So I haven’t done one jot of sewing in forever — work has been crazy, and my weekends have been totally booked. Booked with costume-y stuff, but nothing huge to report! Let’s see — I taught a workshop on bodice draping and will be doing another in April, I went to the GBACG Elizabeth and the Pirate feast which was much fun (but I didn’t take many pictures – I wore my same old, same old courtesan dress. I REALLY need a new 16th century dress!) And I went to the GBACG Little Women Costume Salon, where we geeked out and looked at 5 million photos of extant sheer dresses.
I absolutely, positively will work on my Little Women dress this weekend. I have to get cracking, if for no other reason than I’m itching to sew! I got lots of tips from Lynne on making a drawn bonnet at the Little Women Salon, and I really should start on that soon before I forget everything.
Sunday is Costume Academy and I’m teaching one class in the morning (hairstyles of the bustle era). See? Busy with costume-related stuff, but no sewing!
One bit of interest — I noticed the Whitaker Auction people are going to be doing a huge auction of Tasha Tudor’s collection this November. They say a book will be available, so I’m definitely going to have to look for that.
Oh, and I recently got this book: Gazette des Atours de Marie Antoinette. It’s really amazing — it’s one of the swatch books (this one from 1782) that she used to select her gowns. All in French, of course, but a gorgeous reproduction and I really recommend it. What I found most interesting is that the gowns are separated into different categories: grand habits (court dresses), levites, turques, anglaises, gowns for “petit paniers” (as opposed to the big ones worn with the grand habits). Brings home how different styles would be worn for different occasions (and probably 3-4 dresses in one day!). The swatches themselves are not that exciting, in that many of them are solid taffetas (lots of purpley colors) — only a few stripes, a few ikats, a few small scale embroideries. But it’s still really cool to see some scrap of ANYTHING connected to Marie Antoinette’s gowns!
