A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

I didn't need a new ballgown. (Is a ballgown ever something one really needs ?) The Rainbow Trout dress is alright, but I really wanted something more Christmas-themed, and less...sleeve-y. I love my friends in big-sleeved ridiculousness; I don't love it on me quite as much. So I wickedly bought some yardage of silk taffeta in one of my very favorite colors, and proceeded to make a c1838-40 ballgown! As much fun as I had at the ball, dim lighting doesn't make for very good costume documentation for one's blog, so I trotted it out again today to take pictures that are less grainy (and freeze my bum off in the park).

New costume bits for New Castle will be in two parts; not so much because I made a lot of stuff, but because I couldn't get detail shots of the ballgown from Friday night (the dim lighting at balls is not great for my poor little camera, especially when the trim is all tone-on-tone)! So I plan on dressing up the dummy today or tomorrow, and do a writeup on the ballgown then. With that said: new outerwear! Period winter clothes are some of my very favorite things to make and wear, so I decided to focus on a bonnet and mantle for Saturday tea and town-wanderings, and rewear my cream poplin dress from last year. Not a dress I'm thrilled with (still need to fix the sleeves), but perfectly acceptable, especially as a base for more fun things. Those "more fun things" would be a new bonnet and mantle, precisely. Relatively simple but very necessary in cold weather! (And we did have cold weather this past weekend. I was thrilled. "You mean it's going to be a hig...

This past weekend, I attended a Pumpkin Tea that a costumer friend hosts (and has hosted for ten years as of this one! I haven't made them all but every one I've been to has been excellent). It's always good food, good friends, and good fun! It's "Regency" themed - 1790s to about 1820. Every other time I've attended, I've actually worn some variation of the same outfit...my Pompom Outfit. Which I still like very much but am fairly tired of wearing places by now! I've always found Jen's 1790s dresses very inspiring - mid-1790s especially are so distinctive and ridiculous ! You might remember that I made the white round gown earlier this year (and photographed it very badly!) but never finished the open robe I wanted to go over it as my planned picnic got rained out. Well, the open robe still seemed like too much work, but a couple accessories would spruce up said round gown for an event, right? Definitely!

I made my late-18-teens mourning dress two years ago to wear to the Met for their mourning exhibit, and haven't gotten decent pictures of it yet! Well, I still haven't done so...but I wore it this past weekend to a friend's black-and-white themed masquerade birthday celebration, and there is one nice picture of me, so I'm posting it here. (It was candlelight - lovely and atmospheric for the party but not great if you wanted dress detail shots, haha! Not that I really tried hard to get any; I'm not entirely sold on this particular dress. But anyway. I felt very appropriately Halloween-y!)

Nothing like the slimmest of reasons to finish a new dress! This particular one's been in the UFO (unfinished objects) bin for a year or so; I cut the back panel too narrow when I started it, and packed it away in annoyance. But my friends and I came across an 18thc market fair being held at Washington's Crossing, and I decided, a week out, that that was as good a reason as any to have a new dress! Playing graces! This kept us amused for a very long time.

Just a little last-minute Sunday tea with friends - in Regency, as you do!

Not quite displayed as originally intended, but that's alright! I (and my usual costumer-partners-in-crime) decided we wanted natural form dresses to match a friend's most excellent 1882 Egyptian campaign setup at Belvidere Victorian Days this year.