My portfolio

This is the old version of my portfolio. For the new one, have a look on my Pinterest board!


Every time I make something new, I try to post it. But I already made lots of things before I started this blog! Here’s an overview of all the historical items I’ve made so far, largely in the order of making.

When no mention of a pattern is made, that means I improvised.

 

My first ever historical piece, a Regency day dress

(Photo by Johan Evers)

I found it difficult to get my hair right in the beginning, but I do love the décor on this photo. I have since lowered the neckline of this dress, and added a gold band on top of the ribbon at the waist and wrists.

White Regency bonnet with flowers, and matching reticule

A Regency spencer with regimental buttons of the 92nd Highland regiment

Regency redingote, beret and matching reticule

A Regency ball gown made of silk with a woven in kashmir pattern

Late 1920s clothing

 

This is a cotton satin slip with matching tap pants. The slip was inspired by the blue crepe the Chine one with lace insertion on page 116 of Fashion From The 18th To The 20th Century by the Kyoto Costume Institute.

I based the pattern for this coat on my bath robe :P.

Regency short stays

Pattern: I got a hand-drawn copy of the pattern for this from a friend, so I’m not sure which it is; possibly Simplicity 4052 or Sense & Sensibility Regency Underthings.

Regency camp follower’s / working class outfit

A Regency turban to match my knitted pineapple reticule

A pair of Regency gentleman’s breeches

(Photo by Stephan Vroom)

A Regency stovepipe hat and woollen spencer

(Photo by Hans Hoevenaar)

Regency morning jacket and cap

Jacket pattern: Patterns of Fashion 1 by Janet Arnold, a shortened version of the c. 1795-1803 Victoria & Albert Museum robe (pages 43-45).

17th century clothing

(The brown spots aren’t due to wearing, but to the tea I spilled over the corset just after finishing it...)

Corset pattern: drafted based on The ‘pair of straight bodies’ and ‘a pair of drawers’ dating from 1603 which Clothe the Effigy of Queen Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey (Costume, vol. 41, 2007) by Janet Arnold, and http://www.elizabethancostume.net/effigy.htm

Bum roll pattern: drafted based on http://www.elizabethancostume.net/bumroll.html

Drawers pattern: Patterns of Fashion 4 by Janet Arnold, number 64 (pages 50-51 and 106); embroidery pattern from Blackwork Embroidery Archives.

 

Victorian underwear

(This one’s still under construction, as I want to add lace at the top, and flossing.)

Corset pattern: Laughing Moon Mercantile #100 Ladies' Victorian Underwear, Silverado corset

Boer war nurse outfit

(Photo by Christine Pet-Sepers)

Bodice pattern: Truly Victorian 420, 1879 Cuirass bodice with evening options (modified)

Skirt pattern: Truly Victorian 291, 1898 Walking skirt 

A late 1920s party dress and matching head dress

A 1940s outfit

Knickers patterns: Vera Venus’s free circular knickers pattern, and circular drawers pattern from A Complete Course In Dressmaking In Twelve Lessons by Isabel de Nyse Conover (1921)

Blouse pattern: Simplicity 1430 (vintage)

Skirt pattern: Simplicity 4915 (vintage)

Ruffled curtains

These are some ruffled curtains I’ve made. In keeping with ‘Make do and mend’, this is the third house in which I’m using these curtains. The first window they covered was smaller, but I had some leftover fabric, so I came up with the ruffles to lengthen them in a nice way.
 

Update: I have now made a pair of blackout curtains in the same fashion, which can be seen here.

My sewing room

Since moving house, I’ve had a designated sewing room. And we have now finished decorating it! Here it is. I picked the wallpaper because I think it looks like fabric.

 

ETA: I felt there was something wrong with my ‘random’ picture frames arrangement, but I didn’t quite know what, until I realised that an arrangement like that should simply consist of more frames, arranged closer together! Here’s what it looks like, now!

The Bazinga shirt customization

I saw this shirt on Amazon and had to have it. (Granted, the soft kitty one was also tempting.) But I don’t like wearing regular T-shirts, so I changed it into a girly fitted shirt with puffy sleeves.

Doing so wasn’t facilitated by the fact that the original shirt was completely lop-sided, almost a parallellogram. I took out the sleeves, cut several cm off the sides of the shirt, and shortened it. Then I sewed the sleeves back into the now smaller arm holes, without changing the size of the sleeves. I gathered them both at the shoulder and in the middle of the arm band, to make them puffy.