Fashion

Guest post | Making room for baby

by contributor on August 17, 2011

Making room – Guest post by Sophie from Roubidou

Getting ready for the baby seams to be above all an exercise in making room. The simplest task of all – at least for now – was to make room in my body for our little daughter who although at the moment still hidden under layers of me is so much already an invaluable family member. Just as my belly is growing slowly outwards all by itself, our thoughts and love are expanding exponentially to make room for her. There is certainly much, much more space in this immaterial territory than when it comes to the slightly more challenging part of preparing her actual room in our apartment. There was quite a bit of reshuffling and rearranging during the past few weeks. Although, now having emptied our former storage room (and more or less succeeded in making room for the things that were in that room) the fun part is about to begin.

And as my body was making room I would re-inspect my wardrobe every month or so to see what still fits my transforming self. Instead of looking at my clothes and only thinking ‘will this cover the bump’, I found myself wondering just as well ‘will this fit me ever again’ and ‘do I want to wear this ever again’? So I made room in my wardrobe, not so much for the baby but due to her. Some clothes went to my younger cousin, some to charity shops and a few were repurposed into something new for our October baby. These are the sartorial yields of my room making:

photo 1: I loved this cardigan, but due to a vinaigrette-shaking-incident that covered it with vinegar freckles I remade it. I cut around the freckles when tracing the little top and pants (improvised patterns). All you experienced mothers might find it amusingly naive that I would forsake this beloved cardigan because it ‘looks dirty’ when I will find myself covered with various baby related stains and surrounded by a huge pile of laundry for the year to come.

photo 2: This sweater was ousted from my wardrobe for being too baggy, even with my baby bump the neckline was just too loose. Luckily, I ended up with lots of material to repurpose (patterns: vest and bodysuit Ottobre 1/2011, hat Ottobre 4/2010).

photo 3: The T-shirt got the boot for the same reason, plus it’s terribly diaphanous (improvised patterns, hat Ottobre 4/2010).

photo 4: This top is one of the oldest clothing items I still own, so old that my mother paid for it and frankly it’s been a borderline fit for quite a while (improvised pattern).

photo credit: tape strips by puglypixel.com

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Fashion Sketches from FITNY archives

by kath_red on July 23, 2011

in Fashion, Historic Craft

New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology’s flickr account (FITNY) is full of images from their archives. I love the Jerry Miller collection and the Bonnie Cashin sketch collection. Thanks to where the lovely things are to pointing me there.

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19th century changes in fashion

by kath_red on July 22, 2011

in Fashion, Historic Craft

I am loving these historic fashion plates [The [new] 19th century Fashion Plate Collection consists of 475 images hosted by Claremont Colleges Digital Library in California] found at Bibliodyssey.

Archery dress: The woman on the left wears a green archery dress with full skirts, a large, pointed, white lace collar and long sleeves with double puffs at the shoulders. A gold and green tassel hangs from one side of the belt, while an ornate gold and green hip quiver holding several white, feather-tipped arrows hangs from the other. The woman on the right wears a blue and white archery dress with a high, lacy collar and a short, sheer apron. The bodice and sleeves are extremely ornate and reminiscent of a doublet.

Carriage dress: A pink bonnet with a large feather plume and bias striped edging.Her large multi-colored shawl is light blue with pink, yellow, and white in the paisley and floral pattern, and has wide fringe edging the hem.

Court dress: The low, square neck is edged in pink ribbon and two rows of white lace. Three columns of pink chevrons decorate the bodice. The skirt is sprigged with pink and has a wide border of puffed, ruched white fabric striped with pink and interspersed with pink rosettes.

Dinner and walking dresses: The woman on the left wears a white dinner dress with a peach bodice and trim. The skirt has three ruffled tiers and the collar is a high, lace ruff. The woman on the right wears an empire waist long, blue walking dress.The hem and vertical seam are edged with blue and white diagonal stripes, and each gold button is set off with a band of blue that matches those of the cuffs. The dress has a small, blue capelet trimmed in darker blue.

Dress with apron: An empire waist dress of black fabric patterned with a small yellow and white design. Her sleeves are tight and end at the elbow. She wears a white apron tied below the bust and a soft pink and white plaid kerchief wrapped around her shoulders and tucked under the apron.

Fashions: The woman on the left faces away and wears a green bonnet, a green and black striped dress, and a black, green and red shawl. The shawl has a black background with wide red edging, and has large red and green plant designs. The woman on the right wears a white lace cap with a red flower and green leaves, and red and green trimming at the hem.

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