Our Belle Epoque picnic at the Historical Festival at Museum House Doorn

Two weeks before our first Victorian event during summer I decided that I needed a summer outfit. What followed can only be described as a sewing and costuming frenzy, of the kind I had promised myself long ago never to do again. In my defense I have been working on getting my traveling outfit and my son his Belle Epoque summer costume done, which left me with little time to work on a proper summer outfit for myself. More details on the construction etc of the outfit will be described in an another blog post.

For now I'll just share the lovely pictures of the event.

You can find more photo's and the original colour photo's on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DeGracieuse/

and here is a link directly to the album https://www.facebook.com/pg/DeGracieuse/photos/ but than you will be missing out on all the excellent photo's of others I have shared on the page.

The photo's on this blog have been edited using https://photofunia.com/ online editing software, which was easy and great fun. I thought it was a great way of seeing if we had achieved the desired effect/look and I must admit that I am quite pleased with the end result.

A post on UFO's, alterations and repairs.

Hello Everyone, I haven't been bloggin for a while. That doesn't mean I haven't been sewing but I have been busy doing some costume maintance (repairs, alterations etc.) aka the boring stuff! Also I've been trying to reduce my UFO Pile also known as costume time-out pile. I have this bad habit of losing interest when a project takes too long or when I didn't make the deadline (event) for it. To prevent the UFO pile from becoming a hill I start each year with finishing/altering/repairing at least one costume.

Rescued from the UFO pile:

Past Patterns #113, 1899-1900 spectator jacket

Beige canvas jacket (made from our old Ektorp Ikea couch cover) based upon Past Patterns #113, 1899-1900 spectator jacket. I modified the pattern, didn't really know what I was doing and didn't write down the changes that I made. So I guess it's save to say that the problems I encountered where all my own fault. Overall I am happy with the result, although I wouldn't recommend using this thick quality canvas for clothing. To be honest I can't even remember when I started this project! I started working on it because we where thinking of doing a steampunk event. I got stuck at the sleeves and found out that I was not cut out to do steampunk. As I wanted to stay authentic, I couldn't come up with any original idea and I was afraid to end up with a "let's glue some gears on it and call it steampunk" costume. So the whole idea and the jacket got abonded.

Repairs/alterations (the boring stuff):

I have several chemisettes and pairs of undersleeves but I have to admit I am not a big fan of wearing them. So I sometimes sew the collar and cuffs to the bodice. This set I now also have tacked to the outside of the bodice to keep them in place. I don't know if it was done like this in the victorian era but I think it is a very practical short cut.

Same style bodice, different kind of job. Repairing a boning that is poking out. I once bought a synthetic fiber boning casing as it was all I could get in time. It's stretchy, hard to work with and the boning is poking through it. I don't think I am buying this stuff ever again 

There is this one project I am working on, but I am not doing it alone and it's not for me. Last year I helped one of my sons friends make a Doctor Strange costume. This time I am helping another of his friends make Porpetina's Goldsteins grey coat from the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. My son already has a Newt Scamander costume and now they want to Dutch Comic Con together as Newt and Tina. More on this project in the next blog post.

2018 Costume review

Sorry for neglecting you all once again and if you are still here thank you for your patience!

Inspired by several things mostly the #2018bestnine and several reviews of 2018 by other historical costumers. Somehow I really had the feeling I hadn't accomplished that much this year but looking back that is probably because I didn't get round to the things I planned!

It started of as the year of the 1890's green velvet Belle Epoque gown on which I started working on at the start of the year. I took a, planned detour, to make an early medieval gown from 1018. And then 2018 became the year of the 1920's! Not only did I make my own 1920's tea dress but also the three piece suit for my husband. In which I think he looked very smart, even if I say so myself. After that I returned to work on my green velvet Belle Epoque Evening gown and after the soirée in October I made a underbodice to make it suitable for daywear. On top of that I was able to help my son his best friend make a Doctor Strange costume for Comic Con. All in all not bad for a years work, so I end 2018 with a content feeling and way too much ideas for 2019!

I wish you all a very happy, healthy and creative 2019!

Gibson Girl hair and make-up

Here are two better vieuws of my attempt at a Gibson Girl hairdo. It took some practise and a whole lot of hair helpers but I was quite pleased with the end result! Although it does look wierd with everyday clothing. 

As a proper Victorian Lady I didn't use any make-up just some products to enhance my natural beauty. 

These are the things a Victorian lady might have used:

(left to right) ?, burned cloves for my brows, pearl powder as foundation and kajal.

Ofcourse I am way to vain to go to a posh party without any make-up, 

so I did use these. I just tried to keep it light and natural looking.

Face powder, concealer and mascara.

Salon de la Societe Raffinee at Castle Oud-Poelgeest

I had been looking forward to this Soiree since January this year and it did not dissapoint. The Castle was beautiful, the atmosphere was magical and the other guest inspiring! Due to privacy laws I do not want to share the photographs with others in them but check out these photo album on Facebook if you want to get a good idea of the evening :

Salon de la Societe raffinee second edition, photographs by Martijn van Huffelen

Salon de la Societe raffinee second edition Fred lo Cascio


ILike some of you might know I had been not only looking forward to this event since January but also preparing for it since January. So I am extremely happy to finally show you the end result!

Overall I am really happy with the end result although there is a fitting issue with the bodice I would like to correct.

All my inspiration gowns where off-shoulder evening gowns and I made mine so that it would lay on my shoulder. I really hate off-shoulder dresses and I need the bodice to work for a day time event coming up soon. I guess I didn't alter the pattern pieces enough to really make it work. 

I don't have enough time until the next event to take the bodice apart and make the changes. So for I will focus on making a chemisette to fill in the neckline and a pair of sleeves appropriate for daytime. Maybe after I finish that and there is enough time left  I'll make a red velvet bolero jacket and wear the skirt with a white lace blouse and jacket instead.

Summer madness; A Belle Epoque gents summer suit.

This French fashion plate from May 1899 is basically the look I was going for with my husbands suit. When I thought of Belle Epoque/Great Gatsby linen summer suits the color that came to mind was white, creme or beige. 

Like this lovely original 1918 creme linen mohair blend suit, that is for sale on Etsy, that popped up on my timeline  on Facebook when I was working on mine. Serendipity much? 

But my husband isn't someone who like the wear light colors neither am I as a matter of fact. So when I found the blue and gray suits in the French 1899 fashion plate we decided to go for a blue suit and fearing a solid blue suit would be to dull for his liking we decided to try and find a striped blue linen fabric and to avoid the association with pajamas we didn't want the blue to be too light either. While looking we found out that we were also particular about the amount and width of the stripes.

So finding THE right fabric was easier said than done, especially when you don't have an enormous budget. So we where over the moon when we found this half linnen at a local fabric market and being so happy we finally found something I didnt bother to check what the other fiber was. A decision I came to regret later! When we bought the fabric it felt like the right weight and stiffness for a suit but after washing it. It became soft, stretchy and flowy perfectly right for a lot of things but a suit. Thinking I could always use a fabric stiffner later I decided to start on the trousers.

Putting together the trousers went pretty smoothly. I had made the same pattern, Laughing Moon #106, California Pants, several times before so no surprises there. The big surprise came when I tried to stiffen the fabric with fabric stiffner spray. It didn't do anything than I tried the stiffner for the washing machine. It did something, but very little and in patches. Only than I tried to find out what the actual fibre content was... it was half linen alright but not a linen cotton blend but a linen viscose blend.

Ai!

So I ended up using soft or medium fusible interfacing on all pattern pieces for the vest and the coat and on some of the hottest summer days of this summer. Great, really really great....

The pattern I used for the coat is Butterick b6503 Men's Single-Breasted lined coat with back vents aka the Fantastic beasts suit pattern or the Peaky Blinders suit pattern, depending on which fandom you are from., team Fantastic Beasts here!

I will kid you not, making the coat was really tough. Especially putting in the lining was really difficult and in doing so I have made some mistakes that will need correcting later. I was way out of my comfort zone with lots of sewing techniques I had never done before. Fortunately my mother-in-law could explain some for me!

Before you sew in a lining at the hem it is wise to let the garment hang for at least a week. While the coat was hanging I started on the vest. 

Folkwear #222, Vintage vests version A, was the pattern I used. To save time I skipped making a mock-up version and omitted the two top pockets. I went by measurements on the envelop alone and ended up taking in the whole vest a size or two. Feeling the stress of a rapidly approaching deadline I made some rookie mistakes. Which, as long as I don't point them out to you, won't be visible but as I can't unsee them I will probably end up making a new vest eventually.

After a long last struggle with the lining of the coat the costume was finished the day before the wedding of our friends around 17.00 pm. Or at least we thought so...

And then this happend...

The hand stitched welts of the vest pockets came undone after putting in the pocket watch and watch chain. So my husband did some emergency repairs on the morning of the wedding but the end result was worth it!

Eventhough every piece of this costume has to be redone. The trousers have to be (flat)lined to give the fabric more body and stiffness and they have to be taken in as my husband recently lost some weight. I have to make a whole new vest as I switched the front left and right pieces. The lining has to be taken out of the coat and partially replaced and sewn in again I will also add one button. 

For now I am taking a week, maybe two of sewing before I start working on my outfit for our Late Victorian event in December. The outfit still needs a chemisette and sleeves and a winter coat!