Final photos from Saturday’s Gaskell ball… read more about my 1875 evening dress project
Stepford Wives (& Other Events)
So while I may be a lazy costumer these days, I did manage to get all dressed up 1950s-style to go to GBACG’s Stepford Wives tea yesterday! A small crowd but lots of fun people were there (including my husband, who comes to post-1920 events. Yay!) in faaaabulous attire — great hats and shoes especially. We were all wearing stuff of our grandmothers (clothes, jewelry) — I wore my glamorous ex-Ziegfeld Follies showgirl grandmother’s big rhinestone pin and her honking purple cocktail ring, a vintage 1950s blue dress and an annoyingly perky vintage hat. The food was great — cucumber and watercress sandwiches! and mini-cheesecakes! — and the tea was DIvine (they had this something/something/CHOCOLATE tea which was scrumptious). And yes, it was all just perfect (<– said in perky Stepford voice) — except for the rain (I learned one shouldn’t wear open-toed shoes when it’s wet out).
But most important… PHOTOS!
aaaand — last weekend I had a 1960’s co-birthday (me & my husband Michael) at which I wore the red 1960s repro dress I was working on a month or two ago (and big hair! and a tiara!). If you’d like to see photos, you can see them here on my Flickr account. Photos of the dress will get added to this site soon-ish!
1875 Evening Dress
Yes, I live in California, but even so I still get the urge to hibernate… read more about my 1875 evening dress project
1909 Edwardian Suit
So, um, I’m done with the embroidering, with nary an update. What can I say, terminal laziness has set in!
I did pretty much all of the embroidery on the train to and from work, which was really enjoyable (now I’m wishing I had another similar project that was so easy to carry around, unlike my 1780 jacket which has fallen by the temporary wayside).
The only issue is that I used a pink pencil to draw the design — it’s supposed to work as an iron-on transfer (you first draw onto tracing paper) but I can report that while it does work, the lines are pretty blurry so I don’t recommend it — and now one of my pieces has a decided pink cast to it. And I don’t think it’s going to wash out. Oh well, c’est la vie!
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Now I need to clean my bedroom/sewing room so I can get at my machine again, and then start assembling the corset cover.
Fashion in the Round
This will go into the next Real Women’s Clothing directory update, but it’s too good to wait! Ever wondered what some of the V&A costumes look like from other angles? Well look no further — Fashion in the Round.
Edited to add: Also check out two great online exhibits: Pockets and The Secret History of the Corset.