A Gatsby Dress

While I should be focusing on the finishing touches on my wardrobe for the Art Deco weekend on the Queen Mary this coming weekend, I am instead working on a new 1920s dress for the Gatsby picnic in SF in two weeks :) creative procrastination at its finest!

I'm making the dress based on an original I saw come up for auction on eBay recently.

For the foundation of the dress I'm using this pattern:

Which I have made once before and really love the look of!

The fabric is a mossy sagey green in silk chiffon. 

The fabric has the perfect drape for the 1920s. I'm going to add detail and decoration using a silk velvet in the same color, that's the next step :)

HSF Challenge #17 - Robes and Robings

The Challenge: "Make a robe-shaped garment, from a biblical robe, through a medieval robe, an 18th century banyan, a Regency evening robe, a 19th century wrapper, or an early 20th century kimono.  Or, make one of the frocks called robes by modern English speaking fashion historians, such as a robe volante, robe battante, robe à la coer, robe à la française, robe à l'anglaise (+ turques, polonaises, & circassienne), and the 1920s robe de style. "

For this challenge I am going to use the Robe Battante I made in the spring.

 

Fabric: six yards of light blue silk taffeta 

 

Pattern: a combination of the one in "the cut of women's clothing" and the Reconstructing History pattern

 

Year: first half of the 1700s

 

Notions: the usual thread and some white cotton bias tape for ties.

 

How Accurate: aside from the machine sewing this one was very close. I give it an 8 out of 10.

 

Hours to Complete: I think the whole thing was done in about a week, I'm not sure how many hours total at this point.

 

First Worn: earlier this spring for the SF pirate Fair 

and then again recently at Costume College.

Total Cost: the silk was $11 per yard so  $66 and the rest was all stash :)

 

 

Point Fermin Lighthouse

The weekend after Costume College, Michael and I attended a picnic with our friends out at the Pt. Fermin Lighthouse in Long Beach. 

The event is a regular one for us and a favorite due to the beautiful setting of the historic light house with its well maintained grounds. 

We set up our picnic spread inside the fenced off side yard of the property surrounded by the brightly colored flowering garden. 

This year i felt inspired and made my favorite lemon blueberry cream pie for a dessert, everyone else seemed to decide it was their favorite too as it practically vanished in moments of bringing it out. 

The weather was bright and sunny and warm to start, then toward the end of the afternoon the breeze comes up off the water and it cools down beautifully. 

Michael wore his summer whites for the Probyns Horse Regiment and looked very dashing :) 

and i wore an old dress with a few adjustments and remodels to make it work at a moments notice. I like the draped effect on the skirt but will likely do a very different bodice if i ever chose to wear it again. 

We were joined by a good gathering of friends in their summer best, that even included the dogs :)

Costume College 2013

was two weeks ago and while I think it was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back in terms of my recent burn out, it was so worth it!!!!!!!!

Last year i didn't attend Coco at all and just showed up for one afternoon of shopping and visiting with a few friends. Which was nice but i also missed being a part of all the fun and chaos, so this year i attended the whole weekend and was involved in four major costume meet ups/ groups.

The first group was Friday evening for the Ice Cream Social, we did 18th Century Disney Princesses.

I was Rapunzel and we also had present: Belle, Cinderella, Merida, Ariel, Tinkerbell, Nala, and two Snow Whites :) This was a blast of a group as we are all good friends!

My sister takes all the credit for the wig I'm wearing, she did an amazing job kluging two cheap Halloween wigs together!

And because it matched the movie and we were inside on carpet the whole time,i went barefoot! Silly i know

Saturday was breakfast and a few quick photos before classes as The Georgia Rockford Peaches. THis group was a blast and the costumes are so cute! I have a feeling we will be seeing this one again next year :)

Then i quickly switched over to the 18th Century Curtain Along dress for that groups meet up in the afternoon.

This had a great turn out and we had a nice range in dates of costumes as well as every color of the print represented! The best part was getting to meet so many of the other bloggers that i follow and had not yet met. We really do have a great community of wonderfully nice people who love to costume and any oppertunity to meet these people in person is great!

Later that evening for the Gala's red carpet walk in I had Michael come out and join me all dressed up in his 1730's Coldstream Guards uniform while i wore the Robe Battante. 

Even though we didn't attend the Gala i wanted to come out and see what everyone was wearing and to show off Michael's uniform to a bigger audience. That uniform was a HUGE undertaking and i am so proud of how it came out that i just couldn't resist another opportunity for it to be seen ;)

Sunday i went to a few morning classes in my Undies. I wore the new Dark Garden corset with the matching embroidered chemise. Then changed in to my Roman costume for the rest of the day as part of the "Bitchy Roman Lounge wear" group. The Roman robes were comfy and i was so proud of my hair (that i totally didn't get any pictures of!).

There were plenty of fun classes this year though nothing that really reached out and grabbed me as i didn't do any limited classes because i wasn't sure i could commit to the whole weekend till the last minute. As a result the whole weekend was really focused on meet ups and costume changes. Next year i like the theme better and therefore will likely like the classes more and so i want to try less dress up and more classes. (yes,please remind me of that last statement when next year rolls around and i am sewing like mad for multiple costume group meet ups!)

But my favorite part of Costume College regardless of what the theme is or what i or any one else wears, is the people. Those who come from near and far to share in the love of sewing. and every year i walk away with new friends :)

Burn Out . . .

Yes with all the sewing I have been doing in the last few months I'm sure many of you are not surprised but i have to admit I was :)

It struck me just after Costume College like a huge ball of molasses that i just couldn't find the energy to move through to reach my computer to blog or my sewing room to work on any number of pending projects.

I apologies for my absence the last few weeks and will start this week out fresh with my post on Costume college tomorrow and other recent going-ons.