All posts filed under: Miscellenia

Rate the Dress: Embellished prints, 1920s

I know I just did a 1920s dress for Rate the Dress the week before last, but this week’s 1920s day dress, in printed silk, is so different from the gold and orange evening number, that I don’t think it’s too much of a repeat Last week: a ca 1870 dress in deep raspberry pink, with two types of fringing I feel like last week’s Rate the Dress was an apple. All December I fed you a diet of decadent treats: chocolate, and puddings, and cakes, and sugarplums. And then the first week in Jan comes, and I hand you a piece of fruit, and no-one is interested! Those who did rate liked the dress well enough, but it certainly didn’t set any records. The Total: 8.1 out of 10 However, if I could find a way to factor how many comments and votes a dress got into it’s rating, this would have fared much worse. It did not attract your interest! This week: a 1920s day dress in printed silk This mid 20s frock …

I had a dream, a wondrous thing…

Published by The Dreamstress

Last night a boy racer came roaring up our suburban street, realise it wasn’t where he had meant to go, did a screeching turn-round, and went roaring down again. It reminded me how much I loath boy racing (whether it’s done by boys or girls, but let’s face it, it’s mostly done by boys). It’s an dreadful hobby which is at best an annoyance to everyone who isn’t participating in it, and at worst a danger to anyone in the vicinity, and an environmental nightmare. We used to hear a lot of boy racers at night at our old place. The racing and roar of the engines. The screech and squeal of tires. Whenever they were out and about at night I would lie awake listening to the sounds, stressing. So I developed a happy little fantasy about boy racing. I would imagine the boy racers roaring down their favourite street. And then, one by one, the engines suddenly going quiet. Each car drifts to the side of the road, the confused drivers steering it …

Sew & Eat Historical Retreat thedreamstress.com

The 1st Annual* NZ Sew & Eat Historical Retreat

Published by The Dreamstress

This time last year, when I realised that I couldn’t afford to go to Costume College 2018, I sobbed** about it to some friends, and the amazing Miss Priscilla said “Awww, we’ll throw a New Zealand CoCo for you”. Which is a pretty amazing offer considering that Priscilla isn’t a historical costumer! In wonderful synchronicity, Nina of Smash the Stash had had me bring back a bunch of Regency sewing patterns from CoCo 17 so she could make a Regency wardrobe, and she started holding monthly historical sewing get-togethers. So once a month for all of 2018 Nina, Priscilla***, Eloise of Linen and Lining, and Hvitr of Historical Living (and sometimes Madame O) have been getting together and working on historical sewing projects, and planning a reason to wear what we were working on. And our reason, while not quite NZ CoCo, was wonderful and lovely (and maybe even better). We settled on a Labour Day Weekend sewing and dress up retreat, and found an adorable cottage on a beautiful estate just an hours drive …