The Dreamstress

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The Nanette Blouse goes geeky

What do you do if you realise that if you add a wig, grey leggings and a vest to the Wearing History Nanette Blouse, you have a perfect Jareth from Labyrinth costume?

Obviously you have a Labyrinth photoshoot!

And what do you do when your friend’s 11 month old looks exactly like Toby from Labyrinth had a twin sister?

Obviously you make little Tobie a red & white striped top and leggings, and steal her for your photoshoot!

Don’t worry, I gave her back before the 13 hours was up!

It turns out that Labyrinth is a great theme for a kiddie photoshoot, because you get to use fun sparkly props. They are perfect for keeping the wee one distracted and looking in the right direction. My sparkle is a Czech glass necklace and the prism top from a decanter – I was improvising!

My makeup is another improvisation. It was all done with a single $5 eyeshadow palette! I’m not a makeup expert (to put it mildly), so I was really pleased with the outcome.

I’m not so pleased with the wig. It’s a wee bit too sticky-upy, and a wee bit black and white. I had to order it weeks in advance and there wasn’t time to find an alternative once I realised I didn’t love it.

Those familiar with New Zealand plants will notice that these photos were taken a few months ago – it just took me a while to process them.

The photos were taken by little Tobie’s mum (on my camera) and dad (using theirs). Mr D came along and played background support and interference.

Tobie loves Mr D, and loved being the centre of attention, with me dangling pretties, and mum and dad and Mr D all cooing at her, so for a long time we had an extremely happy, cooperative baby.

Eventually though, she got tired, and hungry, and all the smiles stopped.

The perils of working with small children!

You can see a more serious version of me in my Nanette Blouse here.

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Rate the Dress: brief bodices and beads, ca 1810

Published by The Dreamstress

Sometimes I know exactly what I want to post for Rate the Dress, and that it is the perfect theme. Other times, like this week, I have no idea. What I finally settled on this week wasn’t my first choice, or my second, or even my third. Sometimes settling is a good thing, because if I hadn’t, I might not have looked at it up close, and found out that it was so much more interesting than I had thought.

How so? Scroll down to find out!

Last week: A Wedding Ensemble from 1887

Well, Louise Carnegie picked well, both when it came to men, and to fashion, because her choice of wedding ensemble was very well received. A few of you didn’t care for the red-trimmed bodice variation (but then, some of you did), and not all of you were entirely sold on the colours. Interestingly, most of you saw the dress as sort of a khaki or light olive colour. Personally I thought it was a grey, with just the tiniest hint of brown.

The Total: 9.6 out of 10

Well, it was a nice day for a non-white wedding! Fully two-thirds of the ratings were 10, and only two of them were under 9, so the total score should come as no surprise.

This week: a beaded ca. 1810 dress

I’ve looked at this ca. 1810 dress a number of times over the years, and thought that the elaborate coloured decorations, combined with the otherwise extreme simplicity of the dress, set it aside from the usual ‘white Regency frock’ category, and made it a good candidate for Rate the Dress.

Dress, 1804—15, Austrian, cotton, Metropolitan Museum of Art, C.I.39.13.52

It wasn’t until I settled on it this week, and looked at the detail images that I realised the decorative motifs are not, as I’d always assumed, embroidery, but are instead beading.

Dress, 1804—15, Austrian, cotton & glass, Metropolitan Museum of Art, C.I.39.13.52

There are just a few touches of embroidery around the beads.

Dress, 1804—15, Austrian, cotton & glass, Metropolitan Museum of Art, C.I.39.13.52

The beadwork makes the dress so much more interesting (although not necessarily more attractive) in my mind. The beads would help weigh down the hem of the dress, so it would swing and swish around the wearer. They would also catch the light and sparkle in the evening, lending depth and dimensionality to the dress.

Though largely intact, there are a few places where some beads have clearly come loose, making the design not quite as symmetrical and complete as it once was.

If the beading looks slightly similar to Native American beadwork in places, that’s probably because this exact type of bead was used as trading beads in the Americas.

Dress, 1804—15, Austrian, cotton & glass, Metropolitan Museum of Art, C.I.39.13.52

Other than the beading, this dress is extremely simple in cut, with a slightly darted bodice, and a back-opening that fastens with drawstring ties.

Dress, 1804—15, Austrian, cotton & glass, Metropolitan Museum of Art, C.I.39.13.52

The too-long sleeves, by the way, are a typically 1810s feature. They were both intentional and fashionable.

Dress, 1804—15, Austrian, cotton & glass, Metropolitan Museum of Art, C.I.39.13.52

What do you think? Is it a beaded beauty? Or a combination of bland and bizarre?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

(as usual, nothing more complicated than a .5. I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment, so I can find it! Thanks in advance!)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hedgehog [Shorts]

Published by The Dreamstress

It’s been a very warm summer in Wellington. The warmest summer on record in fact. So I’ve been making, and wearing, lots and lots and lots of shorts, and lots, and lots of short-sleeved Scroop Miramar tops.

I tend to make my shirts in solids and stripes, but I like fun, patterned bottoms. Summer shorts should be a wee bit silly. You’ve already seen my Smaug Shorts as a pretty good example of that.

When it comes to fun and wacky, my latest pair of shorts leaves the Smaug shorts well in the dust.

Yes. They have hedgehogs all over them. In green and fuchsia purple:

I just couldn’t resist when the fabric came in at Made Marion Craft. It’s a beautifully soft cotton drill, and Hedgehog Girl is my superhero alter ego after all (she rescues hedgehogs).

I know it’s slightly ridiculous to wear hedgehog shorts when you’re on the dark side of 30, but I’ve embraced the fact that slightly ridiculous is something I’m OK with being.

Fuchsia and bamboo green on taupe-grey isn’t the easiest colour scheme to coordinate tops with, but luckily I had this viscose jersey in stash, just perfect for a Miramar.

I made this Miramar a tunic rather than a shirt, because I like the look of tunics over shorts. On me I feel it makes them a bit dressier, and lends the outfit a bit more gravitas. I’m not sure how much gravitas you can manage in hedgehog shorts though!

I tend to ruch the tunic up a bit so I can put my hands and other things in my pockets. Enormous pockets are mandatory in shorts as far as I’m concerned. And when you get to draft your own patterns, you can add all the pockets you want to a pattern!

I really don’t want the tunic look, I can always tie the Miramar up.

The ’80s and early ’90s are back in right? I’ve even heard rumours that not only are scrunchies having a renaissance, but we’re about to see those circular T-shirt slides for knotting your T-shirt up again. Remember those?

No matter how mad the ’80s revival gets, please stop me if I start cutting out the extra hedgehog motifs from my scraps and applying them to my shirt and highlighting them with glitter puff paint!

The photos were taken during one of our weekend walks down around the Wellington coast. I always feel happier around water, and love the way the coast changes ever day, with different weather, and different tides.

I always find something fun on our walks. On this trip I found the remains of this amazing crab:

Camouflage skills on fleek! (that’s what the hip young things are saying these days, right?)