Dress U Review

 Dress U started off on a pretty sad note for me.  My planned roommate, Lisa, couldn't make the con due to a sudden illness.  Sucky, both because she was sick and because I had no one I knew at the con and no one to room with.  I was determined to not let it faze me, though so I headed off for Pennsylvania.  After a 6 hour drive I arrived at the hotel a little late but in plenty of time to get dressed for the Welcome Reception on Friday night.  I decided not to, though, because I was a little scared of not knowing anyone and being the only person dressed up (crazy, I know) so I went in my traveling clothes.  I'm kinda glad I did, too, because my hoop probably wouldn't have fit in the room when it got packed with people.

The Welcome Reception and all the pretty dresses!

A lot of the days and events seemed to have an unspoken dress code, and Friday night's was 18th century.  There were many pretty dresses!

A "Costumer's Handshake" at the Welcome Reception

After a successful night I headed off to bed and a restful night's sleep.  The next morning I got up and dressed in my Regency dress.  After a fitful walk up to the classroom I found someone to button me up in it and started listening to my first class: Choosing Period Fabrics.  I followed it with Fitting Yourself by Yourself and Taming the Stash.  After taking a break and skipping the Gibson Girl Pool Party for lunch I joined a workshop on Making an 18th Ct. Silk Muff.

The muff making class in progress

I followed that by sitting in on the 18th Century Bonnet Workshop:

Bonnet Class

Neither class finished the project, but I think they were both very successful and got students projects they could finish on their own.  After that I had my own class, History of Western Fashion in an Hour.  I talked way too fast (faster than I practiced) and finished a bit earlier than I expected, but I still think it was successful for the people who attended it.  Afterwards we all dressed for the Titanic Dinner.  Learning from the night before I wore my Steampunk Beetle gown but without the hoop, deciding it would be more manageable than Historical Cinderella hoopless.  There was a great photo barrage near the staircase outside the dinner room:

The picturesque staircase at the bottom of the hotel . . .

. . .  and all the people taking advantage of it :D

Dinner was fairly good for hotel food, and the desserts were excellent.  A few of my table mates shared a bottle of wine to make it even more enjoyable, so I went to bed a happy camper.  The next morning I skipped the Crepe breakfast and took a drive to get Starbucks.  Then I dressed in my Stripey Steampunk and went to "How to Search Online Auctions for Costuming Items" before the Mad Tea Party.

Enjoying Tea

 
After that I stacked some more classes.  The first was "Extant Gowns Up Close, which was very successful.

 After that I went to "19th Century Parasols and Umbrellas", "Characteristics of Civil War Fashion", "Costuming in the Internet Age", and "Good Movie, Bad Costume".

Parasols!

A little sad that everything was gearing down, I went to the Tiaras and Jampagne party with the last few holdouts of the conference.

Tiaras!

Everyone was wearing Tiaras and drinking jampagne and it was a great time!  In all Dress U was a pretty good time!  I'm glad this con got off to a great start!