Titanic Luncheon - 100 years on

With the anniversary of 100 years since the sinking of the Titanic this weekend past, many people around the world jumped on the 1912 bandwagon and hosted any number of events. For me, I attended two. I will start with the first one. The Queensland chapter of the Australian Costumers Guild put together an outing to lunch on Saturday. We hopped on the train and made our way into town where we met up with the rest of our fellow Titanic passengers.

After a round of photos, we sat down to luncheon on the balcony of one of Brisbane's tea houses. The food was very yummy, the company was lovely, and it was truly wonderful to be with so many all dressed up. We totalled 14. It made for a truly lovely day, but before long we had to head on home to nap and prepare for the dinner to end all dinners to come.

As for my ensemble. Boy, was it some work. As this was a completely new era for me, I had to start at the very beginning - namely undergarments, before I could do anything else. My chemise and drawers were very straightforward, but I did pretty them up with a little bit of lace. The stays provided a bit more of a challenge, but my previous post goes more into that. The real problem I have with my stays are that they are actually too big for me now. They lace completely closed and I can feel that there is plenty more room for them to come in. I guess I just squish a lot more than I anticipated.

The next layer was my full petticoat slip. It is made out of white cotton voile with cotton lace inserts. I used a simplicity pattern and drafted up something that I hoped would work. My first attempt was too big, but the next one fits comfortably, so obviously I did good. The blouse was next. Again, cotton voile and decorated with the same cotton lace as the petticoat. It has an elbow length sleeve, high collar and buttons down the back. It does have the classic pouf front shape, but this gets hidden a little under my dress. The final layer - the dress. It is a simple wrap dress. I drafted the pattern from one of the Ageless Patterns but after sizing it up, changed the back to a straight instead of cross over, and made the front skirts cross over so that I could wrap it on. It does up by two hooks and eyes and then the belt holds everything else in its proper place. I used a very lightweight silk bias to trim the edge as well as for the waist sash.

I finished it all off with my hat. It is made out of sinamay, stitched together with millinery wire to hold it all together. The edge is bound in white silk bias . I used more of my white silk to create the giant white bow which is tacked to the hat, and then I trimmed it in purple hydrangea flowers. I was very limited on colour choice with the hat, simply because the store didn't have many colours. I actually ordered a purple piece as well, but I didn't like the idea of adding a third purple into my ensemble. The green was my back up colour purchase, and I am happy with how it looks. I also really like how the sinamay is so sheer, it really lets a lot of light in and works with the pastel colour of my ensemble. I am actually thinking now that I would like to make a 1820-1840s bonnet out of the sinamay at some point.

As for my hair. Hmmmm. I had a wig. I tried styling it the night before, but once it was finished, I put it on and it just looked terrible on me. It was more that the colour of brown that I had chosen really really did not suit me. I ended up just using my own hair and hiding as much of the white blonde as possible with a deep side part. I worked okay, but for next time, I really want to do a new wig. In a colour that actually suits me.