Anyone want to go to tea in Savannah, GA? In Costume?

Want to go to tea in Regency Costume in Savannah?

I'll be visiting Savannah, GA later this month (March 2013) and am hoping to find someone to go to tea with me at Davenport House, preferably in costume.

Tea date: Thursday, March 21, 5 pm.  The website says 4:30 pm so I've sent an email to the museum asking for clarification.  Museum confirmed that tea is at 5 pm. I called and there is still space available and they are ok with us coming in costume.

Here's the info from the website:
Program dates and times: March 1, 7, 8, 14 and 15 at 5 p.m., 20, 21, 28 and 29 4:30 p.m.
60 to 75 minutes
Admission: $18
Reservations recommended. Limited attendance.
Learn about tea traditions and experience an early 19th century tea in the historic atmosphere of the Isaiah Davenport House Museum. Patrons will tour areas of the historic home where tea service took place and will participate in an afternoon tea with costumed interpreters.
The performance requires that guests be able to walk up and down stairs.

I can coordinate the reservation and I was planning 1820s or anything Regency  for costuming since that will be easiest for me to fit in my luggage.

It will be a bit of a tight scheduling squeeze for me since I'm not familiar with the area and it is possible my schedule may change.  If more than one person wants to go that would be fabulous in case, despite my best laid plans, I'm not able to make it.

Please leave your contact info in the comments or contact me through the contact info on my blog (which I can't figure out how to do) so please use email: sahrye @ gmail.com (take out extra spaces in email address when you send the email).

Retro fifties purple dress

A retro-style dress for a trip to retro Las Vegas.  The pattern I used is a modern version of a vintage Butterick pattern.

From the Stash:

• 4 yards purple cotton broadcloth
• 2.5 yards rayon bemberg lining
• horsehair braid
• bias hem tape

Bought:

• Purple zipper

I started with a muslin mock-up.  All grainlines were thread marked as I learned in Lynda Maynard's Garment Fitting Class (super awesome class, highly recommended, CCSF Fashion 16).  The large bust adjustment with a kimono sleeve was tricky, fortunately I found a tutorial from Texas A&M Extension that helped with that.  I ended up with a dart in the side seam that the original pattern does not have.

The bodice was faced with purple cotton and the skirt was lined with rayon bemberg lining.  The hem was faced with horsehair braid to help it poof, and bias hem facing.  I wore the dress with a full net petticoat and a one layer tricot petticoat.

In the club

And some pictures from the fantastic Neon Museum in Las Vegas.

Shortcut embroidered pinball

Two years ago at Costume College's Bargain Basement I bought a distressed copy of Pincushions by Averil Colby, B T Batsford Ltd; 2nd edition (October 1988).  The book is an excellent compilation of historic pincushions and includes instructions for makeing quite a few different pincushions, including an 18th century pinball.. Most of the pinballs described are needlework, worked in queen stitch or cross stitch and the book gives the pattern for a queen stitch pinball.  Other canvas needlework pinballs, including one in flamestitch, are found in Fitting and Proper by Sharon Ann Burnston, Scurlock Pub Co (March 1, 2000). There are also resources available for making knitted pinballs, primarily of Quaker designs.

From the Stash:

• 2 - 4 X 4 inch pieces of embroidered silk tafetta
• polyfill
• 1/2 yard petersham ribbon

Guest post over at Demode

Baleen (from Wikipedia Commons)

Guest Post: In Defense of the Use of Baleen in Hobbyist and Recreation Corsetry over at Kendra's fabulous blog, Demode.

Edwardian Blouse Overhaul

A while ago I needed a quick victorian-ish blouse under my 1895 bicycling outfit for a GBACG Event.  I bought one from Gentleman's Emporium, and it worked just fine under an 1890s jacket.

When I needed a shirtwaist to wear for an Edwardian event at the Niles Canyon Railway and Essanay Silent Film Studios in April, I decided to adapt the shirt I bought to be more appropriate.

From the Stash:

• purchased shirt
• 3 yards insertion lace
• White silk fabric covered buttons

Purchased:

• 3 yards edge lace
• 3 yards insertion lace

Original shirt 

Insertion lace

I used the shirtwaists from Women's Fashions of the Early 1900s: The Unabridged Republication of New York Fashions, 1909, as inspiration.  

The original shirt had a double ruffle down the front.  I removed the under ruffle and the plastic buttons from the front.  The poofiness of the front ruffle was still a bit too much so I tacked down the fabric on both sides of the shirt front.  I added 2 parallel rows of insertion lace over each side of the center front.  This had the effect of moving the fullness out from the center front.  I also replaced the lace at the ruffle, cuffs and collar.

 Shirt, Version 2

Filming at the Niles Canyon Railway

EL wire steampunk bracelet

This bracelet is a variation of the class project I taught at the GBACG Costume Academy in March 2012. Instructions for the flower bracelet.

From the Stash:

• All the leather
• Battery holder

Purchased:

• EL wire from Cool Neon
• mini inverter

I used a basic gear template to cut out two large gears with circles underneath in place of flowers.  The templates are from a foam steampunk class I took at Costume College two years ago and never used.  The gold colored rivets are rhinestones that are spray-painted and then glued on


Gear templates and leather scissors 

Band cut-out using gear template



Leather components



Like the Flower bracelet I punched holes in the gears for the battery holder leads and the inverter wires.  I then soldered these together underneath so that they are sandwiched between the gears and the leather wristband

Wiring connecting battery to inverter 

I've found that these connections are fairly fragile so in the future I'll probably totally cover them in hot glue to keep everything together.


Battery holder and inverter

Final Bracelet:



Under the Sea: Bike Party Anglerfish

Bike Party is a rolling urban party on two wheels. Each month there is a different route, generally 10-14 miles, and a different theme. The rides are a fun time with some basic guidelines (stay right; stop at lights; ride straight; don't hate; pack your trash; don't get smashed). There are two in my local area, SF Bike Party (which once had a steampunk theme!) on the first Friday of the Month and East Bay Bike Party on the second Friday. In April EB Bike Party had the excellent theme of Under the Sea. The hardest part of the costuming was trying to narrow down my choices!

Bike Fish (maybe from Kinetic Sculpture Race?)

I was inspired by this large multi-person angler fish bike (I think this must be from the Kinetic Sculpture Race) but needed something more manageable. A hat would be perfect but hats and helmets are hard to mix and I always bike with a helmet. A helmet cover seemed to be the way to go.

From the Stash:

• Synthetic felt in blue, grey,black, white and yellow
• Green armature wire
• Poly quilt batting
• Battery powered LED from the floral section of Michaels