A ball of a time

Last Saturday night, I attended the Playford Ball in Brisbane with a group of friends from the Australian Costumers Guild and my re-enactment group. There was a large number of us attending all in regency costume. I ran a regency specific hair and makeup workshop in the afternoon. I ended up styling many a regency do. I think it was very successful and I was glad to practice my hair styling skills again. I even talked my dad into letting me style his hair in a more regency manner. It really made a difference in how he looked, so I am completely prepared to style his hair again next time I dress him up in regency.

Somehow I managed to get my mum's new Regency robe ready in time for her to wear. It's made out of a black crinkle georgette that has a flocked spot and black embroidery. It was one of the pieces of fabric that I picked up for her quite some time ago. I've had the robe cut out for some time, but just no time to make it up. Ironically, I got it done in a couple of evenings work. The robe has a full gathered 3/4 length sleeve, the back of the bodice is fitted but the front gathers up with black velvet ribbon under the bust. A couple of tucked pleats on each side of the bust make the bodice fit over the bust line. I love how it turned out and it was so lovely to be able to surprise my mum with it. And I really love the contrast of the black robe of the bright yellow gown.

The other thing that I whipped up for the event was a turban for myself. With the half turquoise hair that I now have, I felt that I needed to cover up my hair a bit, and unfortunately a wig is not really the best idea for regency. I forgot to take any construction photos, but I fully intend to make another one, and will make sure that I do then. It was extremely simple to make - a round of fabric gathered up and stitched to a bias hair band. Then decorated. I would like to try some more complex turbans in the future, but this served the purpose wonderfully. And I was lucky enough to have some left over purple silk in my stash that was a good match for my dress.