Miss Philomena

Because robinsnest keeps poking me, and because who doesn't like getting a present, here's my christmas wishlist.

Step One

- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two

- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list.

And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out; it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish and it might come true. Give and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

Don't forget to include a shipping address.

Step three: My List!
1. Harney & Sons gift cards
2. Kintpicks gift cards
3. Amazon gift cards
4. World Peace
5. for the cats to stop driving me insane
6. more storage space in my house- my closets are all full
7. holiday cards

ETA:
8. A TailorNova dressform pattern and the arm add on. I'll message measurements privately.

options 1-3 all have digital card options, and my email is adrienne.ruthie@gmail
if you're on the LJ costumers facebook group, my address is in the card list there!

Because I am! Look, I even made a thing!







I'm still not 100% over my heat exhaustion and dehydration, but I will power through!

robinsnest and mandie_rw have already put up posts about Ringwood, and I don't have much more to add to what they said about the event itself. So I'll chat up my outfit instead!

( details below )

Trying to figure out my year. There are at least a couple things on the calendar already!

As I have time:

• Silly me, I offered to sew some basic tunics and such to be loaner garb for my SCA group. I picked up a whole bunch of linen/rayon and linen/cotton from Jomar when it was down to $2/yard, so I'll work on them here and there. I plan to do a range of sizes, and some above-the-knee length, and some ankle-ish length. And possibly a few in kid sizes.
• I'm also going to continue to chip away at all the knitting I didn't finish for Gettysburg, because I want it finished before next time.

For March: The Known World Arts & Sciences Symposium will be in Plymouth Meeting, and I need some stuff to wear! The sleeves on my blue linen kirtle are tight enough that they left bruises when I wore it last month, so I plan to take them off, cut short sleeves from them from the length, and then make a pair of pin-on sleeves to go with it. I also want to make something else, rather than wear the same thing two days in a row. I've got some lovely goldenrod linen, and I'm leaning toward making something with it, trimmed with the apple green cotton velvet I also have.

For April: There's a Civil War weekend up the road in Neshaminy, so I think what I'll do for it is finish the teal and plaid gown I got wearable for Gettysburg. I need to fix the vest darts, add closures for the vest, and make a blouse to go under it. I did some playing around with hair supports and styling, so I feel more confident about how I'll be doing my hair for that day.

For May: Georgian Picnic! I've got some very pretty gray dotted cotton, and I plan to do something 1790s with it. I also want to make a new pair of stays as well.
mandie_rw is threatening to make us go Victorian sea bathing sometime as well, and I did snag three yards of blue wool jersey to make a swim costume for it. I'll probably do it as separates, with a bodice, short skirt, and bloomers. Part of me wants to do it as a sailor suit and trim with white, but I'm still rolling ideas around in my head.

For June: Reading WWII Air Show. I don't know what I want for it yet. TBD

For July: Jane Fest, maybe. This isn't set in stone yet, but I'd want a new ballgown if I do go.

For December: Dickens Fest in Narberth/New Castle. Don't know which we'll do, but I want to make the 1840s madras gown I got fabric for a couple years ago.

That's what's planned so far! 
I think. I might've forgotten something.

Wherein I sew half the things, and throw money at the rest!

I decided I wanted a proper cage hoop for this trip, after having used a bridal hoop for many years. It was a very nice hoop, six bones, and made of cotton rather than nylon as most are these days, but it still wasn't quite the right shape. So enter TV142, two super cheap ebay bridal hoops, and some 1/2" steel boning. It's wonderfully large, but I feel like it's still in proportion for me, since there's a lot of me.


To go over said hoop I made a few petticoats. One was plain white cotton, one was cotton eyelet, and one was an obnoxiously striped silk! The lighter stripe tends to photograph yellow, but it's more of a chartreuse color in person. It's of course made to be seen, with the gown skirt looped up over it. It was a super lazy project, just five yards of silk, done on the cross so there was only one seam in the back. I leveled from the top, pleated it to a waist tape, and there you go! I will at some point turn the selvedge up into a narrow hem.






Because of time crunch, and somewhat because of laziness, I purchased my other underthings. So my chemise came from an etsy seller, as did my paletot. Instead of pantaloons I wore long pettipants for the weekend. And my corset was from RedThreaded, and totally worth the cost. Corsetmaking is not my favorite activity.

robinsnest, Rob, Alice, and I hit up the Narberth Dickens Festival today! It was a very cute little town area, with some picturesque houses. It was a rather low-key event, with Alice in civvies and therefore playing our handler. A lot of the local shops had tables set out upside, as well as the restaurants. Alice got Thai, while Robin and I hit up the taco shop that was also selling fish and chips, properly served in paper and everything. The fries were seasoned and very tasty.

The fun part was a scavenger hunt that Robin and I did. It involved finding people dressed as various Christmas Carol characters, and we were asked repeatedly if we were anyone. It was made especially funny because the actor dressed as Fred had a dog with him. And guess who Robin and Rob brought with them. Once we found the real Fred we were able to direct people to him instead. Finishing the scavenger hunt earned us a brass shilling, which Robin and I then used to take a carriage ride. Okay, they were actually wagons, but they were very festively decorated with greens and holly. Our horse was named Big Ben.

We met up with the Philly friends of ours that had told us about the event, and had fun chatting with them for a bit too. It feels like we were stopped and posed for a thousand pictures, none of which have turned up on social media yet. We even posed for a picture with a local news anchor and her sons!


Robin and I on our carriage ride!

This was a complete rewear event, with my day dress from New Castle last year. The only new things I had were a gold belt and cockade that I'd bought for Gettysburg, and a miser purse. Thursday evening I decided I wanted at least a little something new, and thanks to crochet and thick silk thread, I was able to finish the purse by Friday afternoon. And of course, I had to put bells on it!


Click this for a short video!

(Chrome and dreamwidth apparently don't like each other, so if you saw this three times before I deleted the extras, I apologize)

oops! But I've been sewing! Not as much as I should be, with Gettysburg now officially less than a month away. Shh, don't remind me.

Instead I've made two new 18th century outfits, one of which the weather has been decidedly uncooperative about me wearing. 80°+ weather and a wool gown do not go together. Maybe if I do some December stuff it'll get an outing. I also made a shortgown/bedgown, which mandie_rw and robinsnest have both posted pictures of, from our bedgown revolt last weekend.

Gettysburg sewing (and knitting and crocheting) is still progressing. I'm not worried yet that I won't finish my sewing. I'm not sure other things will be finished in time, though. I've got an in progress shawl, but it's the bottom of the list. The tunisian crochet under petti I'm working on is taking precedence over that. We'll see!

I can never work on just one project at a time. It's a curse. But I did get a new hoop, TV142 1856 walking cage crinoline, mostly assembled. I made some changes to it, mainly making the hoop wider at the bottom. TV's patterns are set up that the bottom of the hoop is the same for every size, and only the top three hoop circumferences change for differing sizes. So I took put my calculator and mathed to keep that same proportionate increases from the medium size to the extra large size. It gave me a hoop about 130" at the hem instead of 110'. Just chilling in my living room it looks comically big, but I don't care! Once I finish sewing it, because right now the hoops are just pinned to the vertical tapes, I'll take some pictures. I'll be able to use it for everything but my fancy dress, because the striped skirt silk would only just fit over it, as in only a couple inches extra, and I don't want it tight over the hoop.

I've also been doing a lot of beaded knitting and crochet lately. I joined a knit-along for a pence jug purse through the Living History Knits and Crochet Facebook group, and we're currently in week two of five. This is such a small project and it knits up quickly, leaving me feeling impatient for more directions! Of course if I were just doing this on my own with no timing, it would linger, I'm sure.

First, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's WWII weekend!

The usual suspects went, and like usual I will lazily link to their posts (Amanda, Alice, and will add Robin and Jess if they write something eventually). I actually arrived at the agreed upon time, everyone else rolled up an hour later. This is a huge and popular event, so parking was quite a distance away, and a school bur ride to get to the entrance!


I was feeling quite spiffy if I do say so myself. And immensely glad I decided on my way out the door to bring my sweater just in case, because it turned out to be chilly! I don't think it got over 68F. Not usual for early June around here, jsyk. For my hair I did Victory Rolls in the front, perhaps a little smaller than they could've been, but I didn't have a lot of space to work in with my hat. The back I just rolled up.


I'm honestly a bit meh about this dress. It was much cuter in my head than in actually sewing. I had more fun with accessories instead. I picked up my hat on eBay, and the sweater is a modern one, but I spruced it up with some antique button pins and an adorable vintage (probably 50s) chain with red, white, and blue rhinestones.

The event was definitely fun, and I'd love someday to actually drive out my 1936 coupe, but when it's an hour and a half each way, and I'd need to have the car on site for setup Thursday, and not be able to get it home until Sunday, that'd require being there the whole weekend. So maybe some year further down, but 99.9% not for next year. It's been sitting for a while and needs some work anyway. But how much fun would it be, to be able to drive around with people in costume in the rumble seat in the back?

There was a flea market there, and I bought a very cute pair of mid-length yellow cotton gloves. No idea what I'll wear them with, but they were too cute to pass on, and actually fit! And completely randomly, I also bought a Victorian black crepe mourning veil. It probably won't go to Gettyburg this year, because I don't have a mourning outfit planned, nor do I have fabric for it, so it'll have to wait.

My full flickr album is here.

On a different note, this week has been a headwear week!


While I absolutely adore my gigantic and insane silk gauze cap, it's a bit impractical for regular wear. So Monday evening I cut and started a new cap using the Kannik's Korner 1740-1820 cap pattern, and finished it Tuesday afternoon. The pattern has been in my stash for ages, along with a yard of silk organza I purchased around the same time, to make said cap. I kept it fairly simple, with a single pleated split ruffle. My construction method is not the standard hem every piece separately and then whip it all together. Instead I used the method I was taught by Janae Whitacre of Williamsburg's Margaret Hunter Millinery Shop. This method is: turn down a small seam allowance, here a hair under 1/4", on the band piece. Lay it over the pleated ruffle, then baste the pieces together, done here in black. Then cover the raw edges with a 1/4" silk ribbon, stitching through all layers on both edges of the ribbon. Repeat for the caul. This creates a single layer cap with no raw edges, and it actually gets finished in a timely manner. I constructed my giant ruffle beast cap the same way.


My other bit of headwear this week is a spoon bonnet! It's mostly finished, and was intended to wear tomorrow for a Victorian Picnic here in Philly, but we've switched from hoops to natural form so it'll have to wait for it's first outing. I'm going to put the crown lining in after lunch, as well as the ties and curtain. But I'm going to hold off on trimming it for now, and wait until I actually need it. mandie_rw made the buckram frame for me, and mulled it as well, so all I had to do was cover and decorate it. I used a shot blue and pink semi-slubby dupioni for the outside, and the same pink taffeta from my gown for the big-ass hat tea earlier this year. The ties are the pink silk as well, and I'll probably put white feathers and flowers of some color on the outside eventually.

I've already written this up elsewhere, so I'm just copying it over to here so I can keep track of my plans.

Remembrance Day is in November, and unlike the usual suspects, I haven't gone to this before, so I have no wardrobe to pull from. That means I need to make almost everything!

So I'm writing up this post to a) keep track of what I'm doing, and b) make sure I don't weasel out of doing anything. As of right now I've got underwear for Gettysburg, and that's it. I have corset, chemise, pantaloons, hoops, shoes, and one spoon bonnet. I'm gonna put the list of what I need behind a cut. All the sewing!

( Read more... )

Okay, so I'm super far behind, but now that I've successfully imported all of my lj posts here I'm gonna start working on the list.

Things I Need to Write Up:
New Castle, Dec '16
Regency Tea, Jan '17
Victorian Skating, Feb '17
Suffragette, Feb '17
Big Ass Hat, April '17

I am, of course, going to skip over all of that and jump to my current project, which needs to be finished for Sunday.



Back in November at Burnley and Trowbridge's hat making workshop I picked up two and a bit yards of this lovely pink and blue crossbarred silk with vague plans to make some sort of jacket with it eventually. Well, 3/4ths of the usual suspects are going to a tea demonstration this Sunday, after having made most of a dress in a day for robinsnest there this past Saturday. Apparently it's to be silk day, and I decided I wanted something new, so into the stash I went!

I opted for a pet en l'air, as they're fun and light and a fairly quick make, though I've had to redo a few things when I decided I wasn't happy with how it looked. But for having started Sunday evening and only putting in 3-4 not very dedicated sewing hours in the last two days, it's close to done. Today's plan is to finish trimming the sleeves, and then set them along the bottom so I only need to put my stays on once to finalize the shoulder straps and set the top of the sleeve. Then it's only the shoulder pieces to cover, and a hem! (And a good pressing)


Back pleats pinned into place // back panel completely attached to lining // front pleats pinned into place

For the weekend I plan to wear it over my plain white taffeta petticoat and my baby pocket hoops, made for my 1740s mantua a few years back. I'm not looking for a super hippy shape in this, just a little extra oomph. There might be pictures over the next couple days, if not, finished pictures after Sunday!