This post is mostly about photos of the gown because I already explained the construction and other detailed stuff about it in the earlier post. For once I got some pretty nice photos of the outfit from the day, which was really great because usually I end up having only a couple of blurry photos as I get back home from events and I really don't feel like posting those on the blog. Photo: Mika Seidler The next few shots were taken during the 18th century fashion show... Photo: Teemu Laukkarinen You can see the front quite well in the picture below. The zone front with tabs was inspired by the striped robe à l'anglaise at Met. Photo: Teemu Laukkarinen I didn't wear many accessories with the gown. I really wanted to have a red ribbon round my neck but unfortunately I left it at home or lost it at the dressing room, which wouldn't be a surprise as the dressing room was so full of everyone's costume parts and other things. I was moving so some parts are a bit blurry... Photo: Mika Seidler I definitely should have had a huge and poofy neckerchief to complete the pigeon profile but I'll make one some other time. I'm thinking about something with ruffles like the neckerchief on the Met gown... Photo: Teemu Laukkarinen After the show... Photo: Mika Seidler Then I went out for a short stroll because it got really hot inside after the show. Thanks to Mika Seidler I also got some photos of the dress outdoors. First off, here are a couple of shots I took from outdoors. The only decent photos I got from the event anyway... Below, musketeers with mamaselli Tirpukka (from Tirbuck) and Gouvernante Astrid (from Pohjan sodasta Suomen sotaan - elämää 1700-luvulla) wearing an early 18th century mantua with fontange headdress. Katariina Augustintytär (from Before the Automobile), wearing her beautiful riding habit. It was so nice to meet her again. And then, some more shots of my striped robe à l'anglaise... The huge bum pad gives the dress a very nice swayback profile at the back. The hem is trailing... The hedgehog hairstyle is all my own hair. Credits to baroness von Mannheim (from Couture Mayah) who made my hair look good and thanks to her I also learned how to do this hairdo on my own. For the evening I wore the dress with white petticoat with small stripes, added a few feathers to my hair and tied a belt with buckle round my waist. As you can see, the attempt to lift the train with strings failed because the hem is so long. However, I'll fix that with a third string and loop. Photo: Jarno Manninen Final thoughts: Overall, I'm happy with this dress and it has to be my favorite from my own gowns so far. However, looking back at the photos of the original gown I realize there are many differences between the original(s) and my dress. The differences don't bother me but I'd still like to point some of them out. Firstly, the stripes of the original dress are probably a couple of millimeters wider than the stripes of my dress which are about 1 cm wide. Photo by Rebecca Thelin, via Flickr. The purple stripe color is definitely of different shade. The purple of the museum dress seems more reddish than the stripe color of my gown which is a purple much more towards blue. It's really hard to tell what kind of purple the original is because it's quite different in different photos I've seen of it. When it comes to colors of photos, so much depends on several things, such as the lighting of the surroundings. And I assume some of the photos are probably edited - for example, take this photo and compare with this. Photo by Loren Dearborn, via Flickr. Also, the back side of my dress is quite different from the original. Firstly, the stripes form a slightly different pattern. In order to imitate the pattern of the original I probably should have draped the gown. However, I don't have a dress dummy so I couldn't do that. Secondly, I now realize the curve of the waistline at the back of the dress is much more radical in the original dress, whereas my dress has a more smooth line there. Also, the pleats at the waist are probably even tinier than the pleats of my gown. Photo via Flickr. There are probably a lot more differences but I'm not so keen on listing everything here. These were just the obvious ones. Again, I'm not so bothered by them anyway. :) What I'm still slightly bothered about is that the dress doesn't fit perfectly next to the armscye at the backside. It still wrinkles for a bit even if I tried to alter the fit during the mock-up fitting and bodice fitting. I suppose there's still some extra space at the armscye and that I'll have to pinch in a little at the armscye where the wrinkles appear before I make a new dress with the pattern. Or lower the armscye for a bit. Or do both. You'll hear more about it some time in the future. Until then... Sources: Fashioning Fashion, European fashion in detail, 1700-1915 by Sharon Takeda, Kay Spilker and Kimberly Chrisman-Cambell Fashioning Fashion exhibit video Fashioning Fashion exhibit virtual panorama Fashioning Fashion exhibit photos by Loren Dearborn Fashioning Fashion exhibit photos by Rebecca Thelin Robe à l'anglaise (LACMA) photo I from Fashion is poison blog Robe à l'anglaise (LACMA) photo II from Romancing the Tome blog Robe à l'anglaise (1787) pattern via Costumer's Manifesto Robe à l'anglaise (1785-87) from MET digital collections Other striped gowns: A lady's open robe of silk taffeta from Christie's Open robe from National Museums Northern Ireland Thanks to everyone who allowed me to post their photos on the blog! I'm ever so grateful! :) Special thanks to Maria Nordback for arranging the Kuninkaan päivä event and to baron and baroness von Mannheim for hosting me during the weekend.

At long last, the riding habit is revealed! I hope it's not anti-climactic!. It was a LOT of work, even though it looks rather plain. Tailoring is... an entirely different beast from dressmaking! Different techniques, different stitches. Mike and I had a complete mis-communication over something because what he told me to do means two different things to tailors and mantua-makers! I will probably do a separate construction post, although I don't have too many construction pics. They are on my camera, which needs to be recharged (before Costume College, eep!). I take no credit for the beauty of the fit of my habit. It's all thanks to master tailor Mark Hutter, who used me as an experiment for a new style of riding habit. I didn't mind being a guinea pig at all. :) Mike walked me through construction, which was a good husband-wife exercise in communication. I learned so much during the process, and have an even greater respect for the work he and Mark do. I'll stick to millinery and mantua-making, thanks! The habit is made from green twilled worsted wool from Burnley and Trowbridge. The silk button hole twist and buttons are from them as well, along with the heavy linen interfacing. The cream silk lining is from Renaissance Fabrics. The hat is only temporary (it's going to become my 17th c hat). After doing all of these button holes, and the thousands I have done at work now, I really enjoy them! I never thought I'd say that! I'm wearing Nicole's riding shirt, too. I didn't have time to make one before our event, and Nicole recently sold her habit, so I have until she makes a new one to get my own shirt made! My dear, good Emma took pictures for me on her excellent camera. What good friends I'm blessed with! Many more imagesbehind the cut !

Pattern: Norah Waugh diagram XXXI, "Riding Coat 1750-70. Victoria & Albert Museum." Fabric: Wool, medium coat weight. Color best described as a heather lavender? Lavender shot through with gray. Black cotton poplin for petticoat. White heavy weight linen for lining. Black cotton crochet thread for Dorset buttons. Available on Etsy HERE Available on ebay HERE Alterations: I added mariner's cuffs, which are not part of the Waugh pattern but are part of one of the suspected extant coats (see below) I also brought up the waist by eliminating the "dropped waist" angle that lets it curve out over the hips a bit before reaching the horizontal seam. I'll tell you why I did that further down. Measurements: *unaltered from pattern. As is. Chest: 39" Waist: 32" Hip: Free Back width (arm socket to arm socket, across shoulder blades): 13" Torso (bottom of armhole to natural waist): 9.5" Upper sleeve circumference: 15" Petticoat hem: 40" at center front and back. 18th century stays often had the effect of increasing the wearer's final waist size rather than reducing it, depending on the style(and especially if the stays had an inflexible busk at the front). A flat barrel or V below the bustline were the desired shapes, not the hourglass of the 19th century. =) Construction Note: I did all the topstitching/visible stitching by hand. The coat has edge stitching on almost the entire garment, minus the collar, which I also did by hand. The buttonholes are hand worked and the buttons are handmade. I only used machine stitching where it would never be visible during wear. ~The Confusion Over the Museum Garment~ As I always do when I use a pattern derived from an extant piece, I tried to find images and information on the actual garment. Most of the patterns in the Waugh book feature inventory numbers on the items (not always useful, as some of the museums have altered their cataloging methods over the years, or sold off the pieces). This riding habit, however, has no inventory number. When I tried to find the coat in the Victoria & Albert digital archives, I was unable to find anything that actually matched the pattern. I did, however, find two jackets that, when combined, have all the features of the Waugh pattern. *See V&A info. on blue coat HERE................................................................on brown coat, HERE So, long story short, I think the pattern in the Waugh book is actually a combination of features from two different coats. The Waugh description has it as a "brown camlet", but the camlet coat in the V&A archive is blue, and the brown one is linen. The Waugh pattern shows a very short standing collar, but the two riding habits in the V&A have no collar and a very tall collar, respectively. One has the right cuffs, but the wrong pockets. The other has the pockets and totally different cuffs, and so on and so on. This might explain the absence of an inventory number, since this pattern doesn't really exist as a single garment. (I'm sure all of this is already known in corners of the costuming world, but it's news to me, LOL). ~The Cursed Dropped Waist~ The Waugh pattern has a torso that is cut with a dropped waist, meaning the bodice extends further down that the natural waist and begins in an outward curve over the hips for about 3 inches. I don't like it. I made up the bodice as was, even attached the skirt panels, and when it was all placed on the form it looked terrible. The dropped waist had the effect of elongating the torso and making the legs look short and stumpy. This style works if the skirt is going to go all the way down (a la 1840s wasp waist), but not with a coat like this. Not flatting to practically any figure. Plus, that shaping interfered with the placement of any foundation garment (hoops, bum roll, pads, etc.). I wish I had taken a pic of the unflattering "original" , but I didn't. I took the skirt panels off and cut away the bottom 3 inches of the bodice, bringing it up to natural waist, and attached the skirt panels again. Problem solved. =) **Note that this is not 'shortening the torso' as a fit alteration. That involved actually moving the natural waist. All I did was remove the material below the natural waist** ~The Pockets~ The original pattern and description don't say anything about the pockets on the coat skirt. For all I know, the pocket flaps are just for decoration, but I went ahead and made two functioning pockets to be covered by the flaps. As you can see, the buttons don't actually button down the flaps. They are positioned below the reach of the buttonholes and are purely for looks. I think that's kind of silly, but who am I to argue with the long dead? LOL I also wanted to stay true to the pattern look, so I went ahead and placed my Dorset buttons as they appear on the pattern (see pattern illustration at top of page). Stitch on the line on the outside, then turn the whole pocket in to be on the back side of the skirt panel. As with all of the top stitching on the garment, the stitching on the pocket flaps is done by hand. ~The Dorset Buttons~ This coat has 19 handmade Dorset buttons in all. I made them myself using black cotton crochet thread (size 3). I neglected to take pictures of the process, but it's just a manner of weaving/wrapping/knotting thread around a solid ring. You can see a very good description of the process here at Threads Magazine, "Get Creative with Heirloom Buttons." There are many types of Dorset buttons, but I made just the standard cross-wheel pattern on 7/8" cabone rings (which are becoming harder and harder to purchase, by the way!). Each button takes about 15 minutes to make up. Before I learned to make my own, I used to purchase them from an indie fabric shop in St. Petersburg and always used to balk at the $3 each price tag. I now realize I was getting off light! ~The Mariner's Cuffs~ The original pattern has wide, folding cuffs of a contrasting fabric, but I have always preferred the Mariner's cuff. Easy to make, functional, and looks pretty damn snazzy ;). I whipped mine up following the very useful construction tips from The Fashionable Past blog, Riding Habit Mariner's Cuffs. I altered the shape of my tab, but the process is essentially the same. Note that these cuffs are made into a slit on the outer-sleeve, not built into the sleeve seams. ~Finished~ And just as a final note, I did struggle to decide how I want the silhouette of this coat to go in the final ensemble. I could have done pocket hoops, bum roll, pads. The final shape determined how I would cut the petticoat, so I had to choose. I decided to go with wide and narrow: pocket hoops. Now, I have no idea if ladies actually road horseback while wearing pocket hoops. I somehow doubt it, but I do know that women often worse sport "looking" clothes as every day casual wear (sort of like us buying yoga pants to go shopping in, right? LOL). I also found images of very ornate, obviously non-functional riding habits

Period costume, 18th century reproduction, handmade in velvet and enriched with trimmings and lace. Comprehends Jacket, waistcoat and trousers Our historical costumes are distinguished by the attention to the smallest details and the care in the choice of fabrics. Tg S-M IMPORTANT: At the time of purchase, indicate the telephone number. It is indispensable for the shipping company.

I began this project sometime in the early summer and have been working on it on and off until November. I got the riding habit bug from Sanna of the Rococo Atelier and by some bizarre lucky alignment of stars I even managed to find fabric in the exact colour I had envisioned (when does that EVER happen??). For some reason, yellow has become one of my go-to colours and what better time period for it than the 18th century. From what little research I've done, yellow seems to have been the height of fashion throughout the 18th century, owing to the popularity of all things Oriental during that time (yellow, after all was the colour exclusively reserved for the emperor of China, among other things). Riitta Pylkkänen's Dress of Gentlewomen in Finland in the 18th Century mentions yellow as the most fashionable colour. Annoyingly, I can't give the exact quote because I don't own a copy of the book (it's fiendishly difficult to find, having been published in the 1980s) and the city library is closed for the whole of December. Also, The Diary of Mantua Maker writes about the popularity of yellow in her posts about 18th century colours. As many others before me, I used the riding habit jacket pattern in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. I had to alter the pattern to fit me (obviously); for example I drastically shortened the bodice and the sleeves. The finished garment is OK, but I would do things differently if I ever used the same pattern again. I think I maybe cut the jacket hem piece slightly too narrow, and the pleats aren't exactly as I'd want them to be. I think the habit fabric is very nice, it's medium thick cotton twill that feels almost woolly and it's very hard wearing and was generally nice to work with. I pad stitched pieces of sturdy cotton on the insides of the front pieces and lined the whole jacket with cotton. the jacket fronts became very sturdy due to the interlining, lining and lastly all that trim I stitched on. The inside front edges, the sleeves and the jacket skirts are lined with taffeta. I'll maybe finish a waistcoat of that same taffeta at some later date. It doesn't really show unless you look very closely, but to add a little variation I used the reverse side of the habit fabric on the collar and the cuffs because it's the teeniest bit darker and the weave of the fabric looks different on the reverse side. I trimmed the jacket with antique gold coloured gimp trim and some antique gold coloured buttons. I might change the buttons later, either to metal or deathshead, depending which comes my way first. The riding habit petticoat is your standard petticoat, with pocket hoops. I debated for a long time whether or not to cut the petticoat to accommodate the hoops because I think they're ridiculous, but in the end I decided to go for it and now I kind of like the look. The habit fabric is fairly heavy so towards the end of the day it was hard work to wear the whole get-up with the heavy skirts pulling at the paniers (and my hips and waist), walking around the fortress islands on original cobblestones... I also made a tricorne hat out of a floppy 70s-esque felt hat, trimmed it with petersham ribbon and a cockade. I wore the habit a couple of weeks ago in Suomenlinna Christmas event, which consisted of a day event for the general public, with 18th century military and gentlefolk re-enactors and of a private ball in the evening for re-enactors and other properly attired people. The photos of the riding habit were taken by Sanna and Mia. I had a curled pigtail, but the sleet and rain took care of that... No, those are not THE cobblestones that I mention above... They're round, uneven and cover all the roads on the main island. Can't even begin to imagine what it must have felt like to drive a horse-drawn wagon or cart on them. At the Ehrensvärd Museum. They had just closed for the day when we got there, but kindly let us take a couple of photos in the yellow room. I really, REALLY can't pose. Whenever anyone takes out a camera and proposes to photograph me, my face does weird things. I look like I had a lazy eye in nearly all of the photos taken in the museum... With Ehrensvärd, and Sanna of Rococo Atelier; she's wearing her gorgeous new anglaise. Soldiers who took part to the Christmas opening event, practicing their drill. King Gustav III, I think. He was very strange. The soldiers, doing their drill Mia and Sanna checking over some photos at the Ehrensvärd museum. Mia borrowed my flowery anglaise and red petticoat for the event. The evening ball venue, Tenalji von Fersen, which used to be a bakery in the old days. Pretty much the only picture of me in my ball do. I did a separate post of this gown. Oh, and that's Merja aka. the Aristocat in black and white :)

Last year I decided I wanted a riding habit for UTR. However, even though I had worn wool dresses to UTR in 2009, the idea of a wool habit in Virginia in June was rather unappealing, so I thought of linen. I had thought that the one pictured in Fashion in Detail from the 17th and 18th Centuries was linen, but my memory was wrong. This led me to look online, where I found this description of a linen habit on the 18th Century Woman Yahoogroup. I also found this fustian habit in the V&A (sadly, with no pictures!). These two habits made me feel confident making one in linen. Fashion did have to be altered for warm climates! I took many construction pictures along the way, but for now, I'm just sharing pictures of the finished project! A few details--The natural linen for the habit, white linen lining, white for the shirt, and button molds are from Burnley and Trowbridge. The linen buckram interfacing is from William Booth Draper, as are the cuff buttons that you can't see. The blue silk is from Pure Silks. I'm wearing my Robert Land Regency boots that I bought from Spencer's Mercantile.

At long last, the riding habit is revealed! I hope it's not anti-climactic!. It was a LOT of work, even though it looks rather plain. Tailoring is... an entirely different beast from dressmaking! Different techniques, different stitches. Mike and I had a complete mis-communication over something because what he told me to do means two different things to tailors and mantua-makers! I will probably do a separate construction post, although I don't have too many construction pics. They are on my camera, which needs to be recharged (before Costume College, eep!). I take no credit for the beauty of the fit of my habit. It's all thanks to master tailor Mark Hutter, who used me as an experiment for a new style of riding habit. I didn't mind being a guinea pig at all. :) Mike walked me through construction, which was a good husband-wife exercise in communication. I learned so much during the process, and have an even greater respect for the work he and Mark do. I'll stick to millinery and mantua-making, thanks! The habit is made from green twilled worsted wool from Burnley and Trowbridge. The silk button hole twist and buttons are from them as well, along with the heavy linen interfacing. The cream silk lining is from Renaissance Fabrics. The hat is only temporary (it's going to become my 17th c hat). After doing all of these button holes, and the thousands I have done at work now, I really enjoy them! I never thought I'd say that! I'm wearing Nicole's riding shirt, too. I didn't have time to make one before our event, and Nicole recently sold her habit, so I have until she makes a new one to get my own shirt made! My dear, good Emma took pictures for me on her excellent camera. What good friends I'm blessed with! Many more imagesbehind the cut !

The riding habit seems (to me anyway) to have been an equivalent to modern day “sportswear”, as in casual daywear. In addition to being worn for actual riding, it was a woman’s &…

Nordiska museet - Photographer Djerf, Mona-Lisa