More on the Coral Striped Regency Dress and Hair

I was looking down at Jazz who was staring at me with those big yellow eyes...and waiting to go to bed. He believes bedtime is ALWAYS 11 pm and I must ALWAYS wake up at 6:30 am. Cats have no concept of weekends.

I like this picture more since you can see more of the petticoat and the dress. It was pretty fluffy. :-)

My hair after the ball! All I did was curl it and use enough hairspray that even New Jersey would be impressed. ;-) That was seriously it. I washed my hair, waited until it was almost dry to curl it (if your hair goes from damp to dry while you are curling it, just redamped your hair by using a wet washcloth or just your hand held under the faucet for a second). Curling my hair takes time but it's worth it for the results. In the morning, do not take your curlers out first thing. Get breakfast. Vacuum. Do all of those annoying household chores. You might want to use the hairspray first thing on the curlers, but don't take the curlers out. Wait until at least mid day - or, if you can, only a couple of hours before the event. Your curls will last longer this way.

About an hour before you take your curlers out, use hairspray on them. Even if you've already used hairspray on them, use more. Use hairspray as you are taking the curls out. Use hairspray after you have taken them all out. Just keep using the hairspray and it will hold.

I then pinned each of the curls to the center back of my head. Once they were all up, tied a sash around my head and I was ready to lunch with Mom who thought I looked hilarious with all the curlers in my hair. ;-)

Regency Post!

The picture is not the greatest but you get an idea of what is going on.  I'm not happy with the front of the dress and will most likely tear it apart.  I wore this to the Jane Austen Regency Ball hosted by Gadsby's Tavern.   It's an annual event that you have to buy tickets to which I've wanted to go for years.  The back of the dress looks far more fab than the front.  I'm sorry there aren't a lot of pictures - this was taken after the ball because I forgot my memory card for my camera at home!  I did take camera phone pictures of the event but nothing of my dress...or my hair.  I had feathers in my hair that came out the second I got into the car.  


The underskirt was a curtain this morning.  It was super easy - partly because the curtains I used were already hemmed so it was a matter of sewing up the sides for a skirt and pleating the top to a waistband.  Under the curtain skirt, I have a petticoat I also made now yesterday morning...out of a bed sheet.  White cotton bedsheets are cheap at the thrift store - this was a queen for $3.  Great for making petticoats or anything you really need out of basic white cotton.  I'm happy with how both of those turned out, just not the funkiness of the dress.   I know what the issue is and how to fix it - it's just going to be a pain.  

Day 10 Update!

Sorry for going quiet the past couple of days.  I have been working on the embroidery, see?

The collar is done (yay!) and I've starting working on one of the cuffs.  Hopefully, this cuff will go quickly and I can start on the other cuff tomorrow.  We'll see.  I'd like to have all the embroidery done before 5pm EST or so Saturday.   Sunday, I can put together the chemise.  I've done handsewn smocks before and it's actually not that bad - just a lot of straight lines to sew up.   So, movie marathon have Church!!!!

You might notice that I have traced the pattern on to both cuffs to go over.   I took a picture of how I do that thinking it's probably something and least a few people might be curious about.  I don't use tracing paper. 

Instead, I printed out the pattern from this page done by Aelia Apollonia from the West Kingdom (SCA). I edited it using photoshop to get straight lines and to change up the size so it would be easier to trace.

After printing out the pattern, I place the linen fabric over the piece and center the fabric. I then taped the paper and the linen down together to give me a slightly more stable working surface, but also to pull the fabric tightly over the paper pattern. In the picture above, you can tell the left of center rose is only halfway traced.  The black lines on the left of that rose are actually the pattern showing through the fabric.  (I'm sure there a ton of political jokes in here somewhere).

To trace, I used a simple light blue colored pencil. Once I'm done tracing, I start sewing!

Close up of the cuff I'm currently working on.

And to show I'm not just working on a high neck smock and a Regency gown that is finally out of the bad corner (pictures tomorrow), took a picture of the skirt I decided to wear today...after I made it this morning. My old, very worn, but fit perfectly jeans deserved a new life. The pink shiny fabric isn't really that shiny - it's a left over piece of sari I used last year for my Titanic Ghost costume at Dress U. The piece was roughly 2+ yards - enough to do something with. I made it into a tube, cut out a piece of muslin for an attached slip, made a tube of that, cut the legs off the jeans and gathered the tube of fabrics. Attach the gathered tube to the bottom of the jeans and you have a new skirt! It takes all of 15 minutes and makes for a fabulous summer skirt - plus giving those very worn jeans a new life.

Food related post

While the 1790's dress goes and sits in the corner to think about what it's done (currently known as laying across the ironing board), I started to think about what I wanted to snack on before moving on to my next project.  Unfortunately, it's the same thing I've wanted to eat for the past couple of weeks - smoked cheddar. 

I love smoked cheddar.  The kind I'd get at the Amish market was perfect with some smoked sausage on crackers.  I'd happily eat it up and it worked really well at SCA events. 

The problem?

I developed a dairy allergy in the past couple of years.  I won't go into the details of what happens - if you have ever had a serious case of food poisoning, imagine going through that for a good 3 days.   It's really that bad.  So, I need to avoid dairy.

Although I've talked some before about all things that have dairy in them (and how hard it is to explain to people that butter/yogurt/cream cheese are all dairy) what I haven't talked about it how much I still crave dairy.  There isn't a good vegan substitute for cow's milk cheese.  Strike that.  There isn't even a mediocre substitute for cheese.  I tried vegan cheese once and I will never make that mistake again.  It tasted like smooched up Bernie Bot's every flavor beans -and only the bad flavors.  It was supposed to be cheddar.

For butter, I've found some fabulous subs.  There is the expensive but oh my goodness perfect butter substitute from Under the Olive Tree.  Although regular olive oil will work too, this tastes too awesome.   There is also the coconut spread I've discussed before when you need not melted butter.  

For milk, I love almond milk.   Soy is okay too but I've really come to love almond milk.   It tastes great with cereal.  Plus, it has the added benefit of having about the same amount of fat as whole milk meaning it works perfectly in any recipe that calls for milk.   Oh, and it has more calcium. 

But cheese?   Nothing.  And I want cheese and crackers.  I can find perfectly fine vegan crackers that taste great - but not cheese.  

Some people have stated that at least I got to know what cheese tasted like but I truly believe ignorance is bliss on this subject.  If you've always been allergic to something, you have no idea what you are missing and don't want it when you are thinking about snacks or dinners.   I constantly want spaghetti- O's and cheese but the tomato allergy and dairy allergy (and even the minor corn allergy) tell me that I should only have that if I happen to be on Death Row.  This is why having allergies sucks. 

Public Service Announcement

Hello everybody!

If you happen to see an older post where it gives that evil flickr "no picture" for a picture, please let me know.  I recently switched from Flickr to ipernity and forgot to go back and switch up all the links in my previous posts.  I love ipernity, btw.  It is SO much better than Flickr has become.   I would highly suggest the move to anyone else who cannot stand the new layout but doesn't feel like moving their 10,000+ images by hand (ipernity has an app for that!).

A photo I took years ago of the now late Miss Ginsie, as hosted by ipernity.

Day 7 and Regency Gown Progress

Warning: This post is brought to you by sleep depervation. I was awoken four times this morning, starting at 4:30 am, by a strange male staring at me. It's rather eerie to feel someone or something watching you at O'dark thirty, open your eyes, and see this:

A strange male glaring at you because you won't get up at four freakin' thirty in the morning to feed him. He would then meow and rub up against my hands to pet him until I pushed him off the bed and attempted to go back to sleep. He'd wait for about a half hour or so and do the same thing again. Gah! Anyway, your regularly scheduled post is brought to you today by that dumb cat who can't find his way outside of a shopping bag, Jasper.

I finished the bottom row of the embroider and made one rose.  Yay!

 I also spent an hour at the thrift store trying to find a basic, thin, cotton (or non dead dino) curtain or even thread bare sheet with no luck.  I wanted either a soft white or soft black petticoat to go with the Regency dress I'm working on.  They had nothing.  They did have a lovely scarf, several interesting dresses, a grey knit sheet that was begging to be made into a new work dress, and a guy that smelled like he hadn't bathed in years (he was on the other side of the store and it's a BIG store, thankfully) but no thin cotton sheets/curtains.  So I went to Hobby Lobby.  They had cotton batiste in the "clearance" section in 1 7/8 yard and 1 1/4 yard remnants - enough to make a basic petticoat- for a grand total of $5.  Yay!

I now have enough to make a petticoat. 

So, now to finish the embroidery, finish the Regency gown, and start some other completely random project simply because I can.  Probably a giornea in blue for the robe & robing challenge.   It's a big loose garment...and it's totally period as a robe because, see?

The Princess Bride is a completely historical account of life in late 15th/early 16th C Italy.  Seriously.



...Shut up, Indigo.

Day 6 and new project started

The outline is done, I just need to go back over it. I also need to finish up the roses. I'm guessing maybe another 3 days and then the collar will be done. After that, I still need to make the two cuffs and then put together the chemise itself. This will be interesting.

Because I cannot keep to just one project for more than five minutes (where's the fun in just one project?), I've also started a 1790's gown. I've cut it out and will sew it up tomorrow, hopefully.

The red on red striped silk is what I'm using for the dress. It's not nearly as bright as in the picture. It's a few shades more subdued and has an orange/peach tint to it.