to make a matching cape. I didn't feel like I had the time to try and make a pattern and I also didn't really think that any of my fabrics in the stash would be suitable for a lining. My heart simply wasn't in it, instead I'm spending all my time on my gold handmaiden.

Then came my disappointments with the dye results of the velvet. I now had a lot of velvet that is going to go into my stash, and especially had a lot of fairly small pieces. Now pieces that are less than a meter, but too big to just throw away have been the bane of my stash, and I decided to see what I could make from just small scraps of fabrics. To be honest I don't know how I came up with the idea of making a 1920's cloche hat, but then I realised that I could make a handmaiden cloche. Cloche hats with their fitted shape brim are actually not too far off from the hood with a tight underhood and brim that make up the handmaiden flame gown, and since the velvet that I had would be perfect for the flame gown in colour I felt that it would be fun to do a take on a 1920's version of a handmaiden.

For reference, for those of you reading this that might not be familiar with the flame gown, this is Natalie Portman wearing the costume in Star Wars Episode 1.

I found a pattern online, avaiable here and dived into my stash to find what other small pieces I could use for it. Below you can see the material laid out. Two pieces of my velvet scrap pieces, three pieces of linen, I think that might have been the lining for the 1787's redingote or vest, and a small piece of poly organza, that I had used for my dressing up as The Lady of the Mine.

The organza was used as interlining for the velvet and the linen was used to fully line the cloche, I didn't want to have velvet against my hair.

The pattern went together fairly easy, I don't think the pieces are perfectly matched up, but it might also have been that I was a bit too sloppy when cutting the velvet. The linen lining was a lot easier to sew than the velvet. I used a 1 cm seam allowance, and that made it fit really snug but comfortably on me. The yellow velvet was used for the underside of the brim, I was thinking about using a piece of red satin for it to make it more closer to the flame gown, but I have a very pinkish face and bright red would clash with my face.

To decorate the clash I went looking in my stash and only found a ribbon wide enough in a wine colour. I added the ribbon around the cloche and simply folded it in several layers to create a bow/flower on the side. It was finished by a sparkling bead that was probably the oldest thing that I used. It's from a party top that I bought a very long time ago and never used, but when I threw it out I unpicked all the big beads and put them in my stash, and that must have been 7 or 8 years ago, while I was still a student.

I might switch out the ribbon in the future, since I'm planning on using this for everyday wear together with a coat that goes more in yellow/brown/red, the wine colour is clashing a bit with it, which I noticed today when I wore them together. This was a stashbusting challenge though, so I kept to only using things I had at home.

What the item is: 1920's cloche hat

The Challenge: 3 stashbusting

Fabric: 0,5 m silk orange silk velvet, 0,1 m yellow silk velvet, 0,5 m linen

Stashed for how long?: The velvet was just relegated to stash when I failed dying it correctly, the linen 1 year.

Pattern: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Sew-a-Cute-Cloche-Hat/

Year: 1920's

Notions: Satin ribbon (unpicked from a 18th century hat and stashed for 2 year) Sparkly bead (stashed for at least 8 years), regular sewing thread.

How historically accurate is it? Even if the pattern isn't a vintage pattern there are original 1920's cloches with very similar seamlines

Hours to complete: 3 hours

First worn: Today when going shopping

Total cost: It was all from small leftover pieces in the stash.

And finally a bad selfie o me in the cloche.

Glamorous and fun 1920's

Yesterday I was invited to a birthday party with a 1920's theme. It's actually one of my least favorite fashion decades, so I don't really have anything in my wardrobe from the decade. Some years ago I made a ballgown in purple, it was actually the leftovers from when I tried to collect fabric for the first time for the purple travel gown. I was never really happy with the ballgown and some years after that I remember that I had simply cut off the bodice and turned the skirt into a new ballgown. I also remember that my first instinct when I saw myself in the new ballgown was "I've been watching too much of House of Elliot lately". I went up to the attic and found the gown. I took away the longer underskirt and pushed the belt as far down towards the hips as possible, not easy since it was supposed to cinch the waist.

I added some plastic pearl necklaces, a pair of black shoes with a strap and black evening gloves for a glamourous 1920's look.

I'm quite happy with how I managed to style my hair. I am getting better at doing things with my hair and that's fun. Now there are tons of tutorials on how to make flapperstyle hair, and I can't really find the exact videos that I used. I basically washed my hair, parted it to the side and clamped it with hair clips to make the wave pattern. The rest of the hair i put into foamcurlers and then I let it dry. The back hair was looped up in the back and the waves were put in place with a ton of hairspray. I put an elastic silver/black headband over it all. I think I'm going to try and make more hairstyles like this, and practice the finger weave more so that I can get a more distinct weave.

This was a fun dressing up thing, and I am actually surprised on how I liked the style, so maybe there are some good things when it comes to 1920's fashion and I shouldn't totally dismiss it.