Ancients WDR

Next on the agenda was the RIFF christmas party (my re-enactment group). This year we decided to do a simple Ancients Wine, Dine and Recline.

I have long loved the history of the Minoan society - from ancient Crete. Ever since I did a school project, I have loved the myth, the legends and the history. So, I saw this as the perfect occasion to fulfill that and make a Minoan womens costume. There isn't much information out there and I really struggled for how to put it together. I ordered a couple of books from Book Depository for some help and got cracking. There are a number of components that I made:

The skirt. Skirts are depicted as full of ruffles. So after a bit of fabric research, I purchased some linen and go cracking. The base skirt is a simple six gore out of some cotton sheeting that I had in my stash. It then has six flounces sewn onto it. They are made out of three varying shades of blue. The next part was to for the bodice. Most of my research shows bare breasted women with fitted bodices. I didn't really want to have the girls out on show for everyone to see, and was lucky enough to find images where the women are wearing a chemise under the bodice. I simply used one of my regency chemises as it gave the correct style of neckline. Then there was the bodice. It is made from two layers of red linen and it laces up the front with hand stitched eyelets and some red lacing cord. It is also trimmed with a band of black and blue banding running down the seam of the arm. If I had more of the trim, I would really liked to have added some around the cuff of the sleeves - but it was something from my stash. The bodice is cut as the back on a fold and the front shaped around the bust to support and lift. The sleeves are cut into the piece with a seam running along the shoulder and under the arm and side seam. It is made to fit very snugly. I topped it all off with a leather belt around my middle and some quick wig styling of my long black wig. Next time though, I am planning a whole new wig.

As for my contribution to food, I stumbled across a vague description for a pork Minoan casserole style dish. Since I had such trouble finding a recipe, here is how I made it...

Ingredients:

• 800g pork steak
• 1/2 bottle of white wine
• 1 Tablespoon dried Thyme
• 1 Leek, sliced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup honey

Dice the pork into cubes and marinade in the fridge with the white wine for at least 1 hour. Heat oil in a large pan and lightly cook the leek. You want it to be soft but not too browned. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring the mixture to the boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour. Serve.

And with that, I leave you with some photos.

Proclamation Day 2012

The next thing on my costuming agenda was Proclamation Day on the 10th December. This is a celebration of the day when Queensland became it's own state back in 1859. So, for the occasion, Newstead House holds a twilight ceremony with nibbles and carols around the piano. They invite the Australian Costumers Guild every year to help provide a bit of atmosphere. It was a lovely evening, and thankfully the rain and heat kept away.

This time, I put together a new crinoline ensemble for myself. The fabric is a silk dupion that I picked up a roll of for $8.95 per metre - quite the bargain. I decided for my design that I wanted to do a double skirt, but I wasn't sure that I would always want a double skirt if I use it again for a day outfit. So instead, I made two separate skirts, one shorter than the other on two separate waistbands. This will allow me to mix it up a bit too - maybe with a plain silk underskirt layer. The bodice is based on the Truly Victorian ballgown bodice pattern. It has a straight back and I added a point in the front which I strengthened with a piece of boning. It laces up the back where I made handsewn eyelets, and it has a white silk dupion pleated ruffle trim at the neckline. I also whipped up a floral hair garland and matching brooch out of some paper flowers that I had in my stash. Overall, I am very pleased with the ensemble and am so pleased that I was able to put it together completely from stash fabric.

ACG on ice

Christmas parties abound. This year, the ACG decided for our Christmas party to go ice skating. We initially tossed around the idea of roller skating, but with the December heat setting in decided that the freezing air inside the ice rink would be a really nice change. I didn't make anything new for the occasion, but instead pulled out my American McGee Alice costume - which has not seen much love of late.

I did my best to get some on-ice photos, but I tell you now, it's not easy when moving on skates. Kerry was the one who did some damage and left trails of blood across the ice when she flopped down. Unfortunately, I didn't get it on camera - I did however get the display of war wounds. :D

 

We rounded out our evening with a swim, pot luck dinner and delicious red velvet cake. Merry Christmas!

Costume nerddism is alive

So, I recently mentioned to a few of my fellow costumers that I had created an excel spreadsheet that allows me to track how far away a sewing deadline is. It's just a little something that counts down the days and weeks to the event. But when I mentioned this, they asked that I share. So, I am sharing. For all of my readers.

All you need to do is enter the event name into the event column and the costume that you are intending to wear in the costume column and then the date dd/mm/yyyy into the event date column and it will automatically work out how long you have based on the current date. There is also a column that counts up the number of new or reworn costumes (I like to know this sort of thing). So, for each costume I just put a 1 in the appropriate column.

And there you have it. If you can't guess by now, I actually love Excel and create spreadsheets for so many things...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtQHIpPmF4rhdFZMdUc1WHZnV1RIQ0FGanVfMGRrV1E#gid=0