Ian and I are going with some friends this year, but I feel like everything I have is "played out." I'm thinking about wearing my brown silk taffeta dress, but putting some bows down the front of the bodice, as seen in some 1850s images.
Here's a bad example,


The dress has short sleeves and is more of a dinner dress, but I want to wear something fancy and not just my usual bubble print dress. I also want to make a belt to jazz it up a bit. I bought a small gold buckle a little while back, but haven't made a belt to use it with yet.

I also wanted to get a pretty drastic haircut (maybe above the shoulders?), but that has been put off until after the Faire. I have enough trouble as is with doing my hair at the length it is now, I doubt I'd be able to conjure up any hair magic with the new haircut. That, or I just wear my bonnet the whole time, but then, which bonnet?! I have a white bonnet that I love, but it's not very "London in winter" like the event proposes.

Decisions, decisions. . .

The Kyoto Fashion book (the hardbound 700+ page version) is on sale at Barnes & Noble for $19.98. I might be the only person without this book, but just wanted to let everyone know about it. I'm getting my copy for Christmas!

search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp

I haven't posted for a while.

Fall is finally here and it's getting cold. 

I've been sick with some kind of bug for a few weeks now.

Ian and I are back to running now that it is no longer deathly hot outside in the evenings.

Busy at work, but busy is good.

Picked up a printed silk 1940s dress, a black beaded cardigan, a 1940s dressing gown, and an early 1950s blue party dress all for 5 bucks each.  Score!

I have to research about demolition by neglect as a possible topic for my final project in Historic Preservation class today and go to the special collections room at the library for some local history research on a creamery. 

Sewing, what's that?!

I have been obsessed with them lately and just bought another one!  I don't know whenI'll have time to make them up, but at least I know I have them.

I've been a busy bee lately, but not with sewing.

School started two weeks ago, and the usual headache of financial not paying on time ensued.  I had enough to cover all my fees, but the cost went up $700 since last semester.  FAIL!

Classes are going good, but I'm going to have to really ration my time for school work and free time or I'll go crazy.

Did field work yesterday so I got out of the office and only got a little sunburnt.

I'm now obsessed with going to the Goodwill Bins now.  Heather found a wool coat with a fur collar in perfect condtion and bought it for $1.63 a pound.  How awesome is that?  Hope to go after work today or tomorrow morning.  I am dying to wear all of the vintage wool skirts I've thrifted lately, but the weather just won't cool down!!!

I seriously need to sit down and start thinking about what I want my thesis to be and send in a petition after I talk to my advisor.  Scary. 

Ian's off to a World War II event this weekend so I have the apartment all to myself.  I could sew something, Heather has a stash of 1940s patterns we need mock-ups for, but any free time I have I just want to veg.

Take two of the mustard colored skirt was a major FAIL.  Moved on to a 1940s shirt dress pattern, which was also another FAIL  It must have been drafted for an Amazon woman since I'll have to take about 5 inches off the length of the bodice to hit my waist.  Also, the shape of the sleeve is something I haven't worked with before and the finished look isn't quite what the pattern illustration suggests.  The third pattern of the day was a Butterick pattern that I picked up. http://img.sewingtoday.com/cat/10000/itm_img/B5316.jpg
I shortened the bodice and added to the darts and it turned out great.  I want to do a sweetheart neckline on it because right now it's a high neckline and I want to show off my collarbones!  I need to pre-wash the fabric I bought for it and buy a zipper, otherwise I would have finished it tonight.

I made Blueberry Buckle for work on Friday and my bosses were raving about it.  One kept saying it was fantastic and another called it "Blueberry Crack"  because it was so addictive.  I got a lot of kudos and my jokester of a boss told me I didn't quite get it right, so I have to bring it in every Friday until I do.  It seemed to put everyone in a upbeat mood in the office since it had been a stressful week of deadlines so I was glad it made some people happy with some goodies.

I was bored yesterday and used this tutorial to do a faux bang to go with my late 1940s summer dress I made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3eFnhPuNME&feature=related

Here's a crummy picture, Ian has the digital camera so I had to use the one on the computer:

I finished my dress today and it came out better than I had thought.  It started out as a maternity pattern and now it's a cute summer dress.  I have enough material left over to make the matching bolero but I want to work on something else. 

Ian, Heather, and I went to an estate sale and then to the bins yesterday and found some goodies.  Heather got a 1930s-40s quilt that needs some love, a cute rag rug, Ian found an Edwardian nightgown, I found a late 1950s vintage dress, and some cute office clothes.  It wasn't as hardcore as I had expected and I think it will be on our usual rounds for thrifting.

This morning we went to the antique fair and got some 1860s chairs and Heather bought some more vintage dresses. 

It's going to be hot this week.

I get to travel to southern California for a research trip this week via airplane.  I haven't been on a plane in years so I'm nervous/excited.  It will be one hell of a long day tomorrow because my flight will be at the break of dawn, we have to then drive a rental car for about an hour to get to where we need to go, and then do research until 5pm.  But I love working for a business that pays for everything! 

On a side note, I bought a super cute 1950s shirt dress for $2.00 last week, shortened the hem and sleeves and now it looks adorable.  I forgot how much I love thrift store shopping!  I grew up thrift store shopping and my twin sister and I used to have competitions who's outfit cost the least amount of money to put together.  I want to go to "The Bins" this weekend and see if I'm cut out for hardcore thrifting.

Yep, it's been a year already!  To celebrate we went to the Empire Gold Mine State Historic Park yesterday and went to Lake Tahoe today.  I just loved the European cottage on the grounds.  There was even a little corner at the back of the house and Ian said it reminded him of the proposal scene in Jane Eyre.  So cute.


Lots of people had the same idea to go to Tahoe today so the highlight was going on a hike to Fallen Leaf Lake.  Hardly any people or traffic to deal with and I wish I had something to go swimming in.  It looked so inviting!

Went to Heather's wedding and reception.  She looked gorgeous!

Had cocktails at sister Heather's apartment with Emily.

Went to a German restaurant with Hedi braids with Ed, Todd, and Ian and got the biggest portion I have ever seen in my life.  I couldn't even eat half of it.  Plus I had a full mug of Spaten beer.  It was realllly good though.

Want to sew tomorrow!!!

I got a $500 scholarship for the 2009/2010 school year!  I've never gotten one before and I wasn't expecting anything so that was nice.

I want to get some sewing done this weekend.  I got more thread so I can finish my late 1940s summer dress and re-do the skirt I was making that turned out too small.  

OMG.  It's been so hot here in Sacramento and I don't have air conditioning in my car and only one in the apartment (~melt~)

Heather and I went to the antique fair today and she just about fainted from joy!  I got a pair of 1840s prints, a framed Godey's print form 1848 for my birthday, and a full and half slip for $5 each.  Heather got some kitchy jewelery, some vintage dresses, and a 1930s step in slip for $5.  Lots of great deals and we spent about 2 1/2 hours just browsing.  Went to Ed and Heidi's for some BBQ and Heather met the crew and seemed to have a good time. I had three rum and cokes and a half of a lemon drop which was a bad idea, but I'd been craving cocktails all day so it's my own fault. . .

I'm glad Ian's home from his weekend with the guys.

Edmond and Nelly are still trying to get along; however, he pinned her underneath the kitchen cabinets today and kept biting her neck, so he spent timeout in the bathroom. . .

First I made this skirt too big.  www.burdastyle.com/patterns/show/31

I'm almost finished with a second version of the skirt and it's way too small!  And of course I did a lot of extra cute finishing details on it before I realized it wasn't going to fit in a million years.  Grrr.

Heather and I are going to an antique fair for vintage clothes tomorrow.  We watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day last night to get us inspired.

I realized that I haven't posted in three weeks, so here's an update.  I bought some crazy challis fabric to make a late 1840s -early 1850s wrapper and need to buckle down and work on some sewing projects before the summer is over.


Ian and I went to the opening of the Lincoln Exhibit from the Library of Congress here in Sacramento. ( pictures! )

We got a new cat this last weekend.  ( Edmond )

Went to a Belmont Races party at Ed and Heidi's.  Summer Bird, Dunkirk, and Mine the Bird where the top three.  Drank about 4 Belmont Breeze cocktails and noshed on Heidi's fantastic spread of snacks and then had BBQ for dinner.  I think the highlight of the evening was everyone taking a turn showing off their jump roping skills on the patio and then learning the basic West Coast Swing dance moves from Ed and Heidi while Todd played DJ on the 1940s Victrola.  Then Todd made everyone Sidecar cocktails after the Foxtrot demonstration.  Good times!

Ian and I are going to ride the bike trails and have a picnic lunch today.  The weather has been perfect lately.

This was the first time in my entire life that I worked a 40 hour week.  Kind of sad huh?  It was busy so the time went by pretty quick.  Got to do my first official building description for work today.  It's a cool mid-1960s adobe house by the river.  It was probably the ultimate party house back in the day.  I could just see a crowd of people pouring onto the back patio with drinks in hand! 

I have jury duty the week of the 22nd and in Sacramento you are on call all week!  How lame is that?!  So now I can't go on the field work trip that I am doing all the form preparation for and the history stuff, so someone who has no idea about the place is going instead.  At least I get jury duty pay from work.

I'm going to ride my bike to Safeway and get a cinnamon roll.  I deserve it!

Went to the annual Diggins at Columbia State Historic Park.  I have to say I was very impressed by the number of women in corsets and well fitted dresses and lots of cute bonnets this year.  Met a really nice woman around my age who was super cool and had a wonderful dress made from the Truly Victorian 1845 German dress pattern in a beautiful reproduction cotton print.  I made my sheer dress from the same pattern but modified it.  Got lots of comments on my sheer and the white silk bonnet I made last year.  The Mauer boarding house was rebuilt this year and was super cool.  Board and batten walls, two doors, two windows, a water pump, outhouse, the works!  I think everyone at the event had house envy.  If Columbia is going to stay open this year (yea California bankruptcy!) Ian and I want to become full fledged docents and be more involved next year.  Here are a few pictures from Saturday.  Stupid me forgot my hair rats, but I did remarkably well putting up my hair in the parking lot, and it held all day!

This one is called "dead eyes." 




 

Well, I got a promoted to Research Assistant One today and got a pay raise starting the first of June, which I was not expecting at all, and is fan-freaking-tastic!  Going to travel for work the next few days so that will be fun.  Heather was hired at JRP today so I'll be busy looking at places for her to move ASAP.  To top it all off, my new bike came in today and Ian put it together for me while I made dinner.  I had to order the kid size bike since I'm so short, but it is so fun to ride!  I forget how much I enjoyed riding bikes!

This weekend Ian, Todd, and I went to a World War II aircraft show in Livermore.  We got to go through some big planes and watch a few fly around. Here are some pics:


P-40 Warhawk


It was really cramped

Double BOO!

Not the plague infested creatures, but the hair kind!  I bought some human hair from Sally's Beauty Supply and made some rats tonight for my 1840s-50s hair styles.  My hair is almost to my wait but it never "poofs" like I want it to.  This was my inspiration photo:


Here's my first quicky attempt:


I need to move my part over to the center a bit more, bit I like to rock the side part since that's where my hair naturally lays and I've seen the side part in a few images (none of which I can seem to find in my files at the moment).  I am woefully inept when it comes to doing anything with my hair on my own, but I think with the rats I'll be able to pull off the look I want without the usual frustration.  Yea!  I love rats!