Great War event writeup
Aug. 6th, 2018 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandie_rwLong time no post! I am basically drowned (yes, drowned, not drowning...I have no fingernails left and I hate everything) in school stress, hence no posting, but we're going to pass over that.
Belvidere is just about a month away now, so it's time to get crackin' on that. I still have some kind of idea of a tea gown to wear for Sunday morning, but while that would be nice, the dinner bodice to go with the skirt and train I made last summer is absolutely required! So that's happening first. (Alsomiss_philomena lent me her TV bodice pattern for that bodice, so I currently have that, while robinsnest still has my TV tea gown pattern!) So I was fairly dedicated and traced off the pattern, cut out a mockup, and sewed it together today. Didn't do a fitting, because I slept funny a couple of nights ago and my neck is still slightly out of whack, which is not great for bodice fitting! Plus I know I want a good couple-hour chunk to work on this, because I want to do a fair amount of tweaking to the basic pattern. Soooon.
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So, event! Robin and the 3 A's traveled up to North Jersey (shock! awe! very far!) for a Great War event this weekend. Kind of obscure, but mid-later teens is something new and fun, and we haven't done much this summer. Me especially! So out of the sewing groove. I had plans for a pretty white lingerie-type dress, but two weeks out from the event, I decided I couldn't settle down to commit to that much sewing, so I decided to make a skirt to go with the blouse I'd made for the blue 1914 spring suit and call it Good Enough.
I'll do a more detailed blog post on the skirt (there's not very much detail! it's a skirt. it's blue. it's linen) tomorrow, but I'll do the event writeup here...not that there's very much to write up! It was a werry werry small event...
Since it was a 2+ hour drive for everybody, we found a cheap hotel about 15 min drive from the site, just over the NY border in Suffern (that name has always amused me). Ringwood really is in the middle of NOWHERE. The event was Sunday so we stayed over Saturday night: rolled in at different times, ate dinner at a diner that promised many things on its menu that it could not in fact produce, and ate way too many sugar-filled snackies! And all woke up an hour before the alarm was set, for various reasons (mine was WHY HELLO we have a directly east-facing window, and monkey-brain says SUN IS GET UP NOW TIME! 7am exactly. I am not a voluntarily early riser. This was highly offensive to me).
We showed up at 10am, right at the start of the event at Ringwood Manor...and found we'd immediately doubled-plus-one the # of people dressed . Ooooh. They were very pleasant and enthusiastic, and a few more did show up later, but calling it an "encampment" was like how realtors like to count an unfinished hall closet as a "bedroom". It was very optimistic, is what I'm saying...
Look, we actually got a group photo! Astounding.
And the boys that live in the Ringwood area, who were the entire point of our going to this event (and even invited us), didn't roll in until after we'd wandered the grounds, toured the mansion (Robin yelled at the docent a little bit), eaten our picnic lunch on the front porch, and decided we were getting bored and might consider leaving soon!
"Dood. This is a real well! You'd think they'd want to maybe put something more substantial in there than some deteriorating wire mesh to keep us from falling in..."
But Mick and Shane livened up the party (as always, to give credit where credit is due), we discussed Belvidere plans (wine!), and listened to an interesting talk on the use of gas during the war and a rather-less-interesting talk on women's role during the war (sorry, it was hot and I was sleepy and there was too much detail).
And then we went swanning round the grounds to get some proper dress photos! (All of which are nicked from Robin and Adrienne, because my camera was one of several items that I left at home! Ever do an event where you forget an inexplicable amount of stuff? Happily it was nothing vital like a shoe...or a hat...) The grounds are nice; really the kind of place I'd love to wander around for a couple of hours! Just not in those shoes, and not in that heat! It didn't quite hit the unbearable point til after we'd traipsed the grounds, and if I'd had more water I could have lasted longer, but as it was I think we were all at the GET THESE CLOTHES OFF ME point by 4.
How much can you slump in a 1916 corset? This muuuuch!
We learned that the owners of the house liked "rescuing" everything and sticking it all over their lawn (and house). "Oh, this is a lovely trip to Egypt! Surely you don't need these sphinxes? Excellent! We'll take them both." and "You don't need your enormous wrought-iron gates any more? Might we trouble you to take them off your hands?" You're a hoarder when you're poor; when you're rich you're a collector and just keep building more rooms onto your house to keep your crap.
"Hmmm, I wonder where you were stolen from...I mean collected."
All in all, it was an okay event that we won't go back to (2+ hours and an overnight stay is a bit much), but that we don't regret this time. Because Robin and the 3 A's always manage to have fun in costume (and sometimes even out of costume)! Plus the site was stellar for costume pics! I can be pretty easily bribed to go to a mediocre event that's at a really nice site. Our orange and yellow (!) budget hotel room just wouldn't have had quite the same effect...
No running down hills. Shoes just slightly too pinchy.
Eat your hearts out, spouses/boyfriends! ;)
Moar gates! Such swanning!
Irresistible dramahtics!
Flickr of *ahem* collected photos, which are mostly carefully curated to give the impression I did not go around all day mostly making faces like this:
...which I absolutely did.
Belvidere is just about a month away now, so it's time to get crackin' on that. I still have some kind of idea of a tea gown to wear for Sunday morning, but while that would be nice, the dinner bodice to go with the skirt and train I made last summer is absolutely required! So that's happening first. (Also
miss_philomena lent me her TV bodice pattern for that bodice, so I currently have that, while robinsnest still has my TV tea gown pattern!) So I was fairly dedicated and traced off the pattern, cut out a mockup, and sewed it together today. Didn't do a fitting, because I slept funny a couple of nights ago and my neck is still slightly out of whack, which is not great for bodice fitting! Plus I know I want a good couple-hour chunk to work on this, because I want to do a fair amount of tweaking to the basic pattern. Soooon.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So, event! Robin and the 3 A's traveled up to North Jersey (shock! awe! very far!) for a Great War event this weekend. Kind of obscure, but mid-later teens is something new and fun, and we haven't done much this summer. Me especially! So out of the sewing groove. I had plans for a pretty white lingerie-type dress, but two weeks out from the event, I decided I couldn't settle down to commit to that much sewing, so I decided to make a skirt to go with the blouse I'd made for the blue 1914 spring suit and call it Good Enough.
I'll do a more detailed blog post on the skirt (there's not very much detail! it's a skirt. it's blue. it's linen) tomorrow, but I'll do the event writeup here...not that there's very much to write up! It was a werry werry small event...
Since it was a 2+ hour drive for everybody, we found a cheap hotel about 15 min drive from the site, just over the NY border in Suffern (that name has always amused me). Ringwood really is in the middle of NOWHERE. The event was Sunday so we stayed over Saturday night: rolled in at different times, ate dinner at a diner that promised many things on its menu that it could not in fact produce, and ate way too many sugar-filled snackies! And all woke up an hour before the alarm was set, for various reasons (mine was WHY HELLO we have a directly east-facing window, and monkey-brain says SUN IS GET UP NOW TIME! 7am exactly. I am not a voluntarily early riser. This was highly offensive to me).
We showed up at 10am, right at the start of the event at Ringwood Manor...and found we'd immediately doubled-plus-one the # of people dressed . Ooooh. They were very pleasant and enthusiastic, and a few more did show up later, but calling it an "encampment" was like how realtors like to count an unfinished hall closet as a "bedroom". It was very optimistic, is what I'm saying...
Look, we actually got a group photo! Astounding.
And the boys that live in the Ringwood area, who were the entire point of our going to this event (and even invited us), didn't roll in until after we'd wandered the grounds, toured the mansion (Robin yelled at the docent a little bit), eaten our picnic lunch on the front porch, and decided we were getting bored and might consider leaving soon!
"Dood. This is a real well! You'd think they'd want to maybe put something more substantial in there than some deteriorating wire mesh to keep us from falling in..."
But Mick and Shane livened up the party (as always, to give credit where credit is due), we discussed Belvidere plans (wine!), and listened to an interesting talk on the use of gas during the war and a rather-less-interesting talk on women's role during the war (sorry, it was hot and I was sleepy and there was too much detail).
And then we went swanning round the grounds to get some proper dress photos! (All of which are nicked from Robin and Adrienne, because my camera was one of several items that I left at home! Ever do an event where you forget an inexplicable amount of stuff? Happily it was nothing vital like a shoe...or a hat...) The grounds are nice; really the kind of place I'd love to wander around for a couple of hours! Just not in those shoes, and not in that heat! It didn't quite hit the unbearable point til after we'd traipsed the grounds, and if I'd had more water I could have lasted longer, but as it was I think we were all at the GET THESE CLOTHES OFF ME point by 4.
How much can you slump in a 1916 corset? This muuuuch!
We learned that the owners of the house liked "rescuing" everything and sticking it all over their lawn (and house). "Oh, this is a lovely trip to Egypt! Surely you don't need these sphinxes? Excellent! We'll take them both." and "You don't need your enormous wrought-iron gates any more? Might we trouble you to take them off your hands?" You're a hoarder when you're poor; when you're rich you're a collector and just keep building more rooms onto your house to keep your crap.
"Hmmm, I wonder where you were stolen from...I mean collected."
All in all, it was an okay event that we won't go back to (2+ hours and an overnight stay is a bit much), but that we don't regret this time. Because Robin and the 3 A's always manage to have fun in costume (and sometimes even out of costume)! Plus the site was stellar for costume pics! I can be pretty easily bribed to go to a mediocre event that's at a really nice site. Our orange and yellow (!) budget hotel room just wouldn't have had quite the same effect...
No running down hills. Shoes just slightly too pinchy.
Eat your hearts out, spouses/boyfriends! ;)
Moar gates! Such swanning!
Irresistible dramahtics!
Flickr of *ahem* collected photos, which are mostly carefully curated to give the impression I did not go around all day mostly making faces like this:
...which I absolutely did.
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Date: 2018-08-07 11:41 pm (UTC)But so nice to hear from you again and seeing your costume shenanigans! Looks like much fun was had. And those grounds really are a lovely setting for all the great stuff you guys are wearing.
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