White And Gold

 In early 1979, ABBA went to Switzerland to record a fun TV special.  ABBA performed a variety of different tracks, some old and some new from their upcoming record, Voulez-Vous.  They also debuted a lot of new costumes, like the blue and purple outifts that I have already made roughly a year and a half ago, and these white and gold outfits.  White and gold seems to be a color scheme that ABBA liked a lot and become sort of part of their image.  

Since my early days of learning to sew back in 2012... 12 years ago.....  (I'm not even old yet I feel old.....) I always wanted to recreate these outfits, specifically after I saw a bit of fabric amongst my mom's stash that was white and had lines on it that reminded me of the pattern on their jackets.  I should mention that fabric had no shine to it and was like a generic polyester or cotton fabric with no stretch, so it's kind of a good thing that my mom didn't let me use it and that I didn't attempt it because I did not have the skill.  But I always wanted to make these outfits for my dolls, so it was on my list of doll costumes that I was sourcing fabric for a good two years ago at this point...

About two years ago, i began gathering a lot of material from various websites like Aliexpress and etsy to try and source some fancy fabrics for the many ABBA costumes I want to recreate.  I'm just going to say, finding a fabric that matches the fabric of their jackets was tough!  It seems to be made out of a Jacquard, burnout, textured velvet in like an animal print, though Agnetha and Benny's jackets use one pattern and Frida and Bjorn's use a different one.  Plus there is gold threading and detailing in the animal print but now in the white space if that makes any sense.  Finding any fabric that closely resembles theirs with the gold threading and in a small enough size for my dolls was proving to be quite difficult and nearly impossible, so I instead got two different types of burnout velvet in an animal print, I think leopard.  One ended up being more opaque than the other with shiner appearance and the other one being softer with a more velvety feel, so not quite what I was hoping for but I did what I could with them, and then with my sewing machine sewed stripes of gold thread all over the front.  Ideally I would have only sewed them in the patterned part, but sadly I do not have the patience to attempt that and it would have taken 10x longer than it already took me to work on these outfits.  So sadly in terms of that, these are not my most accurate recreations, but for what I had, they're pretty good and I'll be more than happy to make them again if I ever find better fabric.

I began working on these outfits in November, and due to procrastination and hyperfixations coming and going, I only finished them last night.  But, without further ado, here they are in all their glory.  

(I didn't realize Agnetha's jacket was not placed nicely whoops.)

First up we have Agnetha and Frida's outfits.  Their outfits are virtually the same construction wise, with a white jumpsuit, a belt, and a jacket, but their are some subtle differences that I think really express the ladies' individual and unique personalities.  Also Agnetha often liked to wear her belt underneath the jacket whereas Frida liked to wear it over, which is why I have them dressed like that.

A closeup of Agnetha's jacket.  Aside from the gold threading taking up so much of my time, the jacket was actually pretty simple because it doesn't have any complicated lapels, nor does it have any closure so I didn't have to breakout the button and buttonhole feet for my sewing machine!!

I mentioned how one of the velvet fabrics was too sheer, so I layered the two different versions on top of one another, using one as a lining instead.  It tuned out pretty nice.

The jumpsuit was fairly straight forward, with a couple of pleats down the front, thin shoulder straps (that I made too thick but we will ignore that), and pockets!  The belt is held together with velcro in the back, btw.

A look at Agnetha's jumpsuit without the belt.  Even though the last time ABBA wore these costumes was in May 1979, Agnetha actually wore this jumpsuit again in late 1979 for a photoshoot without the belt, which allowed me to get a good look at how it was constructed.  Thanks Agnetha!

Then we have Frida's outfit.

A better look at the design/texture of Frida doll's jacket.

While Agnetha's jumpsuit has a more square neckline, Frida's has more of sweetheart collar.  Very similar to how they did the blue and purple costumes from the same year.  

Next up we have Bjorn's outfit, which is just a satin jacket with velvet accents, a gold tie, and satin pants.  I actually reused the pants from Bjorn and Benny's blue and purple outfits because I think that's probably what they did in real life but also I happen to really dislike making pants for some reason.

I don't actually know how Bjorn's jacket is closed, but I added a small button that is kind of hidden behind his tie. 

The pattern on the sleeves.

And the pattern as it goes around the back of his jacket.  Yes I need to iron the jacket lol.

At last but certainly not least, we have Benny's outfits.  Benny's outfits tend to look super simple but in actuallity are pretty tricky.  Like his gold shirt has big, puffy, and gathered sleeves, pleats, and a long white stripe that goes from the shoulder to the end of the sleeve.

Benny's vest.

The back of Benny's vest.  Ideally there would be a buckle back there, but I didn't feel like making one and just stitched the two ties??? together.

Benny's shirt without the vest.

The white stripe from shoulder to sleeve.

The cuffs

 And some pleats at the shoulder.

So there you have it, my newest ABBA costume recreations.  I have a couple more in mind for what to make next, but only time will tell if I get around to making them soon or not haha.  But I had a lot of fun working on these as I always do when recreating costumes for my dolls. :)