There was a big drop-off in submissions for the HSM War & Peace challenge.  Either the novelty wore off for some people after the first three  challenges, the theme was too obscure, or it’s just a really busy time of year.  Still, the submissions there were were fabulous, and hopefully  people will regain their enthusiasm and we’ll see a surge in entries for future challenges. Not surprisingly, there were more entries tied to war’s influence on fashion than peace’s influence on fashion, but there was a fascinating spread of historical fashion from both ends of the spectrum.  While there weren’t as many entries, there were some of my favourite entries of anything made so far this year, simply because of the research and history and new things I discovered.  (and it’s become one of my favourite challenges personally because I finally had the excuse to make a dazzle swimsuit!  Cue major excitement!  Plus a 1940s dress and WWI era  skirt – super productive month for me!). In picking items to showcase I’ve chosen the items …

Update: as many of you may know, this post had a little hiccup, where I published it, and then a few hours later WP freaked out, and reverted to an earlier version, with my favourites from the blue challenge.  I’ve finally got it working again, so here (finally!) are my favourites for Stashbusting. As I expected, the HSF/M Challenge #3: Stashbusting was really popular.  After all we’ve all got stashes that are in desperate need of being used up!  So there were lots of amazing items: some with items  that had been in the stash for years, some with items that have only been in the stash for a few months. Because the challenge fell just after Art Deco Weekend, my sewing was focused on 1930s: I used up some almost-pique I’ve had for 8 years on a ’30s summer suit, and a length of red & white fabric I’d had for two years on a halter,  so I’m feeling pretty happy about my stash, even if my sewing wasn’t as exciting as some of …

April’s  Challenge in the Historical Sew Monthly 2015 is War & Peace: Make something that shows the effects of war, or of extended peace. You may not know this (because it’s not always obvious from what I blog about), but as an undergraduate, I studied international relations.  And art history.  And  costume design. (yes, I like to stay busy). The relationship between the latter two was obvious: I was focusing on textiles and costume in art history, and in historic costume in costume design.  The first one confused a lot of people. It seemed quite random.  What does  international relations have to do with costume history? Well, everything.  IR is everything that’s going on in the world: looking at why it happens, why countries interact the way they do, how they are likely to act in any given situation, why wars happened, and how their repercussions will effect the rest of the world. Anything event that significantly  impacts your country, or the world as a whole, is going to significantly  impact on what you wear. …