Diary of a Costumer

I made a packing list yesterday for PortTownsend, and realized there were still several small things I needed to make! And when I came home after dinner last night, I got into a "make all the things" mode, and worked until after 1am on a bunch of different projects.

First, I tried to figure out what I would do with my hair for the Seaside Bustle gown. I hated what I did with my hair at CosCol, but still didn't want to do my fallback curl pieces that I use for Ravenclaw. Yesterday afternoon, I went out and bought two regular braids and a wavy braid at the hair store, to use for the orange gown and the seaside bustle, so luckily, I had a lot to work with. What I've decided on is a really long braid circling the crown of my head, and making another circle as a loose bun, and then the wavy piece (which I also braided) is in a loop coming from the center of the loose bun. I think it works.

After that, I put together/altered four bracelets for the orange gown, because I realized when looking at the fashion plate yesterday that she's wearing a ton of bracelets. The ones I made are pretty terrible, but they'll do. I didn't have thick enough wire for the clasps, so hopefully the ones I made won't get too out of shape while I'm wearing them. I just need them to last one night! Here's a pic: The one on the right was a longer bracelet to begin with, so I remade it - the other three were chains I had in the stash, and I just altered the length and put the clasps on.


When those were done, I switched to 1830s hair. Before I started the bustle hair, I had made four loops to use out of one of the braids. I sort of used Kendra's buckle method, with some alterations. I couldn't find any wax paper, so I wrapped an aerosol hairspray can in aluminum foil, coated one side of an 11-12" piece of hair with the jewel-it glue, wrapped it around the bottle and bobby pinned the ends together, and then coated the other side of the hair. When the glue dried, I slid the foil off the bottle and carefully detached the hair from the foil. Then I put them under a piece of the cardboard hair package, and laid one of the bustle braids across it, so that they would squish into the teardrop shape I wanted. They stayed there for probably an hour (in which time, I glued the feathers on my archery dress hat). After that, I took the remainder of that package of hair, braided the part I hadn't cut chunks off of, and made it into a base for the loops. I've bobby pinned the loops to the braid and to each other, and now they look like this! I will be adding large ribbon loops to it today to make it look like the fashion plate.


But the night wasn't over yet. I also realized that I had no reticule to match the orange gown, so with the tiny scraps I had left, I cut out three pieces for a small reticule. I sewed up the silk outer, and a cotton liner, and then finally called it a night. I'm going to trim it and finish it up today.

I totally forgot that I just made new bloomers for when I did Tommy. So I don't need to make new ones! I think I might patch the old ones, though, since I'm sure it's beneficial to have two pairs. ;)

I've also already started packing. So far, things are fitting amazingly well. I've packed pretty much everything except the court gown, toiletries/hair stuff, and whatever I'm wearing on Monday, and I still have 10lbs left in my big suitcase, plus an entire medium sized suitcase! (I'm hoping the court gown can ride solo in there, so it doesn't have any squishing. I fit three of the four hats in two hatboxes, which will be driving down with some other wonderful Seattlites. The Edwardian hat is really the only question mark at this point. If I have to bring it on the plane, I will, but that thing is bigger than an airline seat. So I'm not really sure that's a good idea.

In wig news, it's progressing super slowly. I wanted to have the whole thing finished today, but the curls took a while to dry, so right now, I'm still trying to sew on the wire cage to the wig. I think after this, though, it should go way quicker. I have all my buckles made, too. One note, though, is that Kendra suggests 27" for the circumference of the cage (minus a 1" overlap), which was bigger than my entire wig. So unfortunately, I had to make it smaller. I hope it still works!

The burgundy petticoat just needs a hem and to have the ruffle sewn on. I still need to figure out how to make a closure on my ribbon belt. I also have an idea of how I want to decorate my hat, and how I want to do my hair.



For my hair, I had spent a few hours at the beach yesterday, which seemed to help in the wild poufyness of my hair to begin with. But then all I did was section it off into three sections (plus the two curls at the bottom). The top section I sort of tucked under to get the pouf. The second section I pretty much just piled on top of my head and stuck a couple bobby pins in. And the third section I pinned up in pieces. Hopefully I will be able to recreate this or better on Sunday. For the trials, though, I didn't even do any teasing or spraying.


I also still need to make a cap, and if I have time, I'd like to make some new pockets, a reticule, and a better fichu. Not too bad, and I think it will be all doable in time for the festival on Sunday.

And a little Edwardian progress - the skirt is finished except the hem. The waistband is definitely not the best, but no one will be able to see it anyway, since I'm going to have the velvet sash over it. And I've developed such a huge hatred for chiffon that I kind of just want to get through this project as quickly as possible. (Please ignore the storebought corset)