All posts filed under: Textiles & Costume

Regency costumes, thedreamstress.com

Regency Ladies by the River or, Playing the Plantain Game

I’ve been working on my photography skills over the last year and a bit, getting better at settings, and angles, and playing with new things. I still get 1 decent image for every 25 I take, but hey, practice makes perfect (or at least, a little bit better…). The Wellington historical sewist have been letting me practice on them every time we do a dress up event. There was lots of practicing at our 2019 Sew & Eat Historical Retreat. (Practicing does include me setting all the functions and handing the camera over to someone else). I’m still most comfortable with ‘people stand perfectly still and pose photos’: But once you’ve done those, and the obligatory ‘smell the flowers and look into the river’ photos… And pretend to push each other into the river… Then you have to get more creative! So I taught the ladies how to play the plantain game. It’s a shooting game you play with plantain grass heads. My first memory of playing it is with my family outside one of …

A Regency Captain Janeway cosplay, thedreamstress.com

The Star Trek Shawl

I’ve done a fair amount of reasonably geeky things in my life, but I reached peak geek this June. I was having a lovely research and crafting day when I suddenly realised I’d spent four hours going through museum collections and making tables of the average sizes of Kashmiri shawls from between 1800 and 1810. Not for work, or for a research project, but so I could make a Star Trek themed Regency shawl for our Regency Voyager cosplays… It’s not overkill unless it’s actually fossilised! My Star Trekashmiri Shawl happened because I realised that 1. I was going to a ball in the middle of winter as Regency Captain Janeway in a light cotton frock and; 2. I’m always cold and; 3. I had a length of slightly moth-eaten wool crepe in a lovely cranberry red that would make an excellent shawl, and; 4. I wanted my Captain Janeway cosplay to be a little more obviously Star-Trek-Voyager-y. (I didn’t quite succeed with that last bit, but I’ll get to that). So I got all …

Set Phasers to Stunning: Regency Star Trek cosplays thedreamstress.com

Set Phasers to Stunning

Captain’s Log, stardate 53959.1 At long last Ensign Paris has put the finishing touches on his latest holo-program: a recreation of a ballroom from Earth’s early 19th century. Tom insists it is perfect in every detail, with no backwards harps, but Harry has told me privately that a number of alterations have been made for the comfort and convenience of the crew. I don’t think the crew cares if it is accurate or not. After weeks of hard work they are all looking forward to the gala launch tonight. It should be quite an event: Neelix has been researching food for an old Earth menu for days. With Chakotay and Harry on an away mission in search of dilithium, Tuvok has kindly agreed to captain the bridge while Lieutenant Torres, the Doctor, and I attend. Even Seven of Nine has expressed interest after the Doctor pointed out that a ball is the perfect place to observe human interactions and courtship rituals. I’m slightly nervous about leaving Tuvok alone on the bridge. Long range scans have …