Ball and Battle of Trenton

And a finished stripey dress! Sort of finished, anyway. I knew I wouldn't have time to do all the trimmings I want on it before the first wearing, but that's all right. Still a lot of fun to wear!

Yesterday I and a few friends went to a Colonial Ball in Trenton, and today to the Battle of Trenton reenactment. We were very lucky to have (relatively) warm, sunny weather for the battle! I don't need any more middling-class wear (at the moment...) so today's outfit was a rewear, but I did get a bee in my bonnet to make a new anglaise out of my $4/yd silk taffeta!

You see, I have plenty of middling-class things, and my 1780s dresses, and my pink sack gown, but nothing to dance in, you know? Not that I did a terrible lot of dancing (I'm very bad at it), but it's the principle of the thing. And I wanted something short enough to keep clear of my shoes...

It's not the best thing I've ever made (bodice wrinkles ahoy)...and half of it's machined...sloppily...but it's a lot of fun to wear, and perfectly fluffy and swishy for dancing! And will be even fluffier, eventually. I'm not sure what's next on the sewing docket.

These pics make it look like I danced a lot...but I really really didn't.

Thanks for being my gentleman partner, Adrienne!

The hair powder isn't noticeably pink in pictures...it was a wee bit more so in person I think. It was much more noticeable on my neck after I'd done my hair though! The back of my neck was bright red and looked like I'd had some kind of awful allergic reaction! Scrub scrub scrub. Sorry, housekeeping. Either way, the part in my hair's going to be pink for days...ten to one someone asks me what's wrong with my head, haha.

I want to hoik up the skirt ties on the next wearing; I didn't realize the puffs were quite so low!

It's a perfectly fluffy cupcake dress!

Shoesies!

And then today I rewore my cream stripe wool jacket with my linen blue stripe petticoat, which I didn't especially bother to get photos of, but Alice did get this one of Robin and I participating in the puppet show...

I was General Washington, if you wanted to know.

...and we of course had to get pictures with the Nutcracker in our hotel lobby. Of course.

And shoes!

I polished them up just so I could get mud all over them. Mud and Trenton.