I just wanted to quickly share of the outfits I've been wearing. Last week, I got to go to the Texas Living History Association's annual conference which was held at Nash Farms in Grapevine, Texas. Most of the sessions were on farm skills (seeing as it was held at a historic farm) but there were a few sessions that I enjoyed going to. One was on antique sewing machine feet-what they were used for and how to use them. It was a really enjoyable session, although I don't use my sewing machine for 1860's wear. I also attended sessions on translating period knitting patterns and how to keep your audience engaged.
It was a whole weekend event. I ended up driving up after school on Thursday. Thursday night, we all went to a restored 1940's theatre wearing our 40's clothes and watched "The Egg and I". That was super fun! I technically have ventured into the 1940's before (with my Gray Lady dress) but civilian clothes were quite fun!
Everything had to be bought or made for this outfit as I had nothing that would work. The shoes are reproductions from Amazon as are the nylon stockings. The shirt I also bought off Amazon. The jewelry is vintage and came from Ebay and the hat is also from the 1940's and was found on Etsy. It wasn't in the greatest of shape when I bought it so it did have to have some restoration work done on it, but it was fun to work with! The skirt and jacket were made using an original 1940's pattern and are made up in a rayon/wool blend. Not an era I'm particularly interested in, but it's nice to have a complete outfit in case I need one again.
I didn't dress out on Friday at all but did Saturday. I went for 1850's featuring an old silk skirt (I believe it was the 2nd silk dress I ever made) and a new wool basque (that's one of those posts with no pictures yet!).
Saturday night, I wore my 1865 red ballgown again. I didn't get any new pictures, but here are last year's pictures.
I did end up adding skirt lifters to the skirt which worked really well for dancing. Also, I had forgotten to bring my normal shoes that I wear with this gown and so I was already an 1" shorter than usual!
This weekend, I went out to Liendo. It ended up being a really nice weekend-almost near 70 degrees. Because it was such a nice day, we had several visitors and kept pretty busy. I got to give the whole tour on my own for the first time! Usually we switch off and do different rooms. It was fun! I wore the peacock dress's skirt with the plain white bodice I made for Welbourne this past year. I ended up not wearing the silk jacket just because it was warm enough not to want another layer.
That's basically the end of my season! I'll only have Liendo to go to once a month until September comes around. I tend to get to go places nearly every other week from September to the 1st weekend in Feburary (excepting Christmas) so I've been pretty busy. I don't know what I'm going to do with all this free time! Maybe get some pictures taken for blog posts :)!
