Category: events

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Costume Con Report Part 1

A much longer report will come soon, but first things first – the top secret masquerade project! A CRAZY group of us reproduced the Portrait of Empress Eugenie surrounded by her Maids of Honor in the historical masquerade – and WE WON BEST IN SHOW!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!! It was an utterly amazing experience – and actually, I was most excited about the audience reaction to it, which was overwhelming.

Here we are – and here’s a video of our presentation. Rest assured that I plan to do a DETAILED write up of the project (including all the gowns!) but it might take me a few days to get that up.

And a much, much longer CC26 report shall be forthcoming!

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Costume Con – I’m Off!

Whew, I think I just packed the entire house! Lots of sewing the last 2 weeks, but I finished most everything on Sunday morning. Of course, since then I’ve been working on masquerade documentation, making packing lists, etc. You’d think I was off for an Arctic trek!

The current plan is to wear Bet on Friday (I never would have thought I would, but Cynthia is wearing Nancy, and Nancy needs her Bet! Besides, it’s comfy, which I want for day costumes), the evening version of the candy cane bustle dress Friday night, the 1923 black & white dress on Saturday (again, comfy, plus the hat is fabulous), Florentine on Saturday night (dressy but also comfy, since I’ll be sitting for hours at the scifi masquerade), jeans on Sunday (you know I’ll be sick of corsets by then!), the secret masquerade dress on Sunday night (details as soon as I get back!). And the mourning dress will be in the exhibit – I promise a full report when I get back!

Anyone who is coming, a few things to plug – first, on Friday we’ll be recording a special Con edition of the Frock Flicks podcast, with audience interaction! (12:30-2pm in the Gateway Foyer). Also on Friday, I’ll be hanging out at the exhibit 3-4 for the “meet the costumer” hour (there are set times to chat w/ the people who made costumes in the exhibit). On Saturday, I’ll be demoing bodice draping (2-3:15 in San Jose).

Hope to see many of you there!

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Somebody Stop Me!

So I’ve found out (thanks to Trystan) that I don’t have to put my 18th century corset on my dress form at the Costume Con exhibit, which means I can wear 18th century – yay! Of course, I’m suddenly fantasizing about quickly finishing my jacket just so I have something new to wear – and am contemplating maybe pushing it back to a 1740s-50s jacket, with a laced-over-stomacher and cuffs. Wouldn’t that be cute? And I finally found an inspirational image for my new Venetian dress, which under no account can I start until after Costume Con, but I am busy fantasizing about it nonetheless! Okay. Deep breaths. IF I get the masquerade and exhibit dresses done, I can finish the jacket and fulfill my need to wear something new. I shall NOT think Venetian! No way!

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Costume Con 26 Planning

So I’ve realized that while I am sewing madly, on two projects, for Costume Con 26, I’m not actually going to get to WEAR any of it (except for the secret masquerade project, but that’ll just be Sunday night). So I am grumpy about having nothing new and fabulous to wear, and have been joking with Sarah about things like “wear your most boring costume!” gatherings (which for me would be the Bet costume — if you see a gin-soaked pickpocket roaming around CC26, you’ll know why!).

I might wear my Florentine, if I can tweak the bodice fit in time, but even that feels like a “this old thing” to me as I’ve worn it a few times in the past year. Otherwise, I don’t know! Rewear something recent and fabulous like my purple striped 1871 dress? Something new-ish, relatively unworn, but boring like my Meg dress? Something I haven’t worn in forever like the 1909 afternoon dress? The MOST annoying thing is I won’t be able to wear anything 18th century, my current passion, because my stays will be on my dress form in the exhibit. Grump.

In other news, the CC26 people have added a Suggest a Program Item form (direct link doesn’t seem to be working, so go their homepage and click on Program & Exhibits > Suggest a Program Item) to their website, and I want to highly encourage attendees to both suggest programming (panels, lectures, workshops) they’d like to see, and especially to volunteer themselves to be on programming. The only way we’re going to get programming we like is if we all pitch in and do it ourselves! Costume Con seems very DIY to me, so get over your shyness and think about what you could share with others. I know I’d love to hear from so many of my online friends (I’m especially hoping someone could put something together on 16th century construction, as that’s something I know little about and would love to know more – hint hint!). So suggest and volunteer!

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18th Century Printed Cottons/GBACG Costume Academy

Sunday was GBACG’s Costume Academy, our annual one day of classes. I taught two — Overview of Women’s Costume in the 1830s, and 18th century printed textiles. I had a fun time teaching, especially because I had some really knowledgeable people in my classes who were able to add to what I presented – I love when that happens (of course, when it happens WELL — as opposed to annoying people who try to take over). Anyway – fun!

In updating my info on 18th century printed cottons, and because I know the GBACG website is changing and I think the articles may be disappearing at some point, I copied my research to this site so I can be sure it will have a permanent home. I made just a few updates, mostly in terms of where to buy reproductions, and added some images (rather than just links).