Failure

 I failed. 

I failed to make my New Years Good Luck Sweater.

I've been doing it for more than a decade now, my rules kind of formed themselves, though it was increasingly hard to keep myself to them (see, last year the sweater was NOT red).

I had an idea for this year's sweater since last January, and I've had a swatch knitted. I seem to remember I even picked the yarns at one point, but I could not find that bundle, so I supposed I did not do that (picked the yarns) after all. I was rummaging my stash to collect enough yarn that might work as a variation of the original idea, I did cast on and knit for a while...

And I did not like it. I did not hated it or anything I just did not LOVE it. At the same time, I had something else on the needles. Okay, I do have a bunch of things on the needles all the time, but this one I started in December, and unlike the one I started at New Year's, I loved this one, and insted of putting it away in favor for the NYGLS, I desparately wanted to finish it. 
Also I have some stocking on some other needles, I really, really HAVE to finish. 

So, even though I am generally hard headed and stubborn, this time I felt, I am to old to have dragging on something I do not enjoy, because in my head, I want and need to do something else... After all, it was supposed to be SELFISH knitting.

So unceremoniously I pilled the needle out and frogged it. 

As for luck... I've made no secret out of the fact that 2025 was not my best year. I am not saying it was so bad, it does not matter if I make a good luck sweater or not, because it could not get worst... I thought that the year before and the universe said, "hold my beer", and proved me wrong. 

I did finish (at least the knitting of) the sweater I started not long before Xmas, and I am working on the stockings I promised months ago for someone. When those are out of the way, I will think again. I might restart the good luck sweater project, or I might just cast on for some-whatever-thing and I will postpone the New Year's Good Luck Sweater project for next january.

What would YOU do? Would you slog through it, just because yo always did? Would you have done something else? Or would you just forget about it for a while? Or?

White bubble

 Bubble pants that is. Totally not historical, however, it uses one or two things I learned from making and wearing historical clothes... (Come to think of it, the thought of a series about that - what I learned from making and wearing historical clothes- is on my mind for a while, though I have no idea, if anyone would be interested in it. I thought historybounding would be interesting, but then, hardly anyone saw that post).

Anyhow, back to these white pair.

I've sewn this 4 times before (even posted about three of them: here, and here, and here), and I still love it and have plans for more. (Who knows, how much of an ADHD trait is that if I like a piece of clothing, I want it in mulitples, possibly every color).

They are white, and I never made a secret of the fact, that as much as I love color and colorful stuff, I also love white. So much so, that I came to the conclusion, that it is utterly unnecessary for me to get any other color for summer clothes, as when I dress up, I always reach for the white.

Also I also tend to wear white when/ where most people tend to wear black - in concerts, especially the concerts of one particular band. Even in winter, if I have jeans on because of the cold, my top is always white. 

So getting a pair of white of this pattern I made for myself was -kind of inevitable. 

The thing is with storebought stuff, that - at least for me- so often they are "almost", but/or/and "not quite".

Like the neckline is just a bit to high, the skirt is just a bit to short...

And the pants, that have kind-of wide legs, but not really whide enough.

Or they do have pockets, but those pockets are just a bit too small to put a cellphone in. 

If you sew for yourself, you can have as wide legs, as you want. As deep pockets as you want (or as many fabric you have left).

And, if you thought, I wouldn't really wear these in an actual concert... here I am, wearing them on December 31st, in situ- in a concert, paired with a very old, wide leather belt of mine.

The thing about that belt is, that I bought it when we first moved to Budapest, when I was about 19-20 years old.  I kept it for its nostalgic value, though I haven't used it for decades, in the last 15 years of because they were way to small. 

Fabric: white microcord, from I Love Textil

Pattern: my own pattern

Photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

Weekly SO

I hate winter.

I cannot stand feeling cold. 

I don't even like snow, I simply do not see it as beautiful. 

When everyone is about how beautiful it is, all I can think of: when it is going to go away???

I look like I am smiling.. but I could've cried.

Short comment

Knitting is done, the pieces are blocking, and drying just as we speak.

There are 12 buttons to sew on, and 2 sleeves to sew in, once the pieces are dry.

 Now, everyone can make their bets, just how long that is going to take me. 

The last time I knitted this type of sweater, it was years. 

Monday's patternmuster (knitting)

 There was a time, when I said no self-respecting knitting publication can be complete without one (or even more) shawl patterns. 

However, it seems, that those big (the bigger the better) shawls kind of went out of the fashion in favor of this little, fast knitting (like fast fashion) neck thingies...

And to go against the flow (or piss into the headwind), I brought you a shawl pattern that caught my eyes as I was scrolling through Ravelry, 

The Pressed Flowers 

It is a colorful, big triangular shawl (still my favorite shawl shape). 

AND colorful, but not stranded. 

Mosaic knitting, and you can use either unicolored yarns, or those handdyed skeins (paired with a unicolored one) be it short or longer colorrepeats. 

What is historybounding?

I wanted to write about this for years, and we finally have the pictures I wanted to illustrate with. Something I keep mentioning, but never really explained: historybounding. 

Some of you (especially those who read the english version of the blog) might be familar with the term, some might be familiar with the idea, but did not know that there is a name for this, or realized that it is not just a weird idea in someone's head, but it is an actual "style". 

Historybounding, the word, originates from Disneybounding, and was popularized by a well-known historic coustuming you-tuber, Morgan Donner. 

Let's start at the beginning, what is Disneybounding? (Most) people like to dress up (otherwise carnivals and Hallooween wouldn't be that popular), and they often like to dress up as their favorite character (hello, cosplay, we will talk about you in another time, okay?). But, in the Disney parks adults above 14 years of age, cannot go in dressed as a Disney character. At least not in a full screen-accurate (or "park accurate") costume, so they would not be confused with the costumed employees of the park, and more importantly, cannot stand in for pictures for free, when the park-employees do that for money.

However, people are people and they would still like to express their fandom, even if not in a full costume, but in clothes that conveys the essence of a character, uses elements of a character, though not a full costume, most of the times it is put together from modern clothes, but still recogniseable. It is not difficult. Do you like Belle from Beauty and the Beast? Do you have a flowy, sun-yellow summer dress? Snowhite? Yellow skirt, light blue shirt and red accessories! Mary Poppins? Flowy, lacy white dress and a wide red belt and a white hat! You get the idea, but you'll get plenty of pictures if you google "disneybounding", 

Now, in the same thought-process: in historybounding we use elements of historical clothes in our everyday lives. Morgan Donner talks about this in her video HERE.

The idea, the notion itself is not new. Through history, fashion always loved reaching back to some eralier period, though probably not as conciously as historybounding. See my favorite historical design element: The slashed sleeves pop up through history, from the 14th cetury up until the early 20th century. I, myself, already in the early 1980-ies, had a summerdress with a V shaped waistline and lacing at the front, a dress in a kind of edwardian style and so on. So much so, that my teachers in my highshcool (that incidently stands across the street of the city-theatre), often asked me, if Iwas running away from the theatre (yes, I loved the theatre, I spend a lot of time, and no, most of my teachers did not like my style. Or me for that matter). When talking about historybounding, I cannot NOT remember my dress I made for myself, for the event that is similar to the american prom, which had so much renaissance element, from the (false) slashed sleeves, the V shaped waist, the lace, the lacing. I am ever so sorry that I not only don't have the dress, but I don't even have a picture of it, or me at the event (let's not get into THAT now. We are talking about CLOTHES, okay?). Anyway, what I wanted to say, that I did historybounding before it was a thing. 

But what IT is then? Using historical clothes or historical elements in modern circumstances. Morgan in her video says, that using full authentic, historically accurate clothing (whole outfits) in modern, everyday situation counts as historybounding, but I, myself would argue with that, as I think that it is what it is. Using full historic clothing in modern circumstances, 

So when, I was walking around in Verona in my renaissance dress...

or, during covid, thinking if we only get out of the house once a week, we might as well do it properly dressed, and went shopping to Auchan in the same renaissance gear, 

or popping into Ikea fully dressed 18th century garb between two event...

That is not it.

Don't get me wrong, I love walking around in historical clothing, and have no qualms about doing so, I am quite used to people look at me either openly or not so openly

But for me, that is wearing autentic historical clothes, in non-uthentic circumstances. Yes, it CAN be counted as historybounding, but not for me.

Then what IS historybounding for me? 

Wearing historically inspired clothing, or historical clothes mixed with non-historical items.

 Like the late Victorian skirt and waistcoat with a totally modern striped long sleeved T shirt and boots.

I wore a similar set to MÜPA (Palace of Arts), the biggest concert hall in the country:

Vagy a teljesen korhű osztott (nadrág)szoknyám, a fehér len mellénnyel, de modern, túlljálós pólóval és bakanccsal, a kedvenc zenekarom koncertjén.

But you can do other things, like wearing a medeival kirtle to a festiyal with trainers and a wide leather belt. A 17th century kirtle, but shortened with a button down blouse. My regency spencer, but not with this regency dress, but, let's say, with a pair of jeans (I've tried it, it works, but I don't have pictures, sorry).

A high necked, puffy sleeved shirt/blouse with a denim skirt. 18th century petticoats with a tank top. An 1890-ies sweater with a modern skirt, I could go on and on...

The possibilities are endless. We can always smuggle a bit of history, a bit of romance into our clothes.

Pictures: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

A promise is a promise is a promise (making the Black Snail Patterns' tailored waistcoat)

 I promised literally years ago, that I will show you, in detail, how I make those late victorian/early edwardian waistcoats and here you go.

I made this back in the fall of 2023, even made photos of most of the steps, but then, never really photographed the finished item, though it did appeared in this post, where it was only an accessory, the emphasis was on the split skirt. 

I found the fabric in the usual place (I Love Textil). It was only a small piece, just a bit more than a meter, and it was black (yeah, you do remember correctly. I don't do black that much - or so I thought back then), with tiny white stripes. I had no idea what could I do with it, what could I use it for, still I bought it. Why? 

Because it was LINEN! I was hiding in my linen stash for years, when I made my first late Victorian waistcoat, and then I started thinking about historybounding and steampunk-ish stuff and it hit me. The piece of black striped linen is perfect for a waistcoat. 

I used the striped linen for the fashion fabric, a linen that looks grey, though actually its warp and weft threads are white and black (don't actually know which is which by now), and a strong thick canvas in place of horsehair canvas for interlining (no fusible interface in historical sewing, at least up until the 1940-ies, and I try to avoid it as much as possible even in my modern sewing (the same goes for zippers - not because I cannot sew them, I can, but I prefer not to).

As for the techniques I used: I already said here many times, that though I someimes read through the instructions, I rarely actually need them. The techiques I used here most probably a good mix of the instructions that came with the pattern, historically accurate methodes, the (industrial) ones I learned many decades ago, and the ones I developed to myself by sewing for more than 45 years, thus there are bound to be points where I differ from the pattern's instructions.

Printing, taping the pages together and cutting the pieces:

Adding horsehair canvas to the front facing. Though I did not do the padstitching (as I should have), I did try to shape the collar by folding it while basting.

I have no picture of it, but I basted, sewn and pressed the shping darts.

And then basted the canwas interlining, and then sewn the welt-pocket (for the watch).

There is a detailed description in instructions about how to do this pocket in the fully historical way, but since originally I only wanted this waistcoat for historybounding purpouses, I used the method I learned in the factory, back, when I learned dressmaking. 

Seamed, turned and ironed the little belt kind of things that go on the back to adjust the size.

Adding the facing to the front and the shawlcollar.

Then I clipped the edges, turned the collar out and then basted again, while folding it to the shape I wanted. Also added the edging to the bottom hem. 

Pinning in the front lining:

And then sewing it in, by hand, with tiny prick-stitches.

Then making a sausage... LOL. Actually, with the right sides facing together, I pinned the edges of the armholes, while the rest of the front piece is rolled up, inside. 

The seam is sewn...

... clipped...

...turned out...

And pressed.

Up close:

From the right side:

All that jazz basting...

Sewing the back lining to the back piece at the hem. Originally/according to the pattern, the waiscoat's back is not lined, but I added a lining. Just because.

Then pressed the seam open, so it would be neater, when folded at the seam.

Folded and pressed hem of the back:

I did cut the lining slightly bigger than the fashion fabric, just to be sure.

It was then time to cut it to the exact size.

Adding the belt to the back.

Pinning it to the side:

This is where/how the side of the front and the back meet:

Sandwiching the assembled back between the lining and the fashion fabric of the front (with the right sides together). 

Pinning it:

See, how the edge of the back is encased between the fabrics, and how the lower corner sits:

Then continue to pin together the fashion fabric and the lining at the armhole:

Sewing it down:

Clipping the corner:

And the edges of the armhole:

Turning it out:

Pinning and sewing down the shoulders, with the sandwich technique, similar to the one used at the sides:

Pinning and sewing together the collar at the middle of the back (opened up):

With the collar folded, now there is only a small hole where the collar should be sewn on to the back's neckline.

Pinning outside of the collar to  the neckline:

Sewing it down:

Now we need to turn under the last seam, between the collar and the neckline:

Pin it down and sew it by hand, with those tiny prick stitches,

Give the thing a good press, mark the place of the buttonholes, sew the buttonholes, and then the buttons, and add the buckle to the back. I took out all the bastings during the work, bit by bit.

Between the time I made this waistcoat and the time we managed to take proper pictures, I lost about 15-18 kg, and it shows. You can se in this older picture that it did fit me pretty well back then. 

I hope the details were helpful. 

Fabric for the waistcoat: I Love Textil

Pattern for the waistcoat: Black Snail Patterns

Modelled photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

Work-photos: my phone.