The end of the 20's

 I did get enough of the 1920's.

 Today will be my last look in the 20's biography..and today will be my last blog post about it. I am quite happy with how the dress turned out. It's more me than the 20's and when it was done I did have the moment of wanting to do it all over again and better! but in the end I do like it as it is. My favourite part, as always, is the decorations. It took me about 2 days, but I figured it out and got my beads there in the end! 

Unfortunately I was in too much of a hurry to take any pictures of my flapper look before the party (just imagine red lips and lots of eye make-up! never got the finger wave to work)..and once I was at the party the arrogant child of the 20's came out of me more and more for every glass of wine (after all,wasn't this the time to misbehave?), so no pictures.. and that is no bad thing! so this will have to be enough. 

As expected, my inner flapper went to my head and out again.. The weekend ended in a truly Swedish way: midsummer dinner! now the summer is officially here..(question mark?)

Beads, beads, beads..

So just a quicky before lunch! 20's dress finished..sort of. I just need to fasten some shoulder straps and then there is the beads...I predict a day filled with those tiny glass balls. So far my dress is very light and flowy, so to get that heavy strait 20's look I will cover it in beads! The future may tell how that turns out later on..

And because I can't do things just a little bit..my life is now filled with jazz and "anything goes" (biography of the roaring twenties") and the Great Gatsby (film, not book..I'm not completely head under water)

..There is no way I wont be tired of this by the end of the week! Which is just as well! because on Friday night begins Scandinavian midsummer. I can just jump right from one obsession to another. That's how I like my dress ups..followed by pagan superstitions.

Into the 1920's

So, completely not following anything up here, I'm going to tell you about my tiny jump into the 1920's. 

The 20's is not a very favoured decade for me, seeing as it's mostly about short hair and no curves it is clearly not for me..and how ever liberal opinions and adventurous life, I am no flapper.  I might like the continuing-into-the-20th-century bohemianism and I find Freud hilarious! There is just a childlike glamour about it that's never appealed to me. 

an other time in the 20's

But there is one thing!  the beaded short dresses and the dark make-up. Ok two things then. And jazz, so three things!I'd say three things are enough to pass for a 1920's flapper, so that's what I will be doing next weekend, in the spirit of the new ' the Great Gatsby' film...and a new dress to go with it. I say 'new' in the same way I always mean it: re-made. This time it's my old bedsheets that will be cut up and re-made into a 1920's dress. It will be red silk (because I was clearly morbid at an early age) , bias cut and beaded. I went for a later 20's design with a low back, because the usual flapper shape with a clearly marked gathered low waistline looked positively dreadful (see what i did there!) on this body of mine. And because there is no half way when pretending..I obviously had to read up on the 20's! Wish me luck on the flapper slang people..

Ps. Jay Gatsby needs to remove his idealism-goggles.

Morbid May Morning

 (Imagine this to the sound of Chopin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b3TNiPjQq4)

This warm late spring morning I an saying good bye to some of my closest friends. Now they will be replaced with new ones, and their memory will live on in other things.. They have been with me through good times and bad over the last 2 years. I am much changed since I first laid  my eyes on them. But nothing lasts forever. We must all die one day and I hope that one day I too can go out like them: loved, remembered and well used! :) My Victorian underwear, you have served me well.

 

à bientot!

Starting over

It has been months. That is not a regret, it's a statement. I am now successfully immigrated and freshly English! 

Something I didn't count on happening during my change of country was the culture shock and my recent appreciation for my own roots. Apparently the Swedish culture runs deep in my cold veins!  So on that note, the new dolls house of mine will be, in some ways, linked to my exploration of my own background smashed together with my new found English.

 I now have the opportunity to study houses up close more than ever before so I'm placing my house in Maidstone on Camden street! After almost a year living like the English, there are a lot of details I would not have known to incorporate earlier.. There is also the fact that I do have a major England crush. 

So in a sense I will be recreating another kind of childhood for my self. Because in the end, it is all an escape to a place I'd prefer.

The house started kind of crappy, but as I've built and rebuilt, cut up and changed it it is now the shape I want it. So far it's mostly a skeleton of what will be, but one room is already done, the basement/ storage space.  It is now the brain of my house. As soon as I get some lights fixed The other rooms can start taking form..

This will be the most alive house I've ever made since it will all be one piece, not dolls in a house which is usually my way of doing things. Now they will all have their own lives and things going on within the house. 

And as for the time line? Well, my preference for the Victorian is still just as strong as ever, so Victorian it will be! I always seem to put myself in the houses anyway, so in this I will make me a child. So if my clothes are 1880's...child-me will be living in the 1860's. 

It's my first 1860's thing so I will need (=want) a lot of research, starting with 1860's Maidstone., but also... a collage <3 i="">

To be continued..

Slightly personal.

..in the light of my candle, to the sound of my mice and my ticking clock , I write to you from inside the walls of Wheeler street. I can still almost not believe I'm here. I don't know if I'll ever find somewhere that feels like home, but it was love at first sight between me and Maidstone so I think I will stick around for some time. It is already worth it tough, since I have nightmares about having to leave.

Right now I look mostly forward to having a real bed! Yes, still sleeping on the floor, thanks for asking. That's where my creativity goes nowadays, home decoration. I've become quite the little housewife! But also quite the picky housewife, so I do end up making most things my self ( not entirely by my self, I'm not that handy)...I will call it eco-friendly. But so far everything is kind of a work in progress. Aside from the dress (that is more art than dress really) that I totally made out of a white sheet and some buttons (ok, a lot..a lot of buttons..) that is all done! 

But that's a far enough stroll into my personal life! I'll be back soon to revive my blog with some more dressmaking and cool stuff, Until then...

Oh no I did make something! there are so much happening that I remember even less than usually, but yes, for my Lus' 4th birthday I actually made a tiger costume. I asked him some days before what costume he would want if he got to pick and I was not even a little surprised at the choice of tiger. So a tiger costume it is!  

..blowing out the candle falling asleep with my book on Victorian life. Saturday night plan.

The latest from red ridinghood in Maidstone

Now on the other side of my emigration plans and the creativeness has had to sit back for a while..but I must say, hand sewing and embroidering really calms ones soul. I did finish my new 1880's dress before I left the country so more on that when there is some pictures to go with it. 

(when I watch the film, it's 90% because of this scene)

 And speaking of the 80's, there's been lots of time to finish reading Bel Ami..the best thing I have to say is that the film will be really cool to watch! I can definitely understand how it would have been some chocking reading to the middle classes 130 years ago, and that's not because the things in it would be unusual, but I would have liked some purpose and deeper meaning to weigh up all the shallow focus on money and endless, pointless seduction. Clearly Bel Ami is a little bit of an 1880's French Gossip Girl (in lack of better comparison). All in all, Dorian Gray kicks Bel Ami's ass.

 So now I hang out with Tess of the d'Urbervilles instead. I know how it ends..and that if it was me I wouldn't make the same choices..but she is really admirable. Besides, Thomas Hardy apparently wrote really nicely. And if you all remember, I did name a dress after Tess!

Still, I don't really have that much to share yet. Soon there will be some cool dress pictures..hand sewing..apartment decorating (yes, apartment. Conformity is for suckers.) AND also a new blog upcoming! I noticed in my search for it that there is no one out there writing about emigrating to new countries..apparently it is not done any more..Well now it is done! I'm bringing emigration back! 

Until then remember: Bravery is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.