The performance gown (of inappropriate shift-flashing)

One of the lovely women who attends our school's English Country Dance club was organizing a JASNA meeting focused on the musical aspects of Jane Austen's works, and she graciously allowed me to play a few period harp pieces for it along with the rest of the presenters and performers.

The problem being that my only good early 19th century dress, my yellow and green print, was in a storage unit in the northern suburbs of Chicago.  It was time for a new dress!  So I cannibalized a yellow wool petticoat to make a dress that really needs some structural changes before I wear it again.  But the music, dancing and lovely company at the event made up for my sartorial mistakes!

I used this gown as inspiration for the construction - I liked the gathered detailing on the bib, and I wish that I had had more time to do similar sleeve and hem decoration.  The pattern is loosely adapted from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion - it went together very smoothly and is pretty adjustable.

I had a couple weeks to get it done, but I procrastinated and ended up making it in a few days. It is tropical weight wool lined partially with linen, sewn with silk and linen thread.  I need to re-make the skirt and possibly the sleeves, but the dress was comfortable and sturdy and I liked the color.

Photo credit to Emma C - I take full responsibility for my phone camera being terrible

 

Here's a better picture of my hair pre-preformance, when the curls were still fresh.

I do not know what personal projects I'll be doing in the near future.  But Douglas Day is definitely going to happen this summer - I'm hugely excited about that - as well as various and sundry other Civil War events that I'd like to get out to.

I hope you all have a lovely spring!

Days of Napoleon - Belvidere

Nothing like a little sweat and heat to kick off my first whole reenacting season!
We all drove up to Belvidere, IL, to participate in a reenactment of several Napoleonic skirmishes.  The first day oscillated between freezing rain in the morning and oppressive heat in the afternoon (we had a water fight in our stays, though, so that helped,) but Sunday was glorious weather.  I can't say that I know much about the military details, but it sure was awfully fun to go to even though the Frenchies outnumbered us good Brits by nearly two to one (why doesn't anyone want to do a British impression? We're so much cooler.  Also, why doesn't anybody take shots during the battle? >:c )  But as it was the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, we got to win a battle anyways and honestly, it felt good to watch the frogs eat dirt.

Photo creds to Anne D.

As you can see, there were serious things going on allllll weekend.

I didn't bring my camera, so creds to Anne again c:

I spent half the time in my corded stays, but it got so awfully hot that I ended up wearing my significantly farbier short stays just to stay cool.  I did, however, get my camp dress nice and dirty, as it ought to be, and my Fugawees got a bit of wear.  And my regency camp dress (my first all hand sewn piece!) got all nice and dirty and eggy and accurate looking.
 I also whipped up an impressively last minute vest-that-totally-wasn't-supposed-to-be-a-spencer:

 Hand sewn, blue thrifted wool, printed cotton lining left over from my camp dress, silk piping made from leftover silk, and bullion trim from my grandmother's trim bin.  All in all, it cost me about $4, which to date is probably the least I've spent on just about any serious article of clothing.

 And of course, it doesn't work with my full-length corded corset.  Only with my farby short stays.  Naturally.  C'est la vie...
 (now! onwards! to fixing all of my 1860s clothes! D:)