Jenny La Fleur

I’m so behind on this journal - forgive me! Here are the few pics we took at the Scotchtown open house on Saturday. There are more pics floating around... I'll post them when I get them. We had a good time though. My back was really not happy that day so I took a muscle relaxer to get through the evening. It was very strange dancing while drugged. My hand-eye coordination was not great but I didn't disgrace myself too badly!


Sunday was the RCHS dinner. We ended up being the only ones dressed but we had a good time. I'm not sure what was more fun - getting dressed together, the dinner or the trip to Border's for dessert afterwards. It was fun to dress up CC style, without much regard to accuracy. B did sadievale's hair too, so talented!

More pics from the dinner can be found here:
http://www.jennylafleur.com/dressup/07.1216.htm

Still tired but it's getting better... My room is still trashed and my sewing machine still busted but I’ve been running around doing things for friends, family and church and so haven't gotten to it yet. And taking naps, which I never do normally. Proof I really am tired and not just a whimp. :>

Tonight is the Harvest Party at church. Originally I wasn’t going to go, just help with the set up, but the lady in charge heard I was good at the cake walk and she needed someone for that so she asked me. I decided I really didn't want to hang out at the house (we don't give out candy or turn on lights but the kids knock on the door anyway and it stresses me out) so I said yes. So this will be my 4th cake walk in a row. Yay. At least I get to dress up.

I'm doing Regency since it's my current favorite and it's comfy and cool. So I'll be Marianne Dashwood – at least most people will know who that is. I can't decide if I want to do the embroidered silk federal gown or the sparkly dress that goes under the Bee Robe. The train is shorter on the sparkly frock and it fits better (so less falling off the shoulders during the evening) but I don't know that I'm in the mood for sparkle and diadems. Simple white seems more Marianne to me…

So I will let you decide for me:
[Poll #1080456]

Ahhh! What a crazy weekend! It worked out that I had to pack all my holiday living history events into one weekend. Friday & Saturday I was at Stratford Hall (Lighthorse Harry Lee’s home) and Sunday I was at Scotchtown (Patrick Henry’s home). I've been either sleeping, dressing, ironing, curling my hair or dancing since Friday. well I went to church and Target on Sunday but still. So. Tired. It was good fun though.

Friday we again were part of the candlelight tour and got to dance, in candlelight, in the Great Hall. I did a bit of caroling downstairs but mostly danced all night. We did Rufty Tuffty and Childgrove over and over… I didn’t mind though as Childgrove is my favorite dance ever. I wore my newly trimmed green “Polignac” gown, with new bronze petticoat. I still haven’t gotten the smell out of my extra fabric so I went sans ruffle and trim. I think it looked okay, although after seeing pics I do think it needs some kind of trim on it.

I was so happy - my hair came out wonderfully! I don’t have great pics unfortunately but it did look good, if I do say so myself. I washed, dried, hot curled and then teased it to death before pinning it back and adding feathers and a bow to embellish. Yep, it’s all my own hair, no rats or hair pieces! Once Bridget is home from school and available to take pics I’ll try to do a tutorial on the hair for you guys. Of course I may never be able to do it again… :>

Saturday night we all wore Federalist clothing so I added a wrist loop to the train and wore my Bee gown and robe. I had fun on Friday night but I had more fun Saturday, mostly because it was such fun to dance in the Federal clothing. It made such a nice change to not have all the skirts to deal with and the more comfortable stays. I think slippers are easier to dance in too. I love my period shoes but I had a hard time keeping my balance in them while dancing. I really wish there was a Jane Austen dance group in the area – I’d join in a heartbeat!

The only bad thing was on the way home I managed to spill cranberry juice all over my gown and stays. The gown came out of the wash just fine but the hemp cording has stained the stays permanently. They look like they have coffee stains all over. Oh well, I guess I just won’t be using them for show ever again. They aren’t ruined, just ugly.

Sunday was even more fun. I wore my new English gown with my red stripe petticoat and green stockings for an appropriately Christmasy outfit. I love my new dress! It fits so well and those pleats were so worth the effort! The event was good fun too. Scotchtown is not a large house so with as many as 8 couples (plus 5 musicians) we were packed tight into the hall. It made the dances very funny as we kept bumping false rumps and panniers! We definitely showed the spirit, frivolity and socializing of a country dance in a private home. We all had a blast and the guests seem to enjoy it too. We did a bit of caroling and whist playing as well, along with much laughter!

In other news, I’m all sixes and sevens with my computer. Dad and I switched computers over the weekend so I keep finding programs and files that still need to be transferred over. Simple, everyday things are suddenly very difficult which is frustrating. I’ll post more pics when I’m better settled. I’ll have to wait until I get other’s photos for more pics of me though, I’ve pretty much posted what I have. Oh well!

Thanks to the assistance of the fabulous Brooke (who got to see all the secrets *haha*) and an hours work from the best Mum in the whole world, the bee dress is good to go. I just have the hems and hook & eyes to do on the dress & robe. I'm hoping to get at least the hems done before we leave for C & L's but if not I'll take Bette (my new baby of a machine) with me and do them tonight. Hook & eyes for the layover in Dallas and I'm golden!

No matching purses and the wool will be polonaise via safety pin (again!) but really it's fine. I got everything done and I looks amazing - wait until you see!! *rubs hands together* Now if I could just shake this cough and sniff act and get everything to fit in my lugguge. :P

Today has gone… well unexpectedly. I started cutting out the Bee dress this morning but that quickly became a discouraging thing when I realized I was a full 6” short on the front embroidery. That would take me a good 8 hours to do (oh why did I do that stitch!!). I don’t have 8 hours to spare with everything else I have to do! *moans*

So I took a break and went to Hancocks, innocently enough, for some twill tape. I was in line to check out when B and I starting looking through some fabric displayed nearby. Then I saw it… the perfect fabric for a Regency ball gown. In fact the perfect fabric to go with my bee robe. As B put it when we told the story to Mom, something clicked.

The grand result was I bought some and have spent the last hour cutting it out to wear at CC instead of the embroidered silk. You guys are going to FLIP OUT when you see it. B says I should keep it secret (no pics!) and she is usually right so I guess I shall. *smiles evilly* I should add that I got a great deal on it, thanks to a 40% off coupon.

I will finish the yellow embroidered silk gown (I need it for a RCHS event in Sep) but this gives me a chance to 1) finish the 6” on the front and 2) actually do the other embroidery on the sleeves and neckline that I’d given up on because of the CC deadline. I’ll be much better pleased with the result I’m sure and will be a lot less stressed come Tuesday night.

Less stress is always a good thing. :>

Excuse, again, my lack of posting. The internet went down again all day yesterday, this time some issue with our modem. It has not been my week can you tell!

I’m still sick. This cold wants to hang on for a while it looks like, probably because I’m pushing a bit sewing. I’m taking lots of breaks (so behind!) but still sneezing, tired and blowing my nose every 5 minutes. Life can be so unfair!

Despite it all I am making good progress with the bee outfit - proof that there is a God and He loves me. Someday I will regret not having taken more pics along the way but something has to give and besides I keep forgetting. So I’m going to pretend I did it on purpose and make the visuals of my progress a secret. You’ll just have to wait until the Gala to see!

( much sewing rambling )

The good news:
I finished everything on my list yesterday so I’m still on schedule

The bad news:
I think I have a cold. *sigh* Oh well. So far it’s not too bad. Hopefully it will stay an annoying head cold and leave in a few days. I’m going to ignore it and sew anyway, just sleeping a bit more than planned and making sure I’m drinking lots of juice. Darn the torpedoes full speed ahead!!


The stays are finished ad look nice and neat once again. It’s so nice to have regency stays that fit properly! I gave up trying to follow the original Hunnisett pattern, which had the top straight across, and cut dips under the arm holes. So. Much. Better!

I also took off some off the center front and shortened the sleeves. And of course re-did all the binding, this time with thin pre-packaged bias tape. I definitely like the look of a scant ¼” binding the best…




Finished up the Erté too. The shorter tunic looks much better and that little bit of trim at the bottom finishes it off perfectly. I had forgotten about the back though, I have to figure out something to cover up where the sari border ends at the back of the underskirt as it now shows. *think, think, think* If I didn’t have HIPs and BUTT this would have worked better. Oh well!

Today I’m on to the bee dress toile. I’m hoping to have the overdress toiled out by tonight but we’ll see…

I got my Lacis order today. It all looks so cool! I can’t wait to try the tambour needle but I’m saving it for the CC class. I broke out the tambour hoop though, stuck my Bee dress on it and have been happily embroidering all evening. I was zooming along so well that I forgot myself and chatted with elegant_musings far too long. Good thing Dad recently up -ed my cell phone minutes! :P

Oh my gosh – why did I wait so long for a hoop like this!! I can see many blissful hours of embroidery in my future. The Bee is going much faster now – if only I'd gotten this sooner! Oh well.

I don’t know why I’m always amazed when things work better & more efficiently with the correct equipment, but I am. *silly Jenny* The Lacis sit-stand is now tops of my birthday list. (feel free to hint to the parents at any time) *giggle*

I finished the trim on the ruffle jacket petticoat today as well so that outfit is finished. Well maybe. I can’t decided if want to mess with the hat or not. I’m tempted to leave it, cunning plans or no, at least until last. Rounding out my CC wardrobe is would be good too. :P

Hey koshka_the_cat, where did you get your ballerina flats for your Regency frock? I have some red flats I could make do with but I wanted to check out your source, you know just in case. :>

Thanks!

The news from toile #6 is that I hate this gown and am starting to wonder why I bother with this costuming thing. *sigh*

Not going well at all. To look at it this is such a simple style - why can't I get it right?!! Either it's deceptively simple or I'm a dunce. At the moment I'm going with the former though starting to lean toward the latter.

I think it's time to go through the pattern bins. I can't even get the scaled patterns to work for me this time! It's not just this gown being a complete butt - I'm starting to freak about the fact that I still have the overdress to toile, cut, construct & finish. That looks like the simpler project, believe it or not.

*sigh* Why do I do these things to myself!