50's style blue dress

My blue 50's style dress is almost finished. I only need to adress a problem with the zipper. I still find it very hard to sew a zipper into a dress and it didn't turn out as good as wanted. Hopefully my husband can solve the problem by hand. The other option is taking the zipper out and trying again.
For the rest I am really pleased with the end result. And as I found out yesterday, while showing the dress to my husband. The dress looks even better with 50's style underwear. My What Katie Did Merry Widow corselet does wonders!

And I hope to turn this earlier version of the top, I made a lot of them before I had the right fit, into a bra.

The pattern I used for the top is from Mrs Depew Vintage, you can find the shop on Etsy.
I think I am going to give one of her 50's bra patterns a try. But first I got to work on my victorian project.

More ladies in bowler hats

I am still on the hunt for images of victorian ladies wearing bowler hats. Even more so because of my recent plans to wear one with my 1885 bustle costume.

Here is one from 1880 out of  la Mode Illustree.
source: In the long run

1900's
source for both pictures: Corset & Crinolines

Awesome picture!

source: Grand Ladies

The young lady on the right is holding a bowler hat.

source: Ebay

Source: Ebay

And the search continues

Anton Pieck Parade 2012

The Anton Pieck Parade will be held again this year in Haarlem on the 8 th of December. It is a victorian style event to honor the dutch artist Anton Pieck. Who lived in Haarlem. I just got the confirmation this week and I am delighted it will be held again. So many great events seized to exist lack of funds. The only downside is that my head immediately filled up with victorian costuming ideas. 


Although my purple Edwardian costume was great, especially the big Merry widow hat. It was a little bit to demure for my personality. I like to make a big impression.

I promised my husband to save time, money, space and stress by not making a whole new costume for this event again. So I have to do like the fashionable victorian ladies did back then. And change the look of my black and red bustle costume. By making some changes and adding new accessories. The idea right now is to wear a different style of overskirt and a new hat. My signature hat with this costume is a top hat. Absolutely fab but very recognizable. I also have a small late victorian hat but it's really not my thing. 

While looking for inspiration I found these pictures of Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holes: A Game of Shadows. 

The hat in the first picture look like this hat sold at Nehelenia Patterns.
The hats in the second and third pictures look like a bowler hat, maybe a little bit modified.
As my husband gave me a bowler hat this year for my birthday this will be my first option.

Blue dress update

This is the last version (6.0) of mock-up models for the bodice of the blue dress. The pattern I used is from Mrs Depew Vintage with some adjustments.Looks promising, doesn't it?

My hands are itching to make it out of the blue fabric. But this week I will be busy cleaning up stuff from the viking event and getting out the things I need for the medieval event. That we will be attending upcoming weekend. So I guess I'll have to be patient for a little bit longer.

Archeon Vikingmarket

It was a really great weekend. The weather was fine, sunny but not too hot. I didn't get round to do any viking whipcording like I had planned. When I wasn't chatting with my friends I was sewing my Frankish dress.

I even did some cooking!

My son had a new bow, his first real bow, not a toy. And if it had been up to him he would have practised with it all day. 

Here he is make dice out of bone. He's becoming quite a craftsman!

Unfortunately this lovely picture of my two men is out of focus, but I love it so much that I am sharing it anyway.

Viking Whipcording

I first saw this technique five years ago at the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum. Although it looked quite complicated two girls where doing it and having a lot of fun in the meantime. We took the explantion with us, but unfortunately it was in Danish. The leaflet got lost and I forgot about the whole idea.

Earlier this year at the Pfingsten Vikingmarket at the Archeon a female visitor complained about all the viking women doing the same crafts. There isn't really much choice to begin with and somehow we always seem to pick the same thing simultaneously. One event everyone is nalebinding the other one everyone seems to be sewing... When I started to thing about a different textile technique I remembered whipcording but didn't know the name anymore. Untill I bought the book Viking dress, clothing by Nille Glaesel.

With our next viking event coming up fast. Remko decided to make me some wooden bobbins.

This is how our first cord turned out.

Here Remko is teaching our son Myrddin the technique.

And like the girls at the viking museum he like make the cord this way.

Time for me the read up on the history of the technique. 

http://www.northernneedle.net/Research/whipcord.pdf

http://www.medieval-baltic.us/whipcords.pdf

Pity that not all pictures load... http://genvieve.net/sca/whipcording-howto.html

http://www.medieval-baltic.us/whipcords.html

Whipcording for one person http://www.eithni.com/Whipcordingdemo.htm

The leaflet of thee RoskildeVikingship Museum in english http://genvieve.net/sca/interlocking.pdf

Whipcord braiding bobbins http://www.willadsenfamily.org/sca/danr_as/bobbins/bobbins.htm

Whipcord bobbin construction http://wymarc.com/artifacts/artifacts.php 

Really nice but expensive...  http://www.spanishpeacock.com/catalog/viking_whipcord_bobbins.htm

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsVymiiLo40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BhtYVYmtOg

New hope

Remember the light blue (alice blue) dress that I couldn't get to work?

Yesterday I bought this pattern, it looks exactly like the top I was looking for.

I came in today, by e-mail it's a pdf-file and I couldn't wait to puzzle the pattern pieces together.

So this is how it looks now. I hope I can start on making the mock-up model today, but first I have to do some household chores like ironing :S

If you are following me on pintrest you've seen it already, but for those of you who don't here it is.

I do....