At Her Leisure

The Houston Area Regency Society had a museum outing on Sunday at the Museum of Fine Arts' Rienzi house collection. There were eight of us there, including a couple of new people who are interested in joining our costume fun. (Hooray for new people!) Everyone who was at the dinner party last week except our Ft. Worth visitor attended, which gave one person an opportunity to finish up a project that she had originally intended to wear last week.

After the museum, we retired to the Black Labrador for an early dinner and got to enjoy each other's company for another couple of hours.

This time more than one picture was taken, though I think those who took pictures made a bit of an effort. Don't think I'm one of them, though; all the credit goes to others. With that being said, I believe Martha Graham and Kaycee Cheramie took the pictures linked below.







As I mentioned previously, I really didn't want to wear Regency, and the silver exhibit was something like 1650-1825 so I used that as an excuse to wear the 1780 robe a la piemontaise. I'm quite partial to that dress.

The Georgian picnic was great, more because of the people than the activity. It was certainly chilly, but several years in Virginia stood me in good stead - I had the cold weather gear. It was funny to realize after the fact that there were two groups: those who kept warm with period garb and those who used long underwear or similar modern fixes. It never even occurred to me to wear anything that wasn't period...except that there was a time when I was considering an 1860's petticoat to prevent shadowing through the wool dress I was trying to make in time. It's funny how different people's minds work. Still, I was warm enough until the wind changed near the end of our time there at which point the retreat to La Madeleine was welcome.

Once again, I took my camera and had the best of intentions, but I never managed to take it out of my basket. I didn't even put it in my pocket. I'm such a lousy photographer. Anyway, if you want to see pictures, jenthompson posted several and wrote nicely about the picnic.

Oh, and I didn't finish the 1780's wool round gown I attempted. At bedtime Friday night I still had to pleat and sew the skirt to the bodice, and I was not going to stay up late sewing when I had at least four things I could have worn, all of which I like. I chose the piemontaise since they were no longer predicting a 30% chance of rain.

I finished my robe a la piemontaise this week. I haven't taken any pictures yet since it looks awful on the dummy. It doesn't fit her at all. I really need to get a smaller dummy.

Then I finished knitting the first sleeve of my 1907 sweater and have done the first fifth of the second sleeve.

In smaller project news, I made a new cover for my 18th century muff that will coordinate with the robe a la piemontase and am nearly finished with a 1780's-1790's shift to go under it. The sleeves on my old shift are a little wide for the narrower sleeves of the 1780's and 1790's. I just need to cut the neck and hem it, and I'll have a new shift.

Now a Jane Austen event has come up, and since early March is likely to be quite cool, I want a pelisse. I think I've got everything I need to make one, and I think I can do it in three weeks. Here's hoping it goes well.

I'm going to try to get back to posting at least once a week, not that anyone probably reads this.

The ball of yarn I was using on my 1907 sweater ran out so I stopped knitting the sleeve and finally redid the belt. Then I started the collar so that the body of the sweater will be finished. I have a few more rows left of that before I get back to my half-finished sleeve.

After I finished my stays last week, I started a 1780's robe a la piemontaise for the George Washington Ball in Williamsburg at the beginning of March. The petticoat is finished, and the bodice is cut. I'm using the pattern at the National Museum in Denmark and also going for the simpler trim of that one as opposed the the ornate Spanish ones that are still around. After three years of the same dress at that ball, I'm excited that I'll have a new one.