The Dreamstress

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Great Big Sea is Great: or why I’m really in Melbourne

So, I’ve been telling you all about coming to Melbourne for weeks, and about the corset class I’m teaching. And I am super excited about the corset class, but it’s not why I’m in Melbourne. Oh no, teaching at Thread Den is just an awesome bonus. The real reason I am here is quite a story.

You see, there is this Newfoundland folk rock band called Great Big Sea.

These guys:

And they are amazing.

Love their music, own every CD, listen to them constantly. And that’s great. But what Great Big Sea is really known for is their concerts. They are supposed to be phenomenal live.

And I’ve been trying to see them live for years.

I’ve had tickets to their concerts three times, and have missed them at the last minute due to traffic jams/flight delays/strep throat/tornados/volcanos/killer jellyfish swarms etc. etc. (OK some of those are exaggerations).

And now I live in New Zealand. And Great Big Sea has never performed in the Southern Hemisphere.

Do you know how far New Zealand is from Newfoundland?

A long, long, long way.

There is way more ocean between Wellington and St John’s than between Boston and St John’s.

So every time I head overseas I check the tour schedule, just in case I can make my trip cooincide with a GBS concert.

I’m planning a trip home to California and Hawaii in a few months and checked their schedule as per usual. The only venues they have scheduled this year? Australia. Yes. Great Big Sea is coming to the Antipodes!

So my first reaction was “OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG…I want to go!”

And then my second reaction was “Crap. Going to a concert alone is no fun”

And then I had a brainstorm. The fabulous Theresa lives in Melbourne. Theresa knows everyone, does everything, and is just so fun to be around. So we had this exchange on facebook:

Yes. I am a dork.

Anyway, from such small seeds Theresa mentioned that hey, she could interview Great Big Sea for Time Out Melbourne (told you Theresa knows everyone!) and maybe we could get to meet them. Would I like that?

Would I!

So a lot of money in airfares later, I was going to Melbourne to see Great Big Sea.

And I saw them. And they were AMAZING.

And I met them (well, Alan Doyle and Murray Foster). I didn’t just get to meet them, I got to really spend time with them. And they were AMAZING. Just the loveliest, most humble, kindest, most gentlemanly, interesting, intelligent people possible.

It was totally worth the wait.

Here are some photos of the concert courtesy of Theresa, who was smart enough to bring her camera, and sweet enough to let me have all the photos.

So, so amazing. If you ever get the chance to go to a Great Big Sea concert, DO IT! If you already have – lucky you!

Rate the dress: Fretwork evening gown, 1893

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s very red mid-18th century Rate the Dress was awash with confusion. Was Mr Howard really that round and pink? Or did Batoni have it in for his unfortunate sitter? Or was Batoni really quite kind in his painting, indicating that Mr Howard was even rounder and pinker in real life? I am surprised that no one brought up that roundness and pinkness were actually rather admired attributes in the mid 18th century! Perhaps Batoni made him rounder and pinker than usual, and flattered him. But that still left the mystery of why his suit was so very, overwhelmingly, red. Was it supposed to evoke a military uniform? The biggest mystery of all: what was that thing across his crotch? Despite this, red and 18th century most always win out, bringing in a reasonable 6.8 out of 10.

Last week I picked red to contrast with the dull colours of the week before. Why this week’s Rate the Dress?

Well, I’m in Melbourne, and all the houses in Melbourne are decorated with this amazing metal fretwork. I spent all of yesterday walking around, taking pictures of it, and saying “Oooooooh.” I couldn’t decide what to do for ‘Rate the Dress’, and asked friends and readers. One suggested Autumn, another a movie costume, and a third something Japanese to go with the Japanese patterns I posted yesterday, but Theresa (my hostess) suggested I do one inspired by the fretwork.

Ooooooh!

So I’ll get to the autumn and movie themes in the coming weeks, but for now, a Melbourne-fretwork inspired Rate the Dress in the form of an 1890s evening gown by Worth from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:

Evening dress, French, About 1893, Charles Frederick Worth, MFA Boston

Worth evening gown, bodice detail

Worth evening gown, skirt detail

What do you think of the pale pink brocade with its latticework patterns, and the way the design is highlighted with beading and applique on the skirt front? Does the asymmetrical fall of beads across the bodice add interest to the dress, or unbalance the whole aesthetic?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

Early 1950s fashions & fabrics in Japan, Part 5 of 5

Published by The Dreamstress

This is it. The last few pages of my catalogue of early 1950s sewing patterns and fabrics for the Japanese market. No I guess I’m going to have to start making some of them up!

There is actually a little story to these photographs that I haven’t told you. I went out one afternoon, bought lots of delicious things at the Asia Gallery, got given the patterns, was having an absolutely fabulous day.

Then I got home.

And realised I didn’t have my key, and the house was completely locked up. Blast!

Mr D would be home from work in an hour or so, and it was the middle of summer, so light and warm, so I decided to wait it out.

Felicity came out of her cat door and meeped at me while she tried to work out why I wasn’t coming inside. And I tried to find something to occupy my time. I realised I had my camera (I always have my camera) and the catalogue to look at. So all of these photographs were taken outside on my front steps on a late summer afternoon while I waited to get inside. Irritating at the time, but a charming memory in retrospect!