It's been a few years since I last went to this festival, mostly because it's pretty costly if you live outside of Canberra. I was excited to go though, it meant catching up with a number of people I don't get to see very often. And that's really awesome!
So Thursday I met A at the airport while I was finishing the handsewing on my dinner over-bodice. We hopped aboard our flight, and found out that although we booked and checked in at different times, we ended up over the aisle from each other on the twin-prop plane, the Dash 8-400. When we got to Canberra, we grabbed luggage and hopped a cab the short distance to the university, where we would be staying.
We found W and soon we were running around our apartment for the next 4 days squeeing over the 1950s style, decor and sheer size. We wandered up to the IGA for supplies (ie. WINE and snacks) and started getting dressed for the opening night.
I stuck to my original plan, and wore my favourite open-robe. I managed some curls, but as per usual, they dropped within half an hour.. -sigh-
Up in the hall we caught up with old friends, had a nice supper and tea until we decided to come back to the apartment to work on finishing costumes for the weekend (yes, I went with half finished outfits).
Friday saw me be a little french, although I had "fixed" my spencer, it appears to have shrunk in the wardrobe, so I couldn't wear it. :(... Instead I draped my woolen shawl around me and pranced around being french.. :D
We attended some classes as well, where W and I promptly got ourselves in trouble with the president of the Australian Costumers' Guild... :D That afternoon was a class by A, during which I was far more restrained..
Friday evening was dinner time. I whipped out the new bodice for over the top of my existing cream dress, and was very happy with myself. It fit perfectly and looked stupidly cute! After dinner, there _may_ have been some shennanigans.....
Actually, that could be a lie, there really were shennanigans the whole night. W ended up sitting at a table at the opposite side of the hall, and apparently we were engaged, seperated, engaged again and then married before dinner was even served as a result of our fan-language..
There were even zombies!
Saturday came around, and I was back to being demure....Well sort of I guess! I sauntered into breakfast wearing a teenage mutant ninja turtles skirt made by one of my friends, then raced back to the apartment for some solitary sewing time. I managed another class (in regency still) run by A, and by the time another one that afternoon came around, I was ready with some handsewing!
Saturday night is all about the ball, and I pulled out the red dress I made for the last JAFA. Granted I had to move all the buttons, but other than that it fit beautifully. More shennanigans ensued that night, before we whisked ourselves back to the hotel room to finish our outfits for Sunday...
After a short night's sleep, since we had to stay up and finish our outfits and hats, as well as packing, we faced the day in our matching outfits, and were soon asked to give an interview, which we did over breakfast. We didn't get to promenade or picnic with the rest of the festival, but I was quite tired, and had managed to lose both heels off my shoes, so I was content to just spend time with the two lovely ladies I travelled down with.
And the grand reveal of our matching outfits on Sunday?
These are 1780s British Archers uniforms. The original was made of glazed wool, but we opted for polished cotton instead. It's been a project that has been in the making since last year, but literally only happened on the weekend. W did all the research, we found and discussed fabric via facebook, used a lining pattern that I put together for my robe a la englaise, and we both ran the sewing machine, the pleater and the iron like crazy on the weekend to finish them. There's amazing details on this outfit, and I can't wait for it to be completely finished to do some photographs on the mannequin. We just have two pieces of trim left and some buttons. We both got to exactly the same finishing spot which is awesome, and we plan to wear them again when I travel down to Ironfest. Probably the best georgian I've ever made, and I'm considering using the pattern again since it fits perfectly and is flattering.
All in all, an amazing weekend and big thanks to my two girls for sharing it with me... <3
