And then I decided to become a bird

I've always loved the idea of a masquerade party. Not only would I get to wear a fun, fancy dress, but I could go all out, impersonate an animal or something, and look slightly ridiculous... and it would be okay! :)

Last year our family hosted a Titanic Ball, and we had SO much fun with it, we decided that we needed to do it again. We could have done a Titanic theme again, but I really wanted something different, so we settled on doing a Masquerade Ball.

New Theme means New Dress... at least as far as I'm concerned! :)

I had so many ideas swimming in my head... I really wanted to do a swan after seeing Mirror Mirror, but that would be a TON of fabric and the head-piece is so elaborate, it was just a little too over the top. And besides, I didn't want to look like a a bride by being in all white. :)

After about five other ideas, I decided on a Violet-Green Swallow.

I really wanted to make this without spending too much money on it. After Williamsburg, I didn't feel like I could justify getting more fabric. So I went to my stash fabric and pulled out my green silk that I've had tucked away for a regency dress for a long time. I had got the silk at Joann in the clearance fabric, and knew I wanted to make a bib-front regency with it, after watching the 1995 Sense and Sensibility and seeing Marianne's ball gown. I made the dress the exact same as my red-flowered regency dress.

The underskirt is made of some dreadful polyester taffeta junk that we bought online years ago. It's like... plastic. Blah. But it served it's purpose! I used Simplicity's regency pattern skirt pieces for the underskirt, and just added some straps to hold it up. I then sewed 35 chiffon ruffles to the back (the chiffon was left over from a over dress I helped my friend make for our last ball), clipped them into sharp points (my basement floor was a mess after that!), and it worked out perfectly to be the tail of the bird. This piece was not at all up to my normal standards... every last inch is machine stitched (except the hook and eye closure), 100% polyester, and the ruffles were not very evenly cut.

For the collar, I took my regency pattern front and drafted up a chemisette, and then made it out of buckram so it would sort of stand up. The feather-y part I just sliced like crazy, and paid no attention to measuring and detail. It's supposed to look rustic and irregular, right?? ;)

The necklace was easy. It is made of ribbon and a charm I found at Hobby Lobby, and a picture of a Violet-Green Swallow glued into it. It was really weird... I just wanted a locket-like charm to put the picture in, and I couldn't find it in all of Hobby Lobby... you know... that store that has everything and more than you could possibly want? :) So I got this piece and flipped it backwards and it worked perfectly. It really is supposed to say "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me". :)

And finally, you can't go to a masquerade ball without a mask! :) I made my mask out of puffy paint, tulle and plastic wrap, using a tutorial I found on (you guessed it!) Pinterest. I glued some feathers to the side of it, made a little fabric flower out of the green silk and put a glittery button I had in stash in the middle. I really liked the puffy paint mask because it molds to your face, rather than being stiff. The only thing I'll say about it though, is that tutorial says the plastic wrap will peel off... it doesn't.

Some photos of the actual event...

Friends lined up to dance - I loved seeing the diversity of outfits - regency, modern formal, 1912 era, medieval, it was all there! We even had quite a few tuxes from the guys!

Photo Credit: Wendy Hill

 Is this not the PERFECT setting for a dance?? It is a beautiful barn that has been finished (as we say it - a "rich person's barn"), and it is just a few miles away from where we live! Perfection at it's best! :)

Photo Credit: Gail Merry

No, I'm NOT singing a solo here, though it looks like I am. 

Photo Credit: Wendy Hill

 

I had booked a caller for our dance back in April, and then never heard back from him after he had confirmed that the date was available. I didn't really worry until about 2 days before the ball - I knew he was going on vacation the week before, so I just figured he was a little behind schedule from that. Well, the day before the ball came, and still no word, so I started to panic and made up a list of dances with instructions just in case I had to call myself. A friend of mine let me borrow some music for the dances (thanks Emily!!!), which I managed to get together and on my iPod approx. 3 hours before the ball was supposed to start. Needless to say, I was really really stressed the day of the ball!

As I had supposed, my caller didn't show, so I had to call the dance. It went pretty well - not as fun as dancing, but I was surprised that I did actually enjoy calling a little! And my sister stepped in to call one dance for me, and after I had taught a couple of them, we did them again so I could do it, so I still did get to dance. :) Which was really fun. :)

 The Spanish Waltz

Photo Credit: Sherry Pollock

Grace and me getting our traditional photo. :)

Photo Credit: Emil Bandy

 

The Dressed Ship

Photo Credit: Wendy Hill  

All in all it was an utterly fabulous evening! And I've officially decided that Masquerade is one of the most awesome themes to do! :)

A Week in Williamsburg

Ahhhhh.... I kind of feel like I have no words to describe my week in Williamsburg. But I'll do my best. :)

The drive there was... scary. Yeah... we left 60º weather here at home, and drove through West Virginia/Virginia in a blizzard. No joke. It was super weird. To be in Virginia, on April 4th, in a blizzard. Thankfully we made it safe and sound, though not without having to take a winding narrow road over a mountain, since the tunnel through the mountain was closed due to an accident. Just going through that added 2 extra hours to our trip.

We stopped to spend a day with my grandparents, and surprisingly, timed it perfectly with my Dad's cousin from CA, who happened to be visiting my grandparents too while they looked at colleges for her son! So fun to get to meet people you're related to for the first time! :)

The drive to Williamsburg was uneventful. Thankfully!

We shared a cottage about 5 minutes away from the town with our friends the Riggenbachs. It was an adorable cottage, and just a place where you feel happy, if that makes sense. :) We arrived pretty late in the evening, so we couldn't go into town on the first day, but we spent every other day there, so that was fine!

It was fun as places started looking more familiar to me, as I remembered some things from 9 years ago. I also remember some of the people who work there! Pretty neat! I can't go into detail about the whole week, as that would take waaaaay too long, so I'll just give you a few highlights.

The top highlight for me was probably a concert that we went too in the Governer's Palace ballroom. Talk about the best location for a concert ever!! :) You just have to love hearing Teleman played on a real 18th century harpsichord. :) Am I making you jealous??

*All photos by Kathryn Grace Photography, unless otherwise noted*

This photo was taken during our tour of the Governer's Palace. The concert was in by candlelight in the evening. You can see the harpsichord though on the right. 

I loved the small shops, and learning about the trades of the 18th century. Of course, I loved the milliner shop the best - after all, that's my thing! It was super exciting too, as we were walking around town one evening and we were stopped by the apprentice tailor, who told us that they were talking about us in the shop because our clothes were nice!!!*squeals* Way to make us beam the rest of the time we were there! :)

Since we were in 18th century clothing the whole time, most people thought we worked there... we had to learn where all the bathrooms and bus stops were pretty quickly so we could answer questions! :) It was hilarious to see peoples' faces when we'd tell them "Oh, we don't work here. We're just visitors". But honestly - what's the point of going to Williamsburg if you're not going to dress up?? :)

Okay, enough with the words, and onto the pictures of my outfits! 

This is the outfit you've already seen

This was probably my favorite combination of clothing. Mrs. Riggenbach called me a "chocolate raspberry". :)

The above photos were taken at the capitol building, and it was like a "wind tunnel" in there... I nearly lost my hat! 

Lily and me.

It was really funny, because Lily and I either coordinated our outfits really well (like above), or really horribly, to the point where we didn't want to stand next to each other.

Lily is the most amazing seamstress... I get seriously inspired every time I am around her. Who else agrees with me that she needs to start a blog so we can all admire her work??

L-R: Mr. Riggenbach, Mrs. Riggenbach, Gretel, Benjamin, me, Lily, and Kathryn
*Photo by a random tourist with a HUGE lens who got Dad's email and sent us the picture*

Benjamin is the son of the shoemaker at Williamsburg. We were walking by the field in front of their house while his brother was practicing bowling for a cricket match they were having at Bacon's Castle, and Mr. and Mrs. Riggenbach struck up a conversation with them. Turns out they are reformed and home-educated (like us)! It was really neat to meet them, and hear about how it is to live in Williamsburg, etc. Benjamin gave us a personalized tour of the town on Monday, and even got dressed in period attire on Tuesday!

Here's a petticoat that was in the Milliner's shop. I want it.

Me teaching Lily how to play Mancala at the Powell house

This outfit is really a jacket and skirt, but I purposely made it out of the same fabric so it would look somewhat like a dress. Kathryn is wearing it in the group photo above, but with the neckerchief tucked in.

You can see on the sleeves of this jacket there's a small pleat. I did the other jackets completely smooth around, but this one I added the pleat to make it more comfortable. I would probably move the pleat up higher if I did it again.

These photos were taken at the garden of Basset Hall, the Rockefellers home in Williamsburg. It was probably my favorite house there, though the decor was a little over the top. Mrs. Rockefeller had interesting taste.

Another combination of garments

There were two other outfit combinations that didn't get photographed, but I'm sure you get the idea. :)

Sorry it took so long to get this post up. Life has been non-stop since we got home! But I hope it was worth the wait. Oh, and if you ever get the opportunity to visit Williamburg, TAKE IT! I want to live there.

As always, MANY THANKS, Kathryn for these photos! And MANY THANKS to the Riggenbach family for inviting us to come. It was a blast being with you all for a week!!

American Duchess GIVEAWAY!!

Hey everyone!

I know you all are probably looking for a post about my trip to Williamsburg, and I promise you, it will come soon!

BUT in the meantime, I suggest you all hop over to American Duchess and enter her giveaway of her new Highbury Regency Shoes! They're even dyeable and they have hidden lacing loops inside for another wearing option!

Go check it out!

And I'll be back as soon as possible to tell you all about my amazing trip to Williamsburg!

Ta ta for now!
-Tara

Five out of Nine!

Phew. This is a lot of work. :)

I meant to post each garment as I went along, but I kind of got caught up sewing and just kept going, and forgot to take pictures. So here I am posting 5 of the 9 pieces.

Last week, I was thinking, "I think I've bit off more than I can chew". If I do nothing else, I can sew a TON, but believe it or not, I do have a life outside of sewing! But after these past two days, I'm feeling a little better. :)

I was able to finish my stays and my peach jacket (since I already had that fabric) right after I last posted. My other fabric arrived last Wednesday, and I was gone all day Wednesday, most of Thursday, got a migraine on Friday, and had a wedding Saturday. Not the most ideal situation when you have to get these things done by April! ;) But I managed to work a little on the neckerchief and finish the shift. Monday I buckled down and sewed both petticoats and yesterday I made part of the last two jackets. Hopefully today I can finish the main sewing on those and get started on my cap, and the rest of the time can be spent on trimming the jackets.

Without further ado, here are some pictures.
 

 

 Shift and Stays!

 

Hand sewing duck is painful, fyi. I manage to poke a nice hole in my middle finger using the back side of the needle, because I had to push so hard to get it through. ouch.

Back of the stays

For anyone interested in the pattern of the boning casings...

 

Blue petticoat

 

 Peach jacket

 

I love the fluffy back!!! :)

6 widths of trim, hemmed on both sides and gathered....

And finally, with the neckerchief. 

My brown petticoat is done, but I don't have pictures of it yet - I'll post that with my other two jackets and cap. :)

It's a lot of sewing, but it at least it is fun and for a good cause! :) I've decided that happiness is when your pleats come out right the first time. :D

So long - got to get back to work!! :) :)

A Wardrobe for Williamsburg

This spring our family is going to Williamsburg with some friends. We haven't been to Williamsburg since 2004, so we are pretty excited, to say the least.

BUT, I have no 1770's clothing. And that is simply not allowed when going to Williamsburg.

Our friends, the Riggenbachs, helped my sister and me make stays this past week, which went amazingly easy (fastest mock-up fittings ever), so now I'm working on my wardrobe. I'm planning on 3 jackets and 2 petticoats (no, I don't settle for just 1 outfit - that would be just too easy). I had some linen I was going to make into a regency petticoat, but I figured this would be more fun, so I'm using that for one jacket, and then ordered some more linen for the rest of the garments.

These are the colors I decided on:

So... the race is on, to complete everything in time. Sewing it all up is easy, but doing the trimmings can be very time consuming....

I'm also SUPER excited to finally wear my "Georgiana Shoes" from American Duchess!! Whoop whoop!!

Pictures of the progress will be up soon!

Ta ta for now!

:)

~A very excited Tara

The Gray Dress of Doom

Okay, so that was kind of a dramatic title. It wasn't that bad after the fact. ;)

So I started this dress... about 3 months or more ago. It was one of those times when the pattern was $1, the fabric on sale, and it was just too good to pass up. :) I started with Vogue Pattern #2903

I know - so cute, right?? Sadly, I discovered that (1) I am not a girl from 1957. (2) My body type is not the same as a pencil drawing of a girl from 1957. (3) This pattern in real life is not at cute as it looks. 

I kid you not - it looked like "1950's meets medieval and frump." When I put it on I kind of looked like a big, dark thundercloud. (I liked that description so much, I started calling this "The Thundercloud Dress") The shoulders slid off, the neckline gaped, and the only thing cute about it was the pleats in the skirt.

If you think ^this^ is bad, you should have seen it on me... way way worse.

So that dress went on hold until I could come up with a suitable plan. My first idea was to keep the skirt, but make a new bodice, with a gathered band around the neckline. Sort of like this dress. But I figured that was a little too fancy for the look I wanted, and I'd probably end up chopping the sleeves to be short, and that would defeat the purpose of a winter 1950's dress.

After a few days of no inspiration, I turned to the ever helpful (or not) Pinterest to get ideas. It didn't take me long to see this dress as a possibility!

Things were pretty easy from there! I cut the skirt off at empire waist level, pulled in a few seams, whipped up a new bodice, took the sleeves off and added them back on, put in a band for the neckline, and voila! A dress I would actually wear!

It's still far from perfect, but at least I think it's cute. ;)

Sadly I didn't have enough fabric to cut this on the bias, so it's a little oddly stretched. But it's a bow. and bows are cute.

Skirt pleats. These were VERY time consuming, but I'm pleased with how they came out!

I was freezing in these photos, so we ran inside and got some gloves and fur... which totally hides the dress, but they made for some cute, retro-ish photos! :)

Other news in my life (since I abandoned this blog for over a month):

I rang in the new year with a cold. (talk about optimistic). Actually, I was pretty thankful I got it when I did, since I had a few important events in the next few weeks, so it was good to get it out of my system. Or so I thought...

I got sick two weeks later, right before I had to play music for my friends' wedding. Oops. God was gracious though, and I was able to make it through the entire day of the wedding without feeling too bad! And the music went great! :) I love playing music with a group!!

 Grace and me at the "photo booth" at the wedding. Haha - it doesn't even look like us! 

Thanks Sierra for taking the picture!

Me with my fellow musician, friend, and "twin", Sierra. We look so much like sisters in this picture!

Our family took a vacation to Florida towards the beginning of January. Oh wow, so so so nice!! I seriously had no idea what month it was the whole time I was down there! Tigertail beach is a.m.a.z.i.n.g.l.y. large! I'm quite a fan of Marco Island in January. Plus we got to see our grandparents, who winter down in Florida, which was a HUGE plus for me! Love you, Opa and Oma!!

I got a PIANO!! Not just ANY piano, but my DREAM piano! It's a 1990 6' 10" Schimmel. I never thought I'd get my dream piano at only 19 years old... needless to say, I am incredibly blessed and thankful! I'll try to get some pictures up of it soon - it's amazing.................. (I'm still slightly "in shock" over it all - it happened really fast!)

Just 'cuz he's cute.... He actually fell asleep in this position.

That's pretty much the highlights of my year so far. We just got a huge amount of snow (as you can see in the photos above), and it is SO beautiful! This winter so far has been pretty snow-less (I mean, it was 60º in January, at one point!), so I'm enjoying seeing white everywhere! I need to go sledding and ice skating!!!!!!!

Again, my apologies for neglecting this blog for so long! 

Keep smiling!

-Tara