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costumes: gothic fantasy LotR characters 16th century 18th century 19th century 20th century science fiction |
Marquise de la Tour-Maubourg in the Eugenie Project dress diary ~ costume photos
August 12, 2005: I like the reasoning for hoops! Also, this is a painting -- walking in and sitting down in the positions required by the painting will be much easier in hoops. If we were wearing tons of petticoats, we'd need helpers to fouf out all those petticoats under the skirts. It's not serging that makes me wibble about interpretation vs. recreation, it's the undies! Another corset, another hoop, another chemise and drawers, and probably white ones too, not black (which I'd use again). *sigh* I guess my spiderweb-print victorian corset won't fly, but I could make a black one, because I've seen photos of black ones (and my dress is dark, yay). Hmm ... what about the hoop? I have a basic black bridal hoop. Should I make a more period one? I'll do it all if that's the group's goal. But it just takes me for freakin' ever. Unlike the rest of you, I will definitely need the full 2 years to finish this thing! Also, I'm not wholly clear on how accurate the stitching has to be. Reading over the CC23 rules, it says 'hand-sewing the whole outfit isn't necessary,' but also repeats that you must use period techniques. I don't have a serger and hardly use zig-zag, so I wouldn't do that anyway (heh, as if I ever finish seams!). But can I still sew on the machine, right? I'll hem and trim by hand, but that's all I'm good for. I definitely want the perfect exterior. I keep saying I don't like strict recreations, but this is the second group to convince me into recreations and for competition too! Also, I'd be happy to hear people's recommendations for where to get silk taffeta, preferably less than $15/yard. Any pattern recommendations for 1850s undergarments too. I like to start collecting materials and stuff as far in advance as possible, both for bugetary reasons and to give me more time to sew.
December 1, 2005: I better look at Kendra's book again to make sure what shade of purple/blue my dress is ;-) Oh and lace as accurate as that? Not bloody likely, IMO. Though I hope to do some looking in the LA Garment District at next year's Costume College. I keep looking at the painting and thinking that the artist just slapped that straw hat into my lady's hand as an after-thought. Her arm isn't turned the right way to actually hold the hat. And where is she holding it? Is there a strap inside? The hat's trims don't really go with the purple dress, and I think it would look kinda dumb to wear that hat with that dress. No one else has a hat. Maybe the artist messed up and added the hat to cover something!
July 24, 2007: Ok, I'll admit, I haven't done anything. I'm a bit unsure, because the bodice pattern I have is a Truly Victorian with darts, not princess seams that everyone else is doing. So I haven't made a mockup at all. I'll also need help with that, and I don't think I can get help before Costume College due to schedule conflicts. I have a cheezy bridal hoop (120"-ish at bottom, black poly), and I have most of a white muslin ruffled petticoat finished to go over that. I can finish it and bring to Costume College if needed. Plus I have a basic Victorian corset and chemise. Not super mega accurate, but it all will give the right silhouette, I believe. I do have some totally awesome silk fabric and lace for the gown tho', so I'm not a total slacker. Bought that last year ;-) If we can do blocking, cool. If not, well, what, half of us are in the Bay Area, so not totally lost. Also, if we want to have the painter, my hubbi is still up for it. Or even if not, I maybe I could get him to film it and put it online, so the non-local folks could see what we're doing. Just an idea.
Didn't someone suggest that the shorties (like, ehem, Sarah and me) wear a little bit of a heel? If so, I have simple black pumps with louie heels that would work. I'll also keep trolling my thriftstore for white that I can dye to match my gown, but there's enough black lace on mine that black shoes work, imo. Otherwise, I have the main silk and lace, still looking for the fussy little lace trims on the bodice. I bought faux flowers to rip apart and wire for the bodice corsage and hat. I have some tulle for the hat. Also, anyone know a good, not horribly expensive source for medium-width black silk ribbon? because I assume you'd all kill me if I used the stuff from Jo-Ann's on this gown :-) Just keep in mind I'm broke. But my skirt has 6 rows of ribbon on the hem. Oh, need a hat too. Thrift-hunting isn't turning up anything big enough with a fine weave. I have the bodice pattern that Kendra and Sarah helped with. I have a corset and a bridal hoop, plus a mostly finished over-hoop petticoat. Whew. So much still to go. But I'm on it, srsly!
February 1, 2008: Add to questions about historical accuracy: Trystan's hoop is store-bought and corset is general Victorian, not specific to the year, so take that as you will (but I did make it myself, Laughing Moon pattern, y'all know the one). I haven't contacted the Masquerade Directors yet (Shelley Monson and Ellie Farrell, btw), been totally distracted by my job blowing up. And Kendra, I *will* get to work on my gown, promise. Just work and the CC26 staff stuff keeping me busy, really. I woke up at 5am this morning with a start thinking "omg, Kendra's gonna bust my ass about the Eugenie gown!" I was dreaming of about finally having to cut into the lavender silk :-) Oh and I'm freaking out about piping. I've never piped anything. Do I have to? How do I do it? How do I make it? Is it cut on the bias? Am I gonna have enough fabric? Eeeeek. Head 'splody.
I've actually sewed something! But it causes more problems than it's worth ;-) Since my hoop is an ugly generic black bridal hoop, I made a ruffled petticoat to go over it, lest the cheezy boning show through. I suspect this is of highly questionable historical accuracy since the extant hoops have lots of closely spaced bones that prevent "hoop shelfing" and such issues, and the extant petticoats seem to only have 1 or 2 small flounces at the bottom -- not rows of flounces all along the body of the skirt. So strike 1 against me. Strike 2 is that I ran out of fabric and am short a row of ruffles near the bottom (3 instead of 4 rows). I put the last row at the very bottom to cover the final hoop wire, as that can stick out more, and the next ruffle above slightly masks the next wire up. You can see a photo in the Y!Group, Trystan folder. I included pix of my hoop with out the petticoat, plus a photo of all my skirt fabrics laid over the petticoat. See, I rather think that I don't need that fourth ruffle ... if it were just for me, I wouldn't do it. Hi, I'm a stage costumer! Not a perfectionist, not a historical accuracy nut like you folks. The 3 ruffles seem to do the job of 4. I can go buy more fabric (it's just muslin; I'll need more anyway) and add another ruffle, but in the interest of time, plus this petticoat not being accurate anyways, well, it seems kinda silly to me ... If you really want me to do it, I will. Also, if anyone knows of documentation for this kind of petticoat, I'll feel better about it, because I got nothin' in my books. I won't be able to get to the store for another week or so anyway, due to family commitments. So I'll move on and hopefully cut out the bodice in the meantime.
February 11, 2008: Katherine and Kendra, thanks for both of your opinions! I do like the shape of the petticoat -- hard to tell in the fabrics picture, but when I floofed it all around, the skirt looked like it will have a really good shape, well-domed, true enough to the period, imo. Which was the whole point of making the petticoat at all. So, I think if I have time at the end, I'll pin a 4th ruffle on the bottom and see how it looks. But I won't worry about it for now. The big deal was that I could get the general size of the skirt set now. This actually leads to another question I have: silk ribbon! I need 6 rows of black silk ribbon on the lavender chiffon tiers on my skirt (I believe the ribbon is on the chiffon, not the silk below it; if it was on the silk, the black would look more muted; also, I believe the chiffon is tiered *not* the silk, this will make a big difference overall -- but if s'one wants to argue that, let me know). So, I've found 2 sources for ribbon and there's a big price difference. I'm pretty broke right now, so this matters. But I'm not sure which would look most right. Opinions please! Caveat: yes, I know 1 row is almost rick-racky, but I'm not finding anything like that which doesn't look dumb, so I think using plain ribbon for all 6 rows will be better. Suggestions welcome, but I'm leaning towards the ribbon... I'll need 22 yards. Choices so far:
M&J Trim silk satin double-faced ribbon 9mm black
Cam Creations silk embroidery ribbon 7mm black Afaik, the silk embroidery ribbon would be thinner and doesn't have that same finished edge that double-faced satin ribbon does. But then, why should that matter for this trim? And sewing it onto chiffon, lighter-weight might be nicer. I'm not sure about the width though-- 7mm, 9mm, or 13mm? I think 7 or 9, especially considering there are 6 rows total. Man, I feel like have a lot of crap going on in my skirt! Heh.
February 19, 2008: I started my skirt this weekend, but I have a bunch of probably dumb questions... First, any recommendations for pleating into the waistband? I have a lot of fabric (maybe too much -- about 5 yards, iirc) and several layers. Cartridge-pleating, box pleating, knife pleating? Other? Combo? Also, should the waistband be shaped somehow (dip in front/back)? Or is it ok to have it straight around? Now to the layers ... I think my skirt is the weirdest. The tiers are not even, tidy ruffles, plus they're different types of fabric, all sheers, some trimmed. Here's what *I think* is going on -- not sure how to construct:
1: floor-length purple silk In the portrait, you can see through the lace to the purple silk. Which makes me think you're seeing through the chiffon too, and so the chiffon layers go all the way up to the waistband. Otherwise, wouldn't you see a line of stitching if they were just ruffles sewn on at the hem? And wouldn't that make them pouf out at the hem a lot? They hang very softly. Are they ruffles at the bottom and not layers from the top? Am I over-thinking this? Of course, I already went and bought more chiffon just in case. It's probably a different color anyway. But hey, it's silk and I don't think what I have already is. Hee.
February 22, 2008: I vote "Interpretation." Shelley has a good point. There are plenty of folks who can/would make the exact corset and hoop. Our problem is that we have a large group, and , while it's got to be more rare for a big group to *all* have skin-out accuracy, it's not impossible or wildly too much to ask. A living history group could enter their usual reenactment garb, for example. But that ain't us! Let's go with what we know we have: a really close interpretation of a historical painting.
February 22, 2008: And let's not forget about Presentation judging, which is separate from Workmanship entirely. We can *so* kick ass there. I while I suspect that some of you are big on the Workmanship props, I've always been a Presentation judge, and I think that's so important and just as, if not more hard to do right. You have to win over a whole audience. And we will because we will be PRETTY PRETTY PRINCESSES :-D
February 23, 2008: I'm going to sound like a waffler here, but I had a good conversation with Ellie Farrell today, the other Historical Masquerade director, today at the CC26 meeting. She suggested that if undergarments are the only sticking point, it may be better to enter as reproduction because the interpretation category often gets filled with really wild "interpretations" of historical concepts. We'd be like apples and oranges and make it harder for the judges to make any kind of valid comparisons. But the really important thing she said is this: it's not set in stone! We can change from reproduction to interpretation later. We can talk to the directors at the con -- once they see the whole field, they and the judges will have a much better idea of where each entry really fits best. Also, the judges are not selected yet. Finally, we have to enter asap! They expect to get a ton of entries in both masquerades and may have to turn people away so the shows don't run on forever. CC26 has already passed the prereg numbers of any previous CostumeCon. This is big, folks :-) One person has to fill out the online form. We do need everyone's full names. Plus a title for the entry and what we want the MC to say. I'm pretty sure we can add to this/change it once we have it in the reg. system or even at the con. So that's what I learned today. Back to sewing!
I'm staring and staring, and I really think there are 2 full layers of black lace that go all the way up to the waistband. There are falling lines, folds, indicating drape in the lower, longer tier that show *under* the shorter layer. You can see the longer layer of black lace folded under the shorter black lace layer in the center front. Look all that bunching. I still can't tell about the sheer purple layers tho. The lace and shadow is just dark enough in that area that a row of stitching for ruffles could be hiding in there (and would certainly be less bother than yet more layers from the waistband!). Plus the black ribbon trim could further hide stitching in those sheer layers. I do have sheer organza, but it's rather stiff and I'm not convinced the drape is right. The painting's ruffles flow so nicely, but in my pinning, I can't get this stuff to do anything but stick out. A soft chiffon might be the trick (or maybe layer one over the other? who knows). Besides, it doesn't look like I have quite enough organza. Anyone else's eyes going googly staring at the hi-rez pix?
February 23, 2008: I started my bodice outer layer... Oopsie, I forgot to baste the silk to another layer; it's not as flimsy as I thought and I was just on a roll and went straight to sewing. I'd hate to rip all that out and weaken the material. Will only 2 layers in the bodice be horrible? I have various weights of cotton for the lining, some quite sturdy. Plus boning. However, I always bag-line which I know is wrong (it's just so clean and tidy!). So how am I *supposed* to line this? Is this where the dreaded piping comes in? Eeeek! Somebody hold me. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm going in no linear progression with this costume...
February 23, 2008: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! There has to be another way. Pleasepleaseplease tell me there's something you do about matching up things and basting them together and piping and stuff. Because unpicking seams will ruin the piece I've cut, guarantee it. They'll be weak, torn, wobbly, frayed, and useless. I thought flatlining was only to give additional strength to fabrics! Because I flatline and *then* bag-line usually. Flatlining by itself wouldn't be much of a lining. *looks for puddle to drown self in*
February 23, 2008: Ever feel like you're the slow, dumb, fat, loser kid on the football team? Your friends kinda like you well enough, so they don't kick you off, but they'd probably win a lot more games if you weren't there.
February 24, 2008: Yes, I'm not trusted to sew alone ;-) One seam is unpicked -- took half an hour and will need some fray-check (ew) but it should survive. The silk itself isn't too floppy or weak. Fraying on the curved seams will probably be the worst of it. On to the skirt. Pleating. I can't mess that up too badly, can I??? (Famous last words...)
February 25, 2008: It's a real costume now -- I earned my first wound. Last night, I stabbed a needle under the quick of my right thumb (because I'm incapable of using thimbles). Didn't bleed *on* the fabric, thank the gods. But blood has officially been shed, so it's real. Y'know, like Velveteen Rabbit "real." And, oh the irony, it was in the process of doing a bit of hand-sewing that I then had to rip out entirely. Feh. Me and that lighted seam ripper are making *such* good friends this go-round. Also, man, I am *so* damn short! Lordy, you don't realize how short you are sometimes. I mean, yeah, nice, use less fabric, but it's a real pain when you're recreating something and clearly the original was a normal-heighted woman. Folks talk about how tiny everyone was back in ye olden days, but no, everyone was not 5'2".
I have my base skirt assembled with the 2 tiers of black lace. I realize my lace is rather heavier than in the original, but ah well, it *is* a lovely embroidered lace and the pattern. I think, overall, my gown is going to be darker than the original. My purple is darker, my lace is heavier -- this wasn't intentional (Bridget and Kendra helped pick the fabrics!), but go figure, mine's turning into a gothic Eugenie maid!
So now it's on to cutting and trimming those ruffles. Oi. Btw, the silk embroidery ribbon from Cam Creations looks great. Really soft and floaty, plus great customer service and FAST shipping. About 2 days! Highly recommended. It's definitely the light, non-faced ribbon, but perfect for trimming, imo.
March 2, 2008: Massive 140"-ish skirt hem is pinned. Now I have to hand-sew it. Boy, this would be the ideal for iron-on hem tape or stitch witchery! But I am resisting temptation for you folks. Just thought you'd like to know the sacrifices I'm making ;-) However, I don't think I'll get to the ruffles today, because it'll take a couple hours to hem by hand as I'm slow. Chugging along...
March 2, 2008: Nothing new, but I am still the world's slowest sewer, especially hand-sewing. Oi, I don't know why you people enjoy sewing by hand! Freaks. My fingertips will be bleeding by Monday (all blistery sore right now). And don't even talk to me about the cricks and aches in my back, neck, and shoulders, although some of that's from machine-sewing too. However, this has been an 80% hand-sewing (or unpicking) weekend. Upside? I got through the entire More Hip Than Hippie podcast backlog. Now I'm listening to old Wait Wait Don't Tell Me (althoughI didn't miss many of those) and I have a ton of Grammar Girl, Podictionary, Writer's Almanac, and TreeHugger Radio to keep me going for the rest of the afternoon. Podcasting is my new NPR. No pledge breaks.
March 5, 2008: You mean I'm hand-sewing something and that others are *not*? Wow, the planets must be out of alignment ;-) I'm 3/4ths of the way through hand-sewing the hem of the base skirt. [Note: Kendra machine-sewed her hem, hee hee!] A lot of my skirt will be hand-sewn actually, because the thing's so giant. So far, only the panel seams have been machined. The trim on the chiffon will *probably * be done by machine, but the ruffles might be placed by hand, to get them just right (and again, soooo much fabric). Kendra, you mentioned Bridget's sewing machine makes buttonholes that look like hand-done eyelets. Would that count? And if so, Bridget, I'm coming over! Would ribbon be appropriate to lace with? I think it looks prettier than cord, but I don't know if what's documentable for this era, and you can't see the back of my dress. Also, question about materials -- boning in the dress itself, plastic or steel? Steel seems like overkill and a bit less period. Good quality plastic seems like a better stand-in for whalebone, the right flexibility. Usually, I'd only bone a bodice in steel if I'm not wearing a corset, but I defer to the group here. Or none? I was thinking a line of boning, in casing, along the side seams, front, and back where it's laced.
March 12, 2008: *wibble* Insert tiny moment of Costume-Con panic here. About, well, everything.
March 16, 2008: Ok, back to the salt mines of my masquerade costume. Ugh. Trim. I usually love trim. But frickin' rows of ribbon are BORING and TEDIOUS and my back is KILLING me from sitting at the machine. Of course, the next thing after that is hand-sewing, not any better. Whee! <--- note facetiousness.
Out of skirtland! That monster is done! Well, I need to put hooks on it, but that waits until I'm all corseted, and there's no-one around who can tight-lace me right now. But I'm calling the skirt DONE anyway :-) Picture with obligatory crappy flash is in my folder on the Y!Group. Now on to piping-land. Bought a new foot for my machine, I have cord, and Kendra loaned me her magic little tool. But first, a celebratory Pink Drink(tm)!
March 22, 2008: w00t! um, I think... I believe I am halfway done with my CC26 historical masquerade costume. Yay! Except it took me about 3 months to get there and I have only one month left. Well, at least it *looks* like I have a lot done.
March 23, 2008: Got the answer to some questions I asked of the Masquerade Directors, FYI.
Kendra, Sarah, and I had talked and were going to dress Thomas as a standard "painter" in a smock (Sarah has an off-white renaissance shirt), pants (Thomas' own modern black pants), and a beret (store-bought). Sarah also has a painter's palette and we have brushes. I have an easel. Clearly, we won't win any workmanship points with this. If we cared, we *could* dress him more like Winterhalter, e.g., 1850s middle-class European man at work. But that would be a lot more work that none of us really have time for! And as far as workmanship judging goes, we already have things like purchased corsets and hoops, so as a group, we're not winning major awards there. Imo, we do need the painter for the presentation -- he turns a random group of pretty ladies into a portrait! And heck, we might have a chance at a presentation award then (if anyone cares about that sort of thing ;-).
Period sewing techniques suck! So insanely slow and looks much more crappy than modern tricks -- specifically, only flat-lining instead of flat-lining for strength and bag-lining for tidiness. Gah, the inside of this gown looks like hell and took all day to "finish," such as it is. This masquerade costume is full of stuff I'm never, ever doing again. Not bag-lining. Piping. Hand-made eyelets. Never again!!! At least making the piping went a lot faster, thanks to Bridget's trick of using spray-basting to hold it together until sewing. Also, finally having an actual piping foot hugely helped. Not gonna do the fancy thing Kendra showed me with the piping half-wider on one side and then folded over on the middle. Too much trouble, not enough time. The seam edges are all raw and simply over-casted by hand. I'll do the same with the piping edges and they'll all fray equally (which is to say, a hell of a lot -- srsly, why are people so against bag-lining? this is a mess inside! an "accurate" mess, but whatevs).
I made piping and stuck it on the bodice. It did not kill me. Yay. <---ironic Took pix but not posting them because y'all know what it looks like. Just took pix to prove to myself that I did it. (and yeah, someday I'll do a retrospective dress diary ;-) Sleeves -- couple o' mockups and I think I have the size right now. After a break, I'll start sewing them today, hopefully. Then bertha, tucker, flowers for corsage and hat, hat trimming, head lace thingy, minor tweaks to jewelry I bought. And documentation and presentation! Still, the end is in sight...
March 30, 2008: At some point, I may turn these notes into a proper dress diary. As it is, I'm just marking progress for the sake thereof and to feel like I've gotten stuff done.
 Sleeve mockup
I still don't drape, but hey, I made my own sleeves. The to-do list for this costume is steadily shrinking. The real biggies will be the presentation and documentation, but for the first, it's mostly Thomas recording stuff, and the later, I even have a very rough draft written already. Oh damn. There's Thomas' costume and documentation. Frickity-frack. Well, we kinda know what he's going to wear (Bridget has to bring over some stuff for him to try out), and I know what I'll write for his documentation. Honestly, he's just a prop for our presentation. But they're being nit-picky this year and every single person on stage for the historical masquerade has to go through workmanship judging, needs documentation, etc.
March 31, 2008: Here's another reason I don't hand-sew much -- It's frickin' killing my arms, hands, shoulders, and neck. Today around 3pm at work, my right hand started twinging bad. Shooty pains from the pinky and finger next to it and all across my palm. Esp. when I moused on the computer (so, of course, I stopped doing that, which made the last few hours at the office difficult). On the ride home, my left hand started doing it too, but not half as badly nor as often. Thomas and I got groceries after work, and I couldn't push the cart around. I started having trouble grabbing things from shelves with out pain. Loading groceries in and out the car was rough -- he told me to stop because I kept wincing. But I have program book stuff to do tonight, dammit! Well, my computer gave me a break because it needed some updates and then the net connection was wonky. We had dinner, T's dad came over briefly, I didn't use my hands for more than eating and that felt ok. Holding a nice, cold beer bottle in my right hand felt great too. But now I've been on the computer for an hour and my right hand is twingy constantly. This isn't the first time this has happened, oh no. Last week, I got the shooting pains up and down my right arm after a weekend of hand-sewing. And I suspect I have rotator cuff issues -- or so the flaring pain in my upper-right back would indicate. Right side of my neck is also badly kinked. I sew sitting upright in a decent office chair with the fabric on a table at about the correct height for me (have to crank the chair up, but I can use the chair's feet as my own footrest). The thing I can't make more ergonomic is the actual motion of hand-sewing. I don't know how you people who do it professionally can take this. Maybe I've just pre-injured myself from bad computer use back in the mid-'90s -- I regularly had to numb my right wrist and forearm after work when I was putting newspapers online every week. That office had crap-tastic desks and setups, no such thing as ergonomics or even base comfort. My setup at Y! and at home are a billion times better now, but I wonder if the nerves and tendons have been permanently frayed so that moderate over-use now makes them bonkers. But I *have* to sew all weekend and be on the computer all week (day for pay; night for the con). I can't take a break yet! Too close to the finish!
I just got a vintage chemise off eBay to wear with my gown. It's perfect! Fits great and the neckline is the right shape for the low neck of the bodice (at least in a quick try-on last night). My old Victorian chemise is black and I was worried about it showing and about the neckline not being wide enough. My drawers are also vintage, so I'm rather pleased to have a full set of authentic Victorian undies :-) Oh and the seller was great -- I'd actually missed bidding on the auction, but I asked if she was going to relist it. She offered it to me for the starting price and shipped it super-fast too. Recommended!
Ugh, three hours to make one sleeve. Bloody freakin' hell. Wasn't even hand-sewn! Just fiddly as all get out. Only took a few teeny breaks to see some of the fights during the Sharks game and relieve my back. Here comes Calgary, should be interesting. Nose back to the grindstone...
April 7, 2008: I uploaded a PDF of my documentation so far to the Y!Group. The text is mostly complete (except the bertha, since I haven't made that yet), but I need photos of my gown for the side-by-side comparison to the portrait. Also need photos of my accessories. But you can get an idea of what I'm going for. I also need to write up documentation for Winterhalter/Thomas.
April 9, 2008: Bleh, hand-sewing. Hand-bound eyelets blow chunks. I've done one half of the bodice tho. Think it took about 4 hours (I called in sick to work today -- was headachey in the a.m., plus Thomas' mother was coming down for lunch).
 Practice eyelets, testing different types of thread.
 These are the first hand-made eyelets I've ever done and it shows!
April 10, 2008: I feel kinda like a rockstar because last night I finished all those bloody hand-bound eyelets (though they were not actually bloody, thank the gods) *and* I am this close to being finished with the program book. The later looks a whole lot better than the former, but still. I'm doing it. Go me. I am getting shit done. Unlike a certain hockey team -- eep!
April 12, 2008:
 Bertha mockup
OMG I hate berthas! So completely ugly. And it kept angling weird, and the pleats went wonky on me and are uneven and weird and I hope the lace covers up/distracts from the hideousness. I think I'll rip the thing off after Costume-Con and just add a big lace ruffle. UG-LEE.
 Bertha with lace pinned on
April 12, 2008: I hate bias strips! Yet another thing I hope never to make after this costume. Oh and I'm beginning to totally not see the need for having used silk here either, except for the fact that it's "historically accurate." Yep, those dreaded words again. In this specific case, most of the silk is covered up! Such a waste really. I could have used a decent blend or poly for half the price and all the same effect. The lace on top of it is probably a synthetic (never did a burn test) -- I chose it for the pattern since that's the most crucial part for the reproduction, incredibly hard to find. All the other trim is silk, which is nice, I suppose, but it's not like you can tell by looking at it. And who's going to touch it, other than workmanship judges? In any kind of real-life situation, the fiber content is irrelevant for this one. Sure, cheezy lightweight shiny synthetics = bleh!!! I can't stand that. Cheapens an outfit and screams "Halloween costume" not "historical clothing." But there is a middle ground between horribly expensive 100% silk and craptastic acetate. Ok, bitching over. Back to the grind. I *will* be finished with the main part of this gown THIS WEEKEND, goddamnit. I only have 1 major thing left to do on it. Then it's all accessories...
April 13, 2008: Anyone have a source -- either online or that they can scan and post -- for what one of those little lace caps looks like *not* on a woman's head? I'm wondering how I should make mine. It doesn't have ear flaps afaik. In the portrait, it mostly looks like just a back veil. Easy enough to make: gather up a bit of lace, pin on head, ya? But if there's a more, dare I say it, historically accurate version, I'll do it. I just don't have any source material. I don't have anything in books that shows one not on a head. I looked through all of Kendra's Real Women's Clothing links for this period too, no dice. Oh and for pinning, should I get old-fashioned open hair pins instead of bobby pins? Will it matter? Those never seem to stick in my hair, but some of you are better with that. Or if s'one out there has a couple black/dark ones I can use, that'd be awesome :-) PS: I'm sooooooooo close to being done otherwise!
April 13, 2008: One last bit of trim left to add to the bodice. Then it's all hooks and eyes, baby! I actually worked on a bunch of accessorizing late last night because I was fed up with a certain aspect of the bodice (UG-LEE, but "historically accurate"). Some times, you just gotta walk away. And then, after a morning run in the nice, cool temps, I finished almost all of the accessories. Need some more ribbon, tho, before I can really do one thing.
I'm gonna get all this DONE. Oh yes I am. And you can't stop me. HAH! (note maniacal voice)
April 14, 2008: About those citations, Kendra, et. al. THANK YOU! Because I'm realizing I don't have much sources other than "I stared really hard at the portrait, and then did what you people told me to do to make it look like that." Which is kinda sucky documentation for historical (though it'd fly for F/SF!).
April 18, 2008: Dharma Trading Company rules the world!!! Dude, I always knew this was one awesome outfit, but these fine folks have, yet again, exceeded expectations! I've been hemming and hawing (mostly hawing) about what fabric to use for this last tiny little stupid annoying bit on my masquerade costume. I don't really have anything right in The Stash, and I finally realized Joann's wouldn't have anything either. So yesterday afternoon, around 1pm, I placed an order for 1 yard of silk at Dharma. It was after the deadline for orders to be processed that day, so I knew I'd blown it. I wrote in the comments box "I hope this can ship swiftly, but if it doesn't I won't cry because it's my own dang fault." But lo, the order was processed in a few hours. And I received it just now! Of course, I always get orders quickly because the company is in San Raphael, CA, and I'm in San Jose -- just a couple hours away. But man, that was FAST!!! I totally and completely *BIG PUFFY HEART* Dharma!!! Btw, the order only cost $5 too -- I also love that what they carry is all pretty darn affordable and good quality too.
 Tucker, made using silk from Dharma.
April 19, 2008: Whoo-hooo!!! I'm done!!! I'm done with my masquerade costume!!! It's all sewn!!! Stupid accessories and fiddly bits and everything!!! Whoo-hooo!!! *high-fives self* And it's not even 2 am tomorrow!!!
April 20, 2008: Yay!!! Well, I'm not happy with mine (it's a weird dress, but that's the portrait and era's fault; I'm so totally ripping the bertha and tucker off after this). But it's done and mostly fits, especially if I don't tight-lace (oops, I actually lost a tiny bit of weight after I did the skirt). Added more hooks and bars just now to help. I uploaded 2 full-length pix. I have more closeup and corset pix for documentation. Had to take all of them in the driveway because my dress does not fit in my tiny house! The hoop takes up all of my little sewing room, but doesn't fit through any of the doorways once the skirt's on. That was fun to discover today. Oh and Thomas and I recorded the soundtrack. He mixed the spoken parts with the music and chatter the Michael provided, and he's going to put an MP3 up on his server tonight so everyone can download it as a preview.
April 19, 2008: I kept this running list as a private post all during the start of 2008 and crossed things off as I went...
April 29, 2008: My weekend... It was a lot of things. 98% of them amazingly good. The truly crowning jewel, for those who didn't hear, was this:
Best in Show, Costume-Con 26 Historical Masquerade. Master Costumer for reals. See also, this photo and the original inspiration. SO FUCKING WORTH IT.
April 29, 2008: Saturday morning was our whip-cracking rehearsal for the masquerade. After the performance, many people commented, wow, you must have been practicing that for ages! Um, no, the very first time we physically worked it out was Saturday morning, 8am, at the con. Srsly! Of course, we'd always had an idea that we'd make the painting come to life and it involved the painter and Thomas would be our Winterhalter. That concept came to us probably at the Costume College where we planned the thing in the first place (because I already had a CC26 membership for him and he likes performing and is a good sport). Kendra and I had worked out a script. Her husband had provided some movie chatter from her extensive collection of girlie costume films, which Thomas combined with a Strauss waltz and a recording of me saying "the empress!" and him saying "ladies, places please." The soundtrack and script were synchronized to the second. We'd posted all of this to the Y!Group where the project had been planning everything for 3 years. We'd also coordinated who had and could bring stools, covers, the easel (I lucked out and found one literally on the side of the street!), and the painting. So while we had never walked through the whole thing, we had some ideas of what was going on. We made use of the taped-out stage dimensions that Karen had thankfully done in one of the hotel carports. Not sure if this was publicized anywhere, but I remembered it from a staff meeting -- thank the gods for insider knowledge! Everyone arrived on time, except Lynne who was violently ill. We wore our hoops over jeans, Thomas had the stopwatch, and we walked through it first with out the music and then with and eventually with Lynne too. 27 times total according to Thomas (he says that now, but he could be making it up). We had our musical cues down, counting out the beats, figuring out the crossings, and all that. It was good.
April 30, 2008: Sunday, we gathered all our crap for the presentation (2 stools, bag of sheets) and for judging (entire costume, shoes, and hoops) and trudged by the overland route to the green room. Omg, surface of the sun! In cruel shoes! My eyes! My feet! Whose stupid idea was this? Oh, right, mine. Made it with plenty of time. In fact, neither the judges nor tech crew had arrived yet. Our group trickled in, surprisingly very prompt. We had shit tons of stuff. What do you expect for 10 people in mid-victorian get up, sitting for a portrait? Speaking of which, here's a complaint: not so clever to schedule only 15 minutes of judging for a group of 10 costumes. Either that, or the judges should have been *a lot* more conscious of the clock from the start. The first people in our group got a lot of attention, while the last folks were hustled through. And also, since our gowns had many similarities, they could have grouped some stuff together to avoid repetition (like: "so how did you all do your berthas?" or something). I believe it took about 45 min. for our whole group. But I'll come back to that. It was 1pm and we still had only found 1 ninja. We were desperate. The first person I thought of who I knew was at the con, not in or working the masquerade, and I had in my cell was Johanna. Maybe it was the hope that I could bribe her into it (which, in the end, turned out well ;-). I rang her up, explained our dire straights, and she came right down. OMG, LIFESAVER. And right then, Yvette showed up too and said she could help. WOW. As it turned out, three ninjas was perfect, because even two wouldn't have been enough with all our deal. Jayzuz, we were complicated. Tech rehearsal went smooth as silk. Oh, except for the goddamned castanet lady! Not anyone's fault except for letting her be there. WTF was her problem? We got onto the stage and were trying to run through stuff and there was this "clack clack clack." She was sitting in the audience, and someone would glare at her and she'd stop clacking for a minute. Then she'd start, a little bit at first, then more. Finally I told her to STFU. Which was greatly amusing to all around. Chris O. was an excellent stage manager. She and the whole tech crew were really on the ball during rehearsal and the show itself. It was a complete opposite of what Saturday night looked like (again, I wasn't backstage then, so I don't know how that really ran). We did a couple run throughs and could even mark where our props went on the stage -- very handy! Then, into judging. This was the thing I'd been dreading ever since I put needle to thread. And apparently for good reason. The one judge who was someone I knew was also s'one I knew was a hardass, and she proved it. I still don't know who the other judges were (I may have an email s'where for the program book, but I didn't want to put just one show's judges in the book). And I didn't recognize the other names anyway. I started by explaining that I had not done these things before, never piped anything, never made hand-bound eyelets, and never flat-lined a garment. This was all new to me. I explained my methods as intense study of the painting, things like the crossing fold lines of the lace tiers that showed they both extended from the waistline (not that the lower one started halfway down the skirt). Aurie asked what I thought was a kinda dumb question which caught me off guard: why did you sew the bottom 2 ruffles to the silk? I wanted to say "because they can't just float there magically in space by themselves." But instead, I was quick on my feet and noted how there is no color change under the lace, so it's clear that the solid silk shines through the lace with out obstruction, so the bottom ruffles have to start lower. They also can't be attached to the lace because there's no seam line in the painting. Then she asked my favourite question, the one Bridget and I had discussed a lot on our Y!Group -- why did I choose the chiffon for those ruffles? Simple: organza (used on several of the other dresses and arguably more period) was too stiff. I started with organza, but when I mocked it up, no matter how loose I made the ruffles, they stuck out horizontally too much, were far too poufy. The ruffles as painted are very soft and fluid, very drapey, and they puddle at the bottom of the skirt. This is very clearly shown in the painting. Chiffon achieves this effect better. Still, even thoughI totally won that argument, I came away from judging feeling like they hated me and thought I was a big dumb LOSER. I was completely rushed through (being towards the end of our group). I wasn't asked any positive questions like "how did you do that?" -- just nitpicky ones with the insinuation of "you were wrong to do that, prove why you aren't." Also, I heard not a single polite word. C'mon, whenever I've judged (though I've only done workmanship a couple times and yeah, it's been F/SF, but so what?), I thank each person for their effort. I heard the judges gushing over some of our group earlier too. Be fair! Give everyone the same polite neutrality. Especially if you're old pals with certain folks (as I think a certain judge is). I know judging is hard, but so is being a contestant. I wasn't rude to them -- nervous as fuck, sure, jittery, and forgetting the right words, but never rude. And I hurried through because I knew we had been at it a while, and I tried not to belabor anything. But man, they made me feel like I was intruding or something! It was extremely unpleasant. Oh and I didn't even mention the horrible accident that happened in the green room! After our rehearsal, but before judging, a woman was doing something (not sure what, I didn't see it happened) but fell into one of our heavy wooden stools. She must have been going rather fast because she started bleeding profusely and later I learned her shin was gashed so badly she needed stitches. Thomas, Lana, and Bridget were nearest and got her down and covered the wound. I called TheOtherSarahG in ConOps because I knew she had at least a first aid kit if not a medical staffer. I relayed what happened and said to send someone down to the green room asap. Eventually, the paramedics came and took the woman to the hospital. She was okay in the end, but man, that was pretty freaky for a while. I guess we really are mad, bad, and dangerous to know :-/ After all that trauma, we returned our gear to the rooms and Kendra, Katherine, Teresa, and I had lunch/dinner. We weren't going to be able to eat again before the masquerade, so this was really it. We wanted to get ready in a calm, relaxed manner. No rush. I even poured the very last of our Pink Drinks(tm). At one point, after Kendra had done my hair and I was sitting there in my antique 1860s chemise, about to put on my eight-year-old wedding corset, I let out a big sigh. This was it! Three long, hard years of work were coming to fruition. The con itself was on the verge of being a complete success. And here we were, a group of crazy costumers, about to set out for the stage to recreate a beautiful dream. All the planning, all the bitching, all the money spent, all the sewing, all the swearing, all the fantasizing, it was about to be over. I got a chill... We laced each other up and put on our little finishing bits. We'd stored our props in the green room earlier. I took my giant tulle-covered hat. I had my camera, cellphone, makeup, and a load of meds in my purse (too bad I forgot my flask ;-). We walked the overland route -- no need to cover up, no-one was there yet. We checked in and were assigned to den #3. Our 'den mom' was Marty Gear. He didn't remember me, but I remembered him from CC23. How could I forget the vampire guy? But this time, he was all about us. Marty was to guide us on and off stage, take care of our needs backstage, watch our purses and glasses while we were on stage, and generally be the best one-man support system anyone could ever ask for. We really lucked out in this assignment! He was perfectly patient with our ginormous group of fussy, not-quite-ready girls and 1 rather cranky guy. He was always there with water, pins, thread, chocolate, info, you name it. And he knew, he just *knew* we were winners. Marty is my new vampire granddad, and if I really do make it to Baltimore for CC27, it'll be as much because of him as for anything else. The waiting backstage is always a bit sucky, but I dunno, I'm used to it. I expect it. It's been years since I've done any regular theater, but the feeling comes back to me easily. I accept it. Others (like, yes, Thomas) not so much. Yvette was super-helpful. Bridget and Lana still had sewing to do -- little stuff, like bows -- and Yvette totally assisted with them. I seem to recall Maegan being relaced into her gown a few times. There was much futzing with costumes and a lot of freaking out about food and drink getting too close to costumes. After an eternity, our number came up. Marty lead us to our place in line. Most of the group was entering from stage-left, and Lynne, Teresa, and I were entering from stage-right. We heard a little bit of the previous entries -- such as the Satin-ist Cult's cha-cha. Then came our ninjas' cue. They swiftly hustled on and set up our gear. Then the lights. Then our music. Enter Maegan, Kendra, and Bridget. Count to 15, our cue! My group enters. Sometime backstage, someone had suggested we mouth "I Touch Myself" as our faux-chatter. I don't know if anyone else did, but I totally did! We crossed the stage, as Sarah and Katherine enter. I call to Katherine, we look at the painting, and I announce the empress. Lana enters, and OMG THE AUDIENCE IS APPLAUDING THE EMPRESSS!!! That was the moment I knew we'd succeeded. They got it! They understood what we were doing! They were part of our dream! We'd achieved everything I'd ever wanted to! Audience and performers were one, and that, to me, is the whole point of being on stage! Thomas as our Winterhalter entered, "ladies, places please" and we moved into the portrait position. Hold it a few beats, and I'm giddy as all hell. Lights go down, and *YES* WE SLAYED!!!!! All of us were bubbling, positively floating off the stage, we're looking at each other, our faces glowing in the dark, I swear we're flashing devil horns and miming high-fives as we scramble off the stairs and into the back hallway. All of us are lifting our hoops and running down that hallway, we'd have done cartwheels if we could! We're trying not to scream because we know someone else is on stage. We run to the green room door and practically fall all over each other inside. Maegan is crying, Kendra has the biggest grin I've ever seen, Bridget looks like she's in shock, Lynne is teared up, everyone's either giggling or crying or stunned or all of the above. I start crying. Someone hands us a box of tissues. We have a big group hug and I pull Thomas into it because he's just as much a part of this stellar performance. This is our real win. The audience. Our performance. All of us pulling off the most amazing feat together, at the last minute, making the dream happen, bringing the portrait to life. Three years in the making, coming together in 90 seconds on stage. We walked out in a daze to photos, get as many as possible for posterity. Thomas eventually leaves to catch the rest of the Sharks game. Some of our group goes to watch the masquerade, and a few of us just sit in the green room and chill. When the whole show is over, it begins again. The audience loves us! More photos, more adulation. Questions abound. How long did you practice that? How did you make all of this? Did you get together and sew? Where did you find the materials? How did you do your hair? Where's the painter? Many, many friends were happy for us. We'd tried hard to keep this project a secret. The painting is pretty well-known among historical costumers, and other groups have considered doing it in the past but haven't pulled it off. So announcing it could have really set us up for failure. A couple people specifically told me that they were thrilled that we did that painting because they loved it and have always wanted to see it come to life. That was really satisfying. Others complimented us on the choreography and how we didn't just sit like the painting, we did *something* with it -- which was exactly our point (well, my point anyway ;-). But I hear there are a couple folks who are jealous that they weren't included in the group. Which I think is a bit silly. What do they want, a painting with a zillion ladies in it? Where's the stage big enough? Honestly, 10 is way more than plenty for a group project. It's herding cats as it is. I never, ever want to do a costume project with that many people again, no matter how much I love the folks involved! Never again! The people who were involved were chosen based on who we knew at Costume College 2005 and who was standing in the room at the time. We had one girl drop out, so we asked Sarah because we knew she'd get it done. But there was no master plan or long-term alliance or clique meant about who was in it. Frankly, I didn't really know the people back then who are acting most jealous now! How could I possibly have involved them? The attitude makes me not want to involve them in stuff in the future. I'm very proud of our work on this project. We had a goal and achieved it. Some of us had HUGE personal life obstacles to overcome in the past few months, but we still made it. I'm not about to let anything tear down this honor for me or my friends. We slayed the audience and went on to actually win a major award. \m/ So about that ... yes, it was seriously made of squee! When the judging was over, we trouped into the audience to watch. It's no fun to sit backstage -- you can't enjoy everyone else's awards there. We asked Marty to sit with us, because he was our rock. And he told us "it's Best in Show or nothing." I didn't quite believe him. I didn't want to let myself. Besides, I hadn't seen the whole show, so who knew? One thing I thought was odd about the awards was that they didn't give out any Best Workmanship in each level awards, a la Best Workmanship Novice or a Best in Show Workmanship either. Not obligatory, of course, totally at the judges' discretion, but I still thought it was odd. Maybe that goes back to my perception that these judges were serious workmanship hard-asses. They did give out a few Honored for Excellence in Workmanship awards, including one to Bess and one to Linsey. At least the judges knew some good stuff when they saw it up close! They also gave out quite a few documentation awards. In the master class, there was an award something like "Best Confectionery" that for a minute I thought was going to be us. Not sure how I would have felt about that -- perhaps a little bittersweet (no pun intended), due to all the hard work and heartache, but then again, the audience reaction was so delicious, so delightful, it's really hard to say. The last award in the master category was a special judges choice award, and again we all thought that might be us. Nope. Kendra and I looked at each other and both said "we're either being snubbed or we got Best in Show." I honestly did not know which it was. Well, dear readers, now you know the rest of the story. I screamed like a banshee and jumped about 10 feet in the air when they announced us. We hugged, cried, I said "fuck yeah!" a lot (you just can't take me anywhere), and ran up to the stage, tripping all over each other and our hoops. Clearly we did not win for most graceful (well, I didn't ;-). We did a curtsy in a row after a lot of high-fiving and devil-horning and hugging and laughing and squeeing. I've always maintained that I'm not competitive, I don't care about awards, I just want to do my own thing. And mostly this is true. I'm not BS-ing when I say that. But there is a small part of me that's also felt a bit insignificant, even fraudulent, next to awesome pals like Kevin and Kendra and Rachel who have massive costume chops. One is a talented artist crowned a Master Costumer by the fan world, another is a meticulous and brilliant historian who gets cited by scholars, and the third is a professional theater costumer with a published specialty resource. Now, I can't possibly measure up to any one of those things -- at heart, I'm just a freak who likes to dress up in funny clothes. But this dressing up thing is part of the artistic expression that is my life, as much as my writing is, as much as the way I decorate my home is, as much as my video productions with Thomas are. I'm pretty satisfied with who I am and how I express the creativity in my soul. But it sure would be nice to have some tiny bit of recognition from the outside world, some little thing that proves, yeah, you're equal, if in different ways, to those nifty folks you admire so much. This somewhat ties back to the folks who were jealous of us doing the Eugenie project in the first place. We didn't leave anyone out because they're not equal. I understand the feeling of not measuring up. But what I'm also saying is that here is something I did for myself so that I could feel like I measured up. Sure, I got loads of help from every single person in the group, either directly or through comments. But *I* did all the work on my outfit. I also did a lot of work on the presentation (not to mention getting my husband's involvement). And *I* was up there on stage. My own work got me my own accolades. So if I'm "in" it's because I worked my ass off to get there, not because it was handed to me or because I'm part of a special crowd or I was just lucky. I guess beyond measuring up to others, this proved I could measure up to *me.* And that's just as important. This was a task like no other for me. Everyone else in this group had made this kind of dress before. Old hat. But not me. Geez, you'd think I could have found an easier path to becoming a Master Costumer! Hey, this makes it feel all that much better ;-) It's equivalent to the SCA's costuming Laurel. It's like an Academy Award or the Super Bowl of costuming. I told Thomas that he scored an assist on the game-winning goal of game 7 in the Stanley Cup of costuming. because he won too! He worked his butt off for the presentation, that's for sure, and without him, we'd have just been a bunch of froofy dresses without a soundtrack even. Oh and now Johanna, Linda, and Yvette are all Master Ninjas. They can't be stage ninjas for journeymen or novice level costumers ;-) Back in the bar afterwards, Bridget bought a round of drinks saying "I owe you this one" which went a ways in my mind to make up for Friday night's debacle. "Yeah, you do" I smiled as I ordered a cosmo :-) We bought Marty a drink too, and he helped Sarah and me talk ourselves into going to CC27. We even have a masquerade entry idea. Who knows how long that will last, heh. My payment to Johanna for being the ultimate last-minute savior was to give her the half-bottle of Lucid absinthe left from our Friday party. A little crazy, but I know she'll appreciate it and probably drink it faster than I would. Yvette said she wants her payment is to join us when we all watch the masquerade DVD -- so hey, who's up for it? I don't mind hosting. My thank you to Thomas will probably be to finally get TiVoHD so we can hook up the HD telly he's had for 6 months (it was a gift that we can't hook up). So we could watch it on a big screen.
April 29, 2008: The Eugenie project was an almost miraculous feat of historical costume and stage performance. It was a trial in many, many ways, but we pulled it off. We really did come together like wildly different colors into one cohesive beautiful painting. I am in debt to my friends for involving me in this project, for teaching me so much, for their support and faith in my own skills even when I doubted myself. The big win was when we heard the applause, when the audience *got* our presentation, they became part of our dream. Costuming is a dream, a dream of decadence. I am so very privileged in this life to share that dream with people like all of you -- the costumers, the fans, the people who like to create and dress up in funny clothes either for events or every day or both. It's like Antonia Sautter said about this modern world makes it so hard for us to dream, we need a place where it feels safe to dress up and experience the dream. You all are part of my safe space. We build the dream together. Art does create community.
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