25 Search Results for: historical sew and eat retreat

The NZSEHR 2019 in 1360s Medieval gowns thedreamstress.com

The 2nd Annual NZ Sew & Eat Historical Retreat

After the success of the 2018 NZSEHR, with food, and sewing, and pretty, pretty pictures, the Wellington historical sewing ladies decided we definitely needed to do it again in 2019. So we picked a sewing theme, and booked the adorable cottage we had last year, and spent our year sewing and planning and dreaming. And, once again, disaster struck – although this time the disaster was limited to us, and didn’t shut down the whole city! Instead of an overturned truck closing down the main road, the cottage had to cancel our booking, leaving us scrambling to find a suitable place at short notice, on one of the busiest weekends of the year. Happily, we found another cute cottage to rent. This time instead of heading up highway 1, along the Kapiti Coast, we headed out to the Wairarapa on highway 2, crossing the Rimutaka Hills, hitting Featherston (where the Time Travellers Ball was held) and turning towards the sea and driving down along between the hills and Lake Wairarapa. We were sad to loose …

The 1899 tea gown gets and outing (and tea)

Published by The Dreamstress

I made my 1899 tea gown back in 2012, and until this year, I’d never found an excuse to wear it myself. It’s been worn by models, but not by me. The Sew & Eat Historical Retreat was the perfect excuse to remedy that. We were having afternoon tea, and there was talk of everyone wearing 18th century, but my Francaise wasn’t going to be done in time, and in any case, my tea gown has a sacque back! Amazingly, 6 years after making it, it actually still fits me (the same cannot by said of everything I’ve made in the last 6 years…) My sewing skills have definitely grown since making it, and the problem with the fabric becomes more obvious every time I pull out the tea gown (its got metal in it, and WONT uncrumple. We ironed it for nearly an hour before I wore it, and you can see what it looks like…), but I still love it. It’s so elegant… Maybe someday when I have lots of free time (laughs …

A sparkles and tassels reticule

Published by The Dreamstress

November’s Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge was Purses & Bags – and, despite everything else that was going on, I managed to make a thing! It did take me more than a month though. I started it at our Historical Retreat (we tried to cram reticule making and bonnet making into one weekend – and of course finished neither), and didn’t get it done until the first Wednesday in December. I was inspired by the shape of this reticule from LACMA: And the decorations of this bag from MFA Boston: I used my gilt linen of doom: the stuff I used for these stays, and this pair of bodies (which were one of my entires for the very first Historical Sew Fortnightly – back when it was still fortnightly!) – and I still have a couple more metres of it to go! Because I was sewing sequins as decoration, I decided to line the reticule, to keep the knots and thread from catching on whatever I put in the bag. I used a blonde …