An Easter Picnic....

Yes, I know Easter was a month ago... haha... So just over a month ago now, we had a picnic at Fort Lytton. I organised it on behalf of my reenactment group, 19th Century Queensland. We invited a number of other groups as well. It was unfortunate that we didn't have as many people as we had at our October one, but I'm not concerned - we still had a lovely day. The weather was lovely, and once I arrived, snuck my car in and unpacked it into the Picnic area, I got dressed. I had originally hoped to have my pink silk finished, but it still remains unfinished.. :(. Instead I put on my tartan skirt, a blouse and a vest for a summery look. I completed my look with a black top hat. I really need to make some more Victorian hats! Anyway, here's a pic of me...
 

 I had made homestyle chicken pie for lunch, and had also made a seminal cake, since it is apparently the traditional Easter cake. To be honest, I'm not sure I'll make it again... haha... I'm not a fan of fruit cake and it was really really rich. I think I'll find something different for next time! After lunch, we went for a walk, during which this photo was taken of us by James Niland, one of the photographers I know..

Obviously we had a truly lovely day, and I can't wait for the next one. We do these every 6 months, they seem to be quite popular. The next one will be a spring picnic, so I'll have to think of something suitable!

Here's the obligatory slideshow.. :)

Jane Austen Festival 2014

While my Simnel Cake is baking for tomorrow's Easter Victorian Picnic, I thought I'd catch you up on JAFA.

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

Gruzinkerbell at Supanova Gold Coast

I am a little behind, and I do apologise, but April is a stupidly crazy month for me!

In the first week of April, I travelled down to the Gold Coast with some friends to the annual Popculture Convention, Supanova.

My last post mentions that I was sewing right up to the point I left.  Which is completely true!  I was slightly delayed by an unexpected phonecall, and a little bit of crisis aversion, but I took off for the Gold Coast.  I sang loudly all the way down to my stereo, since I was highly caffienated.. :D

Friday night I donned the Tauriel again, this time with some good eartips.  Of course I only managed a selfie that doesn't show my ears... hah!



That night though, I stayed up long enough to finalise my Saturday for it's big debut.  It's so pink, so froofy, so MUCH, and I was excited, and a little nervous that most people wouldn't recognise it.  I needed have worried, people that didn't recognise it, still thought it was awesome.. :D... Many little girls came up for photographs and hugs, which was THE best part of all.



Unfortunately in these two photos, I wasn't wearing the brooch that finishes off the centre front.  But that's ok, I remembered to put it on at lunchtime.  I was prepared to take this off at lunch and put on plain clothes instead, but I was having so much fun in it I didn't want to get out of it.  I even moved my car in my crinoline.. :D

Finally, on Sunday I decided to wear Steampunk so that I could support a friend that is a writer, and so that I could be in the Steampunk photo for once.


I possibly would have worn my Gruzinkerbell if I was one of those that are happy to wear the same thing two days in a row (it was hot, I was wearing polyester... EWW! Stinky!), but I didn't.  I do wish I had packed my blouse though, I would have been happier in a blouse than just a singlet...

Anyway, we had a great weekend, one that I'm still not really "over", even though I only did a 3 day work week after, last weekend I was down at Canberra for the Jane Austen Festival, for another huge weekend!

Oh the Crazy!

So I have to leave for Gold Coast 'Nova, and I'm still sewing.

Nothing wrong with me.  Add to that the fact that I plan to take regency sewing for JAFA with me, and you might REALLY think I'm crazy.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though.  Another week of crazy, then I'm going to relax a bit..

aaahhhhhhh.... Then I'm planning to not sew much for a while.  In fact, I'm going to Ironfest in Sydney for the weekend, and I plan to enjoy every second... :D

There'll be pictures after Nova of course!

Popculture and Kilted Bustles

Try thouigh I might, I'm not going to achieve anything more tonight.  I don't feel bad about that, because I'm not as far along as I hoped... BUT!  I have made definite progress, and I've not rushed it.  So yay me!

First though, today I went to the 21st dressed as Tauriel.  A couple of things:

God Damn it was hot!
I really want some silver hair wraps to do the hair "correctly"
The ear tips I got sucked - will have to replace... STAT!

Otherwise, we had a great time.  We pretty much were the only ones dressed up, which is pretty sad for the birthday girl, but that's why you invite a bunch of costumers to your themed party.. :D

 

Pretty happy with the way it turned out, I got a "Wowsers" from one of my male friends, so that's a good thing right? Interestingly, I don't think I look terrible with red hair. Good to know!

Here's some more photos from the party...




Anyway, so here's where we're at with the kilted bustle.  Damn it's heavy.  And I'm probably going to handsew the pleats onto the foundation skirt, I'm not sure I can successfully get the wool through the machine!

A cherry print skirt

In between pop culture costumes and victorian and regency, I've finished something from the UFO pile.  It was made last year for a trip to the Jazz Club with the hubby for our anniversary, but didn't have a waistband and was massively big.

So I'm calling it finished in 2014 since I only finished it a couple of nights ago...



And some photos from a night out at the vintage fair...



Today I start the 1888s woollen tartan bustle.  Exciting, but a little daunting.

When the creativity strikes...

It's sometimes a hard thing for me when the creativity strikes.

I have many friends who sketch their ideas so they don't lose them, so they can work out details, play with the style more etc etc etc.

I have NEVER been able to do that.  I can't draw to save myself.  But I can write.  I can descriptively write - so that's what I do.  I snag line drawings for patterns and write notes next to it that describe how I want to change the pattern... "Longer here"..... "sleeve from *X pattern* instead", sometimes some weird shorthand that makes no sense to anyone..... Usually it works, because it keeps the image in my head.  I once tried to start a costume sketch book.  But it became more of a scrapbook, including pictures of actual costumes, some scribbled on, some pattern company line drawings with pattern numbers on them, some fabric samples even.  It occured to me that this is what pinterest is really for, although I don't really use it for that... haha... It's more a catalogue of my historical wish dresses.  Which is fine.  It makes it easy if I want to show someone what I'm planning to make.  So these days I either get it down in an email in words, sometimes attaching a photo, and send it to myself.

More often than not, this process happens while I'm at work.... Especially when I'm doing things that are very analytical - numbers, dates, facts. The image of the outfit, and the words that describe it swirl around in my mind while I tap away at the keyboard at work.

This happened today, and although I didn't really know why this idea was budding in my mind, it grew, and couldn't be ignored.  Now I get philosophical.  Clicking on random things on facebook is interesting.  By doing this, I came across something so very cool, that would fit in with this idea so very well that I just couldn't ignore it.  It's "meant to be".

Then I realised - I have been puzzling for a couple of months what I wanted to do for the Gothic Ball this year, since I can go again this year (BIG cheer!)... But thanks to the design swirling around in my head, and what I found today, I puzzle no longer.

But, all will be revealed in the fullness of time.  I have much to do before then!