56 Search Results for: five for friday

Five for Friday: Questions I’m bound to be asked at a talk

Whenever I give a talk there are certain questions I can be almost certain I will be asked. How long does it take to make one of these dresses? A long time. A long, longtime. But it does depend on the dress. A Regency, even hand-sewn, can go together in 12 hours. I actually counted with the tea gown, and it took between 32-40 hours from draping to hemming. The Ninon dress was much longer, thanks to all the hand-sewing and bodice boning. The Japonisme dress would have been relatively quick, were it not for the hand-appliques obi motifs. Are the dresses (and corsets) uncomfortable to wear? Chiara in Ninon said “Yes!” much too enthusiastically to this question this time, much to my chagrin.Certainly cramming all five us into a car for the ride from dressing to Premier House didn’t help with the comfort factor. I like to say that they are ‘differently comfortable’. Like a suit isn’t the same as jeans, but you wouldn’t necessarily say uncomfortable. How do you sit in them? …

Top five on Friday: Authors

Published by The Dreamstress

Sometimes on Friday* I review a book, but this week I thought I would just tell you about my five favourite (fiction) authors: the five whose books I read over, and over again, till I can quote whole passages, the five whose thoughts influence the way I think, and whose writing style is reflected in my own writing style. I can’t tell you which of the five is my favourite (far too hard to choose!). I depends on my mood, what I had for breakfast, and the direction of the wind. So here they are in alphabetical order by first name. Armine von Tempski – like me, Armine is a Caucasian child born in Hawaii, and she writes of her childhood in the islands, a century before mine. Her writings vividly evoke the Hawaii of her time; the lush grandeur of nature, the delicate politics in the years after the annexation, the amazing mix of cultures that would give Hawaii its distinct multicultural feel, and finally, the larger than life characters she was priviledged to …

A quick guide to corset & stay styles from 1750 to 1850

Published by The Dreamstress

In last week’s (well, almost week before lasts at this point!) Five for Friday post, when I discussed transitional stays, and succumbing to the temptation to make ‘reenactor style’ Regency stays* (which, you will be pleased to hear, I have not!), I didn’t make it clear what either was. So naturally, people asked! I was going to just write about transitional stays and reenactor stays, but how can you write about a transition if you don’t show what something is transitioning from, and towards? And how can I show something is a reenactorism if I don’t show what the reality was? I realised that both needed more background, and deserved complete posts. So, here is the slightly longer, more complicated, post with a history of supportive undergarments (i.e. stays and corsets – read this post for the difference between the two) from 1750 to 1850. This is intended as a very general introduction to the way the types of supportive undergarments period, rather than an in-depth exploration. One could easily write a full blog post …