Baltimore Regency Dinner

Last month, we joined a bunch of other friends for an evening in Baltimore. A subset of our group toured Fort McHenry and went on one of the tall ships. But we just had so much going on in October and I was exhausted. So we decided just to go into the city for dinner. Our friend Conley was in town too, so we dressed her up and carpooled up with Gloria to meet the others in Baltimore. They had hotel rooms overlooking Camden Yards, which was fun.





Heading out to dinner:





The Washington Monument:



We went to the Owl Bar, which is in the Belvedere - it has some interesting history: http://www.theowlbar.com/history/

A group pic, though we're missing Jess in it:



One from the other end with Jess:



Apple Pie Sangria - interesting!



I loved the wallpaper!





We had a special little alcove, here's the rest of the bar:





The food was ok. The appetizers (fried pickles! calamari!) were excellent though!

After dinner we took some photos in the lobby:





Group photo!



Silly picture!

A new purse

I finally sewed a thing!

I used this Portmanteau Fashions pattern for an 1831 pointed reticule.

I had received two really pretty cloth napkins as part of a subscription box. I didn't really have need for cloth napkins, but the fabric was so pretty, that I thought they'd be good for a purse. I decided to mix the colors up harlequin-style for fun.  I'm sure this makes it not historical but I didn't really care. I just wanted to try the pattern out.   I probably should have chosen a darker lining, but I wanted something strong enough that I wouldn't worry about. And I didn't have any black cotton on hand, but I probably should have used silk to be prettier. It is what it is.

Here's the result.

I ended up putting piping only on one of the two body pieces because putting piping on both ended up with too much piping and too much thickness. I did pipe the top of the other piece that I didn't pipe the whole way around.  I threaded the ribbon differently for easier gathering. And also I recommend sewing the triangles on the flat body pieces before sewing the front/back together - without doing that I wasn't sure what to do with the piping at the ends of the triangles. Catching them in the seams hides the edges. It makes the side seams a little bulky, but it was the only way to hide those edges. 

Overall, it's a cute purse and big enough to hold a wallet and cell phone, which is great! I have a lot of cute reticules that won't hold everything I need them to!