18th Century Dinner Magic

Last weekend a bunch of us Lumieres (an18th century social group) got together for a deeeeelightful dinner at a Russian restaurant called Babushka in Walnut Creek. I have never been more happily stuffed with potato and cheese dishes as I was that evening, so much so that my new stays got a little snug and the idea of dancing went out the window! But the costumes, good company, and very pretty atmosphere made for a very lovely evening.

AND I finally finished my Brunswick! Not all by hand as I originally intended (I do enough hand sewing with my hats) but it was finished enough to be wearable! Here's me at the table, I haven't seen any full length photos yet:

I still need to make proper cuffs for the sleeves instead of just doing a quick hem and adding a bit of lace but otherwise, it's pretty much done. I actually wasn't as crazy about the style as I thought I would be--thought it made me look slightly matronly until I remembered that the Brunswick was primarily a traveling costume and was probably the 18th century equivalent of wearing yoga pants on long car trips. It's not super fitted at the waist (something I prefer) and the neckline is a bit more modest than I'm used to for this period but it fits well, was comfortable to wear and overall I'm happy with how it turned out.

My original Brunswick posts are here and here.

I also made new stays for this event as the pair I made a few years ago are too big. I used Simplicity 3635 and the fit is perfect, I didn't make any adjustments at all. That NEVER happens! Next time I could add a tiny bit to the strap length (I'm a little on the tall side) and I still need to bind the bottom edge but other than that I'm a happy camper. I'll write about them on my next post when I get started documenting some pretty hefty projects for a big trip I'm planning next year. (!!!)

Here are a few photos of the event. I didn't take a lot of photos but below I have linked to a couple of posts by friends who also blogged about the event.

Pretty Dresses!

Bunny 

And of course we had champagne. Russian wine, too! 

Lots more lovely photos and dress diaries on Kendra's blog and on Sarah's blog.

Brunswick Part 2

Started working on the petticoat this week. Easy peasy, I thought, I'll just cut two lengths out and sew them together leaving openings at..the sides?...and at the back? I couldn't decide on what direction to go so I consulted the very fabulous Costume in Detal by Nancy Bradfield to see how they did it "back in the old days." If you haven't seen this book, it's well worth every penny because it's packed with pages of drawings of actual garrments and some even have measurements! And inside construction detail! Basically I could do no wrong with any combination of openings so I'm going with side openings that hopefully later will also double as pocket openings when I actually make my 18th century pockets. They are on the list!

Here's a really mediocre photo, taken in a hotel room while traveling for work. No pressing has been done at this point, just lots of hand stitching:

Handsewing is pretty good way to make the time fly, let me tell you. I just zipped along with a backstitch about 1/2" in from the selvedge* beginning about 8 inches down from the top edge. My stitches on the first side look pretty good. The second side not so much--I was getting tired and the light was fading so they went a little wonky in places. Makes you realize how important daylight must have been to candle-era seamstresses, seriously. The openings (shown on the left) were just rolled twice and stitched down. Voila! Still have to do the pleating along the top edge, put the twill tape on, and get myself a nice hem but I'm feeling accomplished nontheless.

*Okay, technically, if you are going to wash a garment you should trim off the selvedge edge in case it does some bizarre shrinking action. This isn't going to get washed AND I didn't want to make a mess while traveling so the selvedge, fringey bits and all, got to stay.

Les Lumieres go to The Pelican Inn

Now this is a great way to spend your birthday weekend: 18th century costumes, your sweetie, good friends, and a fabulous location!

Chris and I stayed the night before the event at the Inn (http://www.pelicaninn.com/) and had a lovely evening with dinner by candlelight. After breakfast (and that's a full English breakfast, thankyouverymuch!) we went back upstairs and returned looking like this:

 

Everything I'm wearing has been made by me with the exception of the lovely necklace and hand-embroidered stomacher. Those two items are Bunny's fabulous handiwork. Chris made his jacket and hat (yay!) but his shirt was made by me. My next entry will go into some costume construction details for this outfit, but for now let's just enjoy some of the pretty pictures!

 

Lunch was followed by a walk on the beach but sadly, Chris and I had to dash off to his rehearsal so we missed that part of the day. We were so lucky the weather held out all afternoon--it's been raining like crazy here for days!

Ah, sweet life of leisure...

La Société des Lumières had a picque-nique on July 5. What delights were had! Champagne, scrumptious eats, good friends--what better way to spend a summer afternoon?

The picture above is my Very Big Hair from the back. I have curled, teased, and wrapped my (long but wimpy-fine) hair around hairpieces to give it volume. Red hair actually wasn't really in style in the 18th century but I'm not crazy about wigs, they get so hot! One of these days I'll try powdering my hair to see how it works. Hot stock tip: buy stock in hairspray prior to any Les Lumieres event! We use a LOT. Thanks to Isara for sharing this photo.

Chris and I in full costumage. I'm starting to look a little droopy as this photo was taken after a full afternoon of sipping champagne in the sun but here it is for the sake of documentation. :)

Costume Notes: I'm getting plenty of mileage out of this trusty old frock! I originally made it for an event I organized for the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild called "Let Them Drink Wine" a couple of years ago. (See Kendra's site for photos: http://www.demodecouture.com/events/wine/ ) The frock is a modified Butterick pattern. I changed the grain on the sleeves so that the stripes were horizontal. The underskirt is made out of polished cotton. For skirt volume, I'm also wearing a petticoat and some creative bum padding to fill out the back. The fichu is a hand-rolled linen square. Chris made his frock coat and hat. More costume notes as more pieces come together!

More photos of everyone looking lovely:

http://demodecouture.com/events/piquenique08/

http://www.trystancraft.com/costume/events/summerpicnic08/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/les_lumieres/