All posts filed under: Historical Sew Fortnightly

My Ballerina Moment

Last week I discussed the idea of how every girl should have a ballerina moment, and shared my inspiration for a ballerina inspired dress, using my grandmother’s fabric and pattern. I have definitely had my ballerina moment now, and it was worth every bit of angst and mad sewing and panicked moment of ‘Oh no! I’ve ruined my fabric!’. As it turned out, my ballerina moment wasn’t, as I had planned, the Windy Lindy ‘Enchantment Under the Sea’ ball. The dress was done, and I wore it, but the ball was a bit of a wash-out for me: the music was too loud, the dance floor too crowded, the theme didn’t quite come together, and I wasn’t feeling well the whole weekend. So I had to wait another week to be a ballerina, but it came together perfectly: I spent the night in Palmerston North with the fabulous Juliet of The Crazy Gypsy Chronicles, and we had a girl’s night and ate Korean and had too much chocolate silk cake and stayed up too late …

The Historical Sew-Fortnightly Challenge #23: Modern History

Published by The Dreamstress

We’re almost there! The second-to-last Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge of the year, due 15 December, is an easy, fun one, and I hope that everyone participates, even if they have missed a few challenges across the rest of the year! The theme is Modern History: make something historical that is wearable in a modern context. I love this theme because it’s so practical and useful! And it’s also something I’m particularly good at. Since my life doesn’t provide as many opportunities as I would like for wearing over-the-top historical pieces, I have to find a way to fit period into my everyday wardrobe. Here are some of the historical things I’ve made that I actually do wear as real clothes: I’ve worn my 18th century ‘brown’ linen shift as a summer dress, with a belt and sandals, and no one has commented on it, or noticed that it is entirely hand-sewn! I’ve also worn my 14th century nettle shift as ‘normal’ clothes: And I’ve only worn it that way once, by my 1780s pet-en-l’aire actually …

An inspired swimsuit

Published by The Dreamstress

The HSF Challenge #19 was Inspiration: be inspired by the wonderful things other HSF sewers have made for previous challenges. I was super excited about this challenge, but it was also really hard, because there are so many amazing pieces of inspiration that have been created! I really, really wanted to make 18th century gauntlets, but there was another thing that I really wanted to make, that I’d never considered a possibility until I saw other Fortnightliers do it: a 19th century swimsuit. Now, I don’t know why I put swimsuits in the ‘not-possible’ basket – after all, I’ve (often foolishly) waded into MUCH more complicated projects. But still, they just seemed way too complicated and esoteric in my mind. Then Cation Designs made an Edwardian swimsuit dress (using a ’70s pattern as a base), and Loran made an 1860s swimsuit from a fashion plate I’d posted by frankensteining Colette’s Laurel dress and the Folkwear 1900s swimsuit pattern, and they were both fabulous, and suddenly I realised – “Hey, I can do this! A swimsuit …