Obscure Journey

Making Victorian-inspired pantaloons - Sewing with a vintage Burda

Publié le 26 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #DIY, #advice, #fashion, #interpretation, #review, #tips, #tricks, #Burda, #sewing, #vintage

Hello.

In November I had some time to make something and to even finish it. YAY!

Disclaimer: Well, I'm not sure they're really called "pantaloons" but this is what I'll call them in this article. I say they're Victorian-inspired because they have frills and lace.

INSPIRATION

My inspiration came from 2 places if I can call them that.

The first place is Subeta's (that is a referral link to this online pet and dress-up game) Magical Pirate Pantaloons of Sweet Love - you can see them here (This is a fan-made and helpful site for those playing Subeta).

The above image belongs to Subeta - used for informational purposes.

The second place is Bernadette Banner's video in which she makes a pair of Victorian underwear or combinations. You can watch the video here. She uses historically accurate fabrics and methods, including or especially hand-sewing.

The end result is closer to the Pantaloons of Sweet Love mentioned above, as you'll see from the pictures.

WHAT DID I USE

Fabric: As for fabric, I used some blue and very thin polyester fabric I had. Despite it being polyester, it feels quite nice against the skin.

Pattern: For the pattern, I had nothing "historical" or something made for a (Halloween) costume. I had this May 1996 Burda magazine that had a pattern I could use.

I needed some loose trousers with the simplest pattern possible. This one had just 2 pieces and was very loose. What else can I ask for?!

Other supplies: a pair of shears, matching thread, sewing machine, some elastic (not included in the picture), hand-made lace, and chord that i just had on hand. The lace and chord were either given to me or i may have found them at the trash.

The white lace is the remaining piece from what i had. Because it didn't occur to me to take pictures BEFORE i use it. Click here to see a close-up of the lace and the chord thing.

WHAT DID I DO

As you could imagine, first I had to trace out my pattern pieces and to cut the fabric. As a matter of fact, i wanted to make these Burda trousers for Anna, a while back. So i had the pattern already traced out and cut.

I only needed to cut the fabric. I folded the fabric in half, placed the paper on it, and cut with no seam allowance. This design is quite loose, therefore cutting with no seam allowance is fine. Otherwise, Burda patterns require you to add 1 cm (about half an inch?) of the seam allowance.

The next step was to sew 1 front piece to a back piece, then to sew the crotch. And at this point, you have a pair of trousers. I made a channel for the elastic at the waist, out of the pants - the design has a quite long crotch area, and therefore, you have plenty of fabric to just roll the top inwards twice for this purpose.

As you can see, my seam allowance is pretty small, but enough.

You can use elastic or a chord. This depends on whether you just want to pull the pants on or you want to bother to knot the chord, as the line drawing suggests. For me, the elastic was just SO easy!

And now comes the part where i made my first mistake which made things a bit more difficult for me. I constructed the trousers BEFORE i added the lace or formed those ruffles or channel for the knee elastic.

If you ever sew something, you would know it's easier to put ruffles on something when the item is flat/2D and not in a 3D shape. I think i would have been more accurate as well.

My next steps were as follows:

I measured about the place where i want the elastic to be, made the channel for it, eyeballed the place of the first ruffle, eyeballed the location of the hem, and completed the first leg.

I assumed that finishing 1 leg and then doing the second one would be easier. I'm not sure if it was or not, but it did feel that way.

Another mistake was not to measure the white lace, to ensure i have enough. From my eyeballing, it looked as if i did have enough. By now, you already know my guess was correct.

However, while I was working on the project, i had my doubts when time came for me to complete the second leg. I suggest you measure everything ahead of time, unless you trust your eyeballing guess. I'm pretty good at guessing, and this is why i didn't do the sensible thing of measuring. But I shall in the future.

Once the ruffles and the lace were installed, the pantaloons were done! YAY! Now (as I type this), they're packed and hidden, as they're a gift for Anna. You'll be reading this after she gets her present, sorry.

Previous Experience

What i want to also mention is that i actually worked with this pattern once before.

I made a pair of trousers for myself, last year in October. Back then, i used this pinkish silk fabric, that only later i realized it could be silk and i nearly fainted. I was either brave or decided to just go for it, and make myself some trousers.

That being said, this is how my pair turned out. There are many mistakes to be seen up-close. From further away, you can't tell.

For Anna, I used size 36 -the smallest available and for myself size 44, the largest available. I chose the sizes based on our measurements, but i didn't measure the pattern pieces themselves to see how large the finished garment would be.

For my pair, i tried leaving 1 cm of the seam allowance. My pair is a bit too roomy. It's because of this previous experience with the pattern that i knew not to cut with a seam allowance this time around.

As you can see, the expectation VS reality hits again, hahaha. Don't ask about what i'm wearing - at the time i thought it looked OK. The top is also hand/home-made, but it's a hand-me-down, so i don't know the pattern nor fabric.

Yes, sadly, the picture with me is not complete, therefore you can't see these pants are a tiny bit short on me. But this is because I'm taller than most and the pattern is for regular-height persons.

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Blogmas days 19 through 22

Publié le 23 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #blogmas, #DIY, #sewing

Hello Everyone!

This entry is a short overview of Blogmas days 19, 20, 21, and 22. The challenges for days 23 and 24 have never been posted. Even the challenges for these 4 days appeared much later.

With all these aspects taken into account, this will be the last blogmas entry for me, for this year.

I'm writing this on the 27th, but thanks to some functionalities, I can post this on any previous day I want (as I type this, I'm still trying to decide on which day to post this). Someone who will read this blog for the first time in the future, will not know without this disclosure.

I just wanted to mention this, so that those of you who visit my blog will not think your brain is playing tricks on you.

On with the challenges, shall we?

DAYS 19 and 20

I put together these 2 days because they have the same challenge: finish up the gifts for Christmas.

I gifted my partner mostly on Hanukkah and on the virtual-pet site we play. You can read more and see here the gift I prepared for them.

I still prepared another gift for them. This time a satin poncho/wrap/thing that looks as if it could be some pajama top or cover.

It can be worn anywhere, any time almost. I want to write a blog entry about how I made it and everything, so please keep an eye out for that. I want to post it before the New Year, but we'll see.

DAY 21

The challenge for the 21st day of blogmas was to draw a line/conclusion from the statistics (of the blog).

So, i posted during 10 months out of 12 in 2020. However, i had people visiting my blog every month. I'll share the data here for transparency, as well as for me to find it easier if i ever want to look back on it (in December 2021 for instance).

statistics
MONTH	#posts	VISITS	VIEWS
january	3	86	111
february	3	43	49
march	-	102	143
april	3	219	252
may	2	111	130
june	-	81	100
july	2	80	106
august	2	95	127
september	1	125	171
october	2	218	288
november	2	127	167
december	16	174	213
TOTAL	36	1461	1857

The article with most views is "What is tea like in Romania." I posted a total of 36 articles in 2020, this one not included.

The only thing i can think of that drove more visits was that i was probably more active on various forums where i have links to my blog/site in the signature.

DAY 22

For the 22nd day of the blogmas, all we had to do was to enter a contest for a free business account for 1 year! And of course i entered.

and....

I WON! I WON! I WON!

I can't believe i won!

The cost of the Business account is 239.88 euro per year. I had an Individual (lower) account that costs 59.88 euro per year. Those who choose to pay every month, have to pay 23.99 euro/month (or 287.88 euro per year) and 5.99 euro/month (or 71.88 euro per year), respectively.

Now I have to post as much as i humanly can, to take advantage of this offer.

See you next year!

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Blogmas day 18 - Read the Over-Blog's staff's blog

Publié le 18 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #blogmas, #book, #recommendations

Hello Dear everyone!

Today's challenge is to read the blog written by the staff of Over-Blog for the bloggers using this platform.

This blog is in French, and you can access it here.

Here is where the staff shares updates for the platform or where new ideas and subjects are posted, for us to develop on, on our own blogs.

I personally like seeing what others share. However, it is difficult for me to find someone who i enjoy following. Especially in reading.

You see, i'm a slow reader. I only read only when i have to - for work, tutorials, recipes, or other instructions. Of course, i read some books as well.

I just recently discovered a French creator. She runs the blog Les Creations de Cathy M. but she writes in French. She presents sewing-related creations. However, there are pictures for some of the things she makes. Some of the entries have step-by-step pictures, so it's easy to understand if you don't speak the language.

I recommend using Google Chrome for the option to translate a page on the spot.

If you prefer sewing blogs in English, try the Camden Stitch blog. Jay, its author, also has a Youtube channel, by the same name. She didn't post recently due to some personal problems, but i'm sure she'll be happy to receive some attention.

See you in the next entry, because I don't know what else to say. <3 :3

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Blogmas - days 15, 16, and 17

Publié le 17 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #blogmas, #adventures, #customs, #job

Hello everybody!

Today is the 17th day of Blogmas and you perhaps wonder why didn't I post daily as promised, especially lately.

The answer is pretty simple: not all the challenges were created to writing something. Or if I could have written something, it would have been too short.

Personally, I don't like very short entries - we have Twitter for that. I also don't read very long entries, and I'm pretty sure nobody really is either.

Let's have a look at the challenges for the missing days!

DAY 15

For blogmas day 15, we were supposed to make a Christmas wreath. You may wonder why, since for the 5th day of blogmas we had to decorate for the holidays. I mean, it does include putting out a wreath as well, right?

And you may also remember from the same entry that we don't really have any such decors.

Well, at the time you may be reading this entry, you may not know, but I have some updates for that blogmas day ;)

However, I also completed the challenge for the 15th day as well. Well, sort of....

I had these magnets on the entrance door. and they were placed in a chaotic manner.

Now, they're arranged (in no particular) order. But they form a circle more or less, that can be reminiscent of a wreath. a very stylized wreath, if you will.

Can I get a T for "I tried?" ;p

DAY 16

To be completely honest with you, I haven't even seen the challenge for this day. Like I mentioned, the challenges are posted on Facebook.

Even if I did see it, I wouldn't have been able to write anything because I was out and about for most of the day. This involved a lot of walking.

When we got home I was tired, I had to write for my day job, as well as cook some food. I also decided to write a review for a beer on my BeingObscure.com website.

Writing for my blog would have been impossible.

In any case, when I finally discovered what the challenge was, I realized I couldn't write much about it anyway. The challenge was to "be positive the whole day."

This challenge did make me think of this entry from about 2 and a half years ago. I can't believe it's been so long since I wrote it.

I believe we'll have to change our perspective on this year and everything that happened. it's been tough, but we made it. Those who didn't ... let's pray for them and let's not forget them if they were close to us. We can only hope their suffering ended and that they are in a better place, I suppose. Let's not take our lives for granted.

However, to keep in the spirit of the challenge even more, I'll share with you something that manages to make me feel better and more positive: some nice hot coffee.

a cup of matcha latte from maybe may 2018? december 2019? i forgot.

DAY 17

Today's challenge is to update old entries. This is good practice for bloggers. Over-blog suggests a few ways in which we can do this:

 Update your old items regularly
 Create an article on a theme that comes back regularly on your blog
 Submit a Best-of-Your-Read Best-of-Your-Best-Read Articles
 Link your articles
 Repost/share old articles on your social media

I, in fact, recently updated an old entry. It's a recipe and you can see it here.

Most of my articles have links - either to other entries on my blog or to other sites, as you can see in this entry.

Well, this is it for now! see you tomorrow!

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Blogmas days 12, 13, and 14

Publié le 14 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #adventures, #blogmas

Hello everyone!

Today's entry is another combined entry. And you'll soon learn why, when i talk about the challenges.

DAY 12

For the 12th day of the challenge, we were instructed to watch a movie.

We didn't watch any movie, but we do watch a Chinese historical drama called, in English, Ruyi Royal Love in the Palace. You can watch this show on youtube for now.

We are actually kind of binge-watching it because I'm playing about 2 episodes at once.

Before the show though, i had to work on the project at hand with the deadline on December 31st. The current project is rather boring, and I'm dragging myself to write it, thus wasting quite a lot of time, sadly.

We also went to the store and bought some stuff, including some minced meat that became meatballs. I have a recipe for meatballs over here.

This time, instead of frying the meatballs, i actually cooked them in the oven. This way, i can cook more at once - this time, all of them, thus saving time. They also turn out less oily, which is better. However I didn't take any pictures, so i'm using the old one.

That day I also made doughnuts. You already know the recipe from here.

DAY 13

For the 13th day of the challenge, we had another contest at hand. This meant we didn't need to write any entry.

Due to some events, ahem/procrastination/ahem, this entry was thought of on this day. I wasn't able to finish it on time, sadly.

Oh, the result of the contest? Again I didn't win. Maybe next time?

DAY 14

On the 14th day of blogmas, we're supposed to write an ABOUT ME page.

OOPS. I just realized i don't have such a page, but now i will have to write one. However, i need to think it out well enough, so i can't publish it for now.

Once the blogmas challenge is done, I will write such a page and it will be linked at the top, like the others.

Thank you for your patience with no entries for 2 days in a row. I just condensed 3 shorter entries in a single one.

See you tomorrow. hopefully.

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Blogmas day 11 - Worst Christmas

Publié le 11 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #blogmas

Hello there!

So today i'm supposed to talk about the worst Christmas.

This will be hard for me. Not because i have too many such instances to chose from, but because i can't remember.

Honestly, i don't want to remember bad things. I want to remember good things. I want nice memories.

I don't think we had bad Christmases. Maybe last year was a bad one or ruined one.. And most other Christmases were probably sad while seen from outside as we had no decorations and not much gifts.

Milky the cat back in Dec. 2016

However Anna and I had one another and the pets, and we were healthy. We also had a roof over our heads and food on the table. Sometimes we even had a lot of work to do, so that was distracting.

I also wish for my readers to collect nice memories more than bad ones.

The world has enough bad things going on that we really don't need more negativity.

I'm also trying this blogmas challenge for the first time this year, to end the business year on a positive note. This is because so far, after 10 days of writing on the blog every day, i realize i had fun.

I expected to have fun at least to some degree, and i see i wasn't wrong. So yay!

(c) ObscureJourney.com - december 2020

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Blogmas Day 10 - Christmas Menu

Publié le 10 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #blogmas, #bucharest, #customs, #food, #romanian tradition, #traditions

Hello all!

So today I'm supposed to plan the menu for Christmas. Except I don't need to because every year we eat the same thing.

See, here in Romania, there are a set-in-stone celebration dishes. Everyone makes the same food. Rarely there's any variation.

One of the first things that need to be made for Christmas, or any other big celebration that is, is the cozonac.

I personally never made one, so I don't have a recipe for it. As type of food, this is a dessert. By the method used to make one, it is a bread. So basically, it's a sweet bread and traditionally it has a filling made of nuts and cocoa. Rum (the alcohol) or rum essence (flavoring) can also be used in the filling.

Of course, nowadays it is very common for city folks to buy one or a few. In the country side, it is still being made the traditional way.

The cozonac found int he city comes in different shapes and flavors, with some of them better than others.

Another dish that cannot be missing from the Christmas table are the sarmale. This dish comes from Turkey and if you know that dish you'll know this one as well.

We have cabbage leaves wrapped around a filling made of rice mixed with meat. Generally, the meat is a mixture of beef and pork. I talked a bit about the filling in this article.

You just have to take about a spoonful of filling mixture and put it on the cabbage leaf, then to roll or pack the whole thing neatly. We'll most likely receive some Sarmale, if everything goes smoothly this year, considering the virus.

Sarmale are labor intensive and this is why they're kept for special occasions. These special occasions can include weddings and funerals, especially in the countryside.

Another dish you'll see is the Oliver's Salad, though it's usually called Boeuf Salad or A la Russe. There's actually a small difference between Boeuf and A la Russe: the former has meat and the latter does not. Otherwise, they look the same and generally have the same ingredients.

The ingredients are boiled potatoes, carrots, peas, pickles, black olives, and mayonnaise. Everything gets chopped and mixed together. It is usually decorated with olives, boiled eggs, and red pickled peppers. This salad i plan on making. I made it before, and i can't believe i have zero pictures as proof, though i had some pretty ones made.

Creator & Copyright: Dana Valery from retete-culinare-cu-dana-valery.ro/reteta/salata-a-la-russe-cu-legume-si-maioneza

That's what it can look like and the link will take you to a recipe in Romanian. Google Translate can be your friend.

This salad should be made a day or two in advance, so that the flavors mix well. It's definitely a dish that tastes better at least the next day, and it has to be kept in the fridge.

The taste depends greatly on the pickles used as well as on the mayonnaise. It's best to make the mayonnaise at home, from scratch as it tastes better than the one from the store.

Many people would prepare many dishes based on pork, as they butcher a pig a few days before Christmas. The most notable dishes are steak and home-made sausages.

Some people will replace the pork with a roasted chicken or maybe beef.

This is it for now! see you in blogmas day 11!

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Blogmas day 9 - Answering comments

Publié le 9 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Hello everyone!

Today's challenge is to reply to ALL the comments on the blog.

A simple search or look at my blog will reveal that nobody likes my blog, thus there are no comments.

But i do have a habit of commenting on Youtube or Facebook.

Sometimes, that's not a pleasant experience in the end. Especially when it leads to passionate replies - to put it nicely.

Someone, somewhere finds something to feel offended by. Usually they don't fully understand the written text or don't even read it completely. Sometimes i have the bad habit of writing something when i get triggered. This leads to a poorly worded comment.

Did I learn my lesson? not really. will i eventually learn my lesson? hopefully.

However, the most important lesson is to not get affected by what others say.

For instance, one of the most recent comments i left were on this video of a lady in US, explaining how she lives in poverty or something.

She first explained what her expenses are, a bit about her income - she was not 100% clear on how much she earns, but she did say she earns quite a bit... and then proceeded to show us how frugal she is.

There were so many things wrong with the video, it's unbelievable. She said she has no loans to pay off, she doesn't pay rent, she doesn't have children, and she's single. She bought her house cash, her 2 cars the same, and she owns a dog.

Did you catch there the error(s)? Well, to put things into perspective, poor people can't afford to buy a house in cash, nor do they own 2 cars. Poor people can barely make ends meet. Being poor usually refers to how much money you earn and not how much you spend.

an unrelated picture but i wanted something in the article.
taken from this entry

So in this light, i commented that the title of the video should be changed, never thinking she'd reply. She did! She didn't have to though, because i already knew her entitled answer. -No.

At which point i started trolling her, hoping she would stop. She didn't stop, she turned everything i said against me.

I was in high spirits at the time, so her entitled replies didn't bother me much.

In the end i was the one who stopped because i felt like "being the mature one" and let her think she "won over the troll."

This was one of the times where such an exchange was fun. But there are many times when the exchange of comments is not fun, but rather upsetting.

If you want some piece of advice, when you comment on anything, try to do it when you're in good spirits. Also, don't go back to check on the replies - it's not always worth the effort.

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Blogmas Days 7 & 8 - Contest and gifts

Publié le 8 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #blogmas, #traditions, #customs

Hello everybody.

This entry is for both days 7 and 8 of blogmas that i decided to participate this in.

DAY 7

The challenge for Day 7 was to enter a contest. The prize of the contest was to win 1 year of premium membership. The contest was held on Facebook.

We were 4 contestants in total and the result was that i was not the winner. But maybe other contests will be held in the future. who knows.

Since there was no topic to write about, I had no real thoughts about the challenge itself, therefore i didn't post.

DAY 8

Today's challenge or theme is to write or talk about the gifts we prepared this year for our loved ones.

I prepared the gift for the most important person in my life. However, i can't really talk about it. now now. I did prepare the blog entry talking about it and it will appear on the blog on the 26th or 27th.

All i can say about it is that something my person wanted for quite some time. I managed to make it in about 2 days in total. It doesn't really look like the exact item my person wants, but i still hope they'll like it.

However, i can show you a sneak peak of the item.

I also have a pair of trousers made of the same fabric - 'm wearing them as i type this. i use them as pajama pants. The fabric is very thin so it's perfect for summer and not winter, but i don't feel cold right now.

We also play this Subeta game together, and i prepared some gifts there as well #spoiler, ooops - because my person reads my blog.

You can't tell me how to spend my currency! >.< ;p

This year we have spent a bit more than we expected, on certain products.

Someone put next to the trash a bottle of white French wine that i already gave away to someone. You now me, i'm not ashamed to pick stuff from the trash. /leShock/ And mind you, the bottle was unopened. This is the only reason i got it.

I also really needed to give that person something, though they don't/didn't fully deserve it. Here it wouldn't have been consumed anyways - i don't like white wine and my person is allergic to wine.

I want to make at least one more gift for my person, but im not sure they'll use it. I'm pretty sure they'll like it, just not really use it. And if i'm right, don't want to make something that just takes up more space, collects dust and so on.

I guess this is it for today.

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Blogmas day 6 - Relaxation

Publié le 6 Décembre 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #advice, #blogmas, #health, #life experience, #life lesson

Hello all!

Today's challenge is to take things easy.

But some of us have online jobs or run our own businesses. This means that we have little time for relaxation.

The thing is that finding some time to unwind is significant for our well being. Also spending time with our loved ones.

I talked a bit about my off-line work experience some 3 years ago. I realized then that time off is important as time is all we got. or not, at times.

So, today i completed the challenge: no blogging, no working. Instead we took a pretty long walk to downtown and back. We really needed the fresh air (through the masks it wasn't as fresh as we hoped, sadly).

Editing this section on jan. 30, '22.

I want to say that flowers are relaxing, and help others take things easy. Spring flowers have this effect on me.

We also stopped by the grocery store to buy ingredients for pizza. Tonight was delightful: anna's pizza, cuddles, and Christmas lights dancing on the wall.

See you tomorrow!

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