Things from 1820s and 1920s

First things first: the Nordiska Museet spencer is finished. Here's the original:

I haven't been able to find any information on this on the internet, so the picture is my photo of a photo in a book called Empirens Döttrar (transl. Daughters of the Empire or Daughters of the Regency Age, depending on one's point of view). The book says that this is a riding habit from ca. the 1820s.

Here's my version of it, worn with my massive red bonnet. The hat is maybe leaning over to the 1830s, but I like it anyway :) As said I haven't yet found suitable decorative buttons but the jacket works well without them, too.

I really like the silhouette here.

The gown is the very first Regency dress I ever made, with the fern embroideries on the hem.

Ok, let's take a time-warping jump, 100 years ahead. I've been waiting the Great Gatsby movie for ages and it finally opens here this week. With that in mind, I made a little cloche hat which I intend to wear with my American Duchess Skidoos when I go and see the film :) I drafted the hat pattern myself, but I was inspired by this DL Designs hat. Have a look at some photos, do!

Overtaken by the Charleston craze

The shoes are actually red and white, it doesn't show here very well

The brim can be worn asymmetrically like this or symmetrically, framing the face more

20s-esque accessories with the only actual thing from the 20s in my possession: my fiddle, built in 1928

 

By the way, I've also been a good girl and started sewing on the pelisse trimmings :)

A quick post on what's to come

I've been busy with the needle lately. The Nordiska Museet spencer is done (sans the decorative buttons, as I haven't found anything suitable yet, and I need 104 of them...) and I'm currently hemming the blue, to-be-embroidered-with-white gown. I was very inspired by the neckline of this dress and I think I've managed to create something akin to it. My dress will have short sleeves, so I can make a long-sleeved chemisette to be worn under it.

The pelisse is still waiting for the trimmings. I was lucky to find more of the fabric when I was visiting another city (and met up with the lovely Rococo Atelier, btw :) ), so nothing is going to save me from making an buttload of rouleaux piping now.

Today was one of those days when you go to town to look for something and come home with five other things besides. I went to buy bargain flannel to make me a dressing gown and just happened to find cotton,  just the perfect shade of green. And it was on sale, too. So, let's add a new 18th century petticoat on my to-do list. Then I got the idea of embroidering it, something like this, this or this. I must be mad or both.

I also ordered wooden block print stamps from Blockwallah, because I have one such stamp and I've been meaning to print a gown fabric with it but (as usual) haven't found the suitable fabric yet. Now I think I'll try the stamps on the dressing gown and then print a gown fabric if I ever find any. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find suitably thin, white (but not too white) cotton.

These are the stamps I ordered:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/129718394/wood-block-stamp-paisley?ref=shop_home_active
http://www.etsy.com/listing/129626753/border-hand-crafted-wood-stamp?ref=shop_home_active
http://www.etsy.com/listing/129526208/paisley-wood-block-stamp-especially?ref=shop_home_active

If I don't have trimming for the pelisse or the spencer...

... that means that I can make a gown, right? I've been itching to begin making a day dress out of this blue fabric I found a couple of weeks ago. I intend to embroider it with white and use one leaves and flowers pattern I've had lying around for ages. The pattern goes around the hem and up the centre front of it; I might sprinkle the rest of the dress, the bodice and the sleeves with some random leaves depending on how I feel.
I browsed the net today but couldn't find that many blue gowns. I wonder why that is; there were tons of white embroidered gowns, of course, but for some reason not that many blue ones.

The fabric, a sketch and the embroidery pattern

I have a chance to hit fabric and haberdashery shops in another (and bigger) town next week, so I'm hoping that I'll find suitable trimming for both the unfinished coats, but until then... :)