I got my questions, having finally succumbed, so here's the answers!

Question Meme -

• Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions to satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in your post and offer to ask other people questions

girliegirl32786:
1. If you could only ever watch one costume movie again what would it be?
Hmm, that's a hard one!! There are so many that I love! And I think if I only had one to watch I'd get pretty sick of it quite quickly! But I'd have to say Pride and Prejudice, the 1995 one (HATE the Keira Knightly one!) It was my first love as far as costume movies go :)

2. Favorite thing about Christmas?
The planning! I love getting presents, or making them, and then wrapping them and decorating the tree and planning the Christmas dinner and making mince pies, all the things you do in the build up. Christmas day itself always seems like a bit of a let down, after the presents are open and dinner eaten, what's left?!

3. What costume are you most proud of?
Hmm, tricky! I bet the costume I LIKE the most might not necessarily be the one I'm proudest of! Um, probably my big pink 1860s ball gown, all those frills! So much hemming!!!

4. Besides sewing, what other hobbies do you enjoy?
My trouble always is that nearly all of my hobbies involve sewing! I have several BJDs that I make clothes for, they always wear modern dress so I don't post photos of them here very often, and I like to make clothes for myself, but I'm always so busy sewing costumes for dance demos or dress-up holidays that when I finally have everything done the last thing I want to do is more sewing!! I do love to bake though, I suppose that's a hobby :)

5. When will we see you on this side of the pond again? ;)
This makes me sad :( I was so certain I'd make it to costume college this year, but we still haven't sold the old house, so it looks like I won't make it, again :'( But, next year maybe? I miss all my costuming buddies so much!

So, we have the dancing Christmas party on Sunday, and as usual it's fancy dress, and we always go for silly fancy dress! Mummy was going to be a fantasy warrior wearing lots of Clare's LARP gear, but she said it was a bit uncomfortable, and while we were at school looking for my costume she decided she wanted to be Alice in Wonderland! We found a full frilly blue skirt and a blue adult sized baby romper that, put together, make a passable dress, especially when covered with an apron. We don't have a frilly white apron in the wardrobe at school, my boss keeps them in her attic at home, so I had to make one, I just finished it and it turned out quite cute, I think I may wear it as a kitchen apron after the party is over :) I always wear an apron when I'm baking or washing up, and while they do the job, the ones I have are not very pretty, and when we have people round end up wearing a grubby old apron all day over my party clothes! So while I was looking for apron inspiration for the Alice apron, I was looking for aprons for me. I found a really cool free pattern and decided to give it a whirl. It's the scalloped apron from here http://www.susanbranch.com/shopping/shop5-07/pattern.cfm I got some fabrics while we were out Christmas shopping today, so tomorrow, after I've finished making the last presents I need, I'll hopefully get onto my new aprons!

We did several demos last weekend and made videos, they're quite long, but here they are if you want to see :)




I also did some silly filming at the Playford Ball we went to, we had fun :D

Since some of you asked, very nicely!! Here is a shot of the new corset, taken yesterday after I'd worn it all day, after we got back from dancing I loosened it some, so it's not fitting quite as well as it could. But anyway the photo is ( under here. )
It was so comfy, and I wore it for even longer today, and for even more dancing and it was so comfortable I almost forgot I had it on! I even managed to ride on the swing boats! But you'll have to wait for those photos!!

I finally finished the bloomin thing, and I'm very pleased with it! In theory it still needs flossing, but I'm not going to do it for the demos this weekend, in fact I may never get round to it, naughty girl that I am!! I must say I love the coutil, I may be a convert!! I have a feeling all my stays and corsets from now on will use it as a base :) I'm so pleased with the fit, my figure has changed so much over the last year that there's no way I could have carried on wearing the old one, and besides, this one is prettier :D
So now I'm all set for the demos, we have one on Saturday in the afternoon, and on Sunday all day, so tomorrow, before I go out for the English Department Christmas meal, I'm going to make some soup to feed hungry and cold Victorian dancers after the demos, and since Saturday morning will probably be rather busy as well, I get to bake tomorrow, YAY!!

Mummy and I and several of the members of our dance group went to a Playford Ball held just down the road from our house. It was a wonderful night, the dancing was great, and they mixed a lot, we had an odd number in our party, so it was lovely that they kept coming up to us and asking if we wanted to dance! Unfortunately the battery for my camera died after only a few pics, but we did manage to get some of my new dress, so ( here they are... )
So now I have to get cracking on my new corset, I need it for Saturday and have a very light week at work, so shouldn't be a problem! I have all the bits and bobs I need I think.

So since yeteday was Saturday, I was baking!! I decided I needed to try and find a moister chocolate cake recipe, so I used Ina Garten's chocolate cake (from the Barefoot Contessa) And because I don't like to do just one type of cake I made some snickerdoodle cupcakes from bakerella.com but first I spent all of Friday trying to decide what frostings to make! In the end I went for caramel frosting for the snickerdoodles and whipped mint chocolate ganache for the chocolate, with mint butter-cream filling. Anyway, now I've made you hungry by talking about cupcakes, I better go the whole hog and make you feel even worse by showing you the cupcakes!!! They're ( under here )
I love Saturday baking :D
I did get some photos of my new dress at the ball last night, just waiting for my other computer to start playing nicely so I can upload them!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

The sari dress is all finished!! I spent about 3 hours just doing the sleeves!!! but I love them, I'm so pleased I did spend all that time. If I manage to get to CosCol this year I'll be bringing this baby with me, that's for sure :)
I also took a couple of tucks in my corset, it fits much better now, but since I took it out of the side under the arm the shoulder straps kept trying to slip off, so I took a dart in them to hopefully bring them in tighter over my shoulders. I've always had really sloping shoulders, straps never stay up!!
Any way, the ball is Saturday, and I'll TRY to get someone to take some GOOD pics of me that I can post!! I just hope I can dance, I've done something to the big toe on my right foot, don't know what, but it's been sore for a few days now, steadily getting worse, and now it's swollen :(

So, since I no longer have to be on a crazy low fat diet for my gallstones I've been making up for the last few months of no cakes and cookies by baking crazy cupcakes :)
I can't wait till Saturday now, I've decided Saturday is baking day :) I never seam to manage to do much sewing on a Saturday anyway, and we have dancing on Sunday so the cakes will be at their freshest :)
Now to do the washing up, then it's time to sew, I have some ideas for my new ballgown and can't wait to get started!

Having finished my red challis ahead of schedule I'm now thinking what to make next. I need my corset for the 5th, but no other deadlines before March. We have a Playfor ball on Saturday, we usually wear Regency for Playford, and I DO NOT want to wear my pink again! I'm fed up with it, it's the only ballgown I have and it feels like I've worn it so many times! I've been wanting a new one for ages, but I couldn't make one in time for Bath in September because I had so much sewing for Mummy and Clare to do, but I bought the fabric, it's a sari, quite see through, pale minty green with sparkly beads and embroidery. So I'm going to try to make it up this week. I don't think it'll take me too long, I have all the patterns, and it won't need embellishing or hemming. This week is quite busy work wise though, I was at work today, 12 till 7, and Tuesday I'll be in from lunch time till 9 or so, then Thursday from 8 till 10:30 and Friday till 10:30 too, but Thursday and Friday I will have lots of time to kill, so I can do hand sewing then, and hopefully get the cutting and machining done on Monday and Wednesday. I need to do something with my corset though, it's way too big since my gallstone enforced diet :) I'm wondering about taking a tuck in it? I'll have to try it tomorrow.

I finished the red challis in time to wear to go to Rockingham Castle Friday evening! And I love it :) It's so silly and festive, and it's WARM!! Any way, I didn't manage to get any good pics, the two that shoe the dress the best are rather fuzzy, but they're
I'll hopefully manage to get some better pics soon - on the 5th we're dancing in the local town, just for fun, then on the 6th we're doing an official demo at another local town at their Victorian Christmas Market, so there should be some photo opportunities then. I should have my new corset done by then too, so it'll look better as well :)
And I have work tomorrow :( It's the week of the Yr 10 play, so rehearsal tomorrow, then I'm in till late on Tuesday for another rehearsal, then the performances on Thursday and Friday till 10:30 ish in the evening :( We have a Regency Ball on Saturday, and I'm hoping to be able to fit making a new ballgown into next week too!

Well, since my last post I now have an almost finished dress! Yesterday a friend suggested we go to Rockingham Castle's Victorian event in kit, and the event finishes tomorrow so we decided to go tomorrow after her daughters finish school. And I decided to really knuckle down and finish my challis to wear. I had work today from 11:30 till 9:00, so knew I had to get lots done yesterday. I piped the bodice, set in the sleeves, pressed up their hems and sewed the button holes and covered the buttons. I also made a new set of collar and cuffs. I planned to hem down the piping, sew on the buttons, add the ruching to the 'yoke' line and tack the collar and cuffs in today at work. I managed all but the last quarter of the ruching, and the tacking in my lunch break and during tea at school, and finished the rest once I got home. So all I have left for tomorrow is to pleat and attach the skirt. Mel is going to collect me at lunch time, so I'll probably be finishing at her house, but who knows! Anyway I'll hopefully have some photos for you of my new dress very soon!!

Didn't get much done at all over the weekend, and I had work on Monday, but today I went into town to get top-stitching thread and matching ribbon for my new 1860s corset. I found a pretty pink and a blue, don't know which I'll decide on :) I also got some silk duchess satin, from the market of all places! I looked at the polly stuff and decided I'd rather just use coutil, even if its not as pretty, when he said 'I have a remnant of silk if you want, how much do you need though, there's only a little bit left'. There was 90cm left on the bolt, and he sold it to me for £9, bloody amazing price over here!! So now my new corset will be lovely and pretty :) I also wanted to get a heavy duty open-ended zip for fittings, and found a nice purple one! So after I got back I looked for the pattern for my old corset. It was no where to be found :'( So I spent AGES taking a pattern off my corset, then I cut the patterns up to add about 2" into the length between waist and underbust. My posture has changed so much that the bust gussets sit way bellow my bust once it's settled onto my hips. I also think I'll need to make the gussets a bit smaller and take some out of the hips, even before the gallstones it was a bit big in these areas, even more so now of course!!!
But then I got eaten by the TV so couldn't cut out my mockup, but instead of just sitting in front off the TV like a lump, I started hemming the skirt of my red challis, so I have done SOME useful stuff today :)
Mummy got me some disposable piping bags today, and some new nozzles, so now all I want to do tomorrow is bake cupcakes so I can decorate them all sillily :D

As promised, finally! I had to take the photos with the lights on though, the weather here has been HORRID!! And I still cannot manage to take a photo in the mirror to save my life :) So any way, enough excuses, the photos are ( under here )
The bodice of the red challis is pinned together, the sleeves are done, the piping for neck, waist and armholes made, and the skirt panels ripped. In theory I'll get the bodice put together tomorrow, and should get the sleeves set in too, but in practice, not so likely! It' a friend's birthday and we're going out for a meal, and I want to bake for her, and Mummy and I have to go shopping in the morning, so no idea how much sewing time I'll have :(

I finished the hood, and wore it to dancing on Sunday night because it was SO cold! I only got to wear it TO dancing though, Saf, the 12 year old in the group, decided it was far too warm and snuggly for me to wear, so she stole it for the rest of the evening!! I'll try to take a photo or 2 soon.
Today I cut out my red challis (1860s) and started putting the sleeves together. I'm definitely going to take photos tomorrow because they're such crazy sleeves! The challis is a tomatoey red and I'm trimming it with a lovely golden brown silk ribbon, Mummy said it looks drab, but I like it, it seems festive! and it reminds me of a robin red breast :)
Today I also finished the last of the chocolate chocolate chocolate chip cookies, so I'm planning to try some apple-sauce oatmeal raisin cookies tomorrow, the recipe sounds yummy, and slightly more healthy!!!

I went to some friends' engagement party tonight, they had fireworks and a bonfire and her dad made pizzas in his new outdoor wood-fired pizza oven! Yummy!! I made some super chocolaty choc chip cookies to take, I was so pleased they disappeared so quickly, and luckily I made a double batch so I have lots left for dancing tomorrow!
In sewing news the new hood is nearly done, I just have to finish sewing the pleats in the body of the hood and then pleat and sew on the curtain attach ties and a bow and the fur. I lucked out on the fur by the way! The mink collar extends down the fronts of the jacket and curves at the bottom just round the corner. It was made up as a completely seperate thing and then hand sewn to the finished edges of the jacket, so it came off really easily, and the two fronts are the perfect length to make into the trim for the turn back on the hood, complete with the curve at the bottoms! I just have to unpick the seams, trim off a little bit and sew the two pieces together. Hopefully I'll get it done tomorrow!

I've spent the last 2 days working on my sontag, it is taking FOREVER!!! I'm still a little bit sore from the op, standing, leaning over and walking a lot, especially stairs, gets a bit uncomfortable, I can crochet though! But while I crochet I've been planning what I'll be sewing as soon as I can bend over the table long enough to cut out :) I'm going to re-cut Mummy's hood from the 'red riding hood' pattern I used, to a fitted hood like mine, I think I'll have just enough without having to piece, and only need to do a tiny bit more quilting, and I'm going to keep the pinked scalloped edge on the curtain, so hopefully it'll be a fairly quick job! I haven't decided yet if I will use some of the pretty plaid ribbon I bought on ebay recently, or re-use the taffeta fabric ties... we'll see :) But I want to put fur on it, nice and snuggly!
I also have decided to make my new wool dress before I make my new corset, because I NEED a wool dress for the Xmas demo, I can cope with the badly fitting corset but I can't cope with the cold in a cotton dress!
And last plan, I'm going to get my hair cut. At the moment it's long enough to tuck into the waistband of my jeans, but the ends are all straggly, and while it's great for dressing up, it's not so good for 'real life', so I'm going to get quite a bit chopped off and layers put in, no bangs though, it'll still be long, just not ridiculously long :) So that's my job for tomorrow!

was great fun!! I had my stitches out in the afternoon and felt SO much better after they were out. They were pulling the skin and muscles so tight it made it really uncomfortable, but once they were gone, even though it was a teeny bit sore, like after an injection, I felt SO much better!
I didn't wear my brown 17th century ish dress, decided it would be bad for my poorly tummy, so instead I wore a high waisted medievaly dress with my hair down and all curly to be Juliet, with the stab wound in her side from the dagger :D Mummy was a nun in a costume from school, with a bloody white surplice, and she brandished a kitchen knife for photos! She also got hold of a fake leg covered in blood from the decorations and waved it at people :) Having far too much fun hamming it up!
Our cousins came for the weekend to go to the ball, their first! Katharine, Mummy's cousin, wore Mummy's plaid ballgown and lot of black lace, and Julianne, her daughter, wore Clare's green ball gown and she'd made lots of ribbon and paper roses to put all over it, and she was a flower garden :) They love getting to dress up, so while it was a treat for us NOT to wear a corset and petticoats, for them it was the opposite :)
I'm just about to re heat some yummy baked beans I made on Saturday, haven't made any since Xmas 2 years ago! I forget how NICE they are :) The ones I made for Julianne (a vegetarian) even turned out nice without the bacon and smoked sausage :) I must make them more often, even if they do have a rather adverse affect on my mother!!!

I'm much less sore than I was, the wounds are itching like mad though! I know it's really good, but it's also really annoying! My tummy muscles are lots better too, I can sit up and get up from lying down and stand up straight without it hurting too much at all! But I'm all distended, it's so uncomfortable :( And I think it's hurting more than the wounds, it's really not helping my sore muscles!!