Mourning Tea and New Regency Outfit

[bethzylla]

Yesterday was the DFWCG's Mourning Tea.  There was a spectacular turnout!  One of our members extended the invitation to the local Lolita group as well as a local heritage museum.  Many of them accepted, and there must have been 50 attendees.  Wow!

We had a choice of hot black tea with orange and cranberry or iced mango tea.  I chose the hot tea, even though it was almost 90 degrees outside.  It's still fall, and I want those seasonal flavors!


The Lolitas had really interesting costumes.  I loved some of the makeup and wigs I saw!


Longtime guild member James had an excellent suit and a new beau:


jenthompson's outfit was absolutely amazing and perfect, but I totally failed at getting a full length shot.  You're missing all the lovely matched plaid in the skirt and the super cool cord button on her jacket.  That lace was gorgeous, and I'm still having trouble beliving that hat started out as a sombrero!


My friend Chris came along.  She's definitely going to join the guild - this is her 3rd event!


She's decided she loves Regency attire, so I made her a new dress and some accessories.  The dress is the new-ish Butterick pattern.  I made her one in white earlier this year so I knew it would fit her.  That was important since she works long hours and doesn't have a lot of time for fittings.


I modified the back to have a button placket.  The pattern calls for butted edges that close via drawstring, but I noticed that her white one tended to gap open over the course of wearing it.  Nipped that in the bud this time!


I picked up the new Lynn McMasters pattern for her hat.  It's a great pattern, but it's definitely one where reading the directions completely before starting it is not just a good idea, but necessary.  I made the base in buckram before reading that she recommends a sturdy craft interfacing.  Whoops!  It ended up working out all right and is a very sturdy hat.  I deconstructed part of a thrift store hat to get straw braid for the brim and used the last bits of scrap black slubby silk I had to cover the crown.  I made up my own pleating pattern since I had so little to work with, but I think it really came out quite nicely.  The brim and crown are lined in silk and the band braid was an estate sale find.










I made a portrait brooch from stash findings and a ribbon cockade.  While it's far from perfect, it looked pretty good from a distance:


Easy-peasy earrings:


No regency ensemble is complete without a reticule.  This is a silk blend that was gifted to me by ashamanja_babu.  The lace motif came from a modern shirt that had a partial lace back.  I only had enough to decorate the front, sadly.  All the seams are piped with a black twisted cord that I've had in my stash for ages.  This reticule is big enough to fit a Galaxy S5 phone plus all the other basics you'd want to carry with you.



I have one full length shot of her wearing it, but it was taken in a hurry by Chris's boyfriend and thus is totally blurry.  Here it is anyway!

Comments

[kaesha-nikovana.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think Chris would put up a fight for that hat...she mentioned wanting one for everyday wear!