Birthnight Ball

Gloria, Mike, Taylor, Isabella, Glynnis, Amber and I all attended Gatsby Tavern's 1790s Birthnight ball - a celebration of George Washington's birthday. It was super fun and for once there were worse dancers than us! Yay!

I wore my new gown based on a 1790 fashion plate, which I was able to finish thanks to a snow day. I did style a wig for this too - trying to make fluffy pinned rolls like in the fashion plates of the era. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here's my gown and the fashion plate that inspired it. I made mine with an undergown that is fitted in the back and gathered with a drawstring in the front.

At dinner - Doug joined us for dinner. Photo courtesy of Gloria.


Photo by Gloria:


At the ball:




This ball seemed to have fewer dancers but the rest of the party was packed! I was able to get a shot of some of the food though:


The traditional hedgehog:


Shoeshot:

Costume Painting

My mom did another little miniature of me, which is super sweet. I love it! It's the spencer I wore to the holiday tea!

Maggie pin

I got lucky on ebay and found another Victorian Maggie pin for my collection. I've seen a couple of ones similar to this with the thistle design go by for more than I wanted to pay, but I was psyched about getting this one!

2013 Costume Year in Review

I'm super late on this. (I DO WHAT I WANT!) I just have had no time. But I haven't really sewed anything for 2014 yet, so we'll count this as part of sewing year 2013.

Here's what I said I wanted to do this year.

1) Secret project will be first - I don't want to post til it's done, but I'm really excited about it!

Done!!

Using fabric from spoonflower, I made the strawberry gown from Marie Antoinette in time to wear at Dress U!

 

2) A redingote of some sort. I have red wool set aside for this

Nope!

3) I really want to do Elizabeth Monroe's pink gown, but I haven't found the right fabric yet.

Nope! Still haven't found the right fabric!

4) I have fabric for this costume from Mirror, Mirror, but I think I've been putting it off because the bodice is kind of corset-like and that is not my favorite thing to make.

Nope! And I ended up using the pink fabric I had for the corset for my francaise gown.

5) I have striped fabric that would be perfect for this 1790s, so I'd like to do something like these.

Nope!



6) I adore both of these, but I really want to do the cream and pink sacque. I have the cream silk taffeta for it. This was going to be for the Francaise dinner, but since I can't go now, I think it'll be for the Dress U Court Gown event.



Done! I did do this!



7) I really want to finish this Sleepy Hollow windmill costume.

Sigh. Nope! Dammit, this year!

More below the cut:

Holiday Tea 2013

A bunch of us met up for tea in Annapolis after Christmas and much fun was had by all. I wish I'd take more pictures of my outfit, but honestly I was so tired after the insanity that was December, that I just look exhausted. I didn't have the time/energy to put on makeup, which I should have done, but it was a cold rainy day so I'm lucky I got dressed! Also, though I put rollers in my hair, of course the curl didn't stay well, so it wasn't a great hair day for me. Oh well. Oh, and those it's hard to see, I wore one of Taylor's collet necklaces over the chemisette. (https://www.etsy.com/shop/damesalamode)

I wore my old embroidered Target curtain drawstring dress but added the chemisette made my Stephanie's mom, which was great to wear since it was cold. And I wore my new Spencer jacket. I also wore my cheap $10 flats from Amazon which I believe Taylor had pointed out. Since it was rainy and yucky I wasn't ruining anything expensive.

It was a really fun time and I'm glad we were able to squeeze it in.

Most of these shots are Gloria and Mike's.