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



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:



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!



More below the cut!

Francaise Dinner 2019

Also this past spring, was the 2019 Francaise dinner. Doug and I were supposed to go and Janine and Ron were going to babysit for us… and then Elena got sick and I didn’t want to expose them to germs (especially given how Baby Plague 2018 turned out). So instead Janine went as my guest and Doug stayed home with the kiddo. I was pretty wiped out and Janine has an early bedtime so we didn’t stay super late and I don’t have a ton of pictures, but we did have a lovely dinner at our table with Mike and Gloria. AND (even though I was tired), I felt 100% better than last year when I was recovering from Baby Plague 2018 still and felt awful. So bonus.

The dinner was at Gadbys Tavern this year and the tavern advertised it so there was a huge turnout! I love that venue but it was pretty tight and hard to get around too much to socialize as much as I would have liked.









Janine and I both wore chemise gowns (I was basically looking for something easy to wear and to change in and out of!). I had a feather, but it went askew. Necklace by Gloria/ In the Long Run Designs.

Georgian Picnic

Gloria and I tried to host a Georgian picnic at the start of June - “tried to” because the weather did not cooperate with us. We had planned to have it on the grounds of Montpelier Mansion in Laurel - and ended up having to move it indoors because of the forecast. This led to a mini-panic since we’d anticipated a small number of people and had thought to have it at one of our houses, but we had a ton of RSVPs on Facebook. Our place wasn’t really suited to guests what with the baby situation and with the number of people, honestly a house wasn’t going to work. So we thought maybe we’d have to try the following weekend - but Janine stepped up to the rescue. She has a terrific party room in her apartment building in Alexandria. Having it a little further south caused some of our more northern guests not to be able to come - but rescheduling it would have also caused some attrition, so we just went with it.

Despite all that, it worked out really well, and we had a lovely array of snack foods and we were able to get a group pic outside before the weather moved in. Many of us wore chemise dresses and Gloria & Mike took some lovely photos of people at the party. Since we had a ton of room, we also had non-costumed spouses and babies and at least one costumed baby! A good time was had by all!

Group photo by In the Long Run Designs:

Painting!

My mom did a little chemise dress painting of me from a recent event!

More Bastille Day photos

Here are a few of the photos Gloria's husband Mike took!

 

Bastille Day

I had a great time on Saturday "storming the Bastille" at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.    We had a big group and lots of chemise dresses and big hats, and we had an awesome time!  They had some sort of staged event with stuff also going on up on the roof.  5 of us were up there, which was kind of an adventure (we had to go up dusty staircases, including a tight spiral one) and then wait on the slopey roof and then we got to throw Tastycakes off the room into the crowd. The whole thing was trippy and weird and we had a great time.

I wore my chemise dress with a red and white striped petticoat underneath. Despite having rehemmed my chemise dress, it was still too long (especially without heels) so Gloria helped me pin it up so it wouldn't drag and get all muddy.  We thought it was going to be super warm that day, so I didn't want to wear a big hairpiece or a wig. I decided to do a turban rather than a hat and wrapped a blue velvet sash around my head (I was going to use the red, but it was too slippery) and pinned on my peacock feather hairclip. I only used a small rat in the front. It was comfortable and that was the goal for the day, so it was a win I think.  I also wore the coral beads and miniature I got at Dress U.

I cheated on footwear and did something I hate doing and wore sneakers. I have bad knees and an injured foot and I was told there'd be walking and I didn't want to be hobbling in repro shoes and slowing everyone down.  Since we ended up climbing on the roof, I think it worked out well for me. And mostly you couldn't tell. Even though I knew and felt a little silly. But hey, at least my feet and knees didn't get hurt.

Kat's pic:

There had been rain earlier, but miraculously, the rain held off, it was cloudy and relatively cool, so being outside wasn't horrible!

18th Century Tea

Loren had an 18th century tea at her gorgeous farmhouse and we all dressed up for it, lots of us in chemise dresses.  It was so fun, and the pics came out so pretty!

More pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36392891@N00/sets/72157618119477418/

18th century Chemise gown

I made one in 2007 because everyone was making them! I didn't get a chance to wear it until a tea party in 2008!  I love some of the pics from the tea party! Ignore the fact that I didn't finish styling my wig, and that my hat is probably being worn wrong. (Did I mention that hat was in the movie The Patriot?)  Still love the photos!

Here is the web page for my costume construction details and more photos:
http://costumersguide.com/maggie_costumes/chemisegown.html