2014 in review

I haven't done a costume recap in ages but it seems the thing to do this year so here we go!

My 2014 was a huge roller coaster ride of real life dramas and challenges as I finished cosmetology school, turned 35 and started down the path of my new career. In between all that craziness I traveled, reconnected with friends, hostessed, rearranged the house and so much more. How I managed to get any costuming done I'll never know but I did.

The list isn't very long but considering my lack of time and Real Life distractions it's surprising deep and full of quality - garments I'm truly proud of and that I loved wearing. I'm at point in my costuming career where costuming happiness or success can't be measured in the length of my completed list or how many events I went to (and made a new outfit for). It's just not my lifestyle or my desire anymore. Its all about joy now, joy in being creative, joy in spending time with great people and joy in a project well done. And joy in feeling like a Pretty, Pretty Princess of course. Hey maybe I'm getting pretty good at this grown-up balancing act after all! Well except for the taking pictures and blogging part. I need to work on that in 2015.

 

   
Birthday Dress
A robe Robe Parée cut in the style of a robe à l'Anglaise. Because big birthdays need lots of sequins and champagne. It's a rare and wonderful thing when a costume actually fulfills all your original visions and comes out just as you wanted it to. This is one of those costumes. *Sigh*

 

     
Birthday Jacket
I threw this together at the last minute, having spent all my focus on the birthday dress and Bridget's Chemise gown. Oh and sitting for my Cosmetology license. You know little things like that. A wool petticoat with a cotton velvet jacket. In the end it's not my favorite nor the most flattering thing I made in 2014. Oh well, it did what it needed to do for the event and it was fun to give my Big Green Hat another wearing.

 

     
Bridget's Black Chemise á la Reine
This is just about the only picture I have of Bridget's black Chemise á la Reine, which is a shame becasue it's really pretty and I worked really hard on it. Merh.

 

   
Blue Banyan
And yet another costume I have no decent photos of. I know - I suck. It's totally getto-fabulous constuction-wise but it's finished! I've only been meaning to make this for 4 years...

 

     
Roman Costume
I'll admit it, this was a total cheater-closet costume, but I loved wearing it. A Ross-Dress-For-Less dress, a length of silk chiffon and lots of gold jewelry. Really it was an excuse to do the hair. Because I needed that hair!

 

     
Purple Francaise
A hair-raising up to the last minute project and with only about 30% of it's planned trimming attached - I'm never the less proud of this frock. The fit is darn good and while far from perfect it's not anywhere as Ghetto-Fabulous as my first Française. In fact there is a lot of finishing/construction work that makes me quite happy with myself. You'll be seeing more of this dress in 2015. (And I mean "more" in every sense of the word!)

 

1790s Pleated Yellow Over-Robe

Finished in the first week of the new year, I'm so proud of this robe. It's about 90% hand-sewn (a first for me!) and a joy to wear. Despite having worn it twice I don't really have good photos of it, clearly something I need to fix in 2015. Oh darn I'll have to wear it again, what a shame.

 

Pride & Prejudice Tea

{photo courtesy of Kat}

I just realized I never posted about this event - bad Jenny-Rose! I had an uber FABULOUS time partying with my Fabulousity Club peeps last month. Kat hosted a lovely tea on her lawn, with shopping provided by The Bohemian Belle & Dames a la Mode, much silliness and an endless supply of champagne!

The next day Robin hosted my Mary Kay "Cosmetics for 18th Century Costuming" party (lovingly now referred to as "Whore Make-up") at which we all rouge-ed up, drank more tea and wore tiaras. *sigh* It was such fun - I didn't want to come home!

 

Photo Listing:

{JennylaFleur's Photos}
my photos & my favorites from others

• Gloria | photos | (flicker)
• Kat | photos | (flickr)
• Robin | photos | (flickr)
• Julia | photos | (facebook)
• Amanda | photos | (photobucket)

  
{photo courtesy of Julia}        {photo courtesy of Kat}

    
{photo courtesy of Kat}        {photo courtesy of Kat}

 

Videos:

I only took one stealth video but it captures the "after-party" and some of the trying on of Julia's lovely hats...

of cards & punch

{photo courtesy of Nicole}

Saturday's Card Party was all I wanted it to be - yay!

The food ended up being more work than I originally intended (this is what happens when you do things like roast a hunk of meat for your roast beef sandwiches, hand squeeze 12 cups of citrus juice for your punch and make over 100 filled pastries!) but it was worth it.

We tried some new period recipes and while they weren't all keepers it was a fun way to add adventure and period atmosphere to the evening!

I was so pleased so many people braved the snow flurries, filling the house with 21 guests! That is officially the max for my house I think. Luckily we are a friendly bunch and we were wearing small frocks.

Cards were played, food was enjoyed and there was never a pause in the conversation and laughter.

We even had Kat, who was convalescing at home, Skype in for a couple of hours - that was so fun!

{photo courtesy of Aubry}

I also learned several important things. 1) I really do have the best parents in the world. They are so generous and game to cook and prep for days with me! 2) Rumtopt is quite possibly the most fabulous drink ever. (We cracked open the crock we have been throwing fruit, sugar and rum in for months - so good!). 3) Cocktails made of punch + rumtopt + champagne is even more fabulous but it bites back. Yeah I did not take Brian's warnings to heart about the power of punch. You know that scene in Vanity Fair where Jos Sedley orders the punch at Vauxhall and laments it the next day? Well it's easy to do - beware the punch! 4) Leftover shepard’s pie is good for a punch hangover.

5) I love playing dress-up in candlelight. Seriously nothing beats it.

{Jenny-Rose Photos} - my photos of the event & my favorites from others
Gloria | photos | (flicker)
Gwendolyn | photos | (blog)
Kristen | photos | (LJ - locked post)
Maggie | photos | (flicker)
Kat | photos | (LJ - locked post)
Isabella | photos | (flickr)

Videos:

I only took one stealth video but it captures the moment pretty well...

And the party from Kat's point of view on Skype...

{photo courtesy of Aubry}

a little pumpkin with my tea

Yesterday's Pumpkin Tea was wonderfully fun - thanks again Stephanie for hosting! Sadly my sister Bridget wasn’t feeling well so I took her home early but joined the fun again for dinner at the Pub and champagne afterwards back at Stephanie's family house. (Note if going to a costume event with Katalways bring a tiara and some bling - at some point it will be needed! This is the last time I'm unprepared!)

The day inculded: joining the 'Campaign to Save the Tiaras', helping in a small way with Robin's official hazing into the Fabulousity Club (it's not over yet Robin!), rocking some of Kat's rocks, drinking champagne out of a can, with a pink straw and of course scheming about new costumes and future events.

Everyone looked so great and it was so nice to hang out with you'all - I can't wait to do it again!

{Jenny-Rose Photos} - my photos of the event & my favorites from others
Gloria | photos | (flicker)
Amanda | photos | (photobucket)
Robin | photos | (google+)
Kat | photos | (flicker)
Maggie | photos | (flicker)
Jean | photos | (LJ - locked post)

(I'll add more links above as more photos from the day are posted...)

Victorian delights

I had a truly delightful day yesterday at Kat's Victorian Picnic. Bridget came with me (so happy I had something she could wear that she liked!) which of course made it even better! :>

{Jenny-Rose Photos} - my photos of the event & my favorites from others
Kat | photos | (flicker)
Gloria | photos | (flicker)

Bridget wore my Poe Dress, which looked amazing cute on her. It fit really well except for being a bit short in the skirt and the sleeves, Bridget being my younger but taller sister. So I added a ruffle to the bottom of the skirt and moved the top ruffle on the sleeves to the bottom.

Luckily for me the new skirt ruffle was already cut out, the result of running out of time the last time I wore the dress. The plan was to add a total of 9 ruffles to the bottom of that skirt but I only got two on. That was in 2009 so it felt good to get that lone half-prepped ruffle out of my pending bin.

I still have the fabric for the remaining 6 ruffles although as I was working on it last week I remembered why that hasn’t happened yet. What a pain! This fabric is a rayon-poly-something and while it moves nicely on the body it is slippery and shifty to work with when cut on the bias as these ruffles are. Oy. I still say "someday" to the ruffle madness (it will be such fun to wear!) but probably not someday soon!

I wore my Black & White Bustle. Thanks to the twill interlining with silk taffeta combo that I used (I was silly enough to actually follow pattern directions for once, silly girl) it's definitely a cold weather outfit so I haven't gotten to wear it very often. It was fun to wear it again and it was perfect for this autumn outdoor event.

It also looked awesome with my very un-Victorian RED hair. I do love this hair color - and all the compliments I get on it - but of course the disadvantage is having to start all over with hair pieces.

Ebay was good to me in the form of some cheap Cosplay "dark red" wigs that were a great match. So the wigs were taken apart and I used some of the resulting wefts of hair to assemble and curl into Victorian submission. In the end I was really happy with my hair styling but I do need to refine the pieces a bit. Which is good for you since I'll be taking pictures of the process along the way next time. This time I was too busy trying to figure out what I was doing!

After the drudgery (overly dramatic sigh) of the shifty ruffles and the seat-of-my-pants hair piece making I decided to have fun by trimming a new hat. This 18th century hat from the National Trust popped up on my Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and I fell in love right away. It then occurred to me that I had a small black straw hat & striped ribbon in the stash and could wear the resulting cuteness with both 1870s and 18th century frocks. Sold!

Originally I was going to use some black & white striped ribbon I have in the stash but when I pulled out my ribbon bin I found this tan and stripe ribbon that is almost an exact match to the original photo. Clearly this hat was meant to be.

The black straw hat blank is very nice quality but rather floppy for my taste so I added some millinery wire to the edge of the brim before covering it with the ribbon.

The pleating along the brim was done by just eye-balling it and pinning it on the brim as I set the pleats to make sure I got the shape right. All of the ribbon was sewn on by hand using a straw needle and silk thread.

I'm really happy with the results! It's a little plainer than I usually go for with my hats (my philosophy being one can't put too much crap on an 18th century hat - I've tried!) but it's charming and will go with so many of my costumes. It helps that so I'm tickled with the fact that I saw a picture on Pinterest and was able to recreate it from my stash on a whim! It totally makes me giggle inside...