Friday 10 May 2013

Swedish mid 1800's Commoner's Dress, a.k.a. The Insanely Pieced Dress

The blog has moved and this post can now be found HERE.

27 comments:

  1. Wow. That is an incredibly impressive feat of fabric conservation and piecing! I'm amazed that a) you managed to make such a lovely dress out of so little fabric and b) you managed to piece the sleeves so neatly, keeping to the pattern of the fabric. Bravo!

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  2. I love that you pieced the dress! I recently made my first fan front round gown and the print had wider stripes...when I darted the bodice it left such a jarring zigzag that I realized the best way to make that disappear was to piece the heck out of it so that the linear flow of the stripes was not interrupted. Came out well and makes it look more genuine. Wish more people did piecing.

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  3. You are so talented! I enjoyed reading this.

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  4. what wonderful piecing! i really love the look of the whole outfit. and your little one is so sweet in his clothes!

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  5. Thank you! I like how the outfit came out very much, and wearing it is a pleasure.

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  6. Mycket fint Sarah! Perfekt outfit för höstens Allmogemarknad!

    allt gott!

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  7. Your sewing skills are truly gorgeous!
    The piecing is highly fascinating and so very period. How wonderful that you've shared the construction in detail and amazing how very little fabric was left, when you've finished the dress.
    The pictures at the museum add to the perfect image...and yes, little B. looks very cute :)
    It's always such a pleasure to visit your blog.

    Sabine

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  8. Wow, it looks great, and you have good skills!

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  9. good pieceing.

    am going to try and remember to show this to my mum, as she's researching working womens dress in england from about the same period

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  10. So very lovely, and I'm amazed your ability to line up the pattern when you pieced it together.

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  11. I love garments made with stylish economy. I'm always working on a budget and hate 'wasting' fabric. So would be interested in seeing how the peicing works. Is it like patchwork? How do you keep the grainlines the same?

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  12. Thank you!

    Lady D: as you can see in the picture, I topstitched most of the smaller pieces in place, I thought that was the easiest way to make sure thay ended up where I wanted them. I began by sewing together the larger pieces, and then I had to puzzle for quite some time to find scraps that would fit in the gaps, and match the pattern.

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  13. Å Sarah! Den är helt enkelt fantastisk! Så vacker, och vilket hantverk. Jag ÄLSKAR pusslandet med tyget.

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  14. All that piecing you did is amazing, and of course a very period practice. Even though it was no doubt a tedious task, it is cool to get that feel for what sort of things people would have done in the day to conserve fabric.
    Amazing work, it looks great.

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  15. I remember I read about a traditional folk costume from a region in what is now the Czech Republic (where I live; but it was a different region) that the colourful skirts always had a panel of plain fabric in the front where the apron was! Economy finds the same solutions all over the world (or at least Europe). :-) You did an amazing work on this.

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  16. What a beautiful dress! And I loved the picture of your scraps. That is so cool!

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  17. WOW. I am so impressed with that tiny handful of scraps being all you have left. That is so amazing. I am always trying to arrange my pattern-pieces to save fabric, but despite majoring in physics, can't figure it out. I am so impressed. You're a genius :)

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  18. Could you point me to some sources for Swedish folk costume and generally clothing worn by workers/farmers in Sweden, especially Smaland?

    I'd be greatly obliged for the following reason:
    My grandparents came from Smaland and also became "utvandrarna", however, in the 50s. But there are parallels in the family history to the book.

    Because of your previous research you might now more sites than I do. So far I wasn't very lucky. Thank you, D.

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  19. Thank you all very much!

    D: If you could tell me what county (härad) they were from it would help a lot. Costumes often looked slightly or completely different in neighbouring countys, and many areas had no folk costumes at all....

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  20. Sarah, I was out at lunch with a friend today and she told me in gushing praise about your dress. She said I simply had to see your piecing. I saw it on Sewing Academy and then followed you here to see more. May I add my praise to so many others for your wonderful work. An inspiration!

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  21. Hello Sarah,

    thank you for your interest.

    I found this out:
    "Rydaholms socken i Småland ingick i Östbo härad i Finnveden och är sedan 1971 en del av Värnamo kommun i Jönköpings län."

    I appreciate you helping my quest.
    D.

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  22. D: I've made some google searches, and this is what little I've found. The costume from Östo is a reconstructed costume, made from different extant garments (don't know how true thay are to the period either, most folk dancers tend to be influenced by modern aesthetics when they make their costumes), the description of the woman's outfit is found here: http://www.folkdansringen.se/ostbogillet/drakter/ostbo_kvinnodrakt.htm

    Shortly translated:

    The skirt is made from vertical stripe wool fabric on a linen or cotton warp in blue, pink, beige and green.

    The apron is vertically striped cotton in blue, pink and white.

    The loose skirt pocket is made from triangular wool patches in red, blue and green. It's bound with chamois.

    The bodice is made from wool on a linen or cotton warp, with some accents in cotton. It's closed in front with hooks and eyes under a heart shaped stomacher-kind of thing.

    The cotton kerchief is checked in pink, blue and white.
    The shift is linen with a square neck, with embroidered pink initials. No mention of a headdress, which should have existed when it came to pass...

    Here are some pictures of women wearing it:

    http://www.folkdansringen.se/ostbogillet/drakter/marianne.htm

    http://www.folkdansringen.se/ostbogillet/drakter/eva_oman.htm

    http://www.folkdansringen.se/ostbogillet/drakter/ewa_gus.htm

    http://www.folkdansringen.se/ostbogillet/drakter/annbr_lu.htm

    http://www.folkdansringen.se/ostbogillet/drakter/anetteogoran/anetteogoran.html

    Hope it helps!

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  23. Thanks for your input and your time researching! I'll get stuck into the links directly.

    D.

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  24. Did the Scandinavians ever use a piece of checked fabric to place the threads for the cartridge pleating, the way the Bavarians do for dirndl aprons?

    http://b-bloggt.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-sew-dirndl-part-ii-kittel.html

    I'm planning on making a dress like this one,

    http://digitaltmuseum.no/021025512678/?query=021025512678&pos=0&count=1

    which has a 13cm section of pleating at the back, but the museum doesn't give any details about the *inside* of the skirt!

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  25. A distant cousin asked me, as family historian, for information about our Swedish ancestors. She's putting together a book for her son using an illustrator, so I was really glad to find your dress. We come from a long line of peasant Swedes, and most of the "historically accurate" costumes are rather elaborate and probably were for Sunday best or Christmas. I was looking for an illustration of something a woman would wear at home, and you've done it! Many thanks.

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