aw yiss, winter break
Dec. 20th, 2023 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandie_rwTwo weeks off from school, and I shall do all the things!
(Or more probably, none of the things. But that's ok too.)
(I was going to make a concerted effort to do at least one Visible Home Improvement-y Thing over break, but now the paint I want isn't on sale any more, and the peel-and-stick wallpaper I want for the living room accent wall to cover the ridiculous giant yellow square from where we removed the mirror, is sold out til the end of January. Will order the wallpaper now anyway, but obviously won't be doing that over break!)
Time to think about all of the costuming for next year, right? Of course right!
As always, I reserve the right to do absolutely none of this, but it's damn entertaining to plan, so here it is.
Mostly planning around events…which is usually what happens, I guess, but there’s more than one event in the next year that I don’t really have anything for…either because it’s a new era, or because it’s an era I haven’t done in so long that I don’t have anything that fits any more (or I made 15 years ago and wouldn’t be caught dead in any more even if it did fit).
End of 2023 - Finish plaid silk 1836 morning dress (the one I got mad at for not fitting right and abandoning before New Castle), for candlelight tour at Smithville.
April 13 - Spring Victorian Soiree - this is the spring fancy dinner at the Joseph Ambler Inn that Robin puts on. 1870s-1880s themed; I’m planning on doing 1880s, second bustle (c1883-85, I think - obviously big bum, but not quite the "I have a tea table behind me" extreme shelf look). Currently, planned outfit is the one I’ve kicked around a bit on here in the planning stages, based around the cream floral brocade from the picked-apart 18thc sack gown. Pretty well planned out, but not much to start the outfit from. I do have a corset and chemise…
May 25 - Gilded Age Picnic - based around a steam train ride that’s out in Lancaster, PA with a stop at a picnic grove. I haven’t been there since I was about 8 years old, so I don't remember much of it but I think that’ll be fun to do in costume. It’s a relatively short ride in and of itself, but with a picnic that’ll make a nice day out of it. 1870s-80s themed, and I think I’ll do 1880s for this as well. Might as well, since I’ll have the underpinnings from the dinner in April! I’d need to make all new support garments for early 1870s or natural form, which…seems like work. (Haven’t done early bustle since around 2008, and have since gotten rid of or dismembered it all, and my 1877 spoon busk corset wore out a couple years back.)
Not sure about the particular style for the dress yet, but I do know two things. One, I have wanted one of those tall French bonnets with the peak (https://trulyvictorian.info/index.php/product/tv551-1880s-french-bonnet-frame-pattern/) for YEARS and a mid-80s outfit gives me a perfect excuse. Two, I have 10 (I think) yards of a blue and ivory check tropical weight wool in the stash that has been destined for a Late Victorian Something since I found it on a Very Good Sale years ago. Provided the moths haven’t et it. I haven't yet poked the stash with this outfit in mind, so something else may surface that I like even more.
June 1 - Spring Garden Party/Tea - Party at a costume friend’s Victorian house in North Jersey. Requested dress is 1870s-1910s. Still up in the air on this one. Opportunities for many things. Could wear what I make for the Gilded Age picnic the previous weekend, could wear my late 1890s purple check wool jacket & skirt, could maybe finally finish the 1916 blue linen dress properly (I’ve only worn it three times unfinished now lol). Or could go completely insane and do something else, who knows! (Whatever that insanity is will have to be something I have corsets and skirt supports for, though. As I know I have zero time management/executive functioning skills in my costuming hobby and will be sewing for the Gilded Age picnic up to the wire, and this is the weekend after.)
November - Currently still quite tentative/in the planning stages, but Robin and I are thinking we’d like to go back to Remembrance Day at Gettysburg. In 2024 if it works out. (Since a Bath trip is not going to be manageable for my household in 2024!) Yay 1860s doesn’t seem to be a popular costuming sentiment (it never has), but yay 1860s from us! Heh. Won’t be 100% starting from scratch - at least I have the crinoline and chemises, drawers, etc. but maybe 75%? I haven’t tried any of it on yet but I’d be SHOCKED if any of the old 1860s dresses still fit. Some could be reworked (this is why I never throw leftover fabric away), some could not (there’s no more of that satin for the ballgown, and it would all probably shred apart if I tried to redo the bodice, let’s be honest). I have Ideas but I’m sure those will change! I do know I need a new corset, am thinking I might like to add a small crinoline to my stable of skirt supports (TV has one I like the look of here: https://trulyvictorian.info/index.php/product/tv143-small-hoop-crinoline/), and if at all possible would like a new wrapper, but again, we’ll see.
December - New Castle Christmas. Since it was a bit of a relatively last-minute thing this year, we’d like to try and put it together earlier, with some more coordination! Primarily Robin and I definitely want to get our shit together early enough to book rooms at the Terry House, the (only) B&B in the historic district. Not that the Air Bnb was bad for Tom and I (it was quite a cute little place), but it’s a lot more fun to have everybody staying together in an historic hotel! They’ve only got 4 or 5 rooms, so we’ll have to be much more on top of things - as soon as New Castle confirms the weekend, basically.
In terms of dress, I have some optimistic plans (don’t I always) but will have the Christmas plaid from this year and/or 1860s if we do Gettysburg and I have that wardrobe to pull from.
Wildly optimistic plans involve exploring a new transitional era, namely the 1820s. I’ve never had an excuse to make anything from that era, as it’s really kind of weird and niche! Not really wearable to a “Regency” event, but it’s not early Victorian either, so…where to wear??? Okay, so it’s not really “Dickensian”, per se, but Christmas in New Castle is half colonial and half Dickensian (and a large percentage of Ye Oldey Timey Tyme), so there’s no real dress code, fight me.
I did a good few hours of research on Pinterest and got my 1820s-30s boards very organized (if you enjoy that sort of thing and want to take a look https://www.pinterest.com/wood242424/1820-30s-fashion/ ) and now feel pretty confident in the generalized trend progressions of the decade. Currently enjoying the 1824-26 midpoint of the decade, where it’s not really “Regency” any more but hasn’t quite decided exactly where it’s going with this “bigger skirts! bigger sleeves! trimming!” shit. It’s been a while since I explored a completely new-to-me era, so I’m having a lot of fun with the research! Plus nobody does this era (why would they?) so I can be a trend-setter LOL. Even if I don’t end up actually making any 1820s in 2024, it’s very enjoyable to learn some more about it!
(Or more probably, none of the things. But that's ok too.)
(I was going to make a concerted effort to do at least one Visible Home Improvement-y Thing over break, but now the paint I want isn't on sale any more, and the peel-and-stick wallpaper I want for the living room accent wall to cover the ridiculous giant yellow square from where we removed the mirror, is sold out til the end of January. Will order the wallpaper now anyway, but obviously won't be doing that over break!)
Time to think about all of the costuming for next year, right? Of course right!
As always, I reserve the right to do absolutely none of this, but it's damn entertaining to plan, so here it is.
Mostly planning around events…which is usually what happens, I guess, but there’s more than one event in the next year that I don’t really have anything for…either because it’s a new era, or because it’s an era I haven’t done in so long that I don’t have anything that fits any more (or I made 15 years ago and wouldn’t be caught dead in any more even if it did fit).
End of 2023 - Finish plaid silk 1836 morning dress (the one I got mad at for not fitting right and abandoning before New Castle), for candlelight tour at Smithville.
April 13 - Spring Victorian Soiree - this is the spring fancy dinner at the Joseph Ambler Inn that Robin puts on. 1870s-1880s themed; I’m planning on doing 1880s, second bustle (c1883-85, I think - obviously big bum, but not quite the "I have a tea table behind me" extreme shelf look). Currently, planned outfit is the one I’ve kicked around a bit on here in the planning stages, based around the cream floral brocade from the picked-apart 18thc sack gown. Pretty well planned out, but not much to start the outfit from. I do have a corset and chemise…
May 25 - Gilded Age Picnic - based around a steam train ride that’s out in Lancaster, PA with a stop at a picnic grove. I haven’t been there since I was about 8 years old, so I don't remember much of it but I think that’ll be fun to do in costume. It’s a relatively short ride in and of itself, but with a picnic that’ll make a nice day out of it. 1870s-80s themed, and I think I’ll do 1880s for this as well. Might as well, since I’ll have the underpinnings from the dinner in April! I’d need to make all new support garments for early 1870s or natural form, which…seems like work. (Haven’t done early bustle since around 2008, and have since gotten rid of or dismembered it all, and my 1877 spoon busk corset wore out a couple years back.)
Not sure about the particular style for the dress yet, but I do know two things. One, I have wanted one of those tall French bonnets with the peak (https://trulyvictorian.info/index.php/product/tv551-1880s-french-bonnet-frame-pattern/) for YEARS and a mid-80s outfit gives me a perfect excuse. Two, I have 10 (I think) yards of a blue and ivory check tropical weight wool in the stash that has been destined for a Late Victorian Something since I found it on a Very Good Sale years ago. Provided the moths haven’t et it. I haven't yet poked the stash with this outfit in mind, so something else may surface that I like even more.
June 1 - Spring Garden Party/Tea - Party at a costume friend’s Victorian house in North Jersey. Requested dress is 1870s-1910s. Still up in the air on this one. Opportunities for many things. Could wear what I make for the Gilded Age picnic the previous weekend, could wear my late 1890s purple check wool jacket & skirt, could maybe finally finish the 1916 blue linen dress properly (I’ve only worn it three times unfinished now lol). Or could go completely insane and do something else, who knows! (Whatever that insanity is will have to be something I have corsets and skirt supports for, though. As I know I have zero time management/executive functioning skills in my costuming hobby and will be sewing for the Gilded Age picnic up to the wire, and this is the weekend after.)
November - Currently still quite tentative/in the planning stages, but Robin and I are thinking we’d like to go back to Remembrance Day at Gettysburg. In 2024 if it works out. (Since a Bath trip is not going to be manageable for my household in 2024!) Yay 1860s doesn’t seem to be a popular costuming sentiment (it never has), but yay 1860s from us! Heh. Won’t be 100% starting from scratch - at least I have the crinoline and chemises, drawers, etc. but maybe 75%? I haven’t tried any of it on yet but I’d be SHOCKED if any of the old 1860s dresses still fit. Some could be reworked (this is why I never throw leftover fabric away), some could not (there’s no more of that satin for the ballgown, and it would all probably shred apart if I tried to redo the bodice, let’s be honest). I have Ideas but I’m sure those will change! I do know I need a new corset, am thinking I might like to add a small crinoline to my stable of skirt supports (TV has one I like the look of here: https://trulyvictorian.info/index.php/product/tv143-small-hoop-crinoline/), and if at all possible would like a new wrapper, but again, we’ll see.
December - New Castle Christmas. Since it was a bit of a relatively last-minute thing this year, we’d like to try and put it together earlier, with some more coordination! Primarily Robin and I definitely want to get our shit together early enough to book rooms at the Terry House, the (only) B&B in the historic district. Not that the Air Bnb was bad for Tom and I (it was quite a cute little place), but it’s a lot more fun to have everybody staying together in an historic hotel! They’ve only got 4 or 5 rooms, so we’ll have to be much more on top of things - as soon as New Castle confirms the weekend, basically.
In terms of dress, I have some optimistic plans (don’t I always) but will have the Christmas plaid from this year and/or 1860s if we do Gettysburg and I have that wardrobe to pull from.
Wildly optimistic plans involve exploring a new transitional era, namely the 1820s. I’ve never had an excuse to make anything from that era, as it’s really kind of weird and niche! Not really wearable to a “Regency” event, but it’s not early Victorian either, so…where to wear??? Okay, so it’s not really “Dickensian”, per se, but Christmas in New Castle is half colonial and half Dickensian (and a large percentage of Ye Oldey Timey Tyme), so there’s no real dress code, fight me.
I did a good few hours of research on Pinterest and got my 1820s-30s boards very organized (if you enjoy that sort of thing and want to take a look https://www.pinterest.com/wood242424/1820-30s-fashion/ ) and now feel pretty confident in the generalized trend progressions of the decade. Currently enjoying the 1824-26 midpoint of the decade, where it’s not really “Regency” any more but hasn’t quite decided exactly where it’s going with this “bigger skirts! bigger sleeves! trimming!” shit. It’s been a while since I explored a completely new-to-me era, so I’m having a lot of fun with the research! Plus nobody does this era (why would they?) so I can be a trend-setter LOL. Even if I don’t end up actually making any 1820s in 2024, it’s very enjoyable to learn some more about it!
no subject
Date: 2023-12-21 06:18 am (UTC)I did like the current "Emma" where there was one fashion forward lady with more of an 1820s look and crazy hair while everyone else was still in Regency.
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Date: 2023-12-31 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2023-12-31 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-26 11:45 pm (UTC)(Or more probably, none of the things. But that's ok too.)
LOL, same here!
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Date: 2023-12-31 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-01 04:38 pm (UTC)