HSM #7: Accessorise - A fichu en marmotte

Once upon a time, The Dreamstress posted a terminology post that postulated the existence and reasons behind a simple style of headscarf called fichu en marmotte in French.
Now, I was obviously thrilled by that. Not only does it relate to my nickname, it's even a style of headscarf I'd already adopted before that post.

Once upon a time, a little later, I found this fashion plate, and that solidified my love for fichus en marmotte, and also supplied me with a slightly different style of tying one (a bigger one). Which I've defaulted to so often, I became painfully aware of how one-note I was becoming.

So it's been in the plans for a while, making new fichu-en-marmotte-able scarves, and the first scarf itself had been in the works for quite a while, too, but I only finally managed to finish it now. Just in time for the Accessorise challenge!
(It was originally meant to go into the Terminology challenge last year. Well, as long as it got finished!)

What the item is: A fichu en marmotte
The Challenge: #7 Accessorise
Fabric: white & green printed cotton - originally a thrifted pillowcase
Pattern: none - it's a cca 80 x 80 cm almost-square
Year: 1790s, inspired by a 1797 fashion plate
Notions: white cotton thread, ooooollld "wine red" & "light brown" dyes (turns out in the parlance of the day, "light brown" was more like something I would call simply "brown", so it turned out browner than I planned - that's what the picture with the Latvian flag is there to demonstrate)
How historically accurate is it? I don't know, maybe 75%? It's just a hand-hemmed piece of fabric. The original green of the print was way too saturated, which is why I overdyed it. The dye itself is definitely not accurate, but overdyeing something would be, and the colour could be achieved with period dyes. :-)
Hours to complete: I worked on it on and off for months between other projects, but the hemming could not have really taken more than cca 4 hours altogether. The dyeing was cca 2 hours, plus about 9 hours in a vinegar solution to set the dye better.
First worn: Today
Total cost: I forgot - it's been a while since I bought that pillowcase. Thread was vintage and a gift. Dye was almost vintage, too. Refer to fabric size and local dye prices for an approximate idea...

In case you were wondering why I overdyed it - here's what the original pillowcase looked like:

Kind of; I've only got this high-contrast photo that may distort the colour. It's not a bad colour, but next to my face, it was too harsh.

* * *

Oh, and in case you were wondering who it is I'm holding? One of our cats has kittens. Three. All black.

HSF #13: Under $10 - 1930s-40s-style trousers

Remember my almost favourite trousers?
I've wanted a new pair of wide-legged white summer trousers for quite a while now. Over time, it evolved into a pair of 1930s-40s-style wide-legged trousers. I looked at pictures, I looked at vintage patterns online, I compiled a Pinterest board for active wear / outdoors wear / hiking wear / whatever of the era, inspired by Swallows and Amazons (I love Arthur Ransome's books, as my Literary Heroine Party questionnaires attest to). After all that, I was on the lookout for white cotton twill to make my trousers. Sounds like a basic enough fabric, right?

A basic, classic look, right?

Well, that was probably the problem: the shops I visited were full of colourful prints and low on very basic fabric. And I didn't always have the money to spend on fabric, so I could not be on the lookout all the time. In the end, I found exactly the fabric I wanted this January, with my Christmas money. And it was in the remnant bin, so it was marked down. All great, and I bought it; the problem was, there was only about 1,2 m of it, so I wasn't at all sure it would be enough for my wide-legged trousers.

At the beginning of July, I finally mentally crossed my fingers and cut into it. I just so-so squeezed the trousers out of it, with the help of
a) the fact that I have short legs, so 1,2 m was long enough for both legs and waistband,
b) inside waistband of a different material,
and c) some creative seam allowances (and this is one of the two huge reasons why I love the continental Europe practice of patterns with no seam allowances and going by the sewing stitching line, thank you very much).

 See? Some very creative seam allowances there.

Oh, and d) forget about those folded-up cutting diagrams. Such a waste of fabric. I never use that sort of layout, I just make sure I have the grain right and cut wherever I can squeeze it.
It did help that I was going for the vintage style with a lapped zipper on the side: a fly would take more fabric. Somehow, I even managed to squeeze the visible part of the slant pockets and the belt loops out of it. And I still have some small scraps... well, more like tiny. (Probably not even enough for doll trousers. I'll probably still try. :D)

The pattern is based on the one taken from those trousers I found at home. I made the back darts a bit bigger in the process. I also altered the front crotch a tiny bit (the original is very L-shaped, I made the curve more gradual because it always felt a bit off). Made a waistband, of course. And following the example of the vintage patterns I've looked at, the legs are not tapered at all, just cut straight down from the crotch/hips.

It results in a bit of a baggy look, but that, I believe, is quite correct for the era.
As you can see on this photo, though, I may still have to line the top part - the navy stripes of my T-shirt and my pantyline (ugh!) are showing through.

The fabric got a bit off-grain in the wash, so the trousers are cut a bit off-grain, too. Here's hoping it won't play havoc on them over time.

As mentioned previously, there's a lapped zipper on the side - handpicked. Then there's hooks and thread bars in the waistband. The hem allowance is handstitched, too. Otherwise, it's straight stitch (+ flat-felled inseam), zig-zag and some pinked seam allowances (at the pockets and in the waistband).

I also made use of the selvedges wherever I could.

The most important thing, of course, is the fact that I finally have nice casual trousers I can squat in and do stuff in without exposing my back.

Okay, they're white, so it's probably not a good idea to do all kinds of stuff in them. But the point is, I have a pattern that works.

In the end, styled with a striped T-shirt and the matching Miss Barbora hat, in emulation of the beachwear of the time, it's definitely more Miss Barbora than Swallows and Amazons. I plan on using the same pattern to make shorts for the Outdoors challenge, though, and that will fill that Ransome doing-all-kinds-of-stuff slot. :-)
Thus the "Pattern - Nancy" tag.


Just the facts, ma'am:

The Challenge: #13 Under $10
Fabric: cca 1,20 m of a white cotton twill remnant + a piece of an old tan cotton twill pinafore for the inside waistband. Oh, and I forgot about the old bedsheet for the pockets...
Pattern: my own, adapted from a pair I own
Year: cca 1930s-1940s
Notions: white cotton thread, metal zipper, hooks (+ thread bars, because I did not have enough overlap in the waistband for an eye)
How historically accurate is it? I think about 80-90%? I based the style on vintage pattern pictures, tried to only use techniques that would have been used then (straight stitch, zig-zag, some pinked seam allowances, some handsewing). But the slant pockets, placement/number of darts and details like that may not be quite accurate.
Hours to complete: I lost count; like usual, it took longer than I had expected, there was quite a lot of handsewing... maybe 10?
First worn: So far, just for some quick pictures (it was either too hot or too rainy for actual wearing). They’ll definitely get a lot of wear, though.
Total cost: Cca 160-170 CZK for the fabric (I've lost the receipt), 15 CZK for the zipper + the other odds and ends take it to about 200 CZK = Just about those 10 USD (yay for remnant bin!).

Also wearing:
the Miss Barbora hat - C&A, a gift 
striped T-shirt - Ellen Amber, thrifted
necklace - made by me
belt - unknown origins, found at home
shoes - Clarks, second-hand

And a tomcat who wasn't happy about becoming a fashion accessory at all. 

Oh, right, outside of being a Historical Sew Fortnightly item, it's also an #Oonapalooza item for the Sewcialists group. So I wanted to be a bit more creative with my photos, Oona-style, but no. My poses, it turns out, are limited to: front; back; maybe side; okay, squatting down not very creatively; looking off into a distance in a manner that makes me unwilling to share those photos; grabbing a cat and hoping for the best.

Easter Sunday

Today, it's not just Easter Sunday; there was a baptism in our church.

 

And there were many children, too. But I did not take photos of them. In part because they're so lively.

 * * *

I did not really intend to do an outfit post, because... well, it's Easter. But I got so many compliments at church that I figured I'd better document this for posterity. As in, the purpose of the outfit posts is to document what I like wearing and what looks good on me and this apparently fits into both categories.

Also because the coat is one of my newest thrift shop finds that fills a considerable hole in my wardrobe. It was very cheap for such a good staple. There are some little problems with it (like a spot hidden by the purse), but it's very much "me", and I don't find coats that feel just right that often.

beige wool felt cloche - C&A
green cotton T-shirt - thrifted
brown cotton blend sweater - C&A, second hand from a friend
beige cotton coat - thrifted
blue plaid woollen blend skirt, bias cut - thrifted
brown stockings - some Czech brand or other, České fusekle in Brno
black leather pumps - Clarks, second hand / thrifted
shoulderbag / purse - thrifted
ring - my baptism gift from grandma

Sometimes, an outfit is not a sum of its parts. But this one is. I like them all, and I like the complete picture probably even more. Not bad for something I just pulled together in the morning when I decided I did not feel like wearing my Blueberry skirt on such a bright day...

It's actually a very 1930s silhouette, somehow.


The cats, of course, got curious. So here are some cat photos for you:

One of the tiny ones playing with the tripod. We've reached a point where only some of the cats have names. This is the playful one. It may be the same one as the one called Lorinka, but I'm not sure and think not. Their coats changed a lot with the change to summer coat. :/

A tomcat being mesmerised by a bird.

This tomcat.

 

* * *

And I've just seen my first butterfly of the year. It was yellow. Joy.

Thank you, cats

In the post about my helpful feline assistants, I said that they had not managed to botch anything up too badly yet. I forgot to mention the several pieces of bedding they had managed to tear into.
After that post, they created a masterpiece:

This used to be a pillowcase. After it met our cats, it evolved into stash fabric.

I was thinking of using it as binding for my Regency stays and turning them into a fully bedding project (the damask I'm making the stays from is old duvet cover). But this fabric is too thick for that purpose, so I'll have to come up with something else. Since I'm hoarding blue and white fabrics for patchworking, I guess that's it.

It happened when I was away at school, so I have no idea who was responsible. It could be either of those who come inside.

Have a good one

I think I'm obliged to post something here before 2013 is over. It was a somewhat awkward year in many respects, with many things left unfinished (as evidenced by the lack of posts here), and things going differently than expected (like our Christmas; but it was still good!). But it wasn't a bad one. In spite of various things going wrong, the last straw being my aunt calling this morning that the flat at school was most probably flooded, there were lots of good things happening, too. The last, so far, being my aunt calling again that the flooding isn't too bad at all.

Sometimes, I can take lessons from our cats. Seriously.

A Kuusi lesson: when something does not go as planned, make the best of it and go on as if that was the purpose. Because who knows, maybe it was.
(If you do not catch the bird in the tree, make yourself comfortable in the tree and pretend that was the plan all along.)

I had some great times this year, and in spite of once again not managing to meet with lots of friends I have not seen in ages, I think 2013 was a very friend-rich year for me; I will get around to writing about some of it one day. So for the next year, I wish you some great times, good friends to have them with, and the capacity of making the best of the less so.

Have a good one, and be good. I'll try to do the same.

Blue dress, accessorised with a tomcat

These are not exactly the best quality photos: I took them at half past eight, PM, when the temperature outside was 30 degree Celsius. Make your best guess as to what it was like to step outside earlier... and how Kuusi survived in that black furcoat of his!

(I only grabbed him at the last moment before the self-timer went off; before I positioned myself there, he had been eagerly examining the legs of my tripod.)

I actually did step outside earlier, dressed like this. Minus Kuusi, though he ties my black sandals in nicely. I met up with my friend; we wanted to go to our favourite café again, but it was closed today because of a technical issue (said a sign outside), so instead we went to the patisserie, had an ice cream each and bought some sweet things to eat and went to my home instead and had mint tea from that mint I do not want to get crushed under the TARDIS. Blueberry milkshake would have been better, but mint tea is good.

The point of these photos is my supportive undergarment. That's right: I wore my wrap stays.

With a lightweight, loosely-woven cotton top underneath acting as my chemise, I was (and am) still much less hot and sweaty than I get after just a while with my foam-cup bras in heats like these. No other bras than underwire foam-cup give me enough support, but they're absolutely dreadful in summer. No more! I'm now a short jumps convert. :D

Seeing as the forecast is for heats to last till the end of August (we'll see about that...), I'm very, very happy about this discovery!


Oh, the dress was made by my mom, for my sister, years ago (back in 1990s, actually) - it's Burda Super Easy 3243, rather similar to the famous vintage Butterick Walkaway dress in its concept. I tie it in the back instead of the front, though, because I like the look of that better on me. It's a bit too short for my liking, so normally I only wear it around the house, but that particular feature in combination with its relaxed fit made it perfect for this weather... and the relaxed fit was good for my undergarments.

UFO - Transitional wrap stays / jumps / brassiere

It's actually a FO.


Well, more of a working prototype that's terribly patched together, but considering the prototype had been a UFO for a very long time, I feel good checking it off the mental list.
Inspired by the famous Kyoto Costume Institute pair of wraparound brassiere and a brassiere based off it that used to be sold in the online Jane Austen shop (but cannot be located now I found it), which had a back, I tried to make my own transitional undergarment. It was back before I had read up more about corsetry, though. So, stupid yours truly made the pattern from a modern sloper, and just took the ease off unscientifically (as we say in German/English-infested colloquial Czech, "baj voko"). Of course it was not tight enough in the important spots (and I had no idea what the important spots were until I found out they were not tight enough), so a lot of crazy alterations happened, and it took me much longer to make than by rights it should have, because somewhere along the way it got thrown away as a UFO I did not feel up to perfecting at that point.

The imporantly tight / fitting part: the back. I had to shorten the straps first. Darts were added to the back and a panel to prolong it was added (because it rode up when I shortened the straps), again it was not tight enough on the bottom, so a gathering line of stitching was added (now hidden underneath the binding). It's far from perfect.

But in spite of all the trouble and not quite perfect fit, I think it gives me a fairly nice transitional late 18th century / early 19th century silhouette. Compare here. I definitely want to make a finalised pattern, maybe with lacing up the front instead, like folk bodices or some transitional stays I've seen in online collections, and give it another go with a better fit.

Unlike the inspiration pieces, my brassiere is just corded, not boned (with some of the last hemp cord I found at home - ordinary shops no longer carry it here! Horrible. I'm still re-considering what to cord my stays/jumps proper with.) So I guess it would qualify as transitional jumps?

After I took these T-shirt photos, I found out it fit better if I pinned it together in the front centre, as seen in the photos above. So these are not quite as representative of the fit as I originally thought, but still.

For comparison, two photos with a modern day bra, one that goes from normal (first photo) to push-up (second photo). There's not that much difference between the push-up and the jumps / stays, other than the additional bulk (chemise + wrapping stays? Definitely adds bulk) and the smoother, less separated front. (I was wearing a very clingy T-shirt, so it all shows well...)
It wears very differently, though, not that surprisingly. It took me a while to figure out the best way to put it on, but now that I have, I actually find it more pleasant to wear than a bra, maybe because currently all my bras do not quite fit either... I even fell asleep in it, in my not-quite-healthy-yet stupor. It survived nicely and felt much better than falling asleep in a bra. (All those solid metal and plastic parts in bras...)

 I don't know, there's something pleasanter about this look, even if it's just undergarments and a Frankensteined one at that:

Must be the clingy T-shirt as opposed to nice drape-y woven.

Oh, and it's not just a UFO FO-ing project, it's also a scrapbusting, stashbusting project. Namely, the binding. I had to start somewhere.


Just the facts, ma'am:

The Challenge: HSF's #2 UFO + The Stashbusting Sewalong's January Itty Bitty Pieces theme, but finished after the deadline for the former and posted much later due to lack of good photographing weather and laziness on my part.

Fabric: Old cotton damask duvet cover, a plain weave cotton scrap for reinforcing the added back bottom section, plaid cotton twil-weave flanelette scrap of mysterious origins and a beige cotton remnant (namely this one) for the binding.

Pattern: Made by me, very wrong


Year: 1790-1800ish.

Notions: Hemp cord for cording, cotton (or is it linen?) ribbon / tape for ties, white cotton thread


How historically accurate is it? I'd say... about 10%. Totally winged, mostly machine-sewn.

Hours to complete: No idea whatsoever.

First worn: Dabblingly probably in January, but the full, heavy-duty wearing occured this month, at home. Not worn out yet.


Total cost: Most of it was ancient stash = zero cost; the spool of thread was about 40 CZK, I think.


---------

Behind the Scenes: Star Trek Original Series - The Trouble with Tribbles. I've decided that Kuusi is a Tribble in cat form. This photo was taken around the time it was finished. He is bigger now.

My options for cording the stays proper: A twisted cotton cord, too thick and likely to unravel. A thin (baker's twine thickness) linen cord, probably too thin. I have a haunting feeling that I must have got another idea at some point and forgotten it again.
My unfortunate jumps prototype got lucky.

And I really, really want to make this dress one day:

Portrait of Anna Maria Frederike von Taube, lady in waiting to Dorothea von Medem, by Anton Graff, 1780s, currently exhibited in the Rundāle Palace, Latvia. Photo taken by my father and edited out by me. (That dark rectangular shade at the right was the shadow of an infoboard or something.)
Now uploaded to Wikipmedia Commons as well. I asked father to take a photo of it with his better camera because I liked the dress; it turned out to be a painting by a famous author not published anywhere online yet. She is a mystery lady.

I think she's wearing something like jumps. Or could be.

A kerchief and a handkerchief

I found this in a thrift shop:

It's a wonderfully 18th-century-like print. (Although it may have been meant to be Oriental.) I have no idea what the fibre content is - I'd have to pull a thread and play with fire, which I don't feel like doing. It's rather loosely woven and very soft, quite reminiscent of my Indian shawl which is, I believe, rayon. But this isn't an Indian kerchief, because there's this:

I googled "Felicitas Queisser" and did not get much. Most of my results were German. Some Polish. Some Etsy. Some e-Bay. Some claimed vintage. Some claimed new. Some claimed "made in Italy", which did not line up with the fact so many of the results were German. One German site I ran into was an account of 50s fashions and said Felicity Queisser clothing was particularly popular in Germany.
So that's about it. I own a mystery Felicity Queisser kerchief / scarf that could and could not be vintage. It would also make a fabulous printed fichu (there's one here), if only I had a frock that would more or less match it in colour. :D
(Well, of course I'm going to wear it in normal life, just like I wear my Indian shawl. And its colours are so perfectly me.)


This is what the handkerchief I made looks like after a wash:

And last but not least:

Waitaminute, I didn't mean that. But Kuusi and Viisi were too cute to pass up when I had the camera...

The more I listen to this album, the more I love it. Or, rather, the songs on it - Privateering is a very song album.
Also, the colours are giving me ideas. As if I needed them!

A Spring walk and another American Duchess giveaway

This afternoon, me and my sister played guides to her friend and her friends in our hometown. Well - we mostly found out we don't know our own hometown. :D But it was all right; and it was so warm and sunny, it was unbelievable. It's great to have photography-friendly weather back. I feel more like blogging immediately. :-)

I'm not going to tell you what my hometown is, but I'm going to show you some pictures...

* * *

Yesterday, when I went out to take photos of the Regency-ish necklace, my usual object-photographing spot on the bench was taken...

Nelinka looks grown here, but she's still such a tiny cat. In Czech, I say she's prťavá. I'm not sure how to get the same effect with an English word... it's kind of mocking and kind of fond.

* * *

On a completely different note, American Duchess came with dyeable Regency slippers of the flat kind...

And you may win them in a giveaway - although with the number of American Duchess fans, the chances are pretty slim... :D

Completely different note, but these do look very Springy.

Blog awards and Sewing with Cats

Warning: a very long post ahead! It took much longer to write than I planned...

I've been awarded a blog award; actually, two linked blog awards from two people, Lady Katza of Peanut Butter Macramé and Becky of Sew and So.  Thank you both; I hope you enjoyed yours, because you both deserve it.

The rules alternate between the two blogs, so I decided to go with this (somewhat my own) set:

1. Thank the person / people who awarded you.
2. Add the One Lovely Blog Award / Very Inspiring Blogger award to your post.
3. Share 7 things about yourself.
4. Pass the award on to 7 nominees. (or 10, or 11, or how many you prefer...)
5. Include this set of rules. (or any set you prefer...)
6. Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blog.

The 7 things about me? I like Becky's approach of "crafty confessions"; but I also realised there are several things about my blog and my online personality that never got explained here. So it's a mix.

- My profile picture / avatar? That's me standing on the shore of a lake in Ignalina, Lithuania, back in 2006, as photographed by my sister.
(Yes, Ignalina's famous for the nuclear power plant, and that's what you're most likely to find if you search for it, but the plant is actually still a long way away from Ignalina, in a completely different town, Visaginas - it's just Soviet-time secrecy. And Ignalina and it's surroundings is a most pleasant place to stay if you're into lakes and nature. But I digress.)
I really liked it as an avatar picture, because it showed me without showing me. It just shows my long hair, and my ever growing penchant for wearing things on my head, and the colours are very much me. I still like it as an avatar picture, because it's not so susceptible to change: it's 2013 now, and it still works.

- My header picture? That is (was) a small piece of fabric of mysterious origins in my stash; one of those pieces I very much regretted, and still regret, not having more of. So I immortalised it as my header. It matched the colours in my profile picture nicely.

- My nickname / moniker? Marmota? That dates back to a summer camp where I was with one of my sisters; we were divided into two groups with separate programs; the older ones (where my sister ended up) were called Beavers, while we younger ones were called Marmots (or Groundhogs, depending on which part of the Marmota genus you're familiar with). We kept the nicknames afterwards. I'm using Marmota online, instead of the Czech word, because it's more internet- and international-friendly. (Try saying "svišť"! Try saying "Na cvičišti čtyři svišti piští"! :D)

My second favourite plushie (after my old panda) is Howard the Groundhog

- The first thing I've ever sewed (and I'm sure I've mentioned this before, somewhere but probably not here), was a "top" for one of our dolls when I was about 3. I took a piece of (knit) fabric and made a number of stitches in the middle that scrunched the fabric to such an extent that it somehow stayed put on the doll. I was quite proud of my achievement. And no, I'm not going to show you: I don't think it survived to this day.

- One of the things I loved most at school was making geometric bodies. You know, cubes and such. This I've mentioned before, the turning of a flat pattern into something 3-dimensional. What I did not mention was my very, very brief foray into model-making. On the trip to Austria that photo of my panda teddy was taken on, I also designed a metro unit. Don't ask me why. I only remember it was an exercise in persepective-drawing, and I suspect my father's love of all thing rail-related was also an influence. When we came back, I tried to make a paper model of my metro, and more or less failed - not on the pattern-making front, rather because the paper I chose was not sturdy enough, and I think I just glued it with sticky tape...

- Mom taught me the basics of knitting, and the basics of crocheting. The first thing I ever knitted was a blanket / sweater for a rubber weasel toy that happened to be Russian in origin and have a price tag pressed into its side (hello, centrally planned economy!). The first thing I ever crocheted must have been a plain string, which, of course, also adorned a toy. (And I find this fitting; apparently, knitting was more my thing from the start.) After mom taught me the basics, she very wisely gave me a knitting booklet and let me figure out the rest on my own. I still do that.

Meet Weasel

- The other big influence, other than mom and my Wonderful Crafty Grandma, was an art school / course teacher who is more of an artisan than artist, and thanks to whom I realised the same about myself. She did things like weaving and felting with us, and somehow taught me that no inspiration was too small and insignificant. She's one of my real-life heroes.

This clay pendant was inspired by a smudge on my worktable.

So now that's off my chest, I can nominate people. :-) People who have lovely blogs and are inspiring bloggers, hmm... If any of them have received the award already - I'm sorry for making it duplicate, and thus taking it away from someone else who could have got it... I hope not, though.