Marie Antoinette (and her clothes)

 There is this huge exhibition in London, about Marie Antoinett and fashion, but for those, in Eastern Europe, for whom London is way to far and expensive (not to mention that there are no more tickets available to the exhibition, even though it is still open for a few more weeks), there is a smaller, but really enjoyable onw available in Pozsony (Bratislava), that is still open, until the end of February. 

Pozsony is only a couple hours drive from Budapest, but this exhibition is well worth the trip.

I've seen it, back in last fall, when we were there for the Bitka o Bratislavu (a reenactment of an 1619/21 event), and I came out with such a wide smile. 

Of course, there are paintings, like this one from Maria Theresa (and more from the family).

There are clothers that are reconstruction works. 

Like this one, based on this painting.

Or this one, based on another (from the style, later) portrait.

I found the italian gown's extremely long point on the back interesting. 

There are some original pieces, like this earlier Francaise gown:

In which I found the mising robing and the use of buttons interesting (but what gorgeous buttons!).

The clothes of men were not missing either:

Do you see all that gorgeous embroidery? 

More men's stuff:

More replicas:

Outerwear:

Just a taste from fashionable hairstyles, and their changes:

(I totally love this "hedgehog" style):

And a taste of the somewhat later (1875-1885), somewhat less formal styles:

In paintings:

Replicas:

And original pieces:

There are still a couple of weeks to see it. Go, if you can. 

Photos: Bodeszphoto

Weekly SO

 My strong opinion for this week, that Coca Cola is definetly better than Pepsi. 

I was always a Coke drinker, I always preferred it to Pepsi, however, I did drink Pepsi, when there was not Coca Cola. 
NOT anymore. I simply cannot drink it anymore. 

What changed? The recepie they use. They substituted part of the sugar in the recepie for artificial sweeteners, even in the non-diet, non-zero version.

Which I hate and cannot drink without gagging.

I wish I could, because it would mean, I coud save hundreds of calories a day, but I just cannot stand the taste. (I've read an article somewhere that some people think cilantro is the best herb ever, others think it tastes like soap, and there is a tiny DNA strip is responsible for the difference, and a similar tiny sequence defines whether we cannot taste the difference between using artificial sweeteers or absolutely hating its taste. 

I did not know Pepsi changed their recepie, until last year at some big family dinner, Norbi's aunt poured me some. They know I do not drink diet/zero drinks and they had a bottle or two regular Pepsi for me (the store just run out of Coke). But I just could not drink it. I did not understand why it tasted different. Until I learned the change about the way they make it. 

I know sugar is more expensive than AS (Artificial Sweeteners), and the Pepsy company saves a lot of money with this move, but... AS is not necessarily more healthy than real sugar. Also, people like me, who cannot abide the taste of AS will not be able to drink it anymore. I personally would even pay more, given the chance to choose between soft drinks made with sugar or AS.

HA (Historically Accurate) Steampunk (Pt2.-petticoat and skirt)

 Let's continue the Steampunk-ish Saga, shall we? 

I have underwear. Depending on the purpouse (will I wear it for Historically Accurate/HA event, for Historybounding (HB) or Steampunk?) I can wear it with HA underwear (as a chemise, corset, drawers, corset and corsetcover), or modern underwear (knickers, bra, pantyhose/leggings and an undershirt - yes, I am wearing an undershirt almost always, even with my modern clothing). 

The next step: I need a petticoat and a skirt. 

I've already written about how I sew petticoats for this type of skirts, and this one was made the very same way, from the same striped linen I made the shirtwaist from White linen with very dark gray /almost black stripes. 

With cotton lace. I love this fabric and I wanted to save as much of it as possible, I cut the waistband from two piece of fabric- remember, piecing is period: which means, that it is absolutely HA to piece fabric in order to save a bit of it. However, also for the sake of saving fabric I cut it crosswise, and the weft yarn is never as strong and stable as a warp yarn. Waistband cut crossgrain tend to grow a bit more easily. To stabilize it, I could use some fusible interface- but , much like zippers- I tend to avoid using it- if I can get away with it. At the end I decided to fold the waistband of the skirt one extra time (so there will be 4 layers instead of 3), and also, to make it more decorative/romantic, while also stabilizing it, I used a narrow cotton twill tape, and added the last bit of the lace I had left over from the shirt.

If you look close enough, you can see the pintucks on the ruffle. 

Then I made a skirt. It is really the same old, same old. 

Originally I planned this solely for HB and Steampunk outfits, but then an event popped up, where I would have needed clothes for a widowed character. Used the same trumpet skirt pattern, same length, same sewing. 

Naturally, I added pockets too.

And using the shirt and the skirt (with two petticoats) in a historybounding situation: at a koncert of the Palace of Art (MÜPA), with the black linen waistcoat, and a totally modern pair of boots.

(my hand is behind my back, because I am trying to hold the -by now- way too big waistcoat... I really need to make another one).

Fabric: I Love Textil

Skirt pattern: Ora Lin

Shirtwaist pattern: Truly Victorian

Waistcoat pattern: Black Snail

Photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

P.s.: I am writing about the shirtwaist seen in the pictures HERE.

Weekly Patternmuster

We think knitting is a harmless hobbi, for the quiet, staying-home kind, but it can also be very political. From the moment Elisabeth I did not give permission to patent the knitting frame (because it would take work away from knitters making stockings), the mandary wearing of a certain type of hat, through the information knitted into patterns, the stockings knitted for soldiers, to the latest pink "pussy hats" that were knitted in order to show dissaproval to the American president's stance/opinion about, behaviour toward women.

Among other countries, the US is fast sliding away from democracy, and people strongly dissaprove the actions of ICE. This dissaproval manifest in many ways, someone is knitting the little blue bunny-ear hat of a little boy, who got caught up in the proceedings.

But others knitting the red hat, norvegians were in the 2nd World War to show their resistance and resentment toward the Nacis. 

Ravelry has two patterns for the hat. 

ONE that is a paid patterns, but (according to the pattern's Ravelry page) all proceedings go to agencies that help immigrant kids.

ANOTHER one, somewhat modified version is free. 

Now, if we (here in Hungary) could come up with a universal symbol to show our resistance to the current political situation. 

PS: If you want to read more, here are a few links:

Knitting and political change

The politics of knitting

Rage knitting

HA (Historically Accurate) Steampunk (Pt1 -shirtwaist.)

 For the longest time... huh, how many times do I write that? but then, so many ideas, so many thoughts in my head, and when one of them comes to life it is a reason to celebrate, isn't it?

Anyhow, steampunk always fascinated me. I was a fan of captain Nemo as a child, even before I went to university and had seminars on 19th century literature and fantasy literature as well.   But since then even more. And even more than that, since I make historical clothes. I wanted some steampunkish clothes for myself.

Because what is steampunk? 

Not easy to define, as it has many  subgenres,many way of realizing, many substyles. 

However, basically it is an imaginary historical period, an imaginary "what if". What if, around the turn of the 19th/20th century, the world, instead of going and developing toward electricity, would have gone to a different direction: steampower. Stories feature steam powered machinery, clothes reference late Victorian /Edwardian/turn of the century clothing, but with a twist. The emphasis is on the words "imaginery" and "referencing". 

Since it is not a real historical period, there are no hard rules. With HA (historically accurate) reenactment, we are always try to be as accurate as possible. We look at pictures, paintings, read letters, journals, etc. and leave as little to our imagination as possible. With steampunk we use our imagination as much as possible. Clothes do have a distinct style, but the variations are wide, from round cage crinolines to bubbly bicycle bloomers, from corsets, to waistcoats, from chains to cogwheels, from top hats to tricorns. 

The genre has its books and movies: Think of Jules Verne, 2000 Legaue Under the Sea, Think of H.G Wells, Time Machine. Think of movies like the Stardust, the Golden Compass, and some Dr. Who episodes.

For the clothes there are some recognizable elements, like the cogwheel decorations, tophats, brown-ish colors, black and white, black and red, black and purple colors, and stripes. Stripes scream steampunk, especially in black and white or black/brown.

As for a time period -fashion history-wise, things could be placed anywhere from the 1860-ies to the early 1900 (from crinolines through bustles to the Titaninc-era fashion, but since it IS an imagined time, almost anything goes. To tie to a real time period, I chose a year that has significance in our own history. 1896 the year of the millenium. According to history, Hungariany came into the Carpathian basin in 896, and the country celebrated its millenum with a giant set of events. From a huge exhibition through a lot of events, building, to the first underground line of the continent.

I wanted steampunk-ish clothes, so I needed some stripy clothes. I started with a shirtwaist. A shirt. 

If we are talking about the "turn of the century fashion", I prefer the years just before 1900 to the ones that came just after that. (The thing is, that even the fact that I am doing things this close to that 1900 is a miracle in itself, as I was never a fan of the period. Much preferred the earlier times. But the 1890-ies did grow on me).

Anyhow, the shirt. With big, puffy sleeves, wide cuffs and striped linen fabric, and dark gray mother-of-pearl buttons.

I used the Truly Victorian 494 pattern with slight modifications. The shoulder piece (yoke) is a cm or two narrower, I omitted the peplum-y piece at the waist and/or the waistband at the back. Also I made the sleeves shorter and added a wide cuff. The original pattern instructions would have you simply turn up the hem and sewn down, but that felt so unfinished to me. 

I found a bit of leftover lace, so I added bits of it to the collar, the buttonband and the cuffs. 

This way the shirtwaist is fully historically accurate, but can also function as a part of historibounding and steampunk sets to.

Fabric: I love Textil

Pattern: Truly Victorian 494

Photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto.

Weekly SO

I despise layers. 

In my hair that is.

I have been utterly dissatisfied with my hair lately, and I am thinking about what to do with it. By now I do not mind its color, and I LOVED, when it was really long, but the upper layer keeps breaking off about shoulder length, and looks scraggly. 

I am almost resigned myself to a big(ger than usual) chop and try to let it grow from there...

I was looking for hairstyles on the net, and boy. Everybody is having so much hair, and everything about layers. 

Which I hate. Even, when I had more, shorter (or maybe longer) hair, than now, whenever some hairdresser tried to cut layers in it, I ended up going back to have it all one length. 

So, where do I find slightly longer than shoulder length hairstyles like that (for thin hair)? Any suggestion? 

Late Victorian petticoat (pattern-hack)

More than once you've heard me saying that the biggest secret of historical clothing is underwear, what is underneath the clothes people generally see. 

More than once you've hear me saying that petticoats are important for historical clothing. 

If you have some kind of understructure, like panniers, crinolines, bustles, etc, that is why (so the lines of the structure would be invisible, smoothed over), if you don't, that is why (to properly hold out skirts). 

But petticoats not only work for HA (Historically Accurate) clothing, but can also add a romantic, swishy element to HB (historibounding) too. 

Last week I showed you, one of my favorite skirt patterns, the one I use for HA, turn-of-the-century skirts as well as more modern ones (Ora Lin's Trumpet Skirt). Now, I will show you, how I use the same pattern to make petticoats (underskirts) to wear with those late-Victorian/ early-Edwardian /historibounding "walking" skirts. 

I already told you, that I usually cut the skirts I want to use for HA and HB as well between the so called "everyday" and the "floor length" line given on the pattern. 

When I use the same pattern to make petticoats, I simply cut off about 20 cm from the bottom of each panel (if you are practiced and/or brave, it is enough to turn back the bottom 20 cm of the paperpattern, or you can make yourself a whole separate set from the pattern pieces - you can guess, which one I do). 

Then I cut about 5-6 stripes of 15 cm wide, across the fabric, ruffle it up evenly and sew it to the bottom. I usually use a strip of lace between the skirts body and the ruffle, and on the bottom of the ruffle, but the petticoat works without that as well. If I have a few extra cm's of the fabric, I cut the ruffles 1-3 cm wider and put 0,5 cm wide pintucks into the ruffles, so it holds the skirt out even wider. 

There isn't much to sewing them, but I might just do a detailed post if I managed to photograph the process. Would you be interested? 

In some cases, I weat two petticoats, other times only one.

Fabrics: I Love Textil

Pattern: Trumpet Skirt (Ora Lin)

Photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto