1890s Oak Leaf Ballgown

I knew I had better pictures of this, I just couldn't find them. Sorry, I was being silly. Here are more pictures of my fabulous new 1890s dress, because I love it that much.

1890s Ball at Roger Williams Casino

This is the first event of Newport 2011 that I'll go over. Yes, that was back in August, but I never remember how onerous a task it is to go through hundreds of pictures and choose two or three. The ball was lovely, but I'm really here to talk about sewing! This was the debut of three new dresses. First of all, Mother wore a brand new ballgown made of wonderfully vibrant red fabric (in person), with flocked black designs. It was an obnoxious crispy sort of artificial fabric, but it actually looked really good. This was a last minute bodice to go with a skirt I had made for me but never actually worn. My very favorite part is those fabulous sleeves she made in dreamy drippy drapey black velvet. Mmmm. The pictures are a little dark for seeing any detail, but I will just assure you that the fabric looks fabulous in person, and of course the tiara makes the outfit.

Julia wore a dress that we started for me years and years ago. Since I've gotten much more into sewing lately, I decided to resurrect it for her. Unfortunately, she was away at her fancy pre-college art program, so she couldn't try it on. When the day of the ball came, it fit all wrong. Her dramatic and utterly royal-looking Watteau train (yeah, I really have seen 1890s dresses with those... how crazy cool is that?) was an emergency addition made with the leftover rose velvet meant for trimming the dress. I am obscenely proud of my emergency under-pressure hand-sewing skills. I think that now we are both too in love with the train to remove it, so this dress will just have to stay this way. Doesn't she look like a princess?

Finally, my brand new Oak Leaf dress was my proudest moment. I love this dress so much. It is a gorgeous brown acetate that practically glows, embroidered all over with oak leaves. For the bodice, I made a simple sleeveless bodice in deep brown velvet, and added little lace sleeves. Then I painstakingly cut out oak leaves from leftover fabric and sewed them down all over the bodice and onto the lace sleeves. The really do twist and twine like they grew that way. I love this dress beyond all reason. I thought my pink dress from last year (covered with embroidered gold and pink satin flowers) was worthy of being a Worth, but I think I actually prefer this one now.

A Modern Bubble Dress

I helped a friend of mine make a party dress. We made it Friday night and she wore it Saturday night. Fun, right? Not my usual style of project, but it was an interesting adventure. We totally made up the bubble skirt technique, but it turns out that just making the lining shorter is really enough to do it. Nice. So this is what I do at college... haha.

Pictures from Nahant - IOU a Gold Ballgown

Approximately forever ago (July!) I promised you pictures of the gold ballgown I made for a ball in Nahant. Several camera and computer issues later, I have finally remembered that I owe you these. Yay! The dress is really quite sparkly and impressive in person... hopefully some of this comes across in the pictures.

Check out the One Hour Dress

The workshop went really well this weekend. Of course, then I got very ill and didn't write about it. But I will now put that to rights!First of all, Katy Bishop showed us some really amazing pieces from the 1920s for inspiration. You should already be jealous that you weren't there (unless, I guess, you were). The clothing was exquisite.So much tea! We had lots of yummy food and delicious tea (also water and lemonade - it was a hot day!), plus we used my favorite pretty teacups. I should write about my tea set some day...Next, Nicole Carlson showed us all how to take measurements for the dress, and everyone got measured. Then it was time for the sewing demonstration.Barbara did it! She started at 3, and finished by 4, making this a literal one hour dress. We all watched and helped a bit. Here she is, cutting the final threads!
Here is the new dress on our lovely model, plus the rest of us who came in our one hour dresses (plus one other style).

Event Announcement: 1920s Dress Workshop

What are you doing this Saturday? I know! You're going to go to this very cool dress workshop in preparation for attending the best speakeasy ever (on Oct 30). Just to be clear, this is a dress workshop about dresses that can be made in one hour, but the workshop itself is longer than that (1-4 pm). And it includes tea! Here are the details:
The Commonwealth Vintage Dancers are pleased to present a costume workshop based on Mary Brooks Picken's 1923 classic The One Hour Dress.

This workshop will give you all the information you need to make your very own authentic 1920's style gown, whether you are a beginning or advanced dressmaker. Just in time for Halloween, and perfect to wear to next month's 1920's themed ball, the Black Cat Speakeasy!

Admission is just $15 per person and includes:

• A light tea and brief lecture on fashion in the 1920's
• A live dress making demonstration
• An opportunity to take all the notes and measurements needed to make your own dress at home
  
• Your own copy of the 1923 One Hour Dress booklet, with additional color fashion plates to inspire your creativity

A copy of the booklet alone can cost up to $18 online, making this an unbeatable bargain for a full afternoon of fashion fun at Melrose's beautiful Corinthian Hall.

Where: Corinthian Hall, 253 Franklin St, Melrose, MA, 02176
When: Saturday September 25 from 1-4 PM

To register, go here! And you should, right away!

New Plaid Silk Hugenot Skirt and Temporary Hat

Plans just didn't work out today. First, we were going to go to a birthday party picnic for a friend in Boston. A medical situation canceled the picnic. Then we thought we would go to a different event, but it started raining. Not wanting to ruin the lovely new skirt I had just finished, I didn't want to wear it out in the rain, so we canceled those plans too. Bummer.

On the other hand, I had a delightfully productive morning because of these potential plans. I finished this new plaid Hugenot skirt. I started it on Wednesday, finished cutting pieces on Thursday, completely assembled it Friday, and then woke up to throw together a hat to match! Remember how into Tissot and the Tissot-bow-hat I am. Well, this is made from scraps, and I intend to re-do it later and do it more justice. But for 20 minutes work, not bad at all.I also, this morning, put most of the eyelets (I couldn't find enough! Boo hoo!) into this gorgeous blue plaid silk Edwardian corset I made. It's been sitting around, finished except for eyelets, beautiful but totally unwearable, for ages. Now it can be worn, and I am inspired to add the last four eyelets soon! So please enjoy the pretty pictures and forgive the slight weirdness of the lacing... I just adore the shape of this corset. The pretty swoops over the hips are so pretty. It is a Past Patterns pattern... check out that company for some lovely things.

Stripey Corset

A couple weeks ago I made a stripey black and white corset. Read on for detailed blathering on about that, if you're curious about corsets. I made it as an experiment, but as I was throwing together a last minute outfit to wear to the Dances of Vice event, it turned out to be useful for that.

This is not a picture of a corset, but it is vaguely similar looking. I find it to be a really interesting bodice design. For pictures of my corset, stay tuned...
My corset was an experiment, and a learning experience, I suppose. Lesson one - this is a viable pattern for me (it is a significantly modified version of a Past Patterns pattern), and fits my difficult measurements well, but in the final analysis is a little too big. I can lace it completely closed and it is still a little bit loose. I think a well-fitting corset should have a little bit of space in the back where it laces... not many inches, but the edges shouldn't completely touch. The important measure for the fit of a corset is not how wide the gap is, but how parallel it is. For example, if a corset laces closed at the bottom, but there is a gap at the top, it was not made to accommodate your bust size. If the opposite, it is not big enough for your hips. You get the idea. If you wear a corset that does not fit, it will never be comfortable the way that a perfectly fitting customized corset will. You ought to be comfortable if you wear a corset. Unless, I suppose, the intention is to be uncomfortable, in which case I probably don't want to hear any of the details anyway.

Lesson two is that trying to make the stripes vertical was not particularly effective. It causes some weird optical illusions at the bust and hips, and I think I don't like them. Perhaps with thinner stripes this would look a little better. Perhaps with a less curvy underbust pattern this would be more successful. Perhaps I will angle the stripes the next time I use this fabric, and see how that goes.

Vienna - the Balls

I meant to put up pictures of Vienna when it happened, but various technological difficulties and camera malfunctions meant I didn't even end up with pictures until recently. So this is what we wore in Vienna (if you don't recall, I went with my mother and sister to a vintage dance week in Vienna this February, and it was fantastic).

There were only two really fancy balls (and one casual costume evening which we did not manage to pack anything interesting for). First, there was an afternoon dance, with a lot of regency clothes and Sachertorte for refreshments. Mmmm.
For that one, we wore dresses made from a Past Patterns pattern for a Federal Dress. The grey one was made by Saundra Altman herself (she makes Past Patterns, and is a wonderful clothing historian). The brown one was thrown together on a sewing machine by mother and myself. The red one was made in Vienna, handsewn throughout the week by the two of us. Basically, mother realized she had nothing to wear and no time to make something, so she threw the pattern and a chunk of fabric into the suitcase. It is really cool fabric, by the way.Ever since I went to a talk about Fashions in Federal New England (go here to read about it), I have had this thing about regency dresses looking like columns. So I had to have a picture with a column. You can just barely see that I am wearing my fantastically cool red dance boots here. I love those so much.Then there was the final ball. We wore 1860s, though that was not universal. I always forget how atypical we are in the Boston area (and Newport when we hold our ridiculously fancy dance week there) for segregating by time period. We have 1860s balls and 1890s balls, and most people at least make a stab at wearing the right silhouette. I think that the outcome is a more realistic ball-going experience... more like time travel and reconstructing an actual event, less like a mish-mash of fun historical things. Which is certainly not to say that I don't like mish-mashes too, I just think that what we do is particularly special.

Anyway, there was an impressive catered dinner, and dancing, and really adorable dance cards that Andrea made. Lovely lovely. Also, I love my shiny blue ballgown. It is too much fun. I am wearing red dance boots here too, although you can't see them.
Also, while I often look silly in pictures, this is my favorite. I was laughing...

Pine Cone Croquet

Yesterday I went into Harvard Square to drink tea and play croquet, and mostly to look lovely. I wore my fantastic ruffled lilac/white stripe skirt with a train. A friend of mine, back on break from college, made a lovely white trained skirt to wear (really beautiful fabric - it looked lovely) and Mother dug through the closets to help outfit a friend of hers. So here we are, looking lovely with our croquet set.Unfortunately, given how sunny it was and the fact that we are all wearing hats, I have no good pictures of our faces. I mean, certainly not my face. But this looks quite lovely, I think. When we opened the bag with the croquet set, we discovered that there were no wickets! Oops! But we were determined to play, so we improvised... Pine Cone Croquet! Where the object of the game is to hit the pine cone clusters in order. In the final analysis, this is MUCH easier to play than real croquet, because the direction you hit the cones from doesn't matter. The game went very quickly, even though we were all very out of practice, and even despite the divot next to one of our pine cone piles.
I wanted to get a good picture of my skirt in all its half-finished ruffly glory, but none of the pictures really capture how wonderful it is. But here is an entertaining picture of mother's shadow! (I bet it would be a fine picture of me if I were clever enough to crop things, but I am not)

Fashions in Federal New England

Last night I went to a lovely little lecture at the Salem Athenaeum on early nineteenth century clothing. The speakers were Vicky Rebal and Matthew Brenckle, and it was called “Fashion in Federal New England.” The library is having its 200th anniversary, so it is holding a dance, clothing workshops, and this lecture. It was really very nice, although I am most definitely a mid-nineteenth century girl. I would much rather wear hoops or a swooshy Edwardian skirt than a long, column-like dress. Regardless, the lecture was interesting. I was particularly intrigued by the idea Mr. Brenckle brought up – that America in the early nineteenth century was full of young people. It wasn’t something I had ever thought about, but it makes sense. You have a generation of women having an average of 7 children each. So then you have tons of children, and tons of teenagers. I think that long, straight regency dresses suit slim teenage girls and young women rather better than they suit dumpy middle-aged women. It must have been easier for the style to catch on when there were so many more young women. The other thing I found most interesting was the idea of shockingly sheer dresses. Maybe I need a see-through dress to shock people! You know, with a petticoat under it, obviously.

I have such an urge to sew so many things, but today I’m moving back to my dorm, and I will be in the country for less than a week. So now is probably not the time to start projects. Here is an inspiring little picture from Thomas Wilson's dance manual, with pretty Federal fashions.

Post-Arisia 2010

This weekend was Arisia, a Boston-area science fiction convention which I have attended from a very young age, mostly because my family has done the Arisia historical dance for that long. This year the theme was "Malice in Wonderland." Actually, this theme choice had much less to do with the upcoming Tim Burton movie than it had to do with my general love of Alice in Wonderland and the fact that they were pushing for a goth-friendly theme last year. I think we've been doing a good job of accidentally choosing perfect themes, like the Labyrinth Ball on an anniversary of its release (which we did not even realize until afterwards), and of couse last year's wildly popular Steampunk Ball.

I didn't sew anything for myself for the ball, but I did make a really neat outfit for my little sister. She showed me a picture of an anime Queen of Hearts, and I've always toyed with the idea of a stand-up heart collar sort of thing. Mother found a bolt of red fabric in the sewing room, and we went for it. I made her a corset, bolero jacket, and stand-up heart (with buckram and wire supports). She made a crown and scepter with sparkly red hearts we found on sale at Joann Fabrics, on clearance for Valentines day, and added in what I would call a very pretty black Lip-Service japanese-lolita-inspired skirt. It was a very good look.I liked the back! But here is the front too...
I may not have gotten new clothes for the ball, but we also ran a "Steampunk Elevenses" event. We like the rotating themes for the balls, but the Steampunk ball went over so well before that we wanted to do something Steampunk. Anyway, we ran out of hot tea water from the hotel, but I made about 300 scones, so we didn't run out of those. I made a new Edwardian corset out of upholstery vinyl that looks somewhat like tooled leather. Very neat. I also made (well, mother did a lot of the work on this one in the final analysis) a really really really cool skirt with a train and ruffles. Again, this was a stray bolt of fabric from the sewing room. I love the stripes! This is my new favorite skirt (and favorite new skirt?), even though it needs more ruffles to be officially finished.

And for one more Arisia costuming moment, I did a brief smallsword demo with the Higgins Armory. This time I threw my new wig into the mix! I bought it from SweetHayseed (she has an etsy and wordpress, and does custom orders) at the Dances of Vice event where I was performing. It is so neat! So there I am looking snazzy.

Other than that, the weekend included lots of fun things and fun people, an adventure in being a judge's clerk for the Masquerade, a fun concert with pirates and an alligator tango, plenty of strange overheard conversations, and an all night residence in the consuite chatting with nice people. All in all, a successful weekend of looking good.