Happy New Year!

I hope you will have a great beginning of 2012!


(Picture source: http://georgianaduchessofdevonshire.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html)

That was the year that was 2011

Looking back I realise that I have finished a few things this year after all. Not as much as I would want, but still. I also started the the 1940’s wardrobe-project, which has been a lot of fun and something that I look forward to continue.

So, more or less in the order they have been sewn, the finished projects of 2011:

The deer hat for the 12th Night masked ball.



A 1950 faux fur jacket.

Merry Christmas

I wish you all a joyful holiday!

New museum collections online

Madame Berg brought to my attention that The Royal Armory, Skokloster castle and the Halwyl palace now has a database online on their collections, to be found here. . In Swedish only so far, though. The armory, for example, has a very large, perhaps the largest collection of 17th century men’s clothes in the world. If you want to look for clothes, then put in “Dräkt” after “Klassification” and the year you want to search for in the boxes after “År från” and “År till”. Choose “ja” on “Föremål med bild” to ensure that you only get the items with a picture.

I found a lot of goodies during a quick search. As I have a special interest for theater and masquerade costumes, here are a few I found:

Theatre costume “Watteau” from the end of the 17th century in taffeta and linen.

UnFinished Projects

As I said in my previous post, I really don’t need any new historical projects this year. I can’t help that I felt a compelling tug to join the 1912 project. Well, actually, I will need to sew a gown of 1912 as I’m pretty certain that there will be some Titanic-related events next year, but what I will not, even if I would love to, is to join the pattern test sewing. I’d love to, but no. I will look forward to see what other people will come up with- I’m sure there will be some lovely stuff.



To make it a bit more visible for myself and as a warning example for others, here are my UFOs:

What I want versus what I need

(Picture source: http://oliviamakedoandmend.blogspot.com/)

The end of 2011 is near and I have a strong feeling that this year has been a bit of a shopping spree for me. I haven’t shopped over my income, but I feel have been shopping more and somewhat unwisely. Some things have been necessitates like refreshing a rather worn bra wardrobe, but did I really need all those fabrics, perfumes and funny trinkets? No, I didn’t. And with the upcoming year there are a few things I really want to be able to afford, like a trip to Venice in April and remodeling our bedroom. I feel a strong need to look over by shopping patterns and stop buying what I may want but don’t really need. There have been quite a lot of talk about trying to put a stop to needless shopping on blogs this past year or so and a lot of it make a lot of sense to me, like The Seamless Pledge:

1. No buying new clothes for the duration of your pledge. By new, I mean any new mass-manufactured clothes.
2. You can buy second-hand manufactured clothes – so be prepared to get to know your local charity shops awfully well.
3. Vintage clothing is a-ok!
4. Anything you’ve made by hand is definitely allowed. Get your sewing machines and your kntting needles out, because handmade is definitely in!
5. Get involved! Join in on the Flickr group and like our Facebook page. I’ll be looking to feature pledgers on the blog in the future. I’d love to see your second-hand finds, refashions and hand-made creations!

Food for thought, definitely, but I don’t think I could completely forego buying new clothes, or rather, shoes and underwear.

I think that I, instead, will turn to The Slow Fashioned Pledge and not only apply that to clothes, but to everything I buy.