An Update

. . . As you can see I am having a hard time keeping up with the blogging the last few weeks. And that is also translating into my sewing, I haven't done any major sewing since I finished the curtain dress! This is mainly due to three factors: the first being I am taking a class in the evenings for work that is totally eating into my sewing time, two we have been out of town the last few weekends and three I really didn't like/ wasn't inspired by the last Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge. So needless to say I am not doing anything for it, and while I'm fine with that decision it does make me a little sad because this will be the first challenge I will not complete since the whole thing started in January :( okay so sad too bad and now moving on . . .

There are big projects coming up soon, for future events, that are about to get underway. such as a new 18th century outfit for Michael and one for me, some Elizabethan and an outfit or three for costume college. more specific details in the coming days, and I am starting work on the next challenge.Which I will be making an apron and fichu to wear with the curtain dress, like on the original below.

Vintage Weekend on Catalina Island

And the Avalon Ball hosted by the Art Deco Society of LA.
http://adsla.org/info/content/avalon-ball-goes-full-weekend

The weekend started Friday with the boat ride over. I wore my new pants!

Then it was all dressed up and out for drinks in historic places at the Avalon Grill

Then Saturday day was the silent film festival in the historic theater at the bottom of the casino building complete with an original pipe organ to accompany the silent films and beautiful art deco murals. Sadly I didn't get any photos of this :(

Saturday night was the ball at the top of the casino building, a beautiful evening of live music, dancing and friends!

And finally on Sunday we had brunch at the Descanso beach club. They served a lovely mothers day brunch and we all wore our favorite vintage beach wear.

I wore a linen play suit with matching princess seamed over dress. 

Sorry they're aren't better photos, or more of them, I am really bad about remembering to take photos!

Vintage Hair

Last weekend I got a lot of compliments  on my hair which was very nice but something I can't take full credit for. 

First off my friend did my hair for the ball on Saturday evening and she is amazing!

And second, everything I do, I learned from online tutorials and watching friends. Last weekends hair was made up almost entirely of one tutorial : 
http://eileensbasement.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/the-much-anticipated-long-awaited-hair-roll-tutorial/

It's really my favorite and I use it all the time now! I just do different styling to the front for variety. 

Also here's a link to an older post that list other favorite link: 
http://cursewordsandcrinolines.blogspot.com/2013/02/vintage-hair-links.html

A sneak peek

At my weekend, which was spent on Catalina Island for an Art Deco event, more pics and details in the upcoming days :)

And an apology for lack of posting last week, sadly work is so busy right now it is interfering with my sewing habit . . . Weekends out of town don't help much either, though they are way more fun ;)

Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #9

The Challenge - "Textiles and the natural world are inextricably linked.  Until very recently, all textiles were made from flora (linen, raime, hemp) or fauna (wool, silk, fur), and dyed with flora and fauna.  Flora and fauna also influenced the decoration of textiles, from Elizabethan floral embroidery, to Regency beetle-wing dresses, to Edwardian bird-trimmed hats.  Celebrate the natural world (hopefully without killing any birds) with a flora and/or fauna inspired garment."

I combined this challenge with the Curtain Alonghttp://cursewordsandcrinolines.blogspot.com/2013/04/moving-on-to-next-project.html
and made one dress for both! 

Fabric - two panels of the cream background Waverly Indienne curtains. Which sport a lovely floral pattern just perfect for the challenge.

Pattern - JP Ryan's Caraco jacket pattern (after much deliberation and the a great deal of searching)

Year - post 1750s pre 1780s somewhere in there. I wasn't aiming for an exact year.

Notions - 3 covered button molds, some ribbon and plastic zip ties for bones. 

How historically accurate - I'm going to give this a 5 out of 10. The fabric is a cotton and the print is very close to an original and the pattern is based on originals but all the inner seams were done on the machine with only the visible finishing stitches done by hand. And all the notions are modern and not historically accurate.

Hours to complete - I'm going to give this one about 16 from start to finish. The pattern is really simple and went together really smoothly, which surprised me as I expected to fight it a little but I never really did! 

First worn - not yet. Here Dolores is wearing it with the quilted petticoat and my largest bum pad. Also my fishu to cover the shoulders (which i always have to do to hide the tattoo) and to show off the lite ruched band. I am going to make a much larger bum pad and then a quilted petticoat to fit it out of this same material at some point in the future, hopefully before it gets worn :)

Total coat - the curtains were like 10 each and everything else came out of the stash.