Catchup
January 27, 2010
Definitely keeping busy with 1812 stuff, but I did take a few pictures finally of the
smoking cap I made in December as a Christmas gift. My first project with soutache braid! I kind of wanted to keep it for myself, but managed to part with it in the end.
Kickoff
January 25, 2010
Welcome to 2010! We kicked off the reenacting season early this year, with a reenactment in January at the River Raisin Battlefield in Monroe, Michigan. It's an 1812 event, a time period in which women's clothing was known for its delicacy and diaphanous nature. While my "regency" clothing isn't particularly delicate, it
is fairly lightweight. So in the interests of not freezing to death, I made myself a
wool pelisse to wear. I'm glad to say I had a fantastic time, and was comfortably warm (except for my feet) for a long, cold day outside.
Facelift
December 30, 2009
Two updates in a month? Huzzah! Thanks to my wonderful photographer-cousin,
Michael, I have some fantastic new pictures to share. Over our family Thanksgiving holiday, he took pictures of my
printed silk 1770s polonaise and the
plaid silk 1860s day dress, which I added to the page for each dress. He also took a set of photos of my
1860s undergarments, which have, until now, have not ever been officially photographed. There's a new page for them now, though, and if you look at the
costume index, you'll also see that it's been rearranged. Now you can find each individual page listed under its appropriate category (century or renfaire/fantasy), in order of period, and then chronological by project completion date. Kind of like a resume. Anyway, check it out!
Winter Wonderland
December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas, to those of you who celebrate it! I've spent the holiday pleasantly at home with my parents and sister, doing all the traditional Christmas things--exchanging gifts, singing carols, watching
Transformers in Spanish...you know. Normal holiday things! I also took a few minutes to finish a page I started for a winter hood that I made to wear to a Civil War reenactment a couple weeks ago. See it
here.
Remembrance Day
November 25, 2009
All right, so the
actual date of Remembrance Day is not November 25. I did, however, just get back from attending the Remembrance Day event in Gettysburg, PA. There were, of course, Civil War clothes involved. I wore my new
silk day dress for the event, and there's a new page for it on the costume index.
Success
November 1, 2009
I re-made my 1860s ballgown, changing a few things that I wasn't happy with in the first version. I'm happy to be able to report that the new ballgown (or...almost-new) is maybe one of the best things I've ever made, and I'm pretty much completely happy with it!
Go see!
Recovery
July 15, 2009
Sometime in May, right after the Civil War Remembrance weekend at Greenfield Village, I ran headfirst into a) a respiratory infection, b)a severe case of burnout, c) a head cold, d) all of the above. This, in conjunction with a persistent and inconvenient pain in my wrist, sapped my desire to do...um, pretty much anything. The effects of burnout and fatigue (including but not limited to bad decision-making, memory loss, self-isolation, and various forms of illness related to a weakened immune system) seem to have passed, however, and a weekend in Northern Michigan has had wonderfully rejuvenating effects on my creativity and motivation. That being said, I actually have an old update that I never announced--I put up pages for my
Civil War day dress and
ballgown of the same period. Those were the last things I accomplished before being struck mostly-dead by my own bad decisions (dehydration, lack of sleep...you get the picture). Last week, though, I finished an outstanding gift project and was able to deliver the gift to its recipients over the weekend. Mike and Tyler, dearest of friends--both of me, and of each other--now have coordinating
18th century banyans.
Fancy Dancing
March 29, 2009
Due to a pretty heavy event schedule early on in the year, I've been either sewing, moving, or away from home for a couple months now. My group of friends hosted an event mid-March, so after my last update, I began a dress to wear at our dance. I hand-sewed the entire thing, so that took some time. In the midst of this, I signed a lease on a new apartment and spent a couple weeks moving my
junk stuff halfway across Grand Rapids. I have yet to spend a weekend at home in my apartment, because the first weekend in March, I moved in. The second weekend was
Fancy as it Flies, Julie's event. The weekend after that, Mike and I went to the Kalamazoo Living History Show. Then this weekend was the 2009 Regency Exhibition Ball in Lansing. I made a new dress for that, too, in the space of about two, two and a half days. So! Now I'm finally getting around to putting up pages for all these accomplishments; go and take a look!
New Year, New Projects
January 30, 2009
Despite the last update here dating back to November of last year, I promise I haven't been sitting idle. My first completed project for 2009 is a new set of 18th century underwear. Go
here to see more!
Pride and Prejudice
November 22, 2008
...There's a double meaning in that title. Anyway, a couple friends and I went to another Regency ball this weekend. I saw it as a good excuse to make
a new dress. Follow the link to a new page!
Fort St. Joseph
November 2, 2008
The month of October proved to be extremely busy! My fledgling reenactment group,
Les Proches de la Grande Tortue attended our first encampment at Fort St. Joseph in Niles, MI. The weekend was extremely cold and, I feel, a wonderful success. You can check out our website for more photos of the event, but I've also updated my
costume index with the garments that I made for members of my group in preparation for this event. Go take a look!
Grand Hotel
September 25, 2008
My latest project has been something new for me--something
not 18th century. It's a dress from 1911, after one in the Kyoto Costume Institute's book
Fashion. My friend Julie and I went to Mackinac Island and spent a night at the Grand Hotel, so of course the occasion called for costumes, because why wouldn't it? There's a page for it
here.
Stays
September 6, 2008
Remember how I mentioned a couple months ago that I let a pair of hand-sewn stays wander out of the house without taking pictures first? Well, after a mini-vacation over Labor Day, I now have photos. I've added a page
for Kate's stays in the costume index. The index is in chronological order with the most recent projects at the top, so the stays are a few icons down from the most current 2008 projects. Or you could just click the link above.
Bristol
I've added a new page (gallery and diary, separated for those of you who don't want to actually read about how I make this stuff anymore) for my most recent Faire costume:
a Venetian gown from some century that I know very little about. Look! I'm breaking out of the 18th century! My next project will be an evening dress from approximately 1911, so stay tuned for more flailing.
Expansion
July 24, 2008
Some friends and I have started a group dedicated to the interpretation of the living history of the inhabitants of Nouvelle-France. We're mostly current or former historical interpreters, focused on the history of the French & Indian War. You can see a little more at our (new!) website:
Les Proches de la Grande Tortue.
Changes
July 10, 2008
Exciting news: I have a job! I started work at an employment agency in Grand Rapids this week, a position that uses my Spanish training and also allows me to work with the public. It's really the sort of thing I had in mind when I decided to pursue Spanish as my major, so that's pretty cool.
Oh, and I updated the costume index. My family and I went to Renaissance Faire over the weekend, so I've added pages for my Faire projects. If you're interested in more photos of the event in general, feel free to visit my Flickr...thingie. What do you even call that?
Gifts
June 13, 2008
Three more projects have been added to the Costume index. There are more on the way; I let a pair of completely hand-sewn stays leave the house without taking pictures first, which was unwise.
Reminisce
April 10, 2008
Two more pages have been added to the Costume index--both my projects for January 2008. The About page has also been edited to reflect my current hunt for employment, as well as to add a picture. It isn't a photo, but rather a painting, cropped from a larger work by my good friend Gwendolyn. More information on both the piece and the artist can be found along with the picture.
Up until now, most of my projects have been focused on the 18th century. That was legitimate, since I actually had a job that called for 1770s costumes in the workplace. Now, though, I've graduated from college, am looking for a job in my chosen field, and will not be working at a historic site in the foreseeable future. I'll miss it, but I'm taking this as a sign that it's time to vary my skill set a little bit and branch out into other periods.
Overhaul
April 8, 2008
I'm going to give myself credit for getting this done in less than a month--all but one of my completed costume sets has been transferred from
Shards of Narsil to
Theatrical~Historical. I haven't figured out exactly how I want to handle my senior project yet, so the intro page is linked on my Completed Costumes page, but the link redirects you to the old address. I think I may just break the project down into its four component costumes and give each one its own icon and entry on the costume index page...but I haven't decided yet. I also have to make two new pages, one for Andrew's coat and one for Gwendolyn's chemise dress. Yeah, it's already April and I've made two costumes, neither of which were for me. I have many projects in-progress, though. (As always, with almost every seamstress I know.)
Oh, and when I say that I got this done in less than a month, what I really mean is, "I ignored this task completely for twenty-six days and then completed the entire re-coding job in the past hour and a half."
Welcome
March 13, 2008
As I told my friend Tyler when I bought this webspace, making your own webpage is much harder than making someone else's. When I designed his page (
Superior Cap & Regalia Company), he was the one that made all the final decisions. And now that I'm working on my own page, I want it to look different than the past two layouts I've done. Goodbye, side navigation bar! Hello, new color scheme!
