At Her Leisure

Over ten years ago I made this gown:


At the time I really wanted it to be a round gown but with a stomacher. The problem was that I couldn't find any examples of any such thing at the time. Fast forward a decade or so, and I saw the thing I had been looking for at the Colonial Williamsburg museum a couple of weeks ago. I was very pleased and now know I can make such a thing, should I ever want to.

We spent good chunks of four days at Colonial Williamsburg while we were on vacation. One of those days I was in costume, but I got absolutely no pictures. In lieu of current Williamsburg pictures, you get two-year-old pictures from the last time I went to Williamsburg.

First, a picture of the dress I wore this time. You'll just have to imagine it with the proper background, but this is the only picture I have of myself in the dress. I did not wear the hat and mitts this go round.



Now for old Williamsburg pictures.



( And more pictures )

For the fourth year running, we went to Smithfield Plantation on Independence Day. It was a bit soggy but not muddy. The weather was not promising when we left, having rained off and on all morning, but I really wanted to go, and the children aren't afraid of a little rain. After all, they love any excuse to use their umbrellas.

Due to the sporadic rain, I never did pull out my camera so I only got the one picture I had my husband take before we left the house.



Anyway, I finally got a chance to wear my new 1760's gown and petticoat. (I've almost finished writing them up so that post should be coming soon.)

The event was a little smaller than usual. I don't know if the organizers just didn't plan as much this year or if the weather caused people to pull out. There wasn't a terribly high attendance either, and I'm sure that was due to rain.

At Dress U last weekend, they convinced me that the best way to keep in touch with other costumers would be to get either a LiveJournal or Facebook account. I've opted for LiveJournal, and here's my first post.

I enjoy needlework and reading. My particular needleworking interests are sewing (mostly historical costumes but also some modern things,) knitting (again, mostly historical costume pieces,) and cross-stitching. Mostly I read vintage mysteries and classics.

Dress U last weekend was great. I haven't uploaded many of my pictures to Flickr yet and still need to get copies of L's pictures so that I'll have pictures of everything I wore, but here's my copper 1820's dress with court train that I wore to the formal dinner on Saturday night.


At the end of the evening I took off the train to get a couple of pictures of the back of the dress.


Hopefully by next week I'll have a proper write-up of the project. In the meantime, I'm working on a 1947 green linen-look dress, which is getting pretty close to being finished, an 1847 knit bustle which is also close to being finished, a teal linen/rayon blend 18th century petticoat, and a pair of 1857 red cotton knit gaiters. I should be finishing some of those up in the next week or so and will write them up as I get the opportunity. I'm also working on Bucilla's "A Summer Stroll" cross-stitch, but that's not going to be finished any time soon.