Reworked an Elizabethan smock to work under the Regency ball gown.
#1: Bi/Tri/Quadri/Quin/Sex/Septi/Octo/Nona/Centennial – due 14 Jan. Sew something from __13, whether it be 1913, 1613, or 13BC
Regency ball gown (1813-ish)
#2: UFO - due Jan 28. Let’s get something off our UFO pile! Use this opportunity to finish off something that’s never quite gotten done, or stalled halfway through.
Overskirt and trims for the 1860s steampunk mistress.
#3: Under it all – due Feb 11. Every great historical outfit starts with the right undergarments, and, just in time for Valentines day, here’s you’re excuse to make them. Chemises, corsets, corded petticoats, drawers, garters, stockings…if it goes under your garments, it qualifies.
1770s panniers & pockets.
Hearts & lace bloomers for Queen of Hearts.
#4: Embellish - due Feb 25. Decorations make the historical garment glorious. Whether you use embroidery, trim, pleating, lace, buttons, bows, applique, quilting, jewels, fringe, or any other form of embellishment, this challenge is all about decorative detail.
Decked out the Regency ball gown with deconstructed lace and pearls.
Also added the eyelet lace and cording to the QoH petticoat.
#5: Peasants & Pioneers – due March 11. As wonderful as making pretty, pretty princess dresses is, the vast majority of people have always been poor commoners, whether they were peasants working the land, servants in big houses, or (later), pioneers carving their own space in new lands. This fortnight let’s make something that celebrates the common man.
18th century linen cap w/ cotton lace trim
#6: Stripes - due March 25. The stripe is one of the oldest patterns, appearing in the earliest textile fragments and visual records of garments, and its never gone out of style since. Celebrate stripes with a striped garment. Will you go for grand baroque stripes, pastel rococo stripes, severe neoclassical stripes, elaborately pleated and bustled Victorian stripes, or something else entirely?
Striped yellow silk Regency waistcoat (submitted 4/28)
#7: Accessorize - due April 8. Accessories add polish to your outfits, helping to create the perfect historical look. This week is all about bringing an outfit together. Trim a bonnet, paint a fan, crochet an evening bag, sew a shawl, or dye and decorate a pair of shoes to create the perfect period accessory for yourself.
Blue silk cravat.
#8: By the Sea - due April 22. The sea has inspired and influenced fashion for millennia. This challenge is all about nautical fashions, whether you make something to wear on the sea, by the sea, or in the sea (or lake or river).
15th century captain's tunic for Asha Greyjoy (submitted 7/12)
#9: Flora and Fauna – due May 6. Textiles and the natural world are inextricably linked. Until very recently, all textiles were made from flora (linen, raime, hemp) or fauna (wool, silk, fur), and dyed with flora and fauna. Flora and fauna also influenced the decoration of textiles, from Elizabethan floral embroidery, to Regency beetle-wing dresses, to Edwardian bird-trimmed hats. Celebrate the natural world (hopefully without killing any birds) with a flora and/or fauna inspired garment.
Regency turban (silk/linen, ostrich feather, "pearls")
#10: Literature - due May 20. The written word has commemorated and immortalised fashions for centuries, from the ‘gleaming’ clothes that Trojans wore before the war, to Desdemona’s handkerchief, ‘spotted with strawberries’, to Meg in Belle Moffat’s borrowed ballgown, and Anne’s longed for puffed sleeves.In this challenge make something inspired by literature: whether you recreate a garment or accessory mentioned in a book, poem or play, or dress your favourite historical literary character as you imagine them.
#11: Squares, Rectangles & Triangles - due June 3. Many historical garments, and the costumes of many people around the world, use basic geometric shapes as their basis. In this challenge make a garment made entirely of squares, rectangles and triangles (with one curve allowed), whether it is an 18th century kimono, a flounced 1850s skirt, or a medieval shift.
18th Century Chemise, pieced. (submitted 7/21)
#12: Pretty Pretty Princesses - due June 17. Channel your inner princess and her royal wardrobe. Pick a princess, queen, empress, arch-duchess, or a de-facto queen as inspiration for a fabulously royal frock (or other garment). The occasional prince is also most welcome.
 |
| 1770s Engageantes |
#13: Lace and Lacing - due July 1. Lacing is one of the simplest and oldest forms of fastening a garment, eminently practical, and occasionally decorative. Lace has been one of the most valuable and desirable textiles for centuries, legislated, coveted, at times worth more than its weight in gold, passed down from one garment to the next over centuries. Elaborate and delicate it is eminently decorative, and rarely practical. Celebrate the practicality of lacing, and the decorative frivolity of lace, with a garment that laces or has lace trim, or both.
Linen fichu w/ handkerchief hem and lace trim.
#14: Eastern Influence – due July 15. The East has had a profound influence on Western fashions for millenia, from the Chinese silks that were worn in Ancient Rome, through the trade in Indian chintzes from the 17th century onward, 18th century chinoiserie, Kashmiri shawls and paisley, 19th century Japonisme, and early 20th century Orientalism and Egyptian revival. In this challenge make an item that shows the Eastern influence on Western fashion.
Dyed silk paisley Regency shawl w/ green glass beaded ends.
#15: Colour Challenge White - due July 29. White has carried many connotations as a colour, from defining culture and social boundaries, to denoting status, to implying purity, or simply cleanliness. For this challenge ‘white’ is defined as anything in the white family – from brightest white, through to ivory and cream and all the shades between. Whether you make a simple chemise or an elaborate ballgown, your item should be predominantly white, though it may have touches of other colours.
White cotton muslin 18th century bum roll.
#16: Separates - due August 12. Make a non-matching garment which can be paired with other items in your historical wardrobe to extend your outfit choices.
1770s quilted petticoat (incomplete quilting)
#17: Robes & Robings - due August 26. Make a robe-shaped garment, from a biblical robe, through a medieval robe, an 18th century banyan, a Regency evening robe, a 19th century wrapper, or an early 20th century kimono. Or, make one of the frocks called robes by modern English speaking fashion historians, such as a robe volante, robe battante, robe à la coer, robe à la française, robe à l’anglaise (+ turques, polonaises, & circassienne), and the 1920s robe de style. Or, make something with robings (read the event page for a description).
#18: Re-make, Re-use & Re-fashion – due September 9. Sew something that pays homage to the historical idea of re-using, re-making and re-fashioning. Turn one thing into another. Re-fit or re-fashion an old gown into something you would wear again. Re-trim a hat for a new outfit, or re-shape a modern hat to be a historical hat. Re-purpose the fabric from an old garment (your own or a commercial one) into a new garment.
Black silk mourning hat with rescued feathers.
#19: Wood, Metal, Bone – due September 23. Cloth may be the most obvious material in historic costuming, but wood, metal, and bone are just as important to creating the right look and silhouette. For this challenge, make anything that incorporates wood, metal, or bone. Antler buttons
#20: Outerwear – due October 7th. Make one of the layers that get added on to your basic outfit to protect you, and it, from inclement weather.
#21: Colour Challenge Green – due October 21. Make a historical garment or accessory in any shade of green from palest spring green through to darkest pine green, and from barely-there eu de nil, to vibrant chartreuse.
 |
| 1920s Monte Carlo Dress |
#22: Masquerade - due November 4th. Create something inspired by historical fancy dress and masquerade that takes you out of reality, in to another world (purely historical, fantasy, steampunk etc are all allowed).
 |
| 1860s style Queen of Hearts |
#23: Generosity & Gratitude – due November 18. Celebrate the generosity of spirit and willingness to help others that makes the historical sewing community great, and give credit and thanks to those who have contributed to our collective knowledge without expecting payment in return. Make anything that fits the general HSF guidelines, and utilizes research, patterns, and tutorials that have been made available for free. Be sure to acknowledge all the sources that have helped you to create your item.
 |
| 18th Century Stays |
#24: Re-Do – due December 2. This one is super easy. Pick any previous challenge and re-do it (or do it for the first time). It could be one that you didn’t finish, one that you wish you’d had more time for, or any time for, or one where you loved the theme so much you want to do it again.
 |
| 18th c Linen Apron, redo of Challenge #15: White |
#25: One Metre - due Dec 16. make an item that takes one metre or less fabric (I went with one metre, rather than one yard/or metre to be consistent).
 |
| Cotton Regency Bib Apron |
#26: Celebrate! - due Dec 30. Make something that is celebration worthy, make something that celebrates the new skills you have learned this year, or just make something simple that celebrates the fact that you survived HSF ’13!
1920s Party Dress
That's all 26 challenges! Holy crap, what a year! Looking back, I've had projects from as early as the 15th century, running up through the 1920s (and both of those costumes for my bff, go figure). I've completed nearly all of the basic components of an 18th century wardrobe, which was completely new to me and it's likely I only started it because I thought "Hey, those panniers look like fun." Having regular challenges really kept me busy, but on the down side, I often found myself working on projects simply because they'd fit a challenge, not necessarily because it was what I wanted to do next. I'm still a bit undecided about how committed I'll want to be to the challenges in 2014. I love having the new challenges available for inspiration, but I really want to try to be better about making sure that I'm focusing on projects that I really want to do. If I can make them fit an upcoming challenge, then great. I will think I'll give myself permission to skip a challenge from time to time, though. I loved that the challenge got me into blogging about the costumes that I'm working on and I'll certainly continue to do so. But for now, it's back to work getting ready for Arisia in *GASP!* just twelve days. I've a big costume project to finish up for that, in addition to some frankly stellar programming to prep for. And in just a few weeks, I can go back to having the leisure time to tell the internets all about it.
