Sala silver mine

Hello, all! I hope you're enjoying Summer, wherever you are.

I know I have been absent but I promise I haven't completely fallen off the edge of the world, and I have the pictures to prove it!

Johanna, Martin and Isis's Jan

I spent June 29-July 1 in the old mining district just outside the tiny town of Sala.

Sala silver mine was in use for hundreds of years and is today a fascinating monument to the ingenious work and unbelievably hard labour that filled Sweden's coffers for a very long time.

The "bucket" in which the 17th century king Karl XI travelled down into one of the mines...

Gustafs Skål and its members were invited to celebrate the mine's 18th century heritage during a small festival and our main duty was to look nice and smile for a lot of cameras (a job I'd love to have full time!).

Market place

I had a terrific time and the weekend just went by like the wind.

By way of thanks for our participation, Gustafs Skål (and a lot of other volunteers) were treated to a party deep down in one of the mine shafts - 155 meters under ground, to be precise! It was a very interesting experience - a little scary, and a little fascinating. Dark, damp and chilly - I can't even imagine what life would have been for a miner back then!

Head over to Isis blogg for some great (and some hilarious!) photos from inside the mine!

I made a new jacket to wear for this event but I lack pictures of it, so I borrowed the few below from m:lle Caroline, the ever so reliable photographer!

Not the most detailed picture, no.

I based it on the "swallow's tail" jacket from "Costume close-up" but I had just the tiniest piece of a fabric remnant to play with, so I wasn't completely true to the pattern and construction.

That's me to the left! Thank you, Caroline!

I laced it in front over a stomacher, but managed to place the eyelets very awkwardly and not at all evenly spaced - something I didn't notice until after a pretty long time! I don't feel very happy about this, especially since I can't get more of the fabric, but there isn't much I can do about it now.


Here is a bad mobile phone picture of the lovely fabric:

It was a flea market find at its origins are unknown to me.


Again: enjoy summer, everyone! I'll be back with some costume-related posts sooner than you know!

18th century weeks at Skansen - revisited

Another Sunday at Skansen - this time with much cooler weather which made the hours there even more agreeable than last week! I have to repeat - I really could do this thing for my day job!

And would you believe - I brought the camera this time (although I forgot to bring newly purchased spare batteries and had to buy on site for $$$ - GAAH!) and I took many pictures of the interiors of the lovely, lovely Skogaholm manor:

A bedroom with 17th century walls and ceiling

A bed chamber

A blurry picture of the Chinese parlour

And a DARK but cool picture of the same:

The loveliest little parlour, it says: The table is set - do come in!

Another very female bed chamber......from another angle.

The nursery

I think this was supposed to be the master bedroom:

Another parlour/sitting room, where you could spin...

...play a tune......or just warm yourself up a bit!

And to wrap things up, a handful of ego pictures of me, fooling around inside and outside of the manor house:

Nothing new to wear this week either - my current project has been giving me so much pain that I've started to question my ability to sew even a pillow case in the future! I'm NOT giving up just yet, though. Grey hair makes one look distinguished anyway.

18th century weeks at Skansen

Skansen, an open-air museum/zoo in Stockholm began their annual 18th century weeks last Sunday.

Gustafs Skål's members heartily participates in the event on weekends and show off themselves, 18th century dances, arrange fashion shows and so on, very much to the tourists' delight.

This year was the first time I participated and in spite of the hot, hot HOT weather (seriously, my shift was soaking when I got it off.. Sorry for TMI) I had a lovely day.

There weren't too many fixed arrangements for this day, so my task was mostly to walk around like any other Skansen-goer (only in 18th c clothing, of course), answering the odd question from tourists, smiling for cameras and enjoying the company of the many nice Gustafs Skål members.

I could so do this every day for the rest of my life!

The activities are mainly focused around this building, Skogaholm manor.

I couldn't find my camera when I left home (I slept late and was a bit panicked) so I had to take stealth shots with my phone. A lot of them were so stealthy that I mostly got people's backs ! Oh well.

Isn't this lovely? It had original (I think) decor on the inside.

I really liked his girl's pierrot jacket.

It all ended with a lovely picnic in the green grass (and there was a bit of shade! Phew!)

Lady in blue contemplating lady in floral.

This charming man

Gossip? Surely no - everyone was talking about the heat.

And what's the only remedy for heat? ICE CREAM!

One would think that it would be cool and nice in this lovely... corridor of shrubbery, but it was quite the reverse.

Last but not least - me! I had planned to wear something new but there wasn't time (you may remember this old rag from last summer). I hope to have finished a brand new round-gown for the upcoming weekend. Then I will also try to take more and better pictures, including the lovely interiors of Skogaholm manor.

Yesterday's Christmas dinner - with pictures

Yesterday evening was very pleasant.

The weather was most un-Christmasy with rain but that's how most winters are in Stockholm nowadays so it was only to be expected.



But the house, Kristinehovs Malmgård, was lit up both on the outside as well as within, which helped my spirits up. And they continued to rise with the aide of good company, entertainment, drinks and - food!


The traditional Swedish Christmas food is very rich and plentiful! It's served buffet style and with dozens and dozens of different dishes, it's next o impossible to try them all - especially when in stays! I was pretty full after only the cold dishes (pickled herring, salmon and other lovely things) and then there were tons of dessert!

Christmas trees was not too common in Sweden in the 18th century but not unheard of.


Someone spoke of a written source from 1741 mentioning a decorated tree with present beneath so the beautiful tree was not out of place.



There were many children present and I don't know if it was them or me who was the most fascinated by Gustafs Skål's mascot, the tiny rooster Gustaf!


He popped in for a quick visit, but thought himself better off with his three chicks in the hen house.

And I did finish my pet-en-l'air in time, althiugh I made the last stitches only withing hours from the start of the event.


Miss Ellinor did my hair and I think she did a pretty darn good job too, if you consider she never did anything like it before!



I wore my new stays for the first time (for more than just a couple of hours, that is) and believe I'm very pleased with them. They were really comfortable, even after a heavy dinner and that must be a good sign? And my shoes did not fall apart, although they weren't too comfortable. But a girl can't have everything...

The next event is Gustafs Skål's 12th Night Masquerade and there is this gown I desperately want to make but will I have the time? More about that later; tonight I'm working on a mini-project, a linen fichu, and I just finished 320 centimeters of rolled hems - fuuun!

Tidsfördrifvet - Gustafs Skål's official blog

Huh - how did I miss this? It's of course very new but still...

It's the official blog of Gustafs Skål, the 18th century society that I and many others are members of. It's only in Swedish and launched only about a week ago so there aren't many posts yet, but here's hoping for many to come!

Click on the banner to go there!