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Couture Mayah is the
world of Maija's dressmaking projects, a hobby site
created for the amusement of friends, fellow
costumers and the seamstress herself. Here you can
find photographs and information of garments made by
Maija, mostly historical fashion but occasionally
also modern clothing.
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 20.3.2025 I made some 18th century stuff for change: A woman's dressing gown or Banyan. It's loosely based on an original piece in Victoria & Albert - Museum that I saw there when I was just beginning costuming. Since that I have every now and then thought about making something similar.  |
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16.2.2025 It's February. It's cold. Summer is still far away. Solution: Wear your cute, warm, Victorian berlin work slippers with all-over floral pattern. And a delicate antique cup of tea of your chosen brand. 1.1.2025 Happy New Year! To celebrate that, let me finally present a 1870s day dress and hat I finished back in 2023! It's my 7th Natural Form dress and 5th hat, and I'm still very much in love with the era.  27.10.2024 Some years ago I attended the Victorian house party at Töyrylä manor house hotel for the first time. I have already posted about the dressing gown and slippers I made for my husband, but I also made a quickie version of a peignoir jacket for myself. For this years weekend I also finally got to wear my own pair of berlin work slippers which had been long time in the making, but more of them later. 6.11.2023 New period alert!! I've been to two 20's theme parties this year, so late last year I put together a flapper dress. Don't worry, I don't think it will become a habit, but at least I tried something new for change. 16.5.2023 The Victorian house party at Töyrylä Manor House Hotel last year was a rare occasion to wear loungewear of the period. I posted earlier about the combined dressing gown / smoking jacket, and I also got to indulge in an old favorite, needlepoint, known to Victorians as "Berlin work". Jarno has new slippers now, mine are still in progress for a while. 26.2.2023 On the notorious spring of 2020 I began what was to become my combined Official Pandemic Dress and Official IKEA Dress, finally finished in 2022. The Alvine Kvist - print rendered itself to a very pretty early 1770s Robe a la Francaise. I fell for the eternal temptation of a new hat, a black silk covered bergere. It was much more work than my previous 18th century hats so I thought I could devote an entire entry for it. 31.12.2022 A definite highlight of the past year was a victorian house party weekend at the beautiful Töyrylä Manor hotel. It also offered a rare chance of getting to wear period garments all through the day, so I took the opportunity to make a sort of combination of a smoking jacket and dressing gown for Jarno. 5.12.2022 Another throwback to summer 2021, when I strayed into a new century and somehow found myself making an Edwardian outfit and a hat to go with it. 29.10.2022 The summer 2021 saw some very high temperatures here in Finland, and I decided on a whim to try making a Victorian summer corset. As usual, I got to taking pictures of last year's projects only this year, so there is more coming eventually... 5.5.2022 Last year I finished a long time dream project, a silk and velvet day dress based on a 1877 fashion illustration. Of course I also made a hat for it. 25.10.2021 Last year I was going through my stash and decided to make a new 1780's dress that I didn't absolutely need but had fabric for. I had a lot of problems with it, but it finally turned out pretty okay. I also made a lovely big 1780s bonnet for it, the "Bonnet á la Jeannot"-model form "The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty." It's to be found at the 18th century caps-page. 15.8.2021 Some of you may have noticed that this blog has been temporarily unavailable for several months - or rather, it has always been there, but if you search it on google instead of actually typing it old school google redirected you to another site selling Viagra. Perhaps some unfortunate creature stumbled into pictures of me in historical underwear, was scarred for life and decided to do an act of public good and hijack this offensive content in hopes that he and others might eventually recover with a bit of medical help. Anyway, I have been sewing a lot, but as always, I'm slow in updating. Here is finally an early 1880s frock, simple and fun to make. I really like how the photoshoot in the incredible early summer greenery turned out. 13.11.2020 Some minor 18th
century projects for change: A plain woollen jacket
and a printed apron (added at the Accessories page),
both from the marvellous Costume Close Up book.
22.7.2020 I randomly made a Victorian bathing
suit of sorts last summer, but only managed to
get it photographed on this year's summer holiday.
Besides that I was very lazy, costuming-wise, and
only did a bit of embroidery on the rainy days. I do
hope to get back on track in the autumn!
8.6.2020 I was originally
supposed to get introduced to the Natural Form era
by making a simple walking dress. Well, after some
winding paths and distractions I actually finally
got to it. See the result here,
and as a bonus feature I present the hat.
Due to the general
slowdown caused by the whole covid19 mess I've had
some extra time to visit my other favorite period,
the 18th century, which I have sadly neglected a bit
during the past few years in my late Victorian
mania. I've often had the feeling of jumping into
the deep end of another pool just when I learned to
swim in the last one, beginning with a new era just
as things were becoming nice and easy on the
previous one. So, I was happily surprised at how
effortlessly I was able to plan and cut two new 18th
century projects from stash materials when given a
bit of time to breathe and concentrate. I think I
going to keep a break before beginning a new major
Natural Form project again, at the very least for
the summer, and instead work leisurely on the new
18th century stuff and other long-time ongoing
projects.
29.3.2020 A few months ago I
participated in a small dinner party. It was the
perfect occasion to wear the early
1880s dinner dress I finished just in time!
28.11.2019 My 1870's day dress inspired by Tissot paintings also got a hat. By the way, you can now follow @couturemayah at Instagram. I'm not a super active Instagrammer, but I try to post something costuming or re-enacting-related occasionally, and also alert you about the rare occasions of updates on this blog. The detailed making-of stories and pictures will be published here as before. 9.10.2019 With this current Victorian madness I haven't made much 18th century stuff lately, but I did manage another pair of shoes. Because one can never have too many. 1.7.2019 Ca 1876-1877 day dress inspired by the iconic look of Natural Form era beauties portrayed by Tissot. 28.5.2019 More Victorian stuff, this time some more or less attractive underwear. The Tissot-inspired day dress coming soonish. 6.10.2018 Some accessories for the 1870's ballgown: Another shoe upcycling project and a last-minute mantelet. I'm slowly getting forward with Natural Form era, and currently working on a day dress. 22.8.2018 The late 1870's evening gown that I have always wanted to wear. 23.6.2018 Remember the Robe a la Francaise-project? There was also the lace... 27.5.2018 I have for some time been dreaming of the Natural Form fashion (late 1870s to early 1880s). Buying tickets for The Prior Attire Victorian Ball in Bath finally got me to get started. Of course, it all began with a corset... 17.1.2018 Happy New Year everyone! There is still some last year stuff left, like the accessories I made for the Robe a la Francaise. Let's take a closer look on the shoes. 2.8.2017 Finally, the Robe a la Francaise. 6.5.2017 The annual L'Amusette ball's theme this year was the French Revolution. As I don't have much late century stuff on my garb, I made a new jacket that has been on my list for a long time. 12.2.2017 A surcote-like
thingy I made for Jarno a few years back
finally got photographed.
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 Couture Mayah
wishes everyone a Happy Finnish Indepence Day, and
totally unrelated to that returns to the days of
Swedish rule with a new 14th
century dress.
2.10.2015 For L'Amusette's
annual April ball I made a new dress in
the style of 18th century masquerade costumes. It
will get worn next at the Feast of All Saint's ball
in Viapori at the end of the month.
I have also
finally began the grand Robe a l'a Francaise. I
intend to work on it at a leisurely pace along with
other stuff, so don't expect anything finished for a
year or so :)
6.9.2105 For the past
summer I made a
1950's inspired dress for myself and an informal
18th century outfit for Kaisa.
4.3.2015 Some accessories
already seen with the grey Brunswick / Pet en l'air:
A new cap (on
18th century caps, scroll down for it) and a
pair of pearl bracelets (on 18th century
accessories). Small things like these are
important in creating a period look and I really
should make more of them...
8.2.2015 For the last
December's Sveaborg Christmas Fair I made a Brunswick inspired
by the portrait of Lady Mary Fox. For the
Christmas Ball at the evening it turned into a Pet
en l'air dress.
1.2.2015 Happy New Year! I know
it's already February, but better late than never,
that's our motto here at Couture Mayah.
...Which brings us to how I finally made a garment I have planned to make for about four years: The pleated men's gown from Thursfield's "The medieval tailor's assistant". So happy the get that fabric from stash to use! Last summer Jarno also got a somewhat less exciting new basic tunic (scroll to bottom of the page for it) and a tablet woven drum sling, added at the end of the medieval accessories. 7.12.2014 This year I did make
a new dress for the Sveaborg Christmas ball, but
haven't found time for a proper photoshoot yet...
But for now, here are the new shoes I
wore with it instead.
8.9.2014
While Absinthe is really more of a late 19th / early 20th century drink, I'd like to think an 18th century Absinthe Fairy would have looked like Kaisa in her new roundgown. 27.8.2014 19.4.2014 A medieval dress I made last summer got a chilly wintery photo shoot some time ago. Also another silly piece of headwear. For my modern wardrobe I recently made a cute 40's inspired dress. 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 Something for the
modern world for change: Last year I was inspired to
make a new dress
for a friend's wedding.
My last years number
one project, Jarno's new suit, is still on the
progress but seems like it will actually get
finished.
My sister Kaisa's
1780's wardrobe now has a pair of pockets, a
bumroll, an almost finished shift and an almost
bound pair of stays. And a promising pattern for a
roundgown.
26.10.2013 My friend Ida
recently spent one Sunday afternoon at photoshoot.
We photographed an 18th century
jacket I made her a few years ago and stays I made earlier
this year.
I finished Jarno's
waistcoat this week. I've also began to plan 1780's
outfit for my sister Kaisa, though currently I'm
only working with the stays pattern.
 16.9.2013 Some small stuff: A few years old cloak
finally got photographed, it can be seen on the next page from
my winter cloak.
Minor accessory
thing: a painted mask. I placed it on 18th century
accessories even though it doesn't really have
anything 18th century about it, save that I made it
for an 18th century ball.
What else is up?
Well, Jarno's new suit is making slow but steady
progress. The breeches are almost finished and the
waistcoat about halfway.
30.5.2013 Baroness von Mannheim
was recently strolling about garden in her shift and
new stays. Yes, we have pictorical evidence
of the incident. We blame the intoxicating scent of
apple blossoms.
The Baron's new suit
is now cut, which was my main holiday plan. Now I
can just go sightseeing and re-enacting for the rest
of the time! Okay, I may yet fix my old floral anglaise /
polonaise to fit over my new stays for
Stockholm.
18.5.2013 Jarno got an 18th century pocket
book for Christmas last year. Only it took some time
to photograph it...
I have now finished
the patterns for Jarno's new 18th century suit and
plan cut it soon. After next week I also have my
summer holiday, and we shall head for Stockholm once
again. This time we shall also attend a ball in
Kristinehov Malmgård organized by Gustaf Skål.
18.2.2013 One of the last years
main projects, the new Robe á
la Polonaise. Finally.
14.2.2013 Couture Mayah
celebrates Valentine's Day with an underwear edition
with lots of pastel toned cuteness! The new stays
are finally here with matching
boudoir mules. 18th
century underwear page also got some new
additions and bit of a facelift.
At the moment I'm
close to finishing two projects: A 50's inspired
dress for a friend's wedding next Saturday and
another pair of stays. My next main project will be
a new 18th century suit for Jarno.
19.12.2012 Couture Mayah wishes
ye all Merry Christmas!
This Yuletide post
shall reveal (finally) Erhart of Mannheims
garderobe, which has gradually gained new items
during the last two years, all of which are now
finally photographed. Couture Mayah proudly
presents: Doublet
and joined hose, tabard,
a houppelande gown
(see for the pictures very suitable for the season),
two linen tunics
and shirts
& accessories and other small stuff.
Currently I'm working
on a new (another!) pair of 18th century stays and a
friend's bridal gown.
28.10.2012
Baron von Mannheim's scant 18th
century wardrobe got some sorely needed additions: Another
shirt and a
finer silk waistcoat. His new suit is at the
moment still a bolt of fabric in the corner of my
sewing room.
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28.7.2012 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
20.3.2012 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!
12.1.2012 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.
20.6.2011 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!
2.1.2011 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.
4.10.10 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.
8.6.10 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.
29.12.09 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.
14.10.09 I'm happy to report having won the
second prize on a costume competition on my workplace.
More about my highly predictable costume here.
31.8.09 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.
16.8.09 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.
24.7.2009 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.
27.3.2009 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...
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