Over op de moerstaal

Vanaf nu gaat deze blog verdergezet worden in het Nederlands. Het was wel erg ambitieus om te denken dat ik iets kon toevoegen aan een toch redelijk verzadigde engelstalige markt, terwijl het een stuk lastiger is om informatie te vinden in het Nederlands. En niet iedere handwerker is even goed in Engels, mijn eigen Engels ik ook niet altijd even denderend en uiteindelijk wil ik me toch op een Nederlandse 'markt' gaan richten. Want ondertussen ben ik vrij zeker dat ik na mijn opleiding een eigen bedrijf wil starten. Hoe en wat precies kan ik nog een jaar over nadenken (of langer, als ik nog een buitenlandse stage wil doen ook), maar het is altijd al een sluimerende droom geweest sinds ik voor het eerst met naald en draad werkte. Maar voor nu is dat toch nog even toekomstmuziek. Eerst mijn laatste studiejaar goed zien door te komen...

(Bron)

Some interesting sites!

to share with you, and for me to never forget them.

http://tidenstoej.natmus.dk
This Denish site has some very beautiful costume from 1700 to the 1980's. But aside from the eye-candy, it also gives the patterns of some of the specimen! Off course, it's all in Danish, but with some experience in pattern drawing and a little bit of grammatical imagination, that should not be much of a problem.

http://vintagesewing.info/index.html
Here you can look through some older books (pre-1900 till 1950's) about subjects like dressmaking, pattern design and millinary. Unfortunately these books are not in pdf, and from the titles I searched I couldn't find a (satisfying) free pdf either (and I don't like to pay for stuff I can get for free).

Festivals in bathing suits

Last saterday I've been to CastleFest, together with a friend, my brother and sister-in-law and their two children. Sadly, the weather was not so good (it ended up raining, most of the day).
However, like I said in my previous post, I'd made costumes for me and my friend: Victorian bathing suits.

Bathing suits are only worn since the beginning of the 19th century, when the rich people flocked the seaside for recreation. The first bathing suits for women (before 1800) where just long gowns, with weights sewn in the hem, to prevent them from floating up and showing bare skin.
After 1800 a revolution showed in the swimwear. Though the base of the suit still was a long gown with long sleeves, a long trouser was worn underneath, so there was no more fear of the fabric floating up and showing bare skin.
Toward the middle of the 19th century, swimwear looked a lot like the revolutionary look Emily Bloomer had in mind for women to wear: "Tukish" pants and a "paletot" (some sort of short jacket).
In the second half of the 19th century the pants and sleeves eventually shorten, but stockings still covered the legs.
After the turn of the century people became more active, and women where in need of swimwear that allowed them to move more freely. The new suits no longer hid the female forms and as soon as 1915 they where skin-tight. Since the 1920's they started to use jersey for the swimsuits, making them more and more look like the swimsuits we still use today.
(source: victoriana.com)

For this costume I got my inspiration from the swimsuits around 1890. Aside from the shape, I allowed myself some freedom in the materials, using the very affordable cotton of Ikea and linen I got from a friend (thank you!). But the result was really good, if you ask me...

Oops...

My last blog-post is already more than two months old. It has nothing to do with lack of inspiration, but I've been bussy with the last weeks of school and after that enjoying my summervacation.
Do you also have the idea that you have more to do during the vacation that during the rest of the year?
Anyway, when reading back through my last posts I suddenly read the promise I made to post of pictures of my egyptian costume. So here they are!

Princess Zelda and me discussing the techniques used to make our costumes. We both used EVA-foam, but in quite different ways. ( © S. Everwennink)

The Farao and me, surrounded by amazone warriors.

My complete outfit. Note the white lining of the fur. It was used as a bag at the same time. It seemed like a good idea at first, until April decided it wanted to be like summer... (© O. de Rooij (http://photos.ork.be/))
Isn't Bob a cuty pie?

At the moment, this costume is waiting for me to feel like improving it, but I don't expect that to happen any time soon.
Right now I'm working at my first victorian inspired costume *drum roll* a bathing suit!
Yes, you read it correctly! For CastleFest I will dress a friend and myself in (late)victorian bathing suits. But there's still a lot to be done and so little time, so I gotta go back to work.

Green with dots

Another birthday present, another pincushion.
This time a simple one. Round and green with white dots, inspired by my wrapping paper. ;)

Walk like an Egyptian

The Elf Fantasy Fair is over. I had lots of fun looking and being looked at, talking to other people in wonderful costumes and getting ideas for upcoming projects.
I'm still waiting for the photo's of some photographers, but here are two pictures to show you what I looked like in my costume:

(from: http://photos.ork.be/events/elffantasyfair2010/zaterdag)

(from: http://www.gea-educatie.com/elfffned10-3.htm)

More pictures will be added later, so keep in touch.

Working on my costume

The past week I finally got to make some time to work on my costume for the Elf Fantasy Fair.
So I made long days, and worked as fast as I could. Off course at the expense of the quality, but from some distance, and at normal photo scale, it looks quite good, actually.

Here are some pics of the process.
First the vulture cap. I made it with craft foam, which is easy to shape, when you heat it a little. The head of the vulture has a base of aluminium foil, to give the basic shape, and a layer of fimo clay to make it look like a head:


After that I painted it gold:
Then I gave it a patina with aquarel paint, to make it look old. But I don't have pictures of it yet. The back will be 'closed' with a plate mail-ish decoration. (the blue things on the photo below)

Here's the jewelry. Two bracelets for the upper and two for the lower arm, and a collar, also made from craft foam. To make it a little sturdier, a layer of cotton is glued to the inside.

Here's the collar after painting, with dress (which is not finished here).


Here's the collar after the patina and the stones are added. I'm very pleased with the result!
And here a detail, to show the (very) subtle decoration I added.

That's practically how far I've gotten till now. Still a lot to do, but most of it is hand sewing, which is perfect for the evenings...