Author: kendra

Posted on

18th Century Clothing Notebook

Karen Larsdatter, creator of the amazing Medieval & Renaissance Material Culture directory, has applied herself to a new era with the 18th Century Clothing Notebook.  It’s an amazingly extensive directory of links on all sorts of fiddly bits related to 18th century costume.  As someone who up until recently tried to maintain something like this (the Real Women’s Clothing Directory), my hat is off to her — this is an AMAZING amount of work, and a hugely valuable resource!

Posted on

Well Hi There

Remember me?  I’m this person who used to make costumes.  No really, I swear!  Then life got stressed, and I got stressed, and stress got stressed, and not much happened around here.

But taking a break, and having a SUPER easy Costume College (no teaching!  only went to three classes!  didn’t wear anything more complicated than 1960s!  relaxed and admired everyone else!) has reinspired me.

I have gotten back on the sewing wagon, but scarily enough, it’s been modern clothes.  I’ve been inspired to find a few patterns for clothes that I have a hard time finding off the rack (ie they don’t ever fit well), and doing a lot of work to perfect the pattern, and then bang out multiple versions in different fabrics.  I’ve only made one thing so far — a button-down blouse from a Simplicity Threads pattern — but I like it, and I’ve bought a lot of fabric (oops!) to make more.  But I promise not to get too sidetracked from costuming!

Also, this weekend the husband and I are going for the first time to Tiki Oasis, so I needed gear for that.  I found one fab vintage dress, but then I made myself a 1960s blouse and skirt as well.  Once again, I am reminded of how slowly I sew.  I worked for about 4-5 solid days (maybe 4-5 hours a day) on that sucker!  The only way I can sew well, is to sew slowly.  Okay, that includes patterning and all that, but still.  I’ll post photos when we’re back.

In other news, I finally downloaded the Fabric Stash iPhone app and have been cataloging all my fabric.  Dude (yes I’m from California), I have WAY too much fabric.  I am vowing to only* make things out of the stash for the forseeable future, although the perfect combination is have-some-of-the-supplies + have-an-event-to-wear-it-to.  For example, someday I really do want to make that 1909 suit… but I am so not attending any Edwardian events these days!  So, someday.

*Okay, of course there’s an exception.  I picked up a museum catalog while at CoCo which has a picture of this gorgeous 1914-16 evening dress, and I just had to have it.  It’s green and poufy and super exciting!  And I love the above-the-waistband ruffle, which may not be the best look on me, but it’s too good that I have to have it.  So I’ve started picking up supplies, and will post soon about my early mullings.  I’m thinking of wearing it to next year’s CoCo gala (because where else would I wear it?).

Otherwise, I need to get busy and finally start trimming my 1760s Brunswick so I can cross that off.  Otherwise, the plan for this year is to finally get to the Maja costume, and a 1780s green redingote-type jacket and stripey skirt.  It’s still almost all 18th century around here!

Oh, and I’ve been watching movies — got halfway through Excalibur last night and had a blast scorning the Stevie-Nicks-goes-to-Ren-Faire costuming.  Are the men NEVER allowed to take their armor off (even during sex)?  So expect more reviews soon!

Posted on

Costume College Plans

Or, I ain’t got much!

I am taking this year off at Costume College.  I’m dealing with some life crap, which is what I think is causing me to feel totally “meh” at the idea of dressing up.  I’m totally looking forward to going and hanging out with friends and meeting new people, but I don’t want to have to wear 30 pounds of clothing to do so.  I have many costumes I could wear, even some that are new from this past year, but the idea of it makes me want to put on my PJs and crawl in bed.  So, instead, I am putting my feet up and wearing a dress I bought to the gala!

Of course, this is not to say that I’m not excited about dressing up at all… but I’m planning a whole lot of comparatively comfy 1950s-60s Mad Men-esque silliness.

I am also not teaching any classes this year.  I actually have a couple of ideas of things I’d like to teach, but no energy to prep the classes or teach them.

In the meantime, I look forward to having the time and energy to do what’s important — hang out with old friends and make new ones.  Oh, and go to the one limited class I’m in (and one is more than enough) — Janea Whitacre’s fly fringe class, which I’m really looking forward to.

Next year, I’ll make a decent showing!