Hell's Princess Review

Book review time! I first saw this book when I went in for an interview earlier this year and jotted down the name super fast - Hell's Princess - The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men. Honestly, how does that title NOT catch your attention? After reading the synopsis later, I knew I had to read it based on this:

Victorian/Edwardian Eras - We all know I'm a huge sucker for this subject alone.

Real life murder mystery - Let's just not mention how many serial killer documentaries I've watched, it's bad.

It's not Jack the Ripper - Seriously, anytime a Victorian serial killer is brought up, it's usually Jack the Ripper or H.H. Holmes, so it's nice to have some new material.
 

Amazon.com

It starts like most true crime stories do. Brynhild Paulsdatter Størset (Belle's original name) was a Norwegian immigrant to Chicago, Illinois, during the latter half of the 1800s. She had a seemingly normal childhood, aside from some noticeable character flaws, but nothing that was outside of the norm for that time. She worked, later married, had some children and a buried a couple, adopted another child, and then the husband died under questionable - but not completely mysterious - circumstances.

And that's the first 16 pages of the book.

Victorian Tea Event at New Concord Library

In May, I was invited to the New Concord Library to do a Victorian Tea Event. I did a brief talk about Victorian history and major highlights of it, a dress demo in my early bustle dress so that everyone could see the layers, and we made fans and calling cards afterward while enjoying tea and nibbles.

Rebrand

I've mused for eons and toyed for forever about what to do with this blog. Over the last couple of years, I drifted into other realms of sewing and research and moved somewhat away from all things Victorian. As they did not go with the theme I had originally set up, I did not do heavy posting, but I've sincerely missed blogging. Sooo long story short, I figured the best thing to do was hit re-boot.

 So The Modish Victorian is further more Calevey's Closet.

I've titled the blog after the name I do other social media postings under ("Calevey" is just a name my weird little brain came up with, and "Closet" refers to where I keep most of my interests stored), and then that way, I'll be able to connect everything together seamlessly as well. With a broader name, I can then encompass all my interests as well.

A small update on life as well. I recently began a new job working at the local library (aka, my dream job). For now it's part time, so I've had more time lately for sewing, but I also get to wear more of my creations as I'm not limited to a black and white only wardrobe for work. Huzzah!

As I'm about to do a small flood of posts for what I was up to during the month of May, here's a picture of Daisy the Dog, part-time sewing companion, often times couch lounger.

How to Read a Dress Review

While I get photographs done of my first few projects for the year, I figured I would get my book review up. I have tendency to peruse Amazon excessivily for books because I don't mind a cheap, used copy of some things. How to Read a Dress by Lydia Edwards showed up in my "You may also be interested in" feed and thankfully the library had a copy available.

Amazon.com

The book looks very promising from the cover. It has a lovely 18th Century dress with historical features pointed out. A quick flip through shows lots of pretty dress pictures from the 1500s to modern day with similar analysis. Not to drop the bad news right away, but I'm glad I only borrowed a copy. 

A Quick Review of 2017

Well it's only been forever. My last post was over a year ago, and a lot has/hasn't happened since then.

The first immediate bad news - I haven't sewn anything remotely historical in that time period. However, that doesn't mean I haven't done any sewing.

The good news is I still have sewn - a lot. My sewing took a bit of a retro swing (no pun intended) and I've been making oodles of dresses - 10 in fact! I've had a variety of fabrics in my stash for a while and at the beginning of the year, I made a promise to myself that I would try to work through it. In addition, I thought it would be fun to have several dresses for my destination wedding in August (more on that in a bit). Here's a quick overview of everything that was made, in no particular order of completion.

Christmas holiday dress - Retro Butterick B5748, Halloween dress - McCall's Archive Collection M7086

These were both made for work. They relax dress code during Christmas time for us and allow us to wear holiday colors, so I had to make a dress for the holiday season. I found this fun vintage-looking fabric on sale and it screamed to be made into a dress. This was my third go at the pattern (a reprint from 1960) and since I already had modified pieces for my measurements, it went together in a matter of a couple days.

My ghost dress I tried to finish in time for Halloween but failed. Part of the problem was I attempted to make it using a pattern I had not used before, so I had to do make a mock-up then adjust for my measurements. This McCall's reprint from 1963 was modified and I did away with the faux belt decoration on the front. Hopefully I'll have a chance to wear it for Halloween this year!

Bridal shower dress - Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book by Gretchen Hirsch, dress for fun - Retro Butterick B5748