Ballerina shoes

Haberdasheries: 3 m 2,5 cm wide black satin ribbon

I don’t know what’s happened to my shoe size. For years, I wore size 38 shoes. And then, all of a sudden, all my size 38 shoes (which weren’t actually that many, I’m not much of a shoe person) were too small! But size 39 shoes are too big. That is, I’ve got trouble keeping pumps and ballerinas on my feet. This means I’m probably a size 38,5 now, but half sizes are hard to come by.

Now, I happen to rather like ballet (the clothes – both on and off stage*, the appearance of effortlessness, the discipline, male dancers’ bodies, Ballet Beautiful, &c), and thought it would be nice to add ties to ballet flats, in a similar manner to those attached to pointe shoes. This is a great solution, as it also keeps slightly too large shoes on my feet! And I think it also makes my ankles look a bit less tiny.

Most people seem to glue the ties to the shoes, but as my shoes (Kiomi nero ballerinas) have got a line of stitching, I stitched through that, and the ties, by hand to secure them.

* Except for those man tights, of course. Not one of Rudolf Nureyev’s best ideas! :P

VAD veil

Pattern: Improvised, based on measurements mentioned in an ad from the period

Fabric: Cotton lawn

Haberdasheries: none

It’s 1916 this year, and this means that instead of the adorable Sister Dora caps my fellow WW1 nurse re-enactresses and I used to wear, we will start wearing the veil that was introduced in late 1915.

Because the 'Army veil' looked more professional than the Sister Dora cap, some auxiliary hospitals decided that their VAD staff could wear them as well. This step found disfavour among trained military nurses!
A Matron-in-Chief in France reported: "Found some of the VADs with Army caps on at Etaples, and was informed they were permitted to wear them. Instructed them to wear Sister Dora cap until I gave them other instructions and wrote to the Matron-in-Chief on the subject on 23rd inst." (War Diary of Matron-in-Chief, The National Archives, WO95/3988, 27 October 2015
At about this time the VAD headwear was officially changed by order of the Joint War Committee. The Sister Dora cap was phased out, and substituted with a style that became iconic for the Great War VAD.

This style of veil is different from the QAIMNS one. (Of course, it would have been too easy for us if we could have used the QAIMNS veils we already had!) This one is made of lawn, and rectangular in shape, about 47 by 70 cm.

I thought it would be very hard to put on properly, but we practised with it during a recent nurses’ sewing and training weekend, and it wasn’t actually that hard. And I don’t think it actually looks that much worse than the Dora cap, either.

White spats

Pattern: Improvised

Fabric: Cotton, leftover from my 1915 suit

Haberdasheries: Black elastic

I made a pair of beige spats before. Since I already had a pattern, it wasn’t that much effort to make a pair in another colour. Some of the pictures of spats boots I found had white and black ones, which I thought looked really cool, too:

So here’s my version!

More information on how I made these in the post about the beige pair.

Best buys of 2015

This blog is mainly about making things, but last year I bought a few things that I’m really enthusiastic about, so I wanted to share those with you. (And no, I am in no way being paid to do so!)

Bow belt

When looking for a wedding dress, I discovered a 1950s style shop, and bought a Collectif 50s Bella Bow belt. The shop lady put it around my waist when I was trying on a dress that was a bit too plain, and I instantly decided to buy it when I saw how much it added to that dress. And I’ve since discovered it adds a lot to a plethora of outfits, and worn it a lot!

Here are some examples of outfits without and with the belt. It makes them less basic, and emphasises my waist:

Yes, I’m smiling in the before photos as well! Too often, the after effect is exaggerated because the model looks sulky in the before photo ;).

Unfortunately, the quality of the belt isn’t that great; although admittedly I did wear it a lot, I did think the elastic started stretching very quickly, after a few months. So I had to get a new one, as the first didn’t actually have its waist cinching effect anymore.

Seasonal colour analysis

I wrote about this before: last year I had a ‘seasonal colour analysis’ done. And I’m still chuffed that I did!

First, the theory of seasonal colours was explained to me, which was interesting. I was shown photos of people with different skin tones (warm vs cool), and varying amounts of contrast in their appearance, and which colours did and didn’t suit them. I clearly saw the difference, even on the computer screen! After that, I sat in front of a mirror, and had fabric colour palettes draped around me. And I could see my face change colour when suitable and less suitable colours were next to it! That was very nice, because it didn’t make me feel like I was being made believe that certain colours suited me – I could actually see it for myself.

I’m a deep winter type, which means cool colours suit me best, but moreover, intense cool colours (see colour palette). Luckily, almost all the colours I already liked turned out to suit me (I wonder whether you are intuitively drawn to colours that suit you?), I’m ‘allowed’ to wear black, and because I’ve got light skin and dark hair and eyes, I can also wear contrasting colours. But I’ve also started wearing colours I wasn’t that much into before, like petrol, more, because I know they look nice on me.

My husband had an analysis done as well (he’s a muted summer type), because he, too, wanted to know what suited him best before picking his wedding clothes, and I really enjoy looking at him wearing colours that are great on him, like sea green and steel blue!

Glerups slippers

These are the perfect slippers, I’m so glad I found them. Granted, they could have looked slightly more elegant, but I don’t think they’re ugly, just basic. And they’re wonderfully warm without being sweaty (and smelly…), and soft enough to walk on hard floors with. I think I actually bought them the year before, but that says something about their quality! They still look and feel practically the same after a year of intensive wearing. They are not vegan friendly, as they’re made of wool, but I do think they’re sustainable, simply because they last so much longer than slippers made of synthetic materials.