A Victorian mourning dress: the bodice
My Victorian mourning costume is progressing and this time I finished the bodice. This was an interesting make with lots of inner structure.
Making a Victorian Mourning Dress: The Skirt
This autumn’s big project is the making of a Victorian mourning dress. This will be a series of three or four parts and in the first part, I’ll make the mourning skirt. This dress has been something that I have wanted to make for ages and it works nicely for Halloween. I found this nice and simple 1894 pattern from the online shop called Ageless Patterns. The shop is a bit hard to navigate, but all the patterns are actual historical patterns except that they have seam allowances and grainlines and some other helpful markings added. I think the dress would have been pretty modest at the time of the…
Time-traveling to the Iron Age with my daughter
I made an Iron Age Finnish costume for my daughter so that we can take part in events together. Also, I did some leatherwork...
My Askola folk skirt
My Finnish folk costume progresses: I turned my hand-woven fabric into a folk skirt from Askola, Finland.
A Victorian lingerie dress
Lingerie dresses are those pretty frilly dresses that make the iconic Edwardian look with their lace inserts and pale colours. However, they first appeared in the 1890s. For a long time, I have wanted to make my own but sourcing that much lace was a problem. This kind of dress can use hundreds of euros worth of cotton lace which is way out of my budget. Then I had a stroke of luck and I found huge rolls of lace at the local Recycling centre. These rolls had hundreds of metres, some several kilometres worth of lace and they only cost about 15 to 20 euros each. Admittedly the lace…
Weaving my own fabrics for my folk costume!
I spent 2 months weaving myself fabrics for my folk skirt and vest. I was slow but I learned a lot in the process.
A Finnish folk shirt from early 19th-century Askola village
I hand-sewed a Finnish 19th-century folk shirt from Askola. This shirt with it's intricate embroidery took me 2 months to finish!
A Belle Epoqué Negligée or Victorian comfy clothes
This Victorian negligée belongs to the collection of Espoo City Museum. It is a wonderful piece with lace, ruffles and pintucks.
The Amazing mid-1890s sleeves
I got to study this mid-1890s dress with huge leg-o-mutton sleeves thanks to Espoo City Museum and its curator Suvi Kettula.
The Finnish Iron Age Peplos and the Final Costume
The last part of my Finnish Iron Age costume is the peplos dress. It took me 6 months to construct the whole thing. Now it comes together!
