Anno 1776: National holiday, a picnic and white lingerie gowns!

The 6^th of June is Sweden’s “birthday”, it is our national holiday and this year it was spent with a picnic for history nerds lacking a better word. Me, Peter and our friend went in 1900-isch garbs, but it was people dressed in all from Vikings to the 1950’s and I think some people just tagged along with partners and such and was just wearing regular clothes. But it was awesome!

So, I was wearing a white “lingerie” dress, cirka 1900-1905, the skirt I made a few weeks ago, but the blouse part I made in the summer of 2012. Here is two pictures of the dresstype from the time:

The plan was from the beginning to make the whole thing simultaneously but I ran out of white fabric and that summer I was really broke, so I couldn’t buy more, and then last summer was more a 1700’s summer so I didn’t get any reason to continue then. When I made the blouse, instead of the matching skirt I made a white and lavender striped circle skirt to wear with it, in linen. That skirt came in handy since we needed an extra outfit for this day.

Me in 2012 at the left, and miss D at the picnic, but with another blouse, at the right.

Now, the new skirt is made in two layers, as an underskirt and then an overskirt so I can use the underskirt for different garments. They are both sewn with the same pattern style.

Underskirt at the left, at the right the overskirt with inserted lace pieces and the belt with an antique buckle from the 1900's. And the whole dress and detail of the neckline (picture from 2012 so there is another broach) which is all antique lace sewn together, piece by piece, by hand to make the V-pattern:

The unmentionables…

My dress was highly inspired by Helena Bonham Carters white dress she wears in A Room with A View in Florence when George steals a kiss from Lucy. Still it became a totally different dress then hers in the end, but you can see the likness.

Peter was wearing a linen jacket and a grey waistcoat and pants. All of his clothes were bought except for the starched collar, or the failed starched collar I tried to make in a hurry.. we really need to buy one…

the boater was a chance swap that same day, since I bought a boater for men to myself some years ago before I found a boater meant for a lady. I kept the man boater since I didn’t know when I would meet someone that perhaps was going to come with me to historical events. What I hadn’t planed for was that he would perhaps have a head sized XL…. So my boater didn’t match Peter, but a friend had one that was to big for her husband so we swapped and it was a miracle, the thing was actually the right size! He looks great, doesn’t he!? The clock he is holding is a real late 19^th century clock, a gift from miss D who works in an auction market/antique store.

The day was spent in Haga, once a royal playground, now a public park with some historical monuments. The picnic was centred around Ekotemplet, once built to be an open dining hall for Gustaf III, I believe.

I think we were around 200 people, not sure but we were many and if you want to see pictures of us all lined up in chronological order after our costumes, it can be found here, as well as more overall photographs, since I of course didn’t think of that myself..

But I managed to take some photos at least, here goes! Madame Berg and Aggi playing some kind of game with a lad.