Reasons for dressing up lately

Just a quick post with some looks of the last few weeks. Eventhough I've been indoors a lot lately because of the 'wounded' leg there were still plenty of reasons for dressing up (and going out against doctors advice ;)). So this is what I've been up to and what I wore.

 

 

Tuesday after the tweedride a friend and I had tickets for 'Der Rosenkavalier'. Not a thing to cancel though it was not the smartest thing to do. In Holland people tend to go to the opera or theatre in jeans... but I think it is a legitimate reason to dress up. My hair turned out rather perfectly that day. I wore a mid 1930's dress with lace 'wings'.

A picture of the back taken last year or so.

One week later I was an extra for an educational movie about the second world war. I wore several outfits. This is the most elegant one for '1939'. It was the first time I wore this crazy hat. Found it on 'Marktplaats' (the Dutch E-bay). It was very badly photographed and cheap, those are often the best finds.

The day after I had a few ladies over for an afternoon high tea. I could finally use my fine china. In accordance with the teacups I wore an eastern inspired look: 1930's lounging pajamas in a 'chinese' style. The reason for wearing pajamas was that it was a stylish way to cover up my leg without stockings (had to wear them the day before but not exactly good for the healing process). I've had a fantasy of receiving guests in pj's as well so I was not too sad to not be able to wear a nice dress. I received in my easy chair with my leg on my elephant sidetable ;)

 

 

The food was sumptuous thanks to Elisabeth who did not only look like a ture lady visiting with gloves hat and original stockings but she did also bring loads of cake and other sweets from Holtkamp (one of the best patisseries in Amsterdam).


The weekend I spend at my parents



Museum openings require nice outfits. I somehow go for black to these events most of the time:

 

This was actually a few weeks ago to the opening of 'Ode aan de Nederlandse Mode' (ode to Dutch fashion) at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. My leg was still fine but I had a cold and felt like.... I'm wearing a late '30/40's dress made of very unusual fabric a print of 'splashes of paint' in gold. Almost looks 80's but it certainly isn't. Combined with a green necklace.

 

Last Friday a week ago at the Rijksmuseum, opening of Asia & Amsterdam. I wore a black crepe dress with an amazing collar.

 

 

Because stockings still wouldn't work I paired it with wide legged trousers. Worked well against all expectations. The weather was very damp and rainy so I decided to put my hair up as no artificial curl would have lasted.

 

 

The dress also features a lovely buckle. So great the belt is still with the dress, so often not the case.

 

 

 Last weekend I visited my friend Martine in Oegstgeest. It was to be laid back evening with drinks and food at her home. But no reason not to make an effort to look nice. I wore a dress that was gifted to me by my friend Myrtle. She'd bought it (together with me) to alter but in het end it would not work for her. Because I had tried on the same dress and she knew it also suited me she donated it to me!! Thumbs up for having friends to trade clothes with :)

 

Such a pretty shade of plum! The dress has a peplum that makes it look almost like a little suit.

 

 

Though it looked so nice just as it was I paired it with a wool cardigan because of the cold. Sometimes practicality comes before a perfect look, but only SOMEtimes!




By now the leg is more or less mended, still have to be careful though. Had a great weekend with bestockinged legs! Post will follow soon!!

 

 

 

It's (almost) a match: vintage knitted blouse & pattern

Whenever I go to my parents who live near the provincial town of Winterswijk I visit the local second hand shops. Sure there is not as much choice as there is in Amsterdam, but things are often quite cheap.

I've been coming to my favorite antiques store for years and the owner knows me by now. I always get a cup of coffee when I'm there and we have a nice chat and I get shown any particularly interesting thing he has in the store or somewhere in the back. The magnificent art deco electric heater in my living room also came from that store. Most of the time I buy small things, like jewellery. I only rarely find clothes. In my teenage years I once bought several 1920's chemises, made from soft but sturdy cotton. They were still packaged and had belonged to a woman's trousseau but were never used. I wear these as nightgowns, they are of such good quality they've already lasted for about 10 years.

On my last visit I saw something draped over a chair probably put there to support the musical instrument resting on it. But it cought my eye because it looked handmade. And indeed it was a hand-knit blouse from the 1930's. It was a delicate ajour motif that mimmics lace.

I did not even try it on and bought it right away as it was so cheap. It turned out to fit just right. So glad to have found it. I rarely find knitwear in a good state. And this is so finely worked it could easily have torn.

The funny thing was that the pattern reminded me of a pattern from a magazine my mother once started on. I had asked her if she could knit it for me but after a little trial and error she found that she could do it but that it was not relaxing enough so the project was abandoned.The magazine was the autumn edition of 'Het Rijk der Vrouw' from 1939. Of course I looked up te pattern.

It really matches the blouse and not only the ajour motif, the sleeves and the border do as well.

 

On the left is a close up of the pattern in the magazine on the right the blouse I found. The yarn is less thick and made of cotton instead of wool, but the motif is an exact match.

 

The only thing that really differs is the neckline. It does make me wonder....Might it be made from the same pattern that was atlered a little.The pattern does mention a split at the back to be closed with a few buttons. Could it be, should it be worn the other way around with buttons? Though it seems a possibility it looks odd the other way around. Or is the ajour motif so general it was used for many patterns?

So if anyone has any idea?

Tweedride Rotterdam: (a) fall in knitwear

Like every year in early fall there was the Rotterdam Tweedride on the last Sunday of September.

Because I do not own that much tweed and don't want to wear the same outfit twice it is always a challenge to find a suitable outfit. Suitable meaning that it looks good but also that it is easy to cycle in. A bikeride would have required sportswear or sporty wear back in the day. So dressing up in your finest is not good enough.

 This time I chose knitwear & al bold color combination to be the key feature of my outfit. I wanted to wear a cardigan knit from a 1930's pattern. I wore it already to the steamtrain event a few weeks ago. Instead of a full autumn color palette I opted for a less obvious combo. I wore a very simple unembelished but well made 1940's dress in a very bright sky-blue I think works well with my eyes.

 

This is a picture of me wearing the dress taken in the spring of 2010. Can hardly believe it is more than 5 years ago.

 

 

I love all the small details of this dress all so clean: the lined buttonholes, finely stitched collar and the darts (instead of pleats) on the shoulders to accomodate the shoulderpads.

 

 

The shoulderpads are an absolute must with the cardigan I was wearing. The design is clearly made to be worn over either padded or puffed sleeves. Where modern versions always seem to lack space when you have a dress with well formed shoulders this cardigan just looks sloppy without them eventhough my shoulders are not particularly narrow or sloping.

 

The pattern came from a beautiful Dutch patternbook with lots of colored immages. The book was probably published around 1935 (there's no date but newspaper advertisements mentioning it are from that year).  The title 'Te Kust en te Keur' means something in the region of 'plenty of choice'.

 

 

And there is plenty of choice in patterns in the book, from childrens clothing, beach pj's , to book covers and towels. Here are just a few examples of the colorized pictures that accompany the patterns:

 

 

It I could only be a little girl again for a day, just to wear that coat and cap!

 

 

 

 

This book followed the popular 'Handwerkvreugd' of a few years earlier.

 

 

This is the actual pattern of the cardigan (called a jacket).

 

 

 

 

Some of the patterns were sent in by crafty women themselves. So is this one. The names are given at the end of the pattern: A. F. Luyendijk-Kloppers, Rijswijk. A little research into old newspapers reveals this might be Anna Frederika Kloppers who married a  J. Luijendijk in 1908 aged 29. She would have been an elderly woman when she made up this pattern (for herself or a grown up daughter, we'll never know).

 

 

 

The color intended for the cardigan is actually that of the dress. But I really wanted a warm autumn color, so it became brick red/brown.

 

 

I really love all the old knitting patterns, the thing is I cannot knit myself...I always blame it on the fact that I'm lefthanded. Every time my righthanded mother would try to teach me it'd end in a row. Guess if I really wanted to I could learn from YouTube or a lefthanded person, but I'm lazy. One of the reasons for this is that my mother loves to knit, not for herself, but for me. She also likes a bit of a challenge. The vintage patterns do offer that because their logic is a bit different than that of modern ones. Lucky me, as anything originally form the period is hard to find and so expensive!

 

For the tweedride she made me a little cap as the pattern mentiones, not knitted but in crochet. The thing with the cap was that it made the outfit look like a kind of uniform. So I decided last minute to add a little pompon to make it less stiff.  The little string is a finger-crochet, that is about as far as my skills go.

 

 

So we went to Rotterdam by train with our bikes, always a challenge (not to pull the emergengy break ;)). 

 

 

 

Myrtle is wearing the beautiful dress she found the day before on out shopping/tea trip. The embroidery matched her bike and eyes :)

 

We reached Rotterdam without trouble and headed towards the starting point ot the Tweedride.

And then: On the steep Erasmusbridge (in Holland we do not have mountains, we have bridges) a scooter passed me on too close a range and hit my basket. So I got out of balance and fell...

 

The first thing I thought was: oh no my clothes! Trough a miracle the cardigan was not damaged but my elbow was and so were my knees. The dress is quite short so it comes up above my knees when I'm cycling, protecting it from the fall but also leaving my knees and legs bare but for my stockings, which were ruined. My left knee and leg were the worst, an abrasion of about 10x20 cm....

 

I did get back on my bike and went to the starting point of the Tweedride where the wounds were disinfected ans some bandages were put over it, so I could partake in the Tweedride.

 

 

Myrtle called my look: broken doll. Some even thought the bandages were an actual part of my outfit.

 

 

 

With hindsight I don't really know how I did it...probably the adrenaline...I had a nice day and drove over that wretched bridge 3 times more without getting hit/falling!

 

 

 

 

Only when I came home that evening I noticed in how much pain I was. Even though the wound on my left leg was superficial it was big and painful. It took over a week to close. Until a few days ago I limped because I could not bend my knee. For the larger part of the last two weeks I sat at home in my comfy chair with bare legs. 

 

The whole thing brought some dressing difficulties as well. My legs had to be bare for the wound to heal (bandages made it worse). This resulted in crazy inside the house outfits consisting of 30's camiknickers with a large man's sweater etc....charming...

 

And even now I'm seriously ond the mend the crust on my leg makes stockings almost impossible to wear. Sheers are out of the question because the wound now looks like an unsightly overbaked meatloaf and thick opaque ones put to much pressure on the skin.

The thing to wear for me now are wide legged trousers, the sloppy kind. These can be dressed up but I want to wear a dress!

Of course I did not always do what is best for the healing process because some things are way to much fun to miss out on, but more about that in a next post.

I'm already so excited about the next Tweedride: it will be in Amsterdam in the spring. Because it is in my hometown I really want to make something, like a parted skirt for that. Maybe I should choose some very sturdy tweed and put leather ovals on my knees, so I can fall all I like.