This is the English version of the site. It has all the pictures that the original Finnish version has, but occasionally a little less comments and information due to language difficulties. My English is far from perfect, but at least it offers easier navigation for non-Finnish-speakers.

12.2.2017


The robe a'la francaise project that I had almost forgotten has received some attention again lately. I'm super happy to report that the robe is almost finished, though the petticoat and stomacher are yet to materialize. For the last year much of my time has went to making bobbin lace for the sleeve ruffles, and I have plans for matching shoes as well.





31.12.2016

Happy New Year everyone!
Couture Mayah celebrates in style with blue velvet and sparkling wine.





18.7.2016

Some time ago (okay, last year) I made a houppelande. It turned out somewhat Disney-esque.

It also needed a fancy new belt.





29.5.2016

A bit finer new kirtle, that did not turn out exactly as I intended but is nevertheless nice.






1.5.2016

The Great Turk and his favorite concubine from L'Amusette's Bal Orientale.

Important warning: Historically inaccurate content. May contain acrylic.





6.12.2015





2.10.2015






6.9.2105





4.3.2015






8.2.2015





1.2.2015






7.12.2014











27.8.2014




19.4.2014





19.1.2014

Kaisa stopped by again, and happily we had time for a photoshoot. "Emma Hamilton gets lost in Ann Radcliffe's world", aka "The New Stays".





12.01.2014







26.10.2013







16.9.2013

Some small stuff:








30.5.2013







18.5.2013






18.2.2013





14.2.2013







19.12.2012

28.10.2012

Couture Mayah is resurrected at new domain after the recent downtime!

On my summer vacation we finally got to shoot a few outfits. More updates from the last year and the first part of this one will hopefully follow during this autumn, but this is what I got up this far. This time it's all 18th century:

For the last year's Christmas market I was inspired to throw together a printed cotton jacket I had planned to make for a long time. I also turned a quilted bedcover into a petticoat to wear with it.

More practical, basic stuff followed: A pair of quilted jumps (this time quilted by yours truly, though by machine) and another ultra simple but cute jacket. These, like the aforementioned outfit were shot at an idyllic heritage farm called Kovero.

My categorizing mania has gotten even worse: Couture Mayah now has a site of its own for both hats and caps. The first has one newcomer, another straw hat inspired by the movie "The Duchess", and the latter two new caps, one for each of my new outfits.

Currently I'm working on a striped polonaise, which I'm planning to wear at the first proper ball in Tampere at the end of September.

Coming soon on the site:

A silk waiscoat for Jarno

A new pair of stays

A pair of boudoir mules decorated with scraps left from the aforementioned stays

At last I can present the long awaited 18th century riding habit, finished in September 2010!

My 18th century wardrobe has grown on the field of headwear enough to lauch a project page dedicated to 18th century headwear. Hopefully more will follow!

Last year's May I re-styled an experimental pair of shoes into 18th century fabric covered shoes. Again, I hope my collection of period shoes will also grow in the future.

Currently I am working on my third pair of 18th century stays. So far they look quite promising, and I hope at last get the fit 100% right. And yes, of course they are light blue!

This fall was spent in such a hurry that even though I made some new stuff I never had time to document any of it. Here are a few things that I've finally gotten photographed, some more will follow later.

My cousin Johanna and her spouse Micke celebrated their wedding on June. Here's pictures and story of her dress.

During the last year we also got into SCA. My first medieval garments are a 14th century kirtle, sideless surcote and a fancy velvet caul. Jarno also got a 15th century outfit, which will appear on this site later.

My plans for this year include more late medieval stuff, a new pair of 18th century stays and turning the lovely striped fabric I found last winter in Stockholm into a polonaise.

I must sadly announce that due to a busy schedule and laziness I have made the decision the present my latest projects without full translation. Few people read the full commentary anyway, but may find the pictures interesting. I may be inspired to add a full translation later, but at the moment I don't want to keep the site flagging behind waiting for the English versions.

Anyway, here is the new stuff, each with a very brief summary:

It's been some time since I worked for a customer (Jarno doesn't count), but now I made a corset for my mother.

There was a campaign costume competion at work again this spring, here you can see my entry.

I wanted something new for a ball on May, and decided to make a very classic Chemise a'la Reine.

I have also made some other small stuff, and will try to get more updates when I have more time. The medieval garb I promised is on the way too!

A good way to begin a new year is to sum up the previous one. So, here is a good part of my past years projects, finally:

On the summer I was inspired to make new 18th century stays. More about them, and my costume for Le Grand Bal Masque - Ehrensvärd 300v here.

The abovementioned stays were also a part of two other masquerade costumes: One for a wedding with a pirate theme and the other for Halloween.

I wore my Pet en l'air (which I'm liking more and more) to the Christmas Ball. For this occasion I made some new accessories, a pair of mitts, a muff and a lace ruffle for my neck. All of those can be found in 18th century accessories.

Last but not least, finally, the full project commentary of Jarno's 18th century suit with a lot of pictures! I'm glad I still remembered enough about making it to write a commentary...

What else? Lot's of plans for the new year of course! Let's see which of those actually come alive. Recently we have been tempted by the medieval scene, and are planning to evoke Baron von Mannheim's ancestor and his Lady with suitable 15th century garb. I still have a lot of 18th century things in my mind too, and possibly also some modern garments.

These updates were originally supposed to see daylight in June, but somehow I got distracted...

The Pet en l'air is finally finished! Story and pictures can be seen here. Open at your own risk, beware of pink cuteness overload. I wore it on the Lumieres Pique Nique and ball.

On the 18th century accessories I added the hat and the scarf I made for the picnic.

I was lucky enough to witness another mind-blowing Rammstein show on Provinssirock, this time even quite close to the stage - awsome. On the morning before going there we took a few pictures of my Rammstein top as I had it on, and a lot of make up too, and we were just packing the camera anyway. So I finally have new much better pictures of the top, which I earnestly hope to get a chance to wear yet again in some years...

Soon to come (hopefully):

Riding habit, my costume for the masked ball in Sveaborg, Jarno's 18th century suit.

A summerdress that had lied unfinished in the closet for a year is finished now, a long rant and pictures can be found here.

A tiny addition to the Smaller projects-gallery.

We celebrated the eve of First of May as Winter Fairy and The King of Trolls. This time Jarno actually got to wear his fake fur vest and I made a last minute addition to my costume, a new bodice. Some new pictures here.

I was happy to get new, much more clear copies of the original photographs for Kaisa's graduation dress, many thanks to Katri Tuomisto from Kuvahelmia.

Yeah, and the pink Pet en l'air should be ready for Lumieres Helsinki. I hope.

The projects mainpage has been re-arranged a bit with different themes.

A brand new project page can be found here, a knit garment for change.

I have at last successfully finished my pocket hoops, which can now be viewed at the 18th century underwear-page.

Smaller Projects have a new addition too, a theme outfit for a Bachelorette for her party day. Neither sensitive persons nor those at work need not worry, it is quite politically correct and not offensive to decency, regardless all you might have heard about bachelorette parties.

In celebration of the new Rammstein album and tour I made a small addition to my Rammstein outfit. And yes, it is still as stylish as it used to be, and has not transformed into a french maid costume or a tiny cowgirl-vest a'la certain music video which we shall not mention by name. You see, I always notice the costumes above everything!

The new Kamelot album is also to be out soon, and tour is also about to reach our northern wilderness - we live exciting times! I still wear my old Kamelot stays of course, but Couture Mayah celebrates with epic new photoshoot.

Spring is approaching fast, and I'm actually making some progress with my pretty little pink Pet en l'air. I hope to get to wear it this summer, and want a straw hat with it. From Stockholm I found a lavender blue wool cloth, which I may use for the riding habit I plan beginning some day. In Stockholm we also saw the magnificient Vasa-ship wreckage and visited a silk mill-museum, where I had a chance to admire the lovely silks and Jarno the software engineer was interested in the machinery and the first punch cards.

Jarno's justaucorps is finally finished and worn in Le Bal Masqué, or Christmas ball in Viapori fortress. To be honest there is still some purely ornamental buttonholes missing, but I'm working on them by and by. Lack of pictures means that sadly I won't be able to get a project page done for a while, because for such a major project I want good pictures, preferably shot outdoors, because black material requires so much light. But at least the coat is mostly finished!

On the way to the Christmas ball I also got the chance to wear my cloak, which I had already made on my vacation last winter. Due to the tight schedule and bad weather in the day of the ball I got no pictures then, but luckily the Christmas day was very beautiful, so we drove to the nearby park and got some lovely pictures. Thus the project page can now be found here.

Another new project page is titled "some 18th century accessories", and has besides my old cap some new stuff too, a pair of embroidered pockets and the masks we wore at the Christmas ball.

A quilted bedcover added in the Smaller projects-gallery.

I'm happy to report having won the second prize on a costume competition on my workplace. More about my highly predictable costume here.

While adding a few new pictures to the "smaller projects"-gallery I reorganized it a bit. The new additions can be found scattered here and there.

I finally got around taking pictures of a blouse I made sometime this spring. They turned out so pretty that the blouse got a project page of it's own, though I have concentrated more on the complicated, time consuming projects lately.

Tallinn was sunny and the trip nice, I only wish I could have stayed a bit longer. I found a paradise on earth on a small basement shop full of beautiful silks. I considered buying a lovely light pink silk satin for a Pet-en-l'air, but even though I might have just been able to put that sum to it I was afraid I would never have the nerve to cut it anyway. Instead I found a flamingo pink polyester taffeta, reminiscent of the Marie Antoinette movie, which shall serve well for a more relaxed experimenting, and also careless wearing.

Jarno's justaucorps is still mainly in different pieces, but as I spent inordinate time making the pattern I consider that being already an achievement - especially as the pieces have most of the linen interlining attached. In a few days it's back to work again (Bleh), which will seriously reduce my productiveness again.

Updates at last! 18th century weekend in Suomenlinna in June got me to finally finish my Robe l'Anglaise, Jarno's breeches and even put together a waistcoat for him. The waistcoat project page can be found here, I will tell more about the breeches on the same project page with the coat whenever I finish it. It might help to get it started first, though... I also finished a pretty little cap-type of thing, and added it to the 18th century underwear page. And I also made a project page for Jarno's linen shirt, now that I was able to shoot it with the breeches. In other words, now there is at least some excuse for the elaborate ranting about historical clothes on the "About the Seamstress"-page.

My summer holiday begun today, so I may or may not get something new on the way. I am also taking a short trip to Tallinn, and it's not cheap vodka I'm after, but fabrics! I have to begin practising self control well in advance not to return with a truck load and tremendous Visa bill awaiting.

The site is still under construction at some parts, but as Jarno rushed to put it online I won't bother to yell at him to take it off. Instead I'm going to fix the broken / non-existing links in a few days, and the spelling errors as I come across them...