Monday, June 25, 2012

Monday Progress Update: June 25


Got a few more rows done on the piped bodice of doom . . .



Started the final bodice of the Lake Dress . . .



And I did some decoration on the skirt.  I'm thinking of taking it up again, though, and putting some lace behind it.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Monday Progress Update: June 18

 Because it was my birthday on Friday I didn't get a lot of work done this week (we went hiking!).  Most of what I got done was handwork on my Sandry bodice.  It has 19 pieces, each one piped, so overcasting the interior is taking quite a while.  I'm halfway done with the large vertical section though!





The other thing I got done was the mock-ups for my lake dress bodice.  It took 3 tries, but I finally got a bodice I'm proud of.  I started with what I call Simplicity's "slutty princess" outfit pattern, Simplicity 2832:



I ended up with this:


Saturday, June 16, 2012

Birthday Giveaway Winner!




I've chosen a winner for my birthday giveaway!  Who's the lucky person?

Diane!


Your email is on its way Diane!



Also remember that I'm giving away a copy of High Style when I reach 50 followers!  That's only 4 people away, so tell your friends to join soon!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Birthday Giveaway

Today's my Birthday!  I live by the mantra that "it's better to give than to receive."  That means for one day only I'm gonna give away some presents! 

What can you win?



RUSSIAN ELEGANCE: Country & City Fashion from the 15th to the Early 20th Century by L V YEFIMOVA and T S Aleshina

Enter now, contest ends at midnight EST!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, June 11, 2012

Dress U Class

At Dress U I taught a class on 500 years of women's fashion history.  This is the powerpoint from that so everyone can have the book and website links I used.


Fashion History

Monday Progress Update: June 11

Haul of the week:


I got some cheap silk taffeta ($6/yd!) online for a few different projects.  Also got some JP Ryan patterns to work with, and in the background is the white lace for future-sister-in-law's wedding dress.  Not shown: I also picked up some basics, muslins for patterning and petticoats, satin for flower girl dresses and muslining fsil's dress, and a silky for a dress for me.  I also have some Folkwear and Truly Victorian patterns on the way so I can do some projects.  Here's a list of stuff I have on my mind.  Hopefully I'll accomplish some of it sometime in the next few months:

Lake Dress
Regency Short Stays
Regency Chemise
Taffeta Half-Dress
Pocket Hoops
Pink Polonaise
Wedding Dress
2 Flower Girl Dresses
Civil War Work Dress
Civil War Round Hoop
Civil War Petticoat
2 Civil War Chemises
2 Plain Civil War Bloomers
20's Tea Dress
20's Linen Dress
20's Cocoon Coat
1940's Corset
Corded Petticoat
Flounced Petticoat

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

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!

Monday Progress Update: June 4

Another Monday Progress Update post on a Tuesday.  This time it's due to Dress U.  I'll have a long review post up soon, but here's what I've been up to otherwise:



I finished putting all the buttons on my Regency gown!  I think I made the back quite too high because it needed 14 buttons.  I had to sew them on at Dress U because I had to go to two different stores to get them all.



I also finally got a picture of my 1920's party dress!




Here's what's on my dress form now: I'm going back to working on the Bizenghast Lake Dress for WorldCon!



I've been doing some watercolor trim painting samples for it, I'm still deciding if I'll do the trim in watercolor, paint, or some combination.




Also have been on quite a shopping spree lately, due to inspiration from all the lovely people I've been seeing at events the last few weeks!  I've got a lovely green check wool, a brown check, a cream wool suiting, a teal wool crepe, a blue/gold taffeta, a red/gold with red stripes, white organdy, blue and blue-green sequins, and a neat metal piece!