Showing posts with label black 1840s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black 1840s. Show all posts

Friday, January 10, 2020

2019 Costume Year in Review

(I'm behind on updating events for the second half of the year, but you'll get some of that within.)

I… pretty much did nothing this year. Ok, that’s not totally true, but going through year two of motherhood + working full time leaves not enough time for me for sewing. At least, not enough big, contiguous chunks of time. I used to take a whole free weekend (when I had them) and spend all day on a project. I don’t have that anymore. And my evenings are for relaxing and recovering, and they are just enough time to take stuff out before having to go to bed. It’s just not working for me now, but I know that will change. And someday she will want to do her own thing, and I’m going to wonder what to do with my time!

Knowing all this, last year I said, “ Since my sewing time/drive has been so low, I think my main goal for 2019 will be to have as many of my older costumes photographed as possible. At least I’ll have a good record of them that way! So it’s accomplishing something.” and “ So next year, I’d like to finish the mending pile, to include actually assembling that new regency dress. Trimming the francaise would be good. As would doing literally anything else. I clearly need a bustle gown. Other than that, I think I’ll just try to rewear stuff that never was well-photographed, and get as many pics as I can.”

Since I set the bar so very low, I can say that yes! I accomplished this! I rewore stuff, I had photographs taken of old stuff. I did not trim the francaise, though that’s not because I didn’t try. The trim I had envisioned just didn’t look right with the fabric I had, so after trying a couple different ways to pleat the fabric, I put it away for another time. So I did at least try. And I did finish my mending pile!! I did not assemble the regency dress. I took it out a few times and just wasn’t into it. And since the Pumpkin Tea this year was bustle era and not regency, I figured I can do it next time I need a new regency day dress. So I deprioritized it.

I did go to quite a few costume events, which was nice. And I bought two Victorian gowns on FB, so I finally have things to fill in the gaps where I have not had time to sew. One of them still needs hemming, though I hemmed the first one I bought.

So here was my year.

February: Victorian Tea at Dupont Hotel

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The lighting was terrible but Mike and Gloria did do some pics. I wore my old 1840s watered silk gown with an antique pelerine over it just to do something new. Here’s their pic of me:

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I participated in In the Long Run Designs New Kit-Cat Club photo project. Here was my photo from that project. I wore an older gown, but one of my favs. Red and white striped silk and a take on the famous gown from the KCI collection. I got some nice photos of it from that shoot!

the new Kit-Cat Club portrait

More below the cut!


Thursday, June 6, 2019

Victorian Tea

After Longwood Gardens, we headed to the DuPont Hotel for our tea. Kat was kind enough to let me use her room to change and also gave me a hairpiece which I used just for fun.

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This was butter and lemon curd, but it looked like an egg yolk! IMG_9982

The huge dining room:

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Meanwhile, Doug took Elena over to a kids museum and let her run around. They had a good time.

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I have a fairly limited Victorian wardrobe, so I tried to take in my black watered silk Poe dress, which I haven’t worn for a while. Over it, I wore an antique pelerine. The little pin was a party favor.

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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Poe Funeral 2009

There was an extra event in 2009, Poe's funeral.  A bunch of us dressed in mourning (as best as we could, anyway) and attended, even getting to be in the processional.

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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Poe 2009

Tea and then another Poe birthday celebration!

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Us with John Astin!
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More pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maggie42/sets/72157618032589229/

SalonCon 2008

Kat, Loren, and I went to SalonCon, which was a steampunk sort of Con. It was pretty cool, and I enjoyed hanging out with the girls.  I don't have much in the way of Victorian or Steampunk, but I wore the two things I had that vaguely fit the period.  Kat and Loren both looked spectacular!




More pics:
http://costumersguide.com/saloncon08.shtml

Poe 2008

In 2008, I went to the Poe birthday celebration in Baltimore for the first time, with a group of LJ friends, in 1840s costumes! It was so fun!





More pics:
http://costumersguide.com/maggie_costumes/poe_images.html

Friday, March 25, 2011

Black "Poe" 1840s gown

My friends and I decided to attend an Edgar Allan Poe birthday event in Baltimore... in 1840s costumes.  I had some black watered silk from a fashionfabricsclub sale (at least, it was sold as silk!) and I decided to make a gown like this one from the Tasha Tudor collection:


This gown is SO pretty, I love it!  I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out, except that I wish I'd had enough fabric for another skirt panel, because my cartridge pleats are pretty thin looking.   I also have some bodice wrinkles I'd love to get rid of.   I wore this to a ton of Poe events, but I made this late 2007/early 2008.