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historical costume projects & resources

1886 “Champagne” Fancy Dress: Done!

Hey, I finished something!  Even better, this albatross!

Of course, I was up pretty late the nights before I wore this in order to get it done.  I widened the center front and reattached the trim, only to realize that it was STILL too narrow.  Ain’t nothing like doing it the hard way!

For lacing rings, I didn’t have time to get some real soldered rings, so I headed off to the hardware store and looked at random bits and bobs until I found some small-ish keyrings — hey, they worked!

I had one small issue when I put the gold ball trim on the CF, which is that I got to finish putting on the trim and realized I had about a half-ball-width hole, so I had to decide between a slight gap or trying to squeeze one more ball in.  I ended up squeezing one more in, which meant that the trim in front ended up looking kind of wonky.

I ran out of time to do anything useful with the champagne label, so I had to safety pin it on.  Looking back, I should have basted it on in the car, because it looks a little bit lame.  But oh well!

Last thing, I didn’t want to wear my hat until we got to fair because it was raining, and I hadn’t really planned out my hair.  So while I pictured wearing the hat on the top/side of my head, the only thing I could find to attach a hat pin too was way back/side — so I ended up looking pretty frowzy hat-wise, but everyone agreed that it was appropriate for a champagne bottle!

It’s not my best work, but it’s a whole lot better than the first try, and it was fun (and practical) to wear!  I had a great time at the fair, running into all sorts of friends wearing fabulous costumes and having a lovely tea. Oh, and most everyone got the costume, which was a good thing!

Me and Tara, who went in a beautiful bee-themed fancy dress ensemble.

So what’s next?  A whole lot of 18th century, but that’s another post!

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