Fabric!

I went fabric shopping yesterday. I shouldn't have, but I did anyway.

But I realised that I've actually run out of scrap fabrics to use for mock ups, so I thought I'd try to find some cheap, evil fabric now when the January sales are still ongoing.

The Booty

The reddish, cotton-blend (I think) was what I bought for that purpose. When I checked out, I even realised that it was 50% off the sale price, meaning I bought it for 12.5 SEK= 1.8USD=1.1GBP=1.25EURO per metre. I might go back for more...

The white cotton was also kinda planned, for my regency stays, whenever I feel courageous and wise enough to start on them.

The striped fabric was the impulse buy, but it called out to me the instant I saw it.

It was buried in a huge pile of remnants sold by the kilo (including a fabric featuring Siberian Huskys - and lots of it!) and my first instinct was: "ZOMG striped regency gown!!!11".

When I examined it more closely, I noticed that it was designed by Judie Rothermel and "inspired by the Old Sturbridge Village collection".


I knew I had been to the Old Sturbridge Village site and looked at costumes from their collection and it convinced me even more that I should buy this fabric. As I obviously did!

Now, I suppose this isn't a replica of a historic fabric (since it says "inspired by" rather than "replicated from" or something) and that's all cool, but since my knowledge about printed, historic cottons is limited at its best, I would like to know if this pattern would be appropriate for a regency gown at all? In my head, it's already a long-sleeved day dress...


I googled the fabric and found it for sale at ReproductionFabric.com among other places, and they had placed it in their 1865-1900 category, which wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.

Any thoughts, you clever, well-informed people?

By the way, I went to the Old Sturbridge Village site to see if I could find the object which this fabric was inspired by. I failed, but spent a while flipping through a scrapbook with fabric samples from the 1820's (scroll down for more). Amazing how modern many of those prints look!

Shoes, fabric and a cat

Three lovely things indeed: a pair of shoes, lengths of fabric and the cat in my life!


Me and the cat are all by ourselves tonight. My DH is out with a friend (they were actually going to see Pete Doherty, but I just got a text message informing me that the sweet boy never showed up. Surprise, surprise...) and my stepdaughter is acting as a hostess at a Christmas dinner in an 18th century building (in costume of course!) just like I did last year. Sniff! They grow up so quickly these days...

That means that I can do lots of sewing without getting bad conscience for being anti-social on a Friday night. I really am going to have the pet-en-l'air finished on Sunday!

Anyhow - in the picture above you see the shoes I recovered about 200 years ago. They now have buckles (modern buckles, alas) and will also be worn for the first time on Sunday. I do hope that the heels will carry me all night since they're glued on. Maybe I should bring a spare pair of shoes, just in case?

You also see a newly-bought fabric (actually curtains) that found at one Salvation Army thrift/charity store. I'm quite in love with it and there's lots of tit but I haven't the slightest idea what to do with it. There just isn't that Instant Image in my mind when I look at it, but time will tell. Ideas and inspiration always welcome, of course!

And last, but not least, sweet Börjesson. I love him but he eats shoes and that's the truth! Only my shoes, and only dressy shoes. I don't know what's up with that. I have to put shoes I care about on a shelf 2 meters above the floor if I want them to stay safe from him. He likes to chew on the corners of books too, especially fancy coffee-table books. Why it's better not too keep those kind of books on the coffee table any more.

I hope y'all will have a good weekend, I know I will! I had the day off today (Friay) and won't get back to work until Tuesday! Mini-vacation FTW!

I'll try to take some pictures on the Christmas dinner on Sunday, beause this place lacks pictures badly these days. XXX

Photos of different stuff

I'll try and make up for the lack of pictures in the last post (pictures are pretty!)

Here are two different shots of the mantelet I'm currently working on. It need ribbon for tying and endless meters of trim at the bottom edge (sigh!).

I think it's cotton whit a shiny effect. The burn test confirmed this, to my bief knowing, but even if it's polyester I don't care because the colour is so gorgeous (and, as usual, the pictures can't do it justice).


It's not as shiny as in the first picture, but not as dull as in the other, either. Think somewhere in between. It kinda shimmers when the fabric moves... Ah, sweet thrift store find!


Remember this post, where I mentioned a pair of embroidered pockets in the making? You don't? Good, 'cos they ain't gonna happen. Sorry, but embroidery really isn't my thing. I wish it was because the possibilities for a skilled embroiderer are endless, but such is the sad truth. I have great hopes for my stepdaughter, who now have inherited one half-finished pocket. I'll whip her until she is good enough to take commissions for me. It'll keep her from drugs and gangs too!

No, my pair of embroidered pockets will instead be made from this machine embroidered silk remnant i bought this Tuesday. It'll not be quite the same, but just the feeling of not having a sad, neglected embroidery project staring at you anymore is well worth it.


The silk is a little goldish, which doesn't translate very well in the photo, and quite lovely in its own right.

I also bought this lace fichu thing on the same day. It's not even very old, and probably not very period correct but it just screamed: "BUY ME!" so what else was there to do?

The shop where I bought it is the best place in this town. They mostly carry early to mid-20th century garments but also older dresses and accessories, antiques, trinkets, porcelain et c. They have lots of old embroidered tulle lace that I will buy tons of when I acquire the wealth that rightfully should accompany such divine beauty as mine. Vintage ostrich feathers to die for! OMG shoes! And guess what? The prices are quite affordable, considering the usual over-prices that one normally sees in shops like this one.

So, if you come to Stockholm, don't miss out on Old Touch or you'll regret it forever and probably longer. Yeah, free advertising FTW, but I like them so much so I do it gladly.

I'll be occupied with non-sewing related things this weekend, but whenever I can I'll continue the work on my regency bodiced petticoat.

Yellow fabric up for closer inspection

This fabric is actually a vintage curtain (my guess would be the 70's. It would go well with brown wallpaper and orange carpeting) that I bought from a thrift store.




I'm not sure about the material. It doesn't feel synthetic and it doesn't look synthetic (it doesn't look as shiny as in the pictures). I'm no expert by any means but my guess would've been some sort of cotton damask. Or something. But it didn't do very well on the burn test (recently explained by Fuchsia here) so I don't know.

I'm thinking I'm not too bothered. I'm no purist anyway, and if it looks good, it's good enough for me.

What's bothering me more is the pattern. Not that it's not an 18th century pattern - who'd be so lucky that they found a Period Correct patterned fabric at a price they could afford? Certainly not me! - no, I'm more worried about the size of the pattern. Methinks it's too large. Here I've placed a medium-sized cat on the fabric for comparison:


If I'm going to use this fabric for an 18th century project (and in that case I see a jacket, and I see a black petticoat to go with it!) I'll have to do a bit of research on jackets made of damask-type fabrics first, if any should exist, and see what the fabrics look like. Any input would be appreciated of course!