Victorian winter

I have not been very active with photoshoots this winter, so instead I have a little treat for you from last winter: A pair of well to do victorians, posing to the photographer.

The photo was taken by Rene Bang at Christiansborg on a cold December day in 2012. Both outfits were made by me, Jacob is wearing a set made specifically for him, and Sascha Norsbo my promenade dress.

It was a very odd thing seeing another person wearing one of my dresses, but I think that Rene, Jacob and Sascha together created such a good picture, that it was quite worth it.

50'ies trainride

In early summer 2013 I finished a 50'ies dress for myself. By now I've made a few of them like the yellow dress and the striped dress, and I got the basic shape down quite well. This time I thus focussed on the details of the dress: A wide standing collar, matching cuffs, scarf and belt. I had my trusted white petticoat and a matching pair of shoes, that although not vintage did the job quite well, so I was ready for a little trip.

At 'Græsted Veterantræf' a weekend filled with vintage vehicles of all kinds, I was so lucky to find a nice matching train, with the same gray tone as my dress and a red stribe to match my lipstick! How lucky can you get?

'Sølvgrisen' (the silver pig) is an old lady from 1952, that used to work near where I grew up in Lyngby Taarbæk municipality. She is currently living in Græsted, where the nice people from Nordsjællands veterantog takes good care of her.

Photographer: Anders Hansen

An old dress in an old garden

My very first victorian dress from back in 2006 got to come out and have a little fun in the spring. The botanical garden in Copenhagen had allowed a group of photographers to come and use the beautiful garden as a background for their photoshoot. I had the pleasure of working with Nik Skjøth from Infinitive studios.

The dress got a minor makeover some years ago, when I covered the majority of the bodice in black lace and added a black veil (also used for other photoshoots). I tried to use my new bustle for it, but alas, it was to big. A 1880 bustle is not meant to go under a 1870 dress, -it is simply not the right shape. So for the major part of this photoshoot I used an Ikea pillow, and ended up cutting myself on the safetypins that held the pillow. -So I really need a new bustle soon. Oh well, one more project to the wish-list.

Taking the NYE dress for a spin

I showed you my new years eve dress earlier this year, but alas, only as snapshots from the party itself. Photographer Zafar Iqbal (zafariqbal.dk) was up for a photoshoot, so the dress came out again and we had loads of fun. 

 

 

The black victorian underwear

Durring winter I managed to finally make my long wanted black victorian underwear. It consist of a black corset with white details, a white chemise with black details and a pair of long black stockings.

All pictures by  Henrik Jensen:

The corset is a modified version of the Truly Victorian corset that I have used for so long. I have long since started to use a selfdrafted pattern for modern corsets, but for historical wear I still use Truly Victorians pattern.
For materials I used a single layer of black coutil, with handmade castings for the spiral steels, attached on the outside of the corset. For a visual effect I used a thick white tread for the bonecastings and flossing, and along the top of the corset I used a white bobbinlace that was left fron the chemise.

The chemise is made from cotton satin bedsheets from Jysk (a Danish store), as they are very soft and the price is no bigger than for regular plain cotton cloth. I used a simple bobbinlace for the neckline and sleveholes, but a appr. 4 cm wide bobbinlace for the bottom edge. All lace was decorated with black satinband, woven into the lace. The band at the neckline can be used to adjust the height of the neckline.

All in all this is a set I am very happy with, and I look forward to using it underneath all my victorian clothing.

The chequered house dress

In the spring 2012 I started on a housedress for American civil war reenactment. I finished the dress in December, but have not have time to show you the pictures of the finished dress. As this is the first UK post on the dress, let us take a brief look back on the process:

My concept drawing and numbers in my costume drawingbook:

The  bodice is an unaltered TV440 Pagoda bodice from Truly Victorian, flatlined with a dove-blue cotton. The sleeves are linned with the same cloth, but this time the chequered cloth and the lining was joined at the hem first, and then treated like one layer. It contains no boning, as it sits nicely on the body without.

 The buttons are self-fabric buttons, and the hem of the bodice is finished with self-fabric too, hand stitched to the inside.

The crinoline for the dress was a pain to make: I started out making the crinoline the shape I wanted the dress in. But with a good petticoat beneath, it of course became much to big in the top, where most of the petticoat volume is. Thus, I ended up reducing the crinoline two times, in order to get a more suitable silhouette.

To finish the dress I added a white collar with lace, and a pair of loose undersleeves.

the collar pattern without and with lace:

The sleeves were attached to the outer-sleeves with two stitches to the lining.

 The finished dress was with me on two different fotoshoots: One with Rene Bang in December, where we were outside in the freezing cold and one with Henrik Jensen indoor in a studio. Unfortunately you look like shit, when you are freezing your butt off, so only a few pictures were useful from the shoot with Rene Bang (very much not the photographers fault).

Picture taken by Rene Bang:

 (all the outfits were made by me, you might recognize the others.)

Pictures taken by Henrik Jensen:

New year, New rules!

So, 2013 is upon us, and for this blog, it means a lot of changes.
First and foremost, you may have noticed the change in language. While blogging in Danish comes slightly more natural than in English, the number of people who actually care about sewing techniques AND read Danish are fairly low. Having the blog in english just makes things easier.

In order to draw a little attention to the blog, I have also entered into Foundations Revealeds sewing competition this year. For those of you who do not know Foundations Revealed, it is a subscription only homepage, full of high quality articles teaching you how to make corsets and other historic underwear. The page has two twin-sisters in Your wardrobe Unlock'd and History Unstitched, and I have been so lucky to write an article for YWU on how to weave fringes for trim.

In order to change the language on the blog, all new posts will be in english, and as times go, hopefully I will have time to translate some of the more popular posts.

So, that was one new thing. What was the other?
In 2013 I have decided not to buy new cloth. A common declaration among online seamstresses, this is actually rather healthy and sometimes quite needed. My stash of cloth for hobby projects have exceeded 100 m, and thus are becoming a slight nuisance. As I am bad at planning my projects from what I already have, this will be a good exercise.

January contained such a project, as I needed a costume for Copenhagen Grotesque Burlesques Persian Decadence & Subconscious Uprising party. Here I only needed to buy a white wig, two blue feathers and a bit of satin band. The rest was found in the stash, and in my opinion, it all went rather well... :)

Picture taken by Pao-Lung Tsai at Copenhagen Grotesque Burlesques Persian Decadence & Subconscious Uprising party.