Gustavian day picnic

Earlier in the spring I and Sanna of Rococo Atelier started talking that it'd be nice to have a summer event of some kind that wouldn't require too much arranging, venue reservations or the like. We agreed that a picnic would be good and I proposed that we could have it as an open to all public event in the garden of the Museum of Old Vaasa in my home town.
The picnic was named Gustavian day so that people could wear either 18th century or early 19th century (i.e. Regency) clothes if they'd be so inclined. As always, the weather was the only variable we couldn't really control and over the week before the event the forecast changed a dozen times but in the end the weather yesterday was lovely, not too hot and it didn't rain, so for once we were in luck.

I'm so happy that the first event I arranged went so swimmingly and that so many friends took the trouble of travelling over for the day. There is a massive pile of photos, proceed with care.

Playing graces

Posing on the old well

We were trying to look like we were admiring the sights, the trees and the weather, hence the silly faces :)

One period engraving of paille-malle depicted this kind of stance, I swear.

Couture Mayah playing a very elegant game of croquet.

Bring it on :)

 

My non-costuming friend borrowed one of my dresses for the event and we were unintentionally colour-coordinated.

More silliness

The obligatory wedgie photo :)

Visiting the Museum of Old Vaasa. The house is the only private house from the 18th century left standing after the fire that destroyed Vaasa in 1852.

The first floor of the house was decorated in the Empire style. Observe the clavier piano.

Mia and the fabulous fireplace

Not touching, can't get mad.

Admiring the king's likeness in the dining room.

Sanna in her absolutely lovely Regency dress. She looked so perfect.

There was another piano in the second floor dining room. I believe this is a clavichord.

I really like this photo, the room was very quiet in colour, the walls were grey and the chest of drawers too. My red hat and shoes stand out wonderfully here.

Mia did wonders with my hair for the day

Mia and myself posing with the coat of arms of Vaasa

There were a lot of stairs in that house...

We also dropped by the former adminstrative court house of Vaasa, now a church, that was nearby. This is the only other house from the 18th century that didn't burn down. It's massive, spectacular and really quite beautiful. There was a wedding under way, so we couldn't go in.

Since we had people in both 18th century clothes and in Regency, we tried to re-enact this 1797 satirical print from the British Museum. "Ah, quelle antiquité!" - "Oh, quelle folie que la nouveauté..."

Pose, pose, pose

I was very happy with my clothes for the day. The good old fern dress never fails and the hat proved to be a good one.

Intercentury croquet match

All the empire dresses

Vernet project: the bonnet

I may have mentioned in passing that I'm also participating in the Vernet's Incroyables & Merveilleuses project this year. The idea of the project is to recreate the 30 odd fashion plates Horace Vernet drew in 1814. Since we are supposed to keep the plates we've chosen secret until the big reveal in November/December this year, the posts for this project will be in bits and I'm trying my best to be as secretive as I can.

I've finally begun working on my Vernet fashion plate and the first thing I've finished so far is the hat. I can't really say if my method of constructing the hat was really period correct but it worked well and I think I've managed to produce a shape that is very close to Vernet's drawing.

I first made base pieces for the hat using tightly woven needlepoint canvas. I wired edges of the top piece and both edges of the crown piece after sewing the centre back seam. I also sewed the centre back seam of the brim. I then handstitched straw braid in slightly overlapping rounds on the base pieces and finally assembled the hat. The concave shape of the crown took some thinking and pleas of help to fellow costumers (thanks Sabine and Jennifer) and their advice led me to adapt this technique for my bonnet.

I still need to trim it but other than that, it's finished.

 The inside of the brim is lined with cream taffeta and the crown with cotton batiste.