Month: January 2012

Rate the Dress: Golf wear for 1917

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s extremely red Elise dress was very popular with most of you, coming in at 8.3 out of 10. I can’t say I thought it deserved that rating: to me it looked like Elise asked her clients to each list the things they wanted in a dress and when it came time to make one client’s dress she realised she didn’t know whose list belonged to whom, so Elise used them all to create the dress.  So some of the ideas were brilliant (that train!), and some were naff (the weird scrunching), but they certainly shouldn’t have all been on one dress!  But that was just my opinion, and the fun of Rate the Dress is in the range of tastes! I’ve had a request to do more sportswear for ‘Rate the Dress.’  That fits in perfectly with the NZ Summer theme that I wanted to go for, so here is my first offering, a golfing outfit from 1917 Alas, it is in black and white, and all we know is that the hat …

2011: the year in review

Published by The Dreamstress

Another year over, another just begun. It’s interesting looking back at 2011.  It was quite a year.  It was a year of trips: the South Island, Australia, Tauranga, the Hawke’s Bay, Taupo.  It was a year of commissions: Carolyn’s wedding dress, Polly’s wedding dress, Judith’s Panniers, Kerry’s Steampunk Bustle, Shell’s wedding dress, the 1932 White Zombie gown for PorcelainToy.  It was a year of research and information: Queen Victoria’s wedding dress, Jeanne Samary, textile terms, Ninon d’Ecolet.  It was a year of finished projects: the 1660s Ninon dress, the 18th century gentleman’s ensemble, the 1770s silver stays, the 1890s black corded corset, the 1900 ribbon corset.  Most of all it was a year of people: Shell, my sister the Naiad, Steph in Australia, each and every one of you wonderful readers, and darling, much-missed Jo-Anne. Here are some images of the year.  Each of them should link to a post if you see something really exciting and want to know more. 🙂                           …