A Christmas trip to the seaside

It was a chilly, wet and windy weekend. Just the perfect time for hitting the beach! Well, it was in my 1900s replica swimsuit. The weather was rather reminiscent of England.

For our Australian Costumers Guild Christmas bash this year, we decided to make it a period trip to the beach. It seemed a fine idea at planning time and the weeks leading up were hot and humid—perfect beach weather. But the weekend of our seaside trip dawned drizzly and cool. Those of us committed to partying it up made our way out to Scarborough. It was a pretty relaxed affair. We enjoyed conversation, lunch (both packed and from the nearby cafés) and spent some time posing on the rocks between showers of rain. A successful event all in all, and at least there was little danger of sunburn. It seemed that vintage was the order of the day, with two ladies sporting their 1930s beach pyjamas, and four in vintage seaside attire.

Leaving myself dressed in an Edwardian onesie swimsuit. As it turns out being covered in jersey is by far warmer and more sun smart than most modern swimsuits, a blessing on a wet day at the beach. Both the suit and the swim cap are based on museum photographs of originals. The suit was quite an easy pattern to draft up, I simply butchered a yoked bodice pattern and added on my boxer shorts pattern (with quite a bit of tweaking). The hardest part of the costume was finding a modern jersey that was somewhat similar to a period Jersey. I settled on a navy blue with a herringbone weave and very little stretch. It’s cotton at least, so I won’t swelter in the heat should I bring it out for other occasions. The braid trimming though comes from my stash, I am happy to say. And the swimming cap comes from some left over fabric scraps of cotton sateen and silk. It’s simply a circle gathered up to a thick band. The band has two casing with ribbon red through to draw it up. I did attach a little elastic in the middle of the ribbon drawstrings just for comfort. And then I simply added the crazy fabric yoyos to decorate it up a bit. I adore how this costume came out. I think though that I would love to make a swimming corset to wear with it instead of my late Victorian one.

ACG Ball 2015

Back in August, I made the annual pilgrimage down to Adelaide for the 19th Australian Costumers Guild ball. This was my sixth year attending. And this time, not only did my mum come along with me, but so did my dad. Which meant that I have had quite the busy month leading up to the event trying to get everything ready. I had already decided that I would rewear a costume myself, so I just had to make my decision. I chose to wear my Santa version of Vocaloid Hatsune Miku as it seemed to be one of my most weather appropriate costumes (rather than November in Brisbane when I wore it the first time). And it just needed some repairs on the gloves.

But what I did have to do, was whip up something for each of my parents to wear. I promised my mum that I would finish her 1850s ballgown. It’s one that I had started back in November last year for an event that was later cancelled. Without a deadline, I put it aside. But the ACG ball just seemed the perfect opportunity to finish it for her to wear. And she loves it. It’s made from a purple/black shot silk taffeta that I gifted to her for her Birthday last year. I kept the design quite simple with a straight skirt (with massive hem) and a bodice featuring black silk piping, handsewn lacing eyelets and lace trimmed pleated sleeves. We learnt quite a while ago that anything too fussy made her look top heavy and bulked out her shoulders too much, so simple is better. I also quickly whipped up a simple reticule with the leftover taffeta and lace to complete her outfit.

As for my father, we decided to add to his pirate costume. I had previously made him black linen pants, a Georigan vest and sash. And paired with his Regency shirt, this was great for New Year a few years back. But the ball is in Adelaide where it is freezing this time of year. So, I decided to add a few accessories, a wig and a frock coat. The accessories were easy – purchased boot covers, baldric, leather pouch, plastic sword, gun (mine), hat (mine again), and telescope. For the wig, I picked up a long grey lace front from ebay. I would have liked a curly one to start with, but alas, there was only straight in the correct colour. So, I took to it with perm rollers, foam rollers and hot water. What I got in the end was a very messy curl that works rather well for his pirate character. Then there was the jacket. I picked up a beautiful green linen. It’s made from a commercial pirate costume pattern, but I wasn’t really going for period accuracy here. I trimmed the edges with brown braid that I found in my stash and gold metal buttons. All put together, I love how it looks. And best of all, I know there are opportunities for this to be worn again soon.

But, the ball itself was a blast. We arrived early to claim a table as our base, and were soon joined by the remaining Queensland and New South Wales contingent. This year, the ball was run a little different with two competitions – an informal cosplay comp and the master of the guild competition. I entered the masters competition which included pre-judging on workmanship. There is nothing more nerve-wracking than explaining your costuming decisions to a panel of judges, except maybe the 45seconds of performance that we must do. There were only three of us entered, and Teri in her amazing bustle gown took out the prize. But I am planning to enter next year!

The evening rounded out with the usual dancing and socialising. I didn’t realise how much dancing I did until I tried to stand up the next day. But again, I had a blast of a time and cannot wait until next year.