20s or 30s Paste Necklace

I just won this on ebay for $46 which I think is a good price. It's a sterling paste necklaces from the 20s or 30s.  And nearly 18" in length, which is a good size for me. I'll probably end up using it with 18th century or regency stuff since it's collet-y.

Isn't it pretty? It's from one of my new fav vintage/antique jewelry sellers, nalfie.  They have really nice stuff. (Thanks Taylor!)  I nicked their ebay pics since I don't have it yet.

18th Century Jacket

I have all these smallish pieces of fabric that I'd earmarked for jackets - and I finally went ahead and cut 4 jackets out. I used the JP Ryan pattern because I'd used it before successfully. It has variations so each jacket is slightly different.

Here is the first one made with just over a meter of changeable silk with a metallic stripe that I bought in Germany in 2006.  I used pretty much all the fabric I had.

Laughing Moon Regency Gown

I tried out the new Laughing Moon regency gown pattern and was super happy with it! It went together really easily and I actually didn't even need to alter it from the size I cut out. I think the pattern ended up being really flattering. I used a slightly sheer cotton with a white and silver stripe that I think I got in LA a bunch of years ago.

Here's the pattern: http://www.lafnmoon.com/product_p/p126.htm

You can see the stripes a little here.



With it I wore my 1870s paste flower brooch, my antique Napoleon III comb, my fan made my Gloria, my Georgian earrings, my 1820s ring, and  also a new ring purchase which I'll blog about later. The necklace is modern. Oh and my shawl.  It's fun that I've been able to collect enough antique pieces to go with my costumes!
















Gloria's photo:





Edited to add - here's a close-up of the fabric:

Georgian Earrings

I apparently never posted about these!

I paid about $120 on ebay.  They were described as Georgian, handmade, using old-cut mined diamonds set into solid silver 800 with original 9ct gold clasps. I think I got a great deal on them since they look a lot like these which are on sale for $950.
http://www.rubylane.com/item/708544-2038/LABOR-DAY-Antique-Georgian-Rose-Cut



And these, which are$600 on Ruby Lane:
http://www.rubylane.com/item/860926-1172/Black-Dot-18th-Century-White-Paste)

Then I went over to Gloria's to hang out and work on some costume stuff and she has this book on Georgian jewelry:
http://www.amazon.com/Georgian-Jewellery-1714-1830-Ginny-Redington/dp/1851495398/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

In it are some examples of Georgian earrings, I believe 1780s, that have similar hooks and similar mounting of the diamonds. We both decided that the hooks look original to the earrings.

I looked up how to clean them and one site suggested baking soda and water for silver. I used a really really soft bristle toothbrush - I didn't want to scratch the silver, but the holes in the design were completely filled with dirt and the brush helped poke them open and also get off some of the hardpacked gunk on the back of the earrings.

They look so much better now! Here are some before and after pics.

And the auction pictures:

Birthnight Ball

Last night was the Birthnight Ball at Gadsby's Tavern celebrating George Washington's birthday. It was really fun despite the fact that our whole party couldn't be there due to illness and weather.

I wore a new dress which I'll blog about separately! Here are some pictures from the night!

We had dinner at the Warehouse Bar and Grill. The food was tasty!

(Mat was parking the car in a snow squall and I didn't catch him here.)


Doug in the vest I made him:


Gloria and her sorbet (and new sari overgown):


At the ball:


General Washington is the tall one:


Washington is 2nd from left, Mrs. Washington is 2nd from right:




Dance demo:


Doug:




The traditional hedgehogs:


Gloria:

Regency wig

I bought a wig ages ago after reading this blog from Bohemian Belle intending to try to style a wig with her directions.  That was ages ago. But I had a regency ball last night so I decided I needed to style it so I could do something with my hair.   Julia's directions were really good.  I definitely needed a heat protective glove, which fortunately we had.  She's very right about needing to gently pull the curl intact off the curler until it cools.  If you just let it go, it'll fall out, but when I waited for it to cool, it stayed perfectly curled.  I was really happy with how my wig turned out. 

One thing I did do was turn the lace-front under since I didn't want it.

Here's Julia's blog:

http://thebohemianbelle1800.blogspot.com/2013/10/regency-wig-wrangling-101.html

This is the wig she used. I think I bought medium brown.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008R2CBG4/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here are some pictures of my wig after styling:

I ended up wearing it as a half-wig just because with my amount of hair, the wig didn't fit really completely. Or maybe I just have a big head.  But I kind of like wearing wigs this way - it allows your hair to blend. And I think it ended up looking good. The curls didn't budge the whole night. Here's a photo of it on.

30 Day Cosplay/Costuming Meme - Day 10

10. The dream cosplay that will never happen

Hmm. This is tough because I've sort of changed interests so some of the huge Amidala costumes which I've sort of fantasized about doing in the past I'm not really that interested in. And some of the other big fantasy projects (the red dress from Dracula) are not things I've given up on per se...

I still really would love to do a lot of the Sleepy Hollow movie costumes and more Titanic costumes.  And there's not really anything stopping me but time. So they're not things I've necessarily "given up" on.  Same with other things on my wishlist... So nothing really comes to mind other than something I had no solid plans to do anyway...

30 Day Cosplay/Costuming Meme - Day 9

9. The dream cosplay that might just happen

The Sleepy Hollow Windmill dress. I say this every year, but by God, it's going to happen this year. Hopefully in the next few months. We'll see.

Any Costume Party - and Violet Baudelaire

So my friend Judy had an Any Costume party and it was super fun! I decided to wear something old, and after thinking maybe I'd wear Leia Bespin, I remember that I'd spent like a year making my Violet Baudelaire costume (from Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events) and then wore it once at DragonCon in 2006 for like a couple hours and then never again. That costume was a complete trial to make, it was so much work. And then the skirt didn't really fit. And the zipper ripped out. Anyway, I dragged it out and the skirt actually fits now! So I repaired the zipper, which took 5 minutes and I was good to go! The bodice, oddly, worked fine even though it has to be laced a lot tighter now, but somehow it worked. And I got to wear the new strappy boots I had bought to go with this that are much closer to the movie ones but then never wore.

So I was really glad I got another wearing out of it and though I didn't get a ton of pictures, I like these ones a lot better than the other ones.

So here are some pics of my costume and of the party!

Also, I got to see a high school friend of mine (actually, I've known her since 3rd grade) who is randomly friends with Judy. I hadn't seen her since high school!









I handpainted the stripes on the underskirt, which is a full circle!




I drove up with Mike and Gloria, which is always super fun, since we end up chatting the whole way. And we stayed at Gloria's parents house, which is always supercomfortable. So thanks to them!

Mike and Gloria


Judy and Steve had purchased a 6 lbs bag of gummy bears:


Kat in Game of Thrones:


Mike got into the tiara spirit:
























Gloria and Mike's pics:






And one bonus picture from my trying out the costume, without my hair done: