Revisiting the 19th century

The new vest all draped, pinned, and ready for stitching

I seriously cannot stand the thought of wearing the moo-moo anymore to work.  I tried the whole, not caring about the fact that the state park system is essentially lying to the public by incorrectly portraying what clothing looked like.  I have given in again and will be making something pretty that fits...with lots of lace and ruffles and pretty details.

Some of my inspirations are below.  I know for sure that on the skirt I will be attaching lace to the skirt ruffles like the two fashion plates partially for the prettiness, but mostly to cover stains from wearing the dress for a year and a half everyday and working in it.  I love the idea of a vest with the skirt and a blouse.  It's slightly militaristic, slightly masculine, and very functional.

Portrait of Katarzyna Potocka c.1854 from Wikipedia

Fashion plate from Graham's 1851 from this site

Antique Steel Engraving published 1824-51, London for "The World of fashion and Continental Feuilletons" from this site

Fashions for September 1851 From Harper's magazine. located at this site

It's actually a green broadcloth lined in blue floral cotton, but the lighting doesn't show that too well (my eye is really bothering me today and I haven't slept since about midnight last night).

Floral Frenzy

 I'm finishing up the dress Dena was going to wear to my bridal shower last year.  There was a problem with how she cut it, so she never finished and left that bag in my house (which got moved to the garage and lost for a while).  I had a wild idea to finish it up and wear it, so here goes nothing...It doesn't look like much right now, but I think with a little work it could be really nice.

Dena's quite a few sizes smaller than me so I've had to make some adjustments to the pattern since she bought the smaller size package and I need the larger size one.  So far though I'm really happy with it.  The pattern is Butterick 5603.

1924 Callot Soeurs dress

 A few last minute construction shots while I pin the final piece of gold fabric in place.

Shoe circle for two!  Mark's shoes are very very slick!

 Ready to go!  Christy's dress is freaking awesome and really making me think I should attempt something similar once I loose about 30 lbs.

The love of my life.

The original from the FIT

Overall a fantastic evening with lots of good company, great food, and amazing music.  Didn't win the costume contest (Christy and Skeez won best couple!).  The judge referred to me as "the lady in the bumblebee dress" while everyone else got a nice description of their attire; I seriously thought about clawing her eyes out.