Dag van het Park/Day of the Parc, Capelle aan de IJssel &Saint Brigitta's coif

Dear readers I have a confession to make, sometimes I cheat. Even worse this time I got busted!

I had cut the linen for my St Brigitta's coif ages ago and the pattern had been laying around the house for even longer. It was one of these quick little projects that I intended to do somewhere inbetween but just didn't seem to get around to it. And than it re-enactment season started and I faced my first early medieval/viking event without having a project prepared! Not wanting to be stuck doing nalebinding for three days I decided to bring my Brigitta's coif project with me. I thought I would get away with it quite easily. I've seen people getting away with costume murder so to speak and the public loving and believing every minute of it.

Evidence

To my very big surprise I didn't get away with it. I had know that some of my friends would notice but some of the visitors noticed as well! I would like to think that years of educating them seem to be paying of ;-). 

With my coif finished I decided to wear it to the next medieval event, which took place yesterday.

Normally I wear my late 14th century costume but this time I decided to wear my 13th century costume instead. I hadn't worn it in a really long time and with my body aching it was also a little more comfortable. Our display did end up looking quite anachronistic with the three of us all wearing a different era costume. I think it is time for a new set of matching era costumes for these kind of events. My 14th year old son refuses to wear late medieval clothing because he finds them uncomfortable and my husband has been wearing the same outfit for at least ten years. He deserves a new outfit. Now if I could only find the time!

My coif turned out a little too big. I guess I don't have enough hair. That is the reason why I wear it on my hairline like I usually wear my veil. It was the only way I could keep it from looking strangely puffy and slipping of my head.

It is usually worn like this:

image taken from the Maciejowski bible.

Source: http://windwraith.blogspot.nl/2008/08/cap-of-st-birgitta.html

A little more on the middle of your head with a little hair showing. This is the look I love and would like to achieve. 

N.B. I started this blog on the 3oth of May, right after the event, but didn't get around to finish and publish it. Now with an another event coming soon I decided it was time to take the time to finish this blog first.

Whitsun Early Middle Ages event, Archeon

This years Whitsun event was really quiet compared to other years with a lot of people we know attending another event. On the other hand the atmosphere was really relaxed and I had a great time with the people who were there and my husband was happy to see more of me. Usually I spend a lot of time away from our tent chatting with others. The weather forecast had been really bad all week and we expected the worst. Fortunately I wasn't too bad, the nights were cold but only a couple of showers during the day. It was great to have some time off from working on our house and I actually did some sewing and nalebinding.

You can find more pictures of this event on our  Facebook page.

Victorian striped trousers part 2

The pair of trousers for my son are very nearly finished. I only need to finish sewing the seam allowance flat to the inside of the fabric. This way the seam allowance doesn't irrate the skin and the seams are nice and flat on the outside. As my son is growing really fast I won't hem the trousers until shortly before the event.

The fabric is dark charcoal grey wool with thin white stripes. The pattern is Laughing Moon #106, California Pants.

Striped Victorian trousers.

I love sewing historical costumes and I love my husband and my son but somehow these facts don't translate in me loving sewing victorian trousers. Be honest, trousers are boring compared to the nice sparkly ladies costumes! This year my son decided that he didn't want to be an urchin any more. He wants an nice suit. I got out out of sewing an entire suit by buying a, what I guess to be, a 1950's gentleman's wedding suit. Unfortunately the pair of trousers that came with it didn't fit. So I didn't get out of making him a pair. When my husband found out he sweetly reminded me that I promised him a new pair, like five years (or more...) ago!

The pair of trousers that I am currently working out started out as my husbands but they magically shrunk while I was working on them! I gues I messed up the measurement or forgot that I needed to add seam allowances. I'd better check what the problem is before I start working on the next pair! Both my men wanted a pair of striped trousers, because for them that is what belongs with a victorian suit. I thought it was worth checking if historically speaking that was true. Looking at what I found plain or plaid trousers were more in favour but there striped pants were worn as well.

1800's The Met

1820's cossack trousers,

Victoria and Albert Museum

ça. 1840, The Met

1848 fashion plate 

Left pin stripes, middle wider stripes.

coeurdelhistoire

 Il Gionale dei Sarti September 1850 

Source: cutterandtailor.com

1870's 

Source: Victoriana.com

1880's, RISD Museum

Fashion plate from Sartorial Arts Journal, 1891, 

Gladys Marcus Library, FIT

c. 1900 white cotton & blue pinstripe trousers

Augusta Auctions

Althoug I only did a very superficial on the matter I did feel that after the 1860's examples became easier to find. Maybe they became more fashionable?

Catwalk, historical fashion exhibition, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

 Historical fashion exhibitions seem to be in fashion. I'm not complaining but I am going broke! Still I don't want to miss a thing. Who knows how long it will take before there is another one. This time it was the Catwalk exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam that had my undivided attention.

Here a very small selection of my photograps:

Robe à la Française, c. 1765 - 1775

Mantua dress with train, c.1759 

Robe à la Française, c. 1765 -1775

Regency Full Evening Dress with train, 1802-1812, silk and gilt brass 

Ball dress of Blonde Lace, 1815-20, silk.

Regency Riding Habit, c. 1826, wool 

Oval Crinoline Day dress, 1863-66, cotton and silk.

Early Bustle day dress 1868-72 

Belle Epoque Dress 1894-95 

Edwardian Coat Suit, linen ca. 1903

Edwardian Wedding dress, 1902, silk and lace 

For much more eyecandy visit my facebook photoalbum.

I am currently working on two project. A small one, a linen 14th century  saint brigitta's coif and a pair of 19th century woollen trousers for my husband. Progress is very slow but at least I am doing creative stuff again!

Ode to Dutch Fashion/Ode aan de Nederlandse Mode

Being thoroughly fed up with working on the house and not doing any costuming related things. I decided it was time for a treat and went to the Ode to Dutch Fashion exhibit in the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag with a friend. Ode to Dutch Fashion features more than a hundred creations from the history of fashion in the Netherlands from 1900 to 2015 with some much older pieces. Although my main interest is historical fashion, which will become apparant when you see my pictures, I had a really great time.
I forgot to the photograph a lot of the information provided with the costumes. That is why it is missing under a lot of the pictures. Just enjoy and do a game of guess the era! ;-)

Silk dress 1826-1827

Silk dress 1850-1855

Female Jacket 

ca. 1770-1780

Chintz with linen lining

detail of quilted skirt.

 Corset, 18th century, silk, linen with boning

Skirt, 1750-1800, quilted silk

Jacket ca. 1800-1850

Wool damask, metal

Silk dress, Robe ajustée

ca. 1765-1775

Wool damask skirt 18th century

Dress and cape worn by Her Majesty Queen Maxima,

at the investiture of His Majesty King Willem Alexander,

30th of April 2013

(l) Silk cocktail ensemble by Maison Kuiper, Zeist, 1966

(r) Wool ensemble by Koos van den Akker, 1966

A very inspiring 1970's crochet dress.

Fun idea but I think I'll pass.

This is a contemporary design 

and I loved the Edwardian feel.

Looks good on me, doesn't it! ;-)

The museum also provided some costumes you could try on and ofcourse I couldn't resist a chance to play dress up.

It was a one size fits none dress and the bustle was way to low but trying it on was great fun.