All posts filed under: Events

A Historical Dinner Party

The Comtesse recently finished her PhD (woohoo! Dr Comtesse!), and as her PhD celebration party, she threw a historical dinner. Her PhD was in a STEM field, not history, but, as her advisor joked, in researching and planning the dinner she found “an extremely unique way to procrastinate.” I got to know the Comtesse through her love of costuming, and one of the things I really think is fantastic about the historical costuming community is that we do come from all sorts of backgrounds and fields. For the dinner she requested that everyone wear historical dress from a period before WWI. I think we did rather well: The Sewphist borrowed my 1813 Kashmiri gown, and Madame Ornata sewed right up until the last moment on a mid-19th century plaid dress with a little draping and construction advice from me. She still needs to figure out a bertha, but so far it is looking amazing, and definitely got the most attention on the night! (I just love that photo – it looks like a movie poster. …

A Bastille Day Masquerade Ball!

Published by The Dreamstress

There was a ball! And I wore something! (well, of course, and thank goodness!) After a week of dithering (oh dear – it’s not as as bad as say, snivelling, but it’s certainly best to be avoided) over the options and working on all of them at the same time, I decided I liked the way the trim to Ninon was developing so much that I settled on it. I even managed to get a last minute haircut and am 13″ lighter! Also, my mum said I should wear that one, and one should always listen to one’s mother. 😉 I went with a small group, and three of us got ready at my house, to help with lacing and hair-curling and last minute stitching. Oh, and I may not have worn them, but as you can see the Marmotte Masquerade Stays got finished and worn, because the Sewphist is enough shorter in the torso than she could wear them without offending general sensibilities, and she was willing to do the binding on them to …

What shall I wear to a Bastille Day Ball?

Published by The Dreamstress

Thanks to a lovely French friend, I’m going to a Bastille Day Masquerade Ball this weekend! Exciting! My original thought was that I would finally finish and wear my Marmotte Masquerade stays, because they are so close to being done, but then I remembered the reason I haven’t finished them: the pattern I cut them to is very historical, and if they sat about 1cm lower I couldn’t go out in public in them without breaking decency laws, so even with a chemise underneath they are definitely undergarments. I gutted I forgot that I’d made the pattern so low when I cut them out. I’d done it because I specifically wanted to try such low-cut stays, because I think the silhouette is more correct, but had intended the pattern for other fabrics, and it just slipped my mind when I cut the Marmotte stays, and I didn’t notice when I tried them on partway through because I was wearing a shirt underneath. Grrrr… So, Marmotte stays (with, obviously, layers of skirts), are out. The other …