All posts filed under: Admire

ca. 1907 Edwardian swimsuit by thedreamstress.com

Can you swim in a worsted wool Edwardian swimsuit? Let’s find out!

Yesterday I showed you my reproduction worsted wool Edwardian swimsuit. Everyone wanted to know if I actually swam in it, and if you could swim in it. Obviously I wondered this as well. The swimsuit was lovely to frolic on the beach on, but could it actually work as a swimsuit. So I gave it a try! My reproduction swimsuit was made from worsted wool serge, and consists of a jumpsuit with attached bloomers, and an overskirt. Both garments button down the front. I chose to swim with bare legs and feet. While fashion plates generally show shoes and stockings there are enough period photographs that show wading women with swimsuits and bare lower limbs to make this equally plausible for a full swim. For the first swim I jumped off a little dock at Hataitai/Evan’s Bay beach. It’s a popular swimming spot (as evinced by all the kids watching me), and very calm and safe, so a good place to try out the swimsuit. My first mini swim showed: It’s definitely possible to swim …

Edwardian swimsuit by thedreamstress.com

I do like to be beside the sea (in an Edwardian Swimsuit)

Published by The Dreamstress

It took three and a half years, but I’ve finally managed to do a photoshoot in the ca. 1907 worsted wool Edwardian swimsuit that I made for the HSF ‘Inspiration’ challenge back in 2014. I generally have to plan and prep for a photoshoot in full historical for a good few days beforehand, but this one was quite spontaneous. It was a gorgeously sunny and warm Saturday, after days of storm and rain. Quite out of the blue, Mr D asked if I wanted to do a photoshoot that evening. I thought about showing you yet another pair of shorts + a Miramar top, but that wasn’t particularly exciting. It was too warm for most of my historical costumes, but then I remembered the Edwardian swimsuit: very little prep and ironing needed, and not hard to put on! And certainly long overdue! I’m wearing the swimsuit with the scarf I made to go with it, wool stockings from the Rosalie pattern, and cheap little slip-on sandshoes. They aren’t actually that far from period originals …

Here there be Pirates, thedreamstress.com

Arrrrr Matey! A Pirate Picnic

Published by The Dreamstress

Last October Redthreaded hosted ‘Fall for Costume’ on Instagram, with daily themes. One of them was ‘Pirates’, and I realised that I’d never dressed up as a pirate! That was clearly an omission that must be rectified, so I threw a pirate picnic. After all, what the point of being a costumer if you can’t let yourself go and be totally dorky every once in a while? So I invited a bunch of friends willing to be dorky with me, and we all raided our wardrobes for striped shirts and big puffy white blouses, and boots and hats, and cutlasses and blunderbusses, and weighed anchor for the treasure coast. The location I picked is conveniently quite deserted, so that we could be blissfully undisturbed in our dorkiness. Because while I don’t mine being dorky, I like to do it as inconspicuously as possible! Even more conveniently, it was relatively sheltered from the strong, blustery Northerly wind sweeping across Wellington that day. The wind did a lovely job of fluttering our feathers and sweeping our sashes …