I love underwear

This afternoon I needed some pictures for some new items in my Etsy shop, and fortunately, my husband had a free day so I ask him to make some pictures of me in my 'historical' underwear. And these pic's turned out better than I thought they would! All thanks to our new camera. Much better than my smartphone or old cheap secondhand camera.

Anyway's I was just really happy with it. So happy that I now lloooovee underwear. I hope I will make you happy to.




So...maybe you want to know a bit more about it. This whole outfit exist out of three parts: a chemise, a corset (stays) and a tulle skirt.

The chemise (underdress) I made out of thin cotton added with a bit of lace at the top. I made this chemise simply because I just wanted to make a chemise with lace that would look cute and simple. Turns out it now looks a bit like a victorian chemise, but it has the shape of a chemise out of renaissance times.

The corset is 18th century. I made it out of a free pattern I still have on my pinterest board. You can find many other patterns of historical clothing there as well. I made this corset out of linen, thick linen that I bought secondhand at marktplaats.nl, a a dutch website where people can sell each other all there secondhand stuff. So it was very cheap, but I really like the fabric.

And then we have a tulle skirt, which is put on with ribbons, same way as I did with the quilted petticoat, where this is explained. I really like my tulle skirt. It is not really historically accurate, but as a petticoat it give a great shape and volume to skirts and dress which you can put above this 'underwear'.





Anyways, I am planning to use all this for a next outfit, that goes with the blue quilted petticoat, a lovely 18th century pink jacket and a lovely hat with ribbons that is yet to be made!

Medieval madness

Last few months, I have been working on a few medieval items, which I would call ´the medieval collection´. And these items are now finished. So, I wanted to share with you some things about these items, like how it is constructed and other interesting details!

In my other post, I told already told you a little bit about this, about where my inspiration comes from and showing some pictures. I wanted to make this collection look ´ancient, noble and somewhat holy´ - there needs to be a certain serenity in it.

So, I want to show you each of the items I made, and maybe you will feel inspired as well for some project of your own, or it is just fun to check things out!

Green medieval dress with long bell sleeves.

This dress has something of a ‘king Arthur’ feeling, with the long sleeves and the simplicity of it – you can see that it is still close to the roman era. I made this dress because…..I needed to make a dress with long sleeves – never made it before and I wanted to try. And it fitted well with the other pieces. Though I must say those long sleeves gets terribly annoying when you put the dress on - still, non the less, a pretty dress I must say.

The construction of the dress is actually quite simple, although the details and ribbons and such is something to think about. If you would like to know more about how to make a dress such as this - this picture (show with a dress Keira Knightley wears in the movie 'King Arthur'), was very helpful to me, and gives a simple but clear instruction about the making of such a dress.

Medieval underbuste corset/belt
I had seen a couple of these here and there on the internet and I was exited to make one myself. If you lay this belt out, it is actually just a rectangle of 74 x 20 cm. I quilted it, then I put a nice ribbon at the edges (which were already done with a serger). Al last I put holes in the corset and I was done. I had a little suede cord on top for a lovely detail. Thought it might look easy as I explain it - it did took me some time before it was finished, but the steps are not very difficult to explain.

Medieval dress with pretty sleeves.
So this one of my favorite dresses I made and I think it looks rather good to me. I put some special attention to the sleeves - indeed, my husband came home that day and after asking what I had done that day, I told him 'Ik heb een mouw gemaakt' (Dutch for: 'I have made a sleeve'), so that was basically the only useful thing I had done that day.

Anyways, the pattern is from a book about medieval costumes, called 'Medieval costume and how to recreate it' by Dorothy Hartley. It has a full circle skirt, so the skirt it really wide so if you twirl around you get a lovely effect!










Medieval cloak
Well, you cant be a medievalist without a decent cloak, wright?
So I made one out of black 'coat' - a fabric I found at a dutch online shop. I is no genuine wool, but it look and feels like wool and is quite a lot cheaper. If you like to make a cloak like this - on my pinterest account on my board 'sewing' are a lot of tips that helps you make something like this
  

Crown and veil
A crown and a veil was a very common thing for woman to wear in the middle ages, so I decided I could not live without if I was to make several medieval items anyways. If I had talent and skills for being a goldsmith, I would have made a lovely real crown, but alas - my talent don't reach that far and I don't have a friend who has either. So - I made one out of 'gold' (fabric) and I put a nice linen veil with it. Nice and simple.


Sleeveless red dress with lacing at the sides.

At last we have this nice satin red dress. I brought the fabric of this dress at the thrift shop and although it is beautiful fabric, I had not enough fabric to attach sleeves to it. But the result worked out quite well. The shape of the dress goes along with the body, and to add volume to the skirt I added four gussets (triangle shaped) at the sides of the dress.

So, I know a went through these items quite fast, but unfortunately I don't have time to discuss more of it. If you have questions, don't be afraid to ask. Anyways - these items will be soon for sale at my etsy shop, so if you like, you can take a look! Hope you enjoy!

18th century quilted petticoat

Last week, I have been busy with making a 18th century quilted petticoat! It was quite a lot of work (it took me about 20h!) but I do think the result is very nice and I am really happy with it.
I was inspired by some historical petticoats I saw on Pinterest, as well as one that is integrated with a robe d' Anglais in Janet Arnold's 'Patterns of fashion'. I did not see many people on the internet making something like this, only the historical ones. I have some experience with quilting, but not very much, so I made the simpler version of the ones from the 18th century.


So, I will show you some of the real 'historical' quilted petticoats.

Aren't they pretty!? Especially the grey one has a very nice pattern I think (and lovely with the corset and chemise).

I made my petticoat out of taffeta and the inside of the petticoat, the filling, is made out of fleece. I had some 'never used and doing nothing' fleece blankets just waiting for me the be used, lying in the attic. So it exists out of three layers of fabric - taffeta, fleece, taffeta.

Here is the pattern I used:

I know that the pattern is not very neat, especially the curves could be better - but when you put the pattern on the fabric, it will be easier, because the fabric will be ten times as big. Important is that the lines of the curves at the lower part of the skirt have 1 cm in between.

To quilt this pattern on the fabric, I had drawn it the back of the skirt, then follow these lines with the sewing machine - and the pattern appears at the front. I first wanted to draw the pattern on the fabric with tailors chalk, as it should, but, since the fabric was so smooth, the chalk did not stick properly. So, to fix this problem, I worked it out with a normal ballpoint pen. It took me some time and brain activity before it was finished, but at the end I had a very nice result at the front of the fabric.


The petticoat exist out of two pieces, both 125 x 100 cm (=length of the skirt) which are bind together at the top. The band on the top of both pieces is 50 cm.
Then the two pieces are sewn together on both sides like this:

So, I made pleads in the top of each piece, put a band on top of it, and at the ends, I have sewn ribbons, each 50 cm long. Than, after some some finishing touches such as hemming and putting a label inside - it is time to wear and try it out!

To wear this petticoat, I just need to put the first ribbon about my middle and than the second around my back and 'voila!' I wear a lovely, quilted, warm, shiny, happy, petticoat!

Some pictures:

- on the mannequin

on me - I am wearing a tulle petticoat (although not very historical correct) to give the blue quilted petticoat more volume

okay, I guess I could not choose between the smartphone and the canon.

My inspiration for the medieval collection project.

Lately I have been working on a few items of clothing for my 'medieval collection', and I would like to share with you some images that are an inspiration to me.

The book 'The Costume History' of Auguste Racinet gave me a very good view of accurate history and some ancient clothing that I really like.

I really like this picture. I shows life at the 12th century, an age on with clothing finely began to develop since roman times.  You can really see the influence of the Roman area, but also the influence of the east, of Byzantine. I personally really like the atmosphere you can see in this plate and I will try to imitate. I want to try to recreate the ancient feeling of this, the 'holiness' (I am not sure what other word I can give it), and the nobleness that it presents

There is another plate I also really like, from the same book.

I intent to make a dress like this. Especially the sleeves! I think it will be al lovely addition to the medieval collection I am making.

You will hear more of it!