Month: March 2013

Five for Friday: HSF favourites so far

Published by The Dreamstress

When I first posted the Historical Sew Fortnightly I promised to post my favourite item for each challenge.  And then the HSF got so big that I’ve spent so much more time than I had planned on organising and administering it and I ran out of time to post about favourites. To make this up, here is a quick round up of my favourites for the first 5 challenges (plus a bonus for the bonus challenge). It  was REALLY hard to pick favourites – there are so many amazing things that have been produced, and such a range of periods, experience levels, and personal taste.  I’ve chosen the items I thought best represent the spirit of the Historical Sew Fortnightly; the quest to explore history, raise our skill levels and standard, stretch ourselves (or sometimes just get something done, rather than just procrastinating);  and the spirit of the individual challenge.  Inevitably there are some projects that I adored that I just haven’t been able to post about.  I didn’t purposely try to pick different seamstresses …

A simple striped T

Published by The Dreamstress

The Historical Sew Fortnightly Stripes challenge has really gotten me in the mood for stripes, whether they are historical or not. I was even motivated to rummage around in my PhD (project half done – clearly a much more awesome name than UFO, because having multiple UFOs just makes you sound like a conspiracy theorist, while having multiple PhDs just makes you sound…awesome) pile  and fish out a striped T shirt that I’d originally dubbed the ‘Unimpressed T’, because that’s how I felt about it. I was so unimpressed that I couldn’t even be bothered to blog about the original version here, though I did post it on the Sew Weekly (said post has now disappeared – very annoying).  I didn’t like the original because the stripes seemed overwhelming, and the neckline a bit unresolved, though I’d loved the same cut in my Gay Red Shirt. Even Fiss was unimpressed by the shirt as it was: Still, with all this striped happiness happening, and with my Sewing with Knits class coming up, I felt bad …

Rate the Dress: 1930s rainbow stripes

Published by The Dreamstress

Wow.  I really never do know what you guys with think of a frock!  I post the most saccharinely sweet 1850s dress, and you like it, because you like the period, and then I post a fringe covered 1850s dress that almost makes me like fringe (and that’s saying a lot), and your reaction….well!  Elise called it “…what my spiritual ancestress would have worn in the 19th century to campaign for gay civil rights”, but the overall concensus was piñata.  Poor piñata frock took a hit at (OK, I haven’t managed to add up the scores yet, but I know it’s under 7 out of 10). Update: Oh wow.  7 out of 10 was way ambitious.  The final tally: 4.5 out of 10.  The piñata is busted. This week I’m sticking with the rainbow stripes for our striped theme.  This is Elizabeth Hawes’ 1937 “Alimony” dress, in all its circle skirted fuschia and teal and lime and lemon and ochre and mallard and pumpkin and gold and white striped glory. To tone it down, and …