18th century Christmas ball in Finland

Sanns, J and I.

Last weekend we visited Finland to attend to an 18^th century Christmas ball at Sveaborg, or Suomenlinna, a sea fortress just outside Helsinki. It was my first visit to Finland apart from Åland and my sole excuse is that I hate boat rides. I was pleasantly surprised in having a good time on the boat or way out, but going back I got sea-sick and I still get dizzy spells when the whole world heave around me. I had such a good time though, that I think I will brave the Nordic sea again. I forgot my camera, but Sanna of Rococo Atelier kindly allowed me to use some of her pics. It was a real treat to meet her again and I think you will agree that looked stunning in her new white gown! I also got to meet Merja of Before the Automobile, which was a real treat, though unfortunately she wasn’t feeling well and had to leave early. She was equally stunning in white as well and you can see her pictures here. There were a lot of very pretty and well-dressed people at the party!

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Myself I opted for a simpler garb, simply because I finished this gown in August and still hasn’t had an opportunity to wear it. I used the same pattern as I did for the yellow and the white gown and the material I striped linen. I hadn’t planned to make yet another 1780’s gown so similar to these, but when I found this painting and right after found such lovely striped linen, I just couldn’t resist. I usually combine machine sewing with hand sewing, but as an experiment I made this gown completely by hand and I wanted to see how ling it would take me. I can now say that a simple gown with no decorations takes me 51 hours to make. I only worked on it on odd times here and there and very often while I was watching the telly, so I am fairly certain that it would have been a faster project, time-wise, if I had just worked on the gown and not multi-tasked. I think it turned out very pretty, but it also gave me a complete surprise. As I have used the pattern several times it really, really fits me, so I blissfully worked away feeling secure that it would fit. Well, this linen stretched… So it turned out way too large! The back fits too loosely and the shoulder straps are much too long. I need to cut them shorter and re-fit the sleeves and also make the back smaller. Very annoying and I have only myself to blame.

Having cut my hair suddenly makes hairstyling a challenge. I really need to update my wigs now, but for the ball I opted for a turban with a few curls peeking out. I think it looked fine, but the turban kept trying to escape. Next time I will put in a few stitches to keep it together and a comb to make it stay put! I also realized that I have developed a go-to makeup when it comes to the 18^th century. I really like my Nun’s cream with real pearl powder. It is only slightly whitening- I can only see that effect when I’m a bit tanned, but the light reflecting particles in the pearl powder reflects the light and makes my skin look very even and nice. Rouge with Carmine suits my colouring quite well too.

But back to the party. It was held in what used to be, if I understood it correctly, the mill, but it was very atmospheric and spacey. There were plenty of good food and some vigorous dancing followed by some equally vigorous games. I had only met Sanna before, but we were about 10 guests from Sweden that I also knew. It would not have mattered if I hadn’t known anyone, though, because everyone was really nice and welcoming and I had a lot of fun. I was a little taken aback that everyone seemed to know who I was- I felt quite famous and J is still teasing me about it.

Sveaborg started to be built in 1748 as a protection of the Russians. At the time Finland belonged to Sweden and the man responsible for the project was Augustin Ehrensvärd, a Swedish military and architect. He was an interesting person who were also interested in art, botany and psychology and perhaps it was he latter interest that made him take the rather unusual decision to make sure the people who worked on the fortress had better food than builders usually got and also health care. It was a good decision because there were less accidents and deaths during the construction. It is really a very beautiful and interesting place and I hope we get to explore it better the next time we visit.

Construction of the Sveaborg fortress