1) You guys. This song is for you. Listen closely at the 1:20 mark. Now that’s love!
2) Avalanche City. All of their songs are so fabulously adorable. I love this music video.
Can you imagine the production meeting?
“Let’s have penguins”
Manager “Penguins are good”
“Yeah, and polar bears!”
Manager: “OK, penguins and polar bears…”
“And pirates!”
Manager “Pirates?”
“Yeah, pirates! And a dirigible”
Manager “sigh….”
(this works best if you say it in a Lilo voices)
Reading my blog for the last few weeks, you might have been mistaken for thinking that I was purely a historian, and never sewed at all. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, I have done little else but sew for the last few weeks, and have been too busy with it to blog about it!
One of the main things I have been working on is Carolyn’s dress, the art-deco inspired extravaganza. It’s looking amazing, if I do say so myself (also, Mr D and the bride and a few other people who have seen me sewing it have said so, so I know it is true)
😉
Ah-maze-ing!
I’m so excited that it is finally all together and looks like a real dress. There are so many different pieces to it that it took a long time to come together and feel like a garment.
The ostrich feathered train
It still needs lots of finishing touches: beads and sequins and corset backs and linings and a dozen tiny finishing bits.
The lines on the bodice meeting the skirt
Sadly for you though, I won’t be blogging about all of those finishing bits. I’ll do one more post about the belt, and another with some sneak peeks of the finished details, but other than that, this will be the last time I’m going to post about the dress until after Carolyn’s wedding. A bride needs her surprise wow factor at the wedding after all!
The bodice with lots of sparkle
And now, I’m back to ostrich feathers and sequins and pearls, and pattern drafting on some exciting new historical projects that I will be blogging about in great detail.
Haft-Sin is a traditional Naw-Rúz table setting in Persia (Iran), more linked to the Persian roots of Naw-Rúz, than to the way Baha’is celebrate it, but still a lovely, picturesque idea. A Haft-Sin is an arrangement of 7 items that begin with S, each symbolising a wish for the new year. Here is my Haft-Sin for you:
Sabzeh – wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish symbolize rebirth
Babies booties with tender curling vine sprouts, 1870-90, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Robe a la francaise with botanical print fabric and vining trim, 1770-1779, English, VandA
Samanu – a sweet pudding made from wheat germ symbolizes affluence
Corset with embroidery of oak leaves and wheat sheaves, 1876, Royal Worcester Corset Company, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ball gown with embroidered wheat motifs, Jean-Phillipe Worth, 1900, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Senjed – the dried fruit of the oleaster tree, look like cherries and symbolizes love
Evening dress, Worth with berry print, 1898, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Berry covered toque, Julie Magner Company, 1910, Metropolitan Museum of Art
SÄ«r – garlic, symbolizes medicine and good health.
Poor Dulcinea (below) was criticised for being so robust and healthy that she more resembled a ‘garlic eating peasant’ than the lady of Don Quixote’s fantasies.
Dulcinea del Tobos by Charles Robert Leslie, 1839, VandA
Nursing dress, 1825-30, VandA
SÄ«b – apples for beauty and health
Vest with embroidery of fruiting branches, 1780-90, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Apple-red shoes, 1732—59, British, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Somaq – sumac berries – symbolizing sunrise (through their colour) and new beginnings
Sunrise ball gown, House of Worth, ca 1887, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Evening dress, ca 1925, Voisin, Victoria and Albert Museum
Serkeh – vinegar symbolizes age and patience.
Spangled and embroidered ladies jacket, 1600-1620, VandA
Stomacher, 1720, English, Metropolitan Museum of Art
