Ft Fred Market Fair 2013

On Saturday I journeyed to Ft. Fred for Market Fair for the first time. I had a marvelous time! What a great 18th century shopping experience.  But sadly my dear friend J couldn’t make it, you see she’s getting married and had important bride-things to do. So since she wasn’t with us I thought I’d see what kind of silly wedding gifts I could find for her at an 18th century market fair.

Lets see we’ve got:

How about a lovely collapsable BBQ?

How about a nice dead animal for your head?

the ORIGINAL Spork. Fork on one end spoon on the other.

A nice bear skin rug for those romantic newly wed nights

Incase he cuts paper with your fabric scissors.

I have no idea what this is.

NO WAIT I FOUND THE PERFECT GIFT!

Loin cloth for those frisky newly weds

Phew all this shopping wears a girl out!
Photo thanks to InTheLongRun

Dress In a Day

Well the cat is out of the bag so to speak so I’m allowed to reveal my part in our dress in a day project. Amanda posted on her LJ about the video from Colonial Williamsburg and we may or may not have taken it as a challenge. What can I say we’re ambitious.

Amanda has posted all the lovely finished pictures so I’ll just post the one I stole from her…

Amanda in the finished dress.

A few words about the techniques we used. We followed the construction techniques of the lavender dress in Costume Close-up. The original parameters were 1. Solid color, 2. Closed front NO matching petticoat and 3. Only very simple pinked trim…don’t let Amanda design gowns for one day projects.

So why did we make the dress for Amanda and not Alice or I? We tossed it around a lot and Amanda really did try to convince us to make one for either of us. but she has two things I don’t: 1. a really solid body block to base it off of and 2. She’s TINY so her seams are half the size of mine. Don’t underestimate short seams when sewing by hand in a day.

We started with it all cut out sans sleeves around 10am. Lunchtime saw the first fitting done and all of the bodice constructed sans sleeves. By dinner time we had the functional part of the dress finished. And I have full faith that with different trim we’d easily have finished the whole thing.

And I shall leave you with a few in-progress shots.

First Fitting

Second Fitting

Second fitting

we went through Four pots of Sticky Toffee Pudding tea

Black and Cream 1912 Wrap

In March several friends and I went to see the Titanic Exhibit at the Franklin Institue downtown. First let me say the exhibit was exceptional! I highly recommend you see it.

I re-wore a dress I made last year for the Dress U titanic dinner but I was worried about being cold (and apparently was right to worry!) so in the week before the exhibit I whipped up a quick wrap. And I must say it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. The optical illusion created by the waistband and sleeves is very flattering.

On the stairs at the Franklin Institute

I used some luscious black wool that my friend Alice gave me for christmas and picked up some casa satin from Jo-Ann’s for the lining. It’s a poly satin but it has a very dull sheen so it almost reads more as a sateen. I was really happy with both materials.

So you can actually SEE the wrap…I just think the 1st photo is more flattering and hey it’s my blog!

The pattern was heavily inspired by this wrap on the Vintage Pattern Lending Library site unfortunately I couldn’t figure out if it was still for sale or how to buy it. So I stared at the pictures for a while, pulled out some muslin and just kind of futzed till I got something that seemed right. I have to say I’m very pleased with the result.

The all important back view

K and I in the first class hallway.

The best part! We got to take a group photo on the grand staircase! (well they took it and we paid a stupid amount for it but I’m still excited)

 

The very best part about this wrap is that I have now worn it not once but TWICE to a friend’s bridal shower and to a wedding last weekend. It looks remarkably well over a modern dress. I call it a great success.