Blue 1790's outfit

This was a totally un-planned outfit. In December 2009 I stumbled over this painting and fell in love with the blue and rose outfit. Love at first sight and I just knew I wanted it for the 12th Nigh Ball that was (then) a month away...

White gown of 1797

I fell in love with the beautiful gown from Tidens Toj years ago and set out to make it in embroidered white linen. Only I found that I didn’t have enough for fabric for the lovely drape in the front. As the fabric had been resident in my stash for years there was no chance to get some more. It still turned out to be a lovely gown and I’m very pleased with it. I adapted the pattern for my roundgown for it, making the front a bit less gathered, for example.

Round gown

I have a knack that I’m not particularly proud of- the knack of making the shirts of my 18th century clothes too short. I managed to do that beautifully with my 1790’s round gown, as you can see on the pictures. The patterns is from Kvinnligt mode under två sekel, again- I love the book. And I love the pattern, it was very easy to put together and had some fun construction details such as the bodice have a seam MB, but then a narrow extra back piece is stitched on top of it to give the impression of two curved back seams. I have since used the pattern for two other projects. The fabric is IKEA’s Anneli in yellow, an 18th century re-print in linen/cotton.

Pierrot jacket

The pattern for this pierrot jacket is taken from Kvinnligt mode under två sekel. The original is made of striped silk and luckily enough I had a piece of striped cotton in my stash. Though I have used this jacket for several years, it is still not finished. I need to tweak the front so it fits better and both front and sleeves need their buttons! For now I just pin it shut.

18th century hats

18th century hats are so much fun and I love to make hats. And I only have three, go figure. I'm working on getting more of them, though. The first one is a straw hat I bought in a store for oriental food for very little money. I cut off the crown and shortened it before I re-attached it. The pink ribbons are the same as on my blue jacket.

1770's French gown

Or Robe à la Française. Once again from Janet Arnold, but I changed the front a little. I made this gown to for the purpose of lending it to a friend when we attended the Georgian ball in Bath in 2006. Don't tell anyone, but it's high quality dead dino. It's rather practical, actually, to have a gown that you can wear when thre's a possibility to be kids with sticky fingers around and I don't have to worry that precious silk may be ruined. At the same time it's rather fancy and people usually think it is silk, so good for going out in the public too.

A 1740's wrapping gown

The funniest thing with this painting of a woman in a red velvet wrapping gown with fur trim is that I found it well after I had finished my green velvet wrapping gown with fur trim. The pattern used is once again from Patterns of Fashions by Janet Arnold and is called just a wrapping gown. I wanted something cozy for winter but originally I had planned to trim it with fake fur. Then my Mum gave me my grandmother’s old muskrat fur, which is why I used real fur in the end.