"Pro tip": Remaking and adding to costumes

Some days ago, the prompt for CostumeBlogWritingMonth was "Pro tip". I definitly am not a pro in costuming, but if I was to share a tip, the first half of it would be to not be afraid to change or add to your existing costumes. That ties in closely with the second half, "if possible, wear a new costume to a smaller event before The Big Event". My idea is that having a smaller occation to wear a new costume forces you to finish it well ahead of the big one. Also, you get a chance to wear and try the new costume in a setting that is more relaxed, and have time to change those things you did not like, in order to look the best at The Big Event. Details that looked good in the sewing room can feel like they look a bit odd on photos, or maybe you just realize you would prefer a different look. 

 

Here, I do not talk about fixing a dress that turned out wrong, when the fabric was wrong or the fit way off - in those cases I prefer to just go on to new projects that I feel more entusiastic about. Here I talk about the cases where you feel like the dress is just ok or feel like "meh, good I guess", but you feel that it could become great if it looked a bit different. You like it, just not as much as you could do. In those later cases, I think it is well worth the effort of redoing the thing you are not happy with, or remodelling an older dress.

 

The first picture is of my first 1880's dress. Over time, it became too small, and I found it a bit on the boring side, being so plain. THerefor I added lots more decoration to the hat, and inserted a fake vest and blouse.







Before and after remaking.

This over-skirt in the next example looked good on the draping stand, but I was not happy with how it looked in the real World Pictures. Adding red and gold detailing and using with for the "uniform " bodices worked better.

Over-skirt, Before and after.

 This steampunk dress have been blogged quite a lot, as it is this year's Big Project for me. Here, I knew already  before the event that I was not happy with the brown half of the bodice, but convinced myself that it was okay and that I should just get it finished, not be a perfectionist. After the event I liked the dress but still not the brown half, so I decied to spend some hours remaking the dress. I am much happier now. I am also adding and changing the trim on the hat a bit, and have added a small collar to the bolero, as I thought it would be more flattering to my long neck (especially when wearing  a tall hat).  

Steampunk dress and bolero- Before and after

The next dress is not really adapted or added to, but has to do with not being too sentimental about m costumes. It is my first "medieval" dress, and I loved it. In, like 2004. Now I would never wear it since I have become more interested in historical accuracy, but the fabric is a very nice wool. I picked it apart and made a dress from The Tudor Tailor. Which is turn is in the process of being remade again, as the front had a tendncy to buckle in a very non-flattering and uncomfortable way. (An example of lying pictures, as the front looks perfectly smooth in this picture - believe me, this in not how it looked most of the time!).

"Medieval" dress - fabric reused for a Tudor dress.

 

Probably, adapting or changing part of a costume is easier for fashions like women's 1880's dress, which is often heavily decorated and made of separate bodice, skirt and over-skirt, than for a menswear suit, or a more plain gown, but I believe there are often some things that can be changed if you are not happy.

 

This was some example of the costumes I have changed or remade. Have you remade /part of / a costume after wearing it? Did you like the outcome? Please comment and tell!

The joy of putting stuff on hats

Hats! I love making hats!

1905 - big!

 But why this sudden declaration of affection, you might wonder? Well, todays theme in Costume Blog Writing Month is small project, and that had me thinking. I very rarely do project that in their entirety are quick and easy enough that I could call them small, but I do make smaller garments as part of the bigger project. Interestingly, it is often those parts I end up liking the most. Liking both as in enjoying making them and as in liking the outcome. And a typical "small part project" for me is a hat. The hats for the historical eras I like are, to put it mildly, heavily decorated, which makes it very fun - I can really be creative with them. And generally I can make or adapt/decorate a hat in 2-5 hours, which I would call quick compared to a 30-40 h dress. So, here they come, a collection of some of my small projects, mostly hats.

Before and after modification...

Look how happy I get in a historical hat! Or is it the knowledge that I will soon be eating ice cream that put that smile on me?

The first hat/headdress I made, for my Tudor dress like ten years ago. The dress is scrapped, but I still like the hat.

1860's - a bit pinker than I generally do.

I didn't hear "over decorated" did I? the 188o's really liked to put stuff on their hats!

This got to have two pictures because it is biggest! :-) Also, it is one of only two hats I have that are actually useful for protecting me from the sun.

Slightly weird Tudor/steampunk hat.

Not a hat, obviously, but decorating it was a small a fun project just like the hats.

The most recent one - steampunk. Currently I am adding more decorations to it - neither my hats nor steampunk aestethics in general are known for "less in more"

Do you like making hats too, or what is your favourite small project?

Looking back at 2016 and forward at 2017

There is much to say about what happened in the world in 2016, but here I will keep away from that and just sum up my costuming year of  2016. As I had decided that I was more inspired by steampunk and cosplay than by historical, I did not take part in Historical Sew Monthly this year.

My first big project turned out to be historical. It was not at all planned, but some friends of my was so enthusiastic about the Natural form era that I could not resist it, and as usual, after looking at fashion plates I was sold. I landed in 1876. I had to do quite some work to figure out the skirt supports, as it was a new era for me. It also was a bit tricky as 1876 had a transition fashion between the bustle and the slim natural form. When I started at the actual dress, an injured toe at a vacation meant that all the hand finished trim was done a lot sooner (and in larger amounts) than expected.

After this very feminine dress, I went to menswear steampunk, inspired by English 1500's gowns and the BBC series Wolf Hall. Here is my steampunk Tudor crossover. I made the gown and hat, and decorated the bag.

I also made my first cosplay: a Star Trek Voyager uniform. I was not attempting to have every seam and fabric exactly as in the series, but I am happy with the overall look. As a big fan of Captain Janeway in Voyager, I have wanted a uniform like this for a long time! Here shown cross-nerding (yes, I do like to make up new words!) with a Doctor Who Tardis at NärCon in Linköping. (At which I felt a bit old - some of the participants was probably not even born when Star Trek Voyager was first aired...)

 Then, more steampunk: the ghost detection backpack. It was both challenging, scary and fun to work with hard materials and screws and glue instead of fabric and thread, but the box still has not collapsed, so I guess it worked out :-) I worked quite a lot on this leading up to the steampunk convention in Gothenburg in the beginning of November.

 

After the steampunk convention, I had a lot to do at work, so I was too tired to do any sewing at all. Now, I am slowly beginning to get my inspiration back. I have unusually few plans for next year thou. I will most likely be going to another steampunk convention, so I want something new to wear for then. I am currently planning a crinoline gown that is half forest fairy, half mechanical. We will see later how the turns out. I am currently in the phase when the gown is so amazing in my head that I am afraid to begin sewing and see it with the inevitable flaws of reality.

The not so amazing drawing of the forest mechanical gown, along with cryptic annotations in Swedish. And weird arms. I am not that good at drawing, but I think I draw arms even worse than the rest of it. 

 Except for the forest mechanical dress, I have no ideas at all. I should make myself like two or three historically inspired blouses for modern wear, as I never find anything I like in the stores, but that kind of sewing never seems to happen - there is always a more inspiring costume up ahead. Let's see what actually happens in 2017! 

Tudor steampunk gown

After seeing BBC's  TV series Wolf Hall set in Tudor (16th century) England, I suddenly found myself needing an 16th century upper class gown. As I did not expect to have much use for historically correct 16th century men's clothing, I got the idea to combine it with pants and shirt with a 19th century feeling, and call it steampunk. I also wanted to push the boundaries of steampunk a bit - how much can one deviate from "standard" steampunk clothing and still have it clearly recognizable as steampunk? Most notably, I wanted to avoid all the gears (you'll see how well that went...), and the corset and looped up skirt in women's clothing (nothing wrong with that, I just felt like doing something entirely different).

In the end, this was the result. Pictures from Gothenburg SteamCon, thanks to Karin for patiently photographing me with my mobile phone camera!

As you can see, in the end I added some gears anyway, on the bag and the hat. After all, I do like gears even if I think there can be too much of them, and I thought the costume needed a clear "this is steampunk" marker.

The bag has added pieces made of painted leather, and some "random shiny stuff" glued on.

I am only partly satisfied with the result. I liked a lot to wear this outfit, but as a garment, I feel that there is some work left to do on the gown. I used the pattern from The Tudor Tailor book, so I had to resize it from "standard men size" to "me size". I thought that would be very simple, as this is not exactly a fitted garment, but it was lot harder than expected. First I scaled it down before drawing the pattern, and then I made a test garment, but I still had to make the actual garment smaller as well. Especially the sleeves turned out way too big  - as large as my waist! Ridiculous. Shrinking them meant making the arm holes smaller on a almost finished garment, and then the over sleeves turned out too small instead, and... let's just say it took a while longer than expected, and the gown still does not hang really well. Also, I did not understand all the directions for sewing it that the The Tudor Tailor provided, so I had to make up as I went instead of just following directions.

From the pictures, it is clear that I need to make the sleeves shorter, and add some boning to the over (puff) sleeves to give them more puff and less hanging sadly.

I had been thinking that it would be nice to have something like a chain of office to wear with this, but I had not been able to find anything I liked, or any idea on what I wanted to make. In the Bazar at Gothenburg SteamCon, I was talking to Lykke Banck who has the shop Lucky Gears, and she offered to make one for me. She even finished it the same morning, so I could wear it at the convention! It might not be obvious from the picture (this picture is taken at the very end of the convention so I am quite tired at the time) but I am very happy with how the costume looked with the chain added! I just needed to fix it to the coat somehow, as it kept sliding off. 

Tired picture of gown with chain of office

Close up on my dress form.

The facts:
What is it? A steam punk outfit inspired by 16th century upper class men's clothing and 19th century men's clothing.

The pieces: Hat and gown made by me. Trousers bought from a second hand store. Shirt is a standard shirt, modified so that a bought collar could be attached instead. A black tie from husband's wardrobe. Bag is bought but heavily decorated by me. A clock chain used to hold gown together, and a cravat tie, both likely antique, that I got as gifts. Black modern men's shoes ("Olof, doesn't you need new shoes? I can take care of your old ones."). A medal.

Fabric of gown? Brown velvet from IKEA. Red polyester brocade, previously bought to be a women's 16th century dress. Red cotton for some parts of the lining.

Pattern: Hat and gown from the book The Tudor Tailor. 

Total cost: maybe 250 kr for the velvet, 50 kr for lining, and 200kr for the brocade. 170 kr for gears for the hat and bag. Total something like 670 kr, 67 EUR, 67 $. Also 300 kr for custom made chain of office.

Hours to complete? No idea. A lot longer than I thought, and so long that I was very tired of it in the end.

First worn? At the SteamCon steampunk convention in Gothenburg in November (my blog post of that here).

Looking back at 2015

At the beginning of the new year, I will start classically by summing up the last year. Last was very productive for me sewing-wise. This was due to two things. The first was that I joined the Historical Sew Monthly (HSM), which meant a deadline each month. As I have only been sewing at vacations before, this meant that I got a lot more sewing done. The second thing was that I got in touch with some more historical sewing people here in Linköping. As sewing together is much more fun than being nerdy on my own, more people to sew with meant that I was inspired to keep up the speed in sewing. In all, I managed to get the first nine HSM challenges done. Then, my project did not fit the challenges.

So, what have I done? I started a new time period, Edwardian, with the practical 1905 outfit (that turned out to be not so practical, as the heavy underskirt pinched my stomach through the corset, the hat is large, and I could not dress myself as there was hooks and eyes at the back that I could not reach.) Still, I liked it. This project involved making an Edwardian corset (HSM challenge #1 foundations) and corset cover, an underskirt (HSM#3 Stashbusting), a skirt and a blouse (HSM #5 Practicality). 

For the turn of the century days I went to with some friends in August, I could not resist making a more upper class version, with a lace blouse (thrifted), reshaping the hat, and making a bolero and belt. I am really happy with the shape I managed to get by the use of lots of bust and hip padding.

Next big project was the 1860's afternoon dress from the book Patterns of Fashion - another new time period for me. Surprisingly, despite the large crinoline this turned out to be one of my most comfortable dresses. I modified my 16th century farthingale to get it more bell shaped instead of cone shaped. Then, there is the skirt, bodice, and undersleeves, and decorating the bonnet. (This was HSM #6 Out of your comfort zone)

In September, I started the last big project of the year - a ca 1880-1890 walking dress from a fashion plate. This will be a sneak peak, as I have not yet blogged it. As the dress neared finishing, I made the vest a bit steampunk by using large hook for fastening, as I was going to wear the dress at my Steampunk larp. I am currently making a period correct vest as well, so I can choose. This outfit consists of a skirt with soutache, and a coat with a false vest attached.

I also made some smaller stuff, to complement dresses I already had.
An over skirt and a new hat for the 1886 dress (This was HSM #2: Blue and #4 "War and Peace")

A "gröntröja", green bodice, for my mother's Gagnef folk costume. (HSM #8 "Heritage and Heirlooms")

Two Tudor caps, constructed in two different ways.  HSM #7 Accesorise.

Crazy stuff: A 18th century inspired dress in grocery store paper bags for a competition (sadly, I did not win anything...)

I also did a remake of the striped 1880's bodice, by adding a false vest and blouse. This way, it got a bit bigger (much needed!) and also a bit more fancy. I also added lots of trimming to the hat belonging to the same dress (HSM #9  Colour Challenge Brown).

After this year, I can confidently say that I have overcome my fear of making button-holes, after making a shirt and two bodices with buttons! I have also arranged a steampunk larp and a historical costume "fika", won a costume competition award, and been to at least five19th century markets or gatherings, so this have been a busy year for the historical costuming part of me! Plans for next year will come in next post.

Elizabethan coif in two ways part 2: wearing it

Sneak peak of final result.

Now I had two Elizabethan coifs, as described here - one made from Tudor Tailor pattern in three pieces, presumably a modern construction method, and one using a one piece construction.


First, I tested the (presumably) more historically accurate coif.

Making the proper hairdo took some fiddling. The basic idea was to make two braid and sort of tie them on the top of the head. That worked surprisingly well, even while my hair have a tendency to slip out of all manner of hairstyles. I tied the braids with bands, and used some hairpins to keep the braids from slipping down (the sturdy, u-shaped kind of pin).

The start...

(Ignore manic selfie expression)

Braids tied and secured with some hairpins

As expected, I have small strands of hair loose everywhere, looking odd. Please let's just pretend I did this on purpose, for testing how well the two coif keep hair in place!

First attempt at tying on the coif. Mostly it looks ok, but there is a weird shape at the bun. Apparently I need need to fill it with hair! As I just "happened" to have a box with hair I saved from my hairbrush for a year (just in case I would ever need it for costuming...), I used some of it, and pinned it onto the back of my head to fill up the circle made by the braids.

Hairpieces added

Then I put on the forehead cloth and the coif again, and tied the strings around the hair.

Forehead cloth

With untied coif

And finally the result with this coif: now with more proper clothing.

The result!

I then went back in to adapt the hairstyle for theTudor Tailor coif. Here, a smaller bun was needed, and as it had a bag shape, I just put some of my "hair balls" in the coif before putting it on.

What I needed for the hairdo.

This forehead cloth is shaped and wired

This version is not nearly as good as keeping the hair in, as the forhead cloth is not tied around the head.

I still belive more in the other copnstruction method, but this looks good. It has more the same shape as the picture in the beginning of this post, with only the forehead cloth extending on the top of the head. It did not want to stay securely, so I ended up putting a hairpin through the fabric and into the hair bun on the top of the head. The same effect as the plastic comb, but without the plastic. That way, it stayed on well, even thou it is not nearly as well secured as the tied on version.

Finally, I couldn't resist making a modern "doing laundry" picture, inspired by a painting in Tudor Tailor of ordinary women doing laundry...

HSM Facts:

What the item is: Two coifs for a working woman in 1560-1570 England - using construction that is presumably modern (1) respectively period  (2)

The Challenge: #7 Accesorise

Fabric: (1) linen salvaged from a discarded shirt;  (2) random linen from stash

Pattern: (1) Tudor Tailor; (2) based on extant coifs 

 Notions: (1) poly thread, millinary wire and waxed linen thread; (2) waxed linen thread

How historically accurate is it? 
(1) probably just halfway. Fabric is correct, but it is machine seamed in all the non-visible seams. And while I have the deepest respect for the knowledge and skill of the Tudor Tailor authors, I believe that their coif pattern is a modern way of achieving the right look, (and an easier way if you don't have massive amounts of hair).
(2) quite close. Hand seamed, linen, and a construction that seems plausible. Still needs some fiddling with the shape of the coif to get the perfect look.

Hours to complete: (1) maybe 5 h, attaching the wires took me a lot of time (2) 3 h.

First worn: nothing planned yet. I rarely use this dress, and this was supposed to be a quick way of making my outfit more complete just in case I would want to wear it for something.

Total cost: Small amounts and some reused fabric, so almost nothing.