An 18th century day at Suomenlinna, 2017

When it comes to historical events and travelling, the past three years have been busier for me than any of my previous years in the hobby before. It has been absolutely wonderful but it also meant that when I've been at home, I have been frantically preparing for a trip on my time off, which lead to the complete neglect of this blog. With the limited free time and energy available, I've chosen sewing over updating the blog. Also, in the past three years I've found, like so many of you, that Instagram has been a more convenient place for me to share my work and photos of events. However, I never wanted to give up on this blog either because I feel like having a more permanent place for my photos and I still want to write posts about my costumes every once in a while.

This post is about an event back in July 2017. I didn't plan to go to it because I found out about it just a couple of weeks before it took place. However, it was too fun an event to pass up, so I made a bit of an impromptu trip to Helsinki for a weekend.

The neat thing about this day was that we got to travel to Suomenlinna islands in proper 18th century style on an 18th century reproduction cannon sloop Diana! 

It may have been July but the weather made it seem more like September.

Some members of the Olde Militia of Helsinki and Nylands Karoliner.

The whole passenger group captured upon arrival to Suomenlinna. 

Once we got to Suomenlinna, we set up a picnic and played some pall-mall, as per usual. 

We also visited the commandant's house aka the Ehrensvärd museum, named after the founder of Suomenlinna sea fortress, Augustin Ehrensvärd, whose official residence the house was. The house was built in the 1750s and the interiors of the museum are furnished in 18th century style.

I had quickly sewn two new garments for the trip the week before; a red petticoat and a 1780s apron with ruffles.





However, Ehrensvärd actually didn't live in the house as he lived in a cottage (that no longer exists on the islands).

Augustin Ehrensvärd (1710-1772), c. 1770, presumably after J. H. Scheffel.

Ehrensvärd was the first to have a tiled oven in Helsinki. Sadly the first oven from mid 1750s was destroyed in a bombing during the Crimean war in 1855 so the ones that are in the museum today are not original to the building.

Augustin Ehrensvärd was not only a military officer and architect but also an artist. There are several of Ehrensvärd's ink drawings on display at the museum.

We also got to see a minuet dance performance and enjoy some harp music while we were in the museum.  

This was the first time Mia invited her sister to join us to an event. Aren't they adorable? :)

Portrait of Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt (1757-1814).

Afterwards we had lunch at the Café Piper. The weather had suddenly turned all summery so we played cards in the garden before heading home.

Picnic in Suomenlinna fortress

My summer vacation was in August, which meant I could attend not only one historical picnic, but two! Noora, Mia and I had decided to do our Gustavian Day event this year in Vaasa again, since it went so well last year, so that was the other event I had decided to attend. I hadn't planned on travelling to Helsinki until very late but I was really happy I could make it since there was not only a picnic to attend but also half of my family lives in Helsinki now, which meant I had the chance to visit them as well during the week I spent there. Anyhow, I will make another post about the Gustavian Day but here are some photos from the picnic in Suomenlinna. 

The Olde Militia of Helsinki and the Fine Citizens of the Town, a group that I'm a member of, has it's 20th anniversary this year, so the picnic was held in celebration of that and it was supposed to be an informal gathering for the members. Dressing in your earliest period costume was encouraged (no matter how unauthentic it may be!), however, I no longer have my first gown, nor would have I had liked to wear it anyhow since I don't have a lot of chances to dress up.

There weren't that many of us on the picnic but it was a pleasant day anyhow! With less people it's (at least for me) easier to engage in conversation, when there's no need to bounce from person to another trying to catch up with everyone.

Mia (aka ohgloomysunday) wore a new outfit, striped jacket and petticoat. 

With the time limitations and sewing a new dress for Gustavian Day, I decided to wear my Williamsburg print gown, which was quite perfect for a summery picnic. 

During the train trip to Helsinki, I also managed to hastily decorate a bergère hat that I hadn't had use for earlier. According to weather forecasts, it was supposed to be cloudy and mildly warm, which would have been perfect for costume wearing, but it turned out to be a hot, sunny day, so the bergère was absolutely much-needed.

We tried to get photos without tourists but it's quite difficult as Suomenlinna is a popular tourist attraction in the summer. 

It was windy...

...so this happened a few times during the day! ;)

And a few photos of different parts of Suomenlinna! I've often posted about events that have taken place on the island but I never shared that many pictures of the lovely surroundings there. The reason for that is that I have only been to Suomenlinna in the winter when it's not as picturesque as in the summer. The last time I had been there in summer was actually in 2008 so it had been quite a while! 

The first photo is from the ferry, arriving to Suomenlinna. Suomenlinna is actually a group of islands, connected to each other with bridges, and the ferry takes you to the main island, Iso Mustasaari. 

Here's the Ehrensvärd museum, that you perhaps might remember from my earlier post (probably not :P). 

This post is really belated, again, but it seems to be the way blogging is for me now. I still try to make an effort to update this blog when I have the chance, even if I never catch up (wouldn't that be nice)!