Three things you shouldn´t do if you want to dress historical

This weekend was Saxony-Anhalt day in Weißenfels and they also had a parade with "historical" clothing. I was very shocked of some garments. Don´t get me wrong, I have nothing against inspired historical clothing at carnival or if it is for some private meet-up, but at something like this I want to see at least almost historical clothing (means it looks like a historical person would have worn this).
So here are my three no-gos for historical clothing:

1. Don´t inform yourself about typical cuts

Each periode has a typical shape and if a garment not at least fits it, it´s not historical. I don´t want to see a bust seem at a rococo dress, especially if it should be a countess. Why is it so difficult to look up something like this in a book or the internet. I know so many good sites that offer this information for free (and also some German ones).

2. Use cheap fabrics

I have nothing against cotton and in my opinion for a parade you also can use it for medieval clothing, it looks far better than this cheap shiny carnival fabric. Of course it´s nice to use authentic fabrics, but if this is too expensive or you can´t get it at least use fabrics that look authentic. If it looks cheap and like carnival it fails.

3. Use plastic accessoires or wrong accessoires

Rococo women had no hand bag. A pompadour bag is cute, but Marie Antoinette would not have used one, because it was not invented in her time. You should inform yourself what was an authentic accessoire in your chosen time and not go with what everyone believes. Most normal people have no clue about history in general and historical clothing especially. And many are not interested. But that doesn´t mean you can do what you want.

But the uniforms were very nice. Why get men nice historical clothing?

Shop

Here are some of the fabric shops I use:

stoffe.de

They have many cute fabrics and the prices are okay. Only thing I only hate is their bad communication. It´s not to much to inform me under a week if a fabric is not available.

stoffkontor.eu

Good fabric, great prices. Not many patterned fabrics.

fabrictales.com

So many cute fabrics. Prices are normal. I can´t go there too often, because there are so many fabrics I want.

fabric.com

I think they have the biggest assortment of fabrics I know. And such a lot of cute printed fabrics. Prices are good, but shipping is a bit expensive.

What fabric stores do you know?

New things

Okay, okay, I said I don´t buy any patterns, but I love to buy new patterns. So here are my new cuties:



Two sewing books (of course Japanese). One is for making kimono. I hoped for more accessoire patterns, but at least it´s eye candy. The other one is for cotton accessoires. There are some cute projects in it. Hope to make the hat soon.



Then a pattern for dessous. Wanted to try a new string pattern. Hopefully this will look better than my current one. A pattern for a bathing suite. Can´t get enough of sewing swim wear. It´s so much fun. And last but not least a pattern for a T-Shirt for my boyfriend. Hopefully it´s a bit more fitted than his normal shirts.

What I made in July

I was not so lazy this month and made all the things I wanted and a bit more:

- Shoe bag for a colleague at work as a wedding gift for her friend. It´s for four pairs of house shoes.



Rose bag

poupeegirl

- Finished my wrap skirt. I love the outcome, it looks so much better with the embroidery and the ruffle. From a bedsheet to a skirt.



Skull wrap skirt

poupeegirl

- Strawberry bag. Unfortunately the fabric is a bit heavy for this, but I think it´s okay. No photo unfortunately, because it´s in use right now.

- Bikini bottoms. They ruined my nerves, but at least they are finished.



Bikini

poupeegirl

- Hippie blouse. Finished after öhm three months or so.



blouse

poupeegirl

- Poker dress. I was inspired by Quinis dress, but used another pattern. I love it. It´s so nice to wear.



Poker dress

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- a matching headdress (kinda huge XD).



Poker headdress

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- and a matching scrunchie. You can never have to many accessoires.



Chou chou

poupeegirl

- And I made two pairs of earrings, nothing special so no photos.

Plans for August:

- pinstripe skirt (Beignet pattern)
- blouse
- tunica dress

Inspiration

My inspirations at the moment are:

- Emma movie with Romola Garai, one of my favorite actresses

- summer, I could sew summer wear all day long

- shorts, short trousers are so comfy

- Despereaux, such a cute and clever book

Book review: Sew Retro

http://www.amazon.de/Sew-Retro-Vintage-Inspired-Projects-Revolution/

This new book by Judi Ketteler presents a history of sewing from the late 19th century to today. Each chapter is about a certain time period with a lot of information about sewing trends in this time. And you get 25 sewing projects inspired by the different time periods.

Layout: This book has so many retro pictures, it´s really eye candy. And I love the spiral binding. The chapters are clearly marked and the design is not hurting your eyes. The book has nice colors and photos, where you can see what you are about to make.

Sewing projects: The projects are mostly not new, but in sight that this is no "only sewing" book it is okay. I think I will make some of them, because there are nice projects to use left over fabric (and I have a lot of this). Only thing is, that most projects are not so specially retro, I think you would find them in other sewing books too. Maybe it´s because they are so simple and with all this retro movement going on.

Overall: I love the concept of this book. You get a lot of information about history and sewing projects. If the projects were more about clothing I would like it more, but it´s okay. I don´t regret buying this book.

Vintage sewing video

Here I found a vintage sewing video from the 40s:

http://www.archive.org/details/Patternf1948

It´s very informative, but also a bit funny.