Thursday, September 20, 2012

Once Upon A Hot Day

. . . There was a girl that decided to sew an 1850s day dress . . . Wait that's not what you do when its brutally hot?!
It was super hot this weekend, almost 100 at the coast, even hotter inland. And we're just not used to that kind of heat, so it really kicked the stuffing out the whole weekend. So instead of attending a picnic with friends we sat at home with all the fans pointing directly at us (no air conditioning) and tried to move as little as possible, and as a result a dress was started. I know that doesn't sound much like no movement  but that's about as close as I get ;)

It's going to be one of my new dresses for SF dickens fair this year. Half the reason I am making this dress is for its sleeves: 
Giant, poofy, and smocked what more could you ask for! I love the big sleeves of the 50s and 60s and the smocking is only because I just discovered our vintage singer has a special foot just for it!!

It made the whole process a piece of cake :) so far the rest of the dress is turning out pretty basic but I like the skirt decoration from the fashion plate below:

Friday, September 14, 2012

The Art Deco Weekend on the Queen Mary

Two weekends ago Michael and I attended the art deco festival on the Queen Mary. The event is put on by the art deco society of LA and is three days of vintage fun. And we get to spend the weekend with so many of our good friends :)

This year was my second year attending and Michael's third or fourth. The event starts out on Friday night with cocktails up on the fore deck accompanied by live music and dancing, followed by a pajama party with desserts and an original betting game from the ships heyday. For the arrival Michael and I wore our vintage suits and I finally got to wear that black hat which was Christmas present last year :) for the pajama party Michael wore an incredible brown velvet and quilt silk smoking jacket and I wore my vintage Asian inspired pajamas.




Saturday has deco themed lectures on everything from famous people to art and architecture. There is also a small gathering of old cars on display from the local vintage car community and down in the hold there is a vintage marketplace for shopping.  During the day Michael wore his favorite red wool jacket and cream pants and I wore my light blue summer suit, though no real pictures showed up of those outfits :(

Saturday night is the grand deco ball held in one of the beautifully restored ballrooms, complete with dinner and dancing with music provided by Dean Mora and his band. Early this year on etsy I had found this vintage 30s burgundy silk ball gown and snagged it door this event, unfortunately it's very fragile and I don't think it will be worn again especially not for dancing. Michael looked handsome as always in his white dinner jacket! 


Sunday has more lectures and then a tea dance with live music provided by Ian Witcomb. Though Sunday is the end of the official event many people stay till Monday so there is always a good crowd at the observation bar at night. In the morning before the tea dance I wore my women's palm beach suit!! And Michael wore another great red sporting blazer. For the tea dance I wore a little cotton dress that has tiny rows of red dots, funny enough they are so small the dress looks pink :) Michael was in his palm beach suit.


Michael and I stayed on the ship for the event, and this year we had the best room! It actually had a little sitting area in it which was great for entertaining friends and picnic lunches in the room. 


We packed for the weekend in our original steamer trunk! The thing is huge but it packs two people and all our stuff very nicely and the porters are used to having to move it now as we are not the only people to show up with that kind of luggage. Although when you add in hat boxes, shoe cases, my train case and food its a lot of stuff!

It was another great event and even with all hassle of all that luggage and vintage clothing it actually felt like a vacation :)