Ever After painting

Here's another painting my Mom did loosely based on the red velvet Ever After dress I made. 

Arwen Mourning Gown painting

Since I've been posting a bunch of the recent little costume watercolors my Mom has done, I thought I'd post some of the older ones.   The current ones have all been done in a little notebook - the ones she's done in the past are much larger.

Here's one she did based on a photo of me in my Arwen Mourning gown. I think she's so talented. But then, I'm biased!

American Duchess Pemberlies

The American Duchess Pemberlies are super comfortable (but ran 1/2 size bigger than the 18th century shoes, so I had to exchange my 8 for a 7.5) and fit great.

I really wanted to make these Sense & Sensibility shoes:

I bought champagne colored leather paint - it didn't go on quite as light as I would have liked - I think next time I will dilute whatever color I get with the neutral I also bought.  I also bought some silk grossgrain ribbon on etsy. As Lauren suggestion, I used glue to edge the shoes and the side seam. I used her clips and made some rosettes.  I also used two covered buttons (I happened to have blanks on hand).  They're not exact because they're a little darker in color, but they're close!

A Fortuny Gown

I came across these photos I took of a Fortuny gown on display at the Museum of American History in DC a few years ago. I thought they might be of interest!

Vintage pin

I found this picture (I should really take my own) on a pin I got on ebay four years ago.  I think I only paid 20-25 bucks for it and it's really heavy and nice quality.  Much prettier than the picture. :-)

Summer Tea

I posted a bunch of my Mom's little paintings of some of my costumer friends, but I don't think I posted this one here. She did this one after a tea we had in Virginia where many of us wore chemise dresses.  :-)

Star Trek uniform

I have friends who want to do a costume group, so I splurged on one of the Anovos Star Trek uniforms. It's really cool and the body of it was true to size, but the sleeves were SO small. I'm not skinny, but I don't think my forearms are abnormally large and I could barely fit them in the sleeve! Fortunately there are huge seam allowances in both seams of the sleeve, so I let them all out and it fits better. It's also a stretchy material, which helps.

Here are some pics on the dress form, and a few of Uhuru in the original.  (I bought the blue uniform - science, you know!)

Velvet Spencer

I made a velvet spencer on Sunday! I did the entire thing in one day, pretty much, other than some finishing touches. (I added hook and eyes and two belt loops because I couldn't keep it all in place.)

I used the Past Patterns 1809 spencer, which actually fit me perfectly. It was a little shy on directions, which was mostly not a problem, but I did have trouble figuring out which was the left and which the right sleeve. I'm still not sure if I guessed right. :-/

I used vintage thread covered buttons on the back - not sure they go with the buckle? A friend gave me the buckle and I really like it. I think it's probably ok together.

I used some cotton velvet I got from RedThreaded - I'm not sure if it was a blend - it was really plush, but it also didn't crease almost at all. It was pretty much a dream to work with, unlike the silk velvet I used on that little S&S vest. (Which I kind of want to redo, which is a little crazy.) The jacket went together really easily. And the velvet didn't fray or slip much at all. And pins didn't mark it. It was really great. And I had just enough fabric with a little bit leftover.

I lined the jacket with the dotted fabric I used one my first regency dress. It'll match if I ever wear it with that!

Also, everything I used came from the stash!  I have so much stuff I've really been trying to focus on using it rather than buying stuff for new projects.

Here are some photos!

Pink Silk dress

Here are some shots of the new pink silk dress I made.  It's a drawstring dress based off the Sensibility pattern.  I used non-period dupioni from the stash - I thought it would be a pretty color that would go with lots of things.  One of my friends once said that she liked regency because all you had to do was make a new overgown or jacket or something and you have a new dress! There are lots of possibilities!

A few purchases...

I posted the ebay pictures, but here's one of my new Whitby jet "Maggie" pin.

Here is some vintage English net I got on Etsy for a good price - I'm going to use it for flounces for my next 18th century dress!

And lastly, I got this cute Gryffindor ring on Shapeways a while ago!

A new costume painting...

My mom did another little costume painting - immortalizing Christy's good hair day!

Francaise Party Redux

Robin posted the big group photo from our dinner - how fun! Below the cut are a bunch of pictures from her, Jenny-Rose, and Aubry.

Francaise Dinner Party

I had the best time last night at the Francaise dinner party Kat organized! It was held at a restaurant in PA that Robin recommended. The food was awesome, as was the company!





Backing up a bit, Jess let me crash at her place, which happened to be near where Doug's sister lives. So Doug and I drove up Saturday and he dropped me off. It was nice to have someone to help with hair and I had a lot of fun getting ready for the party with Jess!

I was really happy with how my hair came out too!

Shoes!

I put my American Duchess repro buckles on my silk shoes today!   I really like them!

Regency Sari gown

I actually sewed!  I've had this Sari sitting in my stash for a while, and I had a ton of (non-period) pale pink dupioni I got when the Joanne's near me closed.  So I made a drawstring dress and then after studying a ton of fashion plates, made the Sari as an over gown.

This project went pretty fast - I did most of the sewing in one weekend. And the next weekend I did all the finishing bits.

So, here is the dress! Everyone one it came from my stash, including the ribbon sash, buckle, and vintage buttons I used on the back.

Also, the sari was a dream to work with. Way easier than the dupioni.

Ebay purchases!

I've gotten a bunch of things on ebay for good prices lately!

I just got this in the mail today and it's SO pretty! It's Victorian 35" necklace, probably glass.

I've been collecting those Victorian name pins that say "Maggie". In my searches, this little sweetheart pin kept coming up.  It was $4.99 and I couldn't let poor Shirley & Don go homeless.  It makes you wonder what happened to them, whether they broke up or not.

Speaking of Maggie pins, I won this jet "Maggie" pin (it hasn't come yet). It was a little more, though less than I paid for some of the silver ones.  Not sure of  date on it, other than "Victorian."