My first entry. How do you write a good beginning for a new project? Maybe I should first explain how all this madness started:
When I was about 15 years old I developed a soft spot for historical costumes. When the film "Marie Antoinette" came out in 2006, I wanted to look like a rococo macaroon princess, but I had no idea where I could get one of these dresses. I got lost on eBay for a few hours and after a few hours of research I said to my father, that I would like one of those gowns for my birthday. The said gown was a polyester satin frock, like those from the horrible Amadeus film, for 360 euros. My father replied dryly: "Sew it yourself."
Back then, I had no idea how to sew. It was a miracle if I was able to attach buttons to something. I was in dire need of help. Luckily my mother is very talented in many areas, including tailoring, so I knew I would need her help in this endeavour. After a year or two of studying the different fashion eras, buying a Janet Arnold book and five patterns from Nehelenia Patterns, I ventured on my first project: a Lévite. This decision was then accelerated by the fact that I wanted to present a finished gown for my presentation about Marie Antoinette for my final exam (graduation) in high school. My mother then taught me how to sew step by step with a lot of patience. That's how my first project came about. A passion was born.
In late 2009 or early 2010, after I graduated from high school, I started with LARP and finally had a reason to not only sew so many costumes for myself but also wear them. This is where the real madness began. I plunged into fashion history, read countless books, and piled up so many patterns, that I sometimes don't even know what I even own. I certainly haven't even attempted half of them. When I started studying history at university, I knew I wanted to dedicate my career to fashion history. At times I wanted delve into cultural history, at least that was my status less than a year ago. Today I know that I want to do material culture history.
Over the years I have sewn more frequently for various events. As of 2020, it is now about 11 years of larping. As you can imagine, after a decade I have made quite a lot of costumes, which have become better every year. The compliments I got made me proud and it made my love my hobby even more.
In 2013 I decided to blog about it. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as planned, because I either didn't have the time or I was just too lazy to write or take pictures during the sewing process. I forgot to do the latter quite often, as I never wanted to interrupt my flow while working. After 7 years it annoyed me so much that I never got into blogging, so during the quarantine (COVID-19 crisis), I decided to finally tackle blogging and start doing it regularly. No more excuses!
Post a Comment