Some of the challenges we choose for the Historical Sew Monthly are meant to ask you to really push yourself, some just call for something big and spectacular, and some of them provide the opportunity for a little breather: the chance to do something small and simple, while you gear up for the next big challenge.  Or not!  Sometimes people make the most phenomenal, amazing, detailed, elaborate things for the challenges I thought would be small ones. Accessorise is definitely designed to be an easier, breather challenge, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a whole range of fascinating, fantastic, creations: some simple, some very elaborate indeed. I made four  items for Accessorise, but they were mostly on the simple end of the spectrum (and two of them were rather late too…).  First there was a set of Baroque pearl accessories: a necklace  (not in baroque pearls) and earrings (in baroque pearls – so they are Baroque, baroque pearls 😉 ).  I started my medieval circlet and veil  during the challenge, but didn’t get them finished …

Can you believe it?  10 challenge in, only 2 to go! The theme for the Historical Sew Monthly Challenge #10 is Sewing Secrets:  Hide something in your sewing, whether it is an almost invisible mend, a secret pocket, a false fastening or front, or a concealed message (such as a political or moral allegiance) This mantua hides a secret.  In order to keep the right side of the fabric facing outwards with the complicated turning and tuckings of the bustling, the fabric has been sewn right side out at places, and wrong side at others, so it only looks correct when draped and bustled: Many sewing secrets were done to save money.  Even Madame de Pompadour, whose clothing expenditure well outstripped Marie Antoinette’s, was known to have her petticoats made with cheap linen at the back of the petticoat, where it would not show, rather than the expensive silk that graced the front of the skirt. In addition to different fabrics hidden under the skirts of dresses, many 18th and early 19th garments feature surprising …

We pick all of the challenges for the HSM in the hope that people will use them to push their boundaries: to sew better, to learn more, and to try new things, but the Out of Your Comfort Zone challenge was picked in the hope that everyone would take this to a whole new level, and for the most part, you really did.  There were so many amazing things: people trying new periods, people making things that challenged them from a personal aesthetic level, and people trying things that really challenged their skills and patience.  I was so proud and inspired! My own entry for the OOYCZ challenge ended up being quite easy: I made cloth buttons for my medieval gown.  I’d been intimidated by the buttons for years, and  was afraid they would be really hard, but they turned out to be really fun, and really easy, which is a great lesson for out of your comfort zone: you don’t know if something will be hard until you try it. For my favourites  I …