A few more Braddock Day Ball photos...

These are by Hancock Photo: http://hancockphoto.smugmug.com/

Braddock Day Ball

I'm very slowly catching up! Here are photos from the Braddock Day Ball at Gadsbys Tavern. The date was 1755. For whatever reason, this ball didn't sell out and it was a relatively small crowd. (Unlike the 1790s Birthnight Ball which was packed.) But that meant more room for dancing! I rewore my Princess Caroline sacque. I really should have bustled it up because I was getting stepped on a lot. I settled for tucking the train into my pocket slit and that worked well enough.

A bunch of these are Gloria's - not sure I caught them all with individual credits - though I did on Flickr itself. (http://inthelongrun.wordpress.com/)

Gloria's photo


It was nice to see Alexa and Clayton again, in their awesome matching outfits.






Gloria's photo:

Another costume painting

After I sent my mom a pic of me in the fluffy white dress holding our fluffy white cat, she painted this little painting for me!

My Princess Caroline sacque at Dress U

I got a bunch of new pics of my Princess Caroline sacque at Dress U - I think I should have pinned it tighter since it's wrinkling in the front, but that's ok. ;-) (I swear, someday I will stop noticing everything wrong with my costumes!) Sacques are always fun to wear, especially when they're really fluffy!

I wore this to the court dinner at Dress U on Saturday night. Everyone looked SO amazing. I'll have pics of Saturday Night at Dress U up next.

 

Isabella's photo:

Princess Caroline sacque - new pics!

I actually tried my sacque on and tried to approximate the portrait. Granted my hair is much darker and I don't have a sister. But I did have a fluffy white cat, and at my friend Gen's suggestion, I put a pink bow on her and got a few pictures with her. The lighting isn't great, but here are the pics (also, afterwards, I moved my sleeve flounces up and over slightly so the sleeve bows line up better.):

My pink silk American Duchess shoes and buckles:

Princess Caroline cream and pink sacque

I've always loved this portrait of Princesses Louisa and Caroline, two of George III's younger sisters.  And I've always thought it would be fun to make Caroline's cream and pink sacque.

I was able to find cream silk taffeta for a good price on ebay, I had pink silk taffeta which is possibly a little darker than the portrait, but was a decent match.  I got the double strand of pearls on ebay and added a ribbon.  I used lace/net that was in my stash for the sleeve flounces. Again, not a perfect match, but it was the best I had. And I liked the aged feel of the trims, some of which are vintage.

I have dyed American Duchess silk shoes that go with this gown perfectly, too, so I'm excited to wear them with the gown at Dress U!

A note on construction. Since this is my 3rd sacque I pretty much just made this one like I did the others.  Kendra's page  has been invaluable every time I've done one of these, especially for a refresher on how to do the side pleats and skirt panels.  It's a really detailed reference and if you haven't done a sacque, I recommend checking it out:
http://demodecouture.com/projects/mourning/

I again used my adaptation of Simplicity 3637 as a bodice base. And I referred to my first making-of sacque page as a reminder to myself too!  http://costumersguide.com/maggie_costumes/goldsacque.html