On the brighter side of Christmas.

There is sunlight poring into my slightly feverish mind again and it seems I survived the dark times this yeas as well..

So in leaving it behind I'm now showing off my latest addition to my Tess-outfit! It's not going to be winter forever so this will make it wearable later on as well. This outfit is not meant to have corset under at all (aaand now I'm going to have to try it..!), unlike my other Victorian outfit, so it's actually some of the most comfortable clothes I have right now. 

(I did wear it at Christmas dinner..my grandmothers comment on it was that I look like her fathers American mistresses..but more on that later..)

It might not be very accurate, but the being-able-to-move-thing is kind of important in my quest to dress as I like on a daily basis..

I can still wear a hat though!

The other thing I'm showing off today is my handsewing skills. As I've most likely mentioned many times I have wanted to sew something entirely by hand, just to see the difference and to sort of appreciate the effort that goes into some clothes. Sort of like a pre-Victorian sewing quest of deeper understanding (sounding like a pretensions douche there..? no..?)

But to the actual creating! My Lus got baby-dolls for Christmas, one with soft body in a good size..but since it was seriously stupid looking in its cerise-pink kicking suit, I decided to sew some new things for it..(or her..it/she has no name yet..) Made from old pillowcases, it's just so cute now! It's the same design as the dress I made for Lus cousin last year.. with matching pantaloons and bonnet. 

Very mid-late Victorian.

It took me about 2 days to make it, which is roughly the time it would take to make the same dress grown-up-human sized on a sewing machine..So now I have some idea of how long it must have taken to make other things.

teeny tiny waistcoats..

Every-day..

I'm now trying to find the time to actually make some of the things I have in my mind all made up..partly because I can't take things with me when moving away..and partly because my head might explode due to creativity overload..pick which ever. 

The new thing today is my newly finished waistcoats for my Lus, one fancy and one every-day. It's really one of the more fun things to do because it doesn't take a lot of time and one is sort of allowed to get a little eccentric! The awesomer the better! Kind of like hats.

..and fancy!

I do know this look is less of the historically accurate than I go for usually when I'm doing a specific style/era.. but I just really like the idea of dressing up children like adults! Maybe some sort of reaction to the ridiculously long time people act like children most of the time in my own time? I don't know..probably. Or maybe the clothes DO make the man..in which case I might just have made a 3½ year old man..freaky. But a whole lot less freaky than still having "your room" at your parents place forever..you know who you are.

Anywaay..Next on the way out of my head (maybe),with some more or less agonising breaks for procuring the soulless affection called Christmas presents, will be a grown up sized waistcoat in the style of the more casual one..and then some other things. We'll see!

An other life..or todays happyplace.

This might seem like a strange place to want to be..but I've spent the day in corset and hat (I was going to say long skirt and lace-up shoes..but that's not as unusual) while Christmas shopping..and these wintry days I really wish I was somewhere like this:

This is my dream home today! but really it's the top floor of my French theatre..and that's just me being casual. I'm being it right now. And to avoid the "why I loath Christmas"-topic, here's some surroundings to my dream home:

And even if I rather be fucking anywhere else for the next couple of weeks, this would a very exiting  place to be!

Back to the d'Urbervilles..sort of.

Clearly, Tess isn't dressed all the time.

After deciding that first 1880's skirt looked all wrong and I decided to go more towards the smoky-gothic-city-style of an outfit, I kind of had a skirt lying around. So I fixed it up a little..less layered..more length..I returned to my original inspiration: Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Even if she's a really crappy secret keeper and falls in love with a dumbass it still seems to draw me in. I'm not talking about a book here and not the new film, but the 90's miniseries that looks so amazing. That's what's gonna be in the back of my head whilst finishing this one.

The upper part is actually a winter jacket that I didn't  finish 4 years ago lined with the same fabric as the skirt. 

So that will hopefully keep my mind of the fact that Christmas is kind of an annual thing. A lot less into it this year..but a little less hopelessly sad..

And I'm not even gonna mention what I think of the Finnish independence day tomorrow! let's just say I'm proud to be on the Swedish speaking side of the invisible border.. 

Goodnight!

Closet-diving and little jars.

There's so many of those bloggs out there that will tell you everything (and I mean everything!) about the lives of people that you barely know/care about, and they all feature at some point (or many) a "today's outfit"-post...and I know, I'm basing my "everything" on those maybe 5 bloggs I've clicked on Facebook for lack of better judgement and the same creepy curiosity that makes me look into peoples windows when I walk by, but still! Well, today I'm doing my interpretation of that..almost..only less lame.

The shirt is not from my wardrobe (even though I do have it on my mannequin which makes it look a little off there with the waistcoat) but part of my Victorian-project to dress up my family all in the same style..you know..as one does..I did finish it some days ago, and it's good enough for a first try. A little too wide, but otherwise it's good. I tried to keep it fairly simple now to start with so there's no extra pleating or such..but maybe I'll try that next time. My favourite detail on it is the buttons that are made to look like cufflinks on the sleeves. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it looked so cool so I just had to do it!

Now, the 3 other pieces are totally from my wardrobe! The black dress is a gift from Skrutt that I just finished up a bit. It's been lying around for a while, and then I just came to think of the lace collar and had to try it. I've never looked more Catholic in my life. It's staying! for now at least..

Then there's my patched dress..Again in my recycling of fabric, some of this is older than I am. Aside from that it's one of my more artistic and less authentic dresses. It has it's ground idea in an Edwardian nightgown, but it's ripped of at the knees and patched all over with the same and different coloured bits..To me it's the way life tears you apart and then puts you back not quite the same. All the different colours has there own meaning in the puzzle,  like the pink ground fabric is a sunbleched bedsheet from my 1980's childhood..and that deep red comes from one of my sons first pillowcases...and the bow is the same silk ribbon as on my weddingdress..and finally india-patterned purple of which I also made a Victorian corset not so long ago. I think this will be my "thinking artsy thoughts"-dress. Maybe, if I add to it, it will be floor length at some point!

And here it comes: This is what I'm wearing today! my Victorian underskirt and this awesome t-shirt I made yesterday. It's inspired from a green t-shirt just like this, I just liked it so much because it goes so well with my Victorian skirts and makes it all a little more casual, so I made another one. And that text right there, right across my boobs, says "tout est relatif". I've had "all is relative" written on my arm for some time and wanted to use in something..and somehow it just sounded cooler in French..like most things.

So lastly, before I force my self to conform to society's  rules about sleeping at night, I'll do a sneak preview of my first completely useless but fun art projects: my jar-art! I got so into stuffing things into jars at Halloween and this is the next step..it's supposed to be more and less likely life situations..stuffed into jars! And something so vague also needs a confusing title, hence the paperlabels. One is finished (out of 3 so far..), with the random contents of a sofa or bed with the text "there's no time like the stolen".

But since this is not another blogg about someone's life, do not expect a "this is my food"-post next..that will never happen.