Dancing the night away

And I am back at work after another weekend out on the town. This time, I attended the annual Heritage Ball at Morningside. The day started off with helping my parents move an old spa that we were giving away out of our backyard and onto a trailer. I then proceeded style my wig and to host a historical hair styling session with the Australian Costumers Guild. In the end, I ended up styling five heads of hair in preparation for the night. We all went with different styles – I had three 1850s crinoline ear styles and two bustle era styles.

We then all popped on our ballgowns and suits and made our way over to the Heritage Ball. The music was playing, the dancing was going and we all looked fantastic.

Unfortunately one of our girls came down with a food allergy reaction and had to head home early to recover, the next to take off was a very tired couple worn out from a full week of work. And then next were my parents and myself, my mum suffering from a head-cold. I danced a number of dances but was restrained by the coughing fits brought on by too much exertion, a result of my recent bouts of illness. In the end though, it was a lovely evening out, I wore myself out for the day and crashed into bed when I got home. But let me just say, it's not an easy task waltzing with two crinolines.

For the occasion, I decided to wear my white tartan silk 1850s ballgown. I made this last year in December to attend Proclamation Day at Newstead House. Looking back at photos of it, I decided that I wanted to re-trim my ballgown. The original trim just felt too heavy for the delicate colours and weight of the fabric. I went hunting through my stash and came up with a plan. I started by unpicking the existing trim, hem and sleeves. I then folded up the hem so that it would be straight across at the waist instead of a point. The next step was to attach lace over the sleeves. I then dug out the remaining silk from my mum’s bustle ballgown (a perfect match for the pink) and made a scallop trim for the neckline and a sash for my waist. I then finished it off with some velvet ribbon bows on each shoulder and the back. The wig is styled with some matching paper flowers that I dug out of my flowers supply.

It wasn’t too much work to fix up, but the result was worth it. I am much happier with the ensemble now and I think it makes for a more feminine outfit. I also pulled out my new vintage collet necklace to wear for the evening – a perfect complement to the outfit. Colour me pleased. I think I now love this outfit more than my purple crinoline.

Annual Heritage Ball

Last weekend, I attended the Annual Heritage Ball at Morningside. It's something that I have been to for the last four years and it really is a lovely evening out. Being a Heritage Ball, the costume options vary greatly. That afternoon, I ran a hair workshop for the attending members of the Australian Costumer's Guild - this time namely on Victorian hairstyling. I was a bit to busy styling to get any progress photos, but I did make sure that I got shots of the end results.

1830s Apollo Knots Style

1870s Early bustle

1880s Late bustle

My own hair was hidden under a wig again that I had styled the night before. All that I had to do to finish it off was pop in some flowers and a couple of huge white feathers. I am starting to get pretty decent at styling long hair behind me that I can't really see. It was a pretty simple do, but it served the purpose.

As for the costumes, I took my mum and dad along again, so they were all dressed up (and with masks). My mum wore her 1870s pink silk bustle again. We updated her mask with some feathers as a change of pace. As for my Dad, he was in his grey tailed suit, but I had made him a new vest as an early father's day gift. It is made of a chinese brocade that I picked up on sale with purple silk dupion lapels and pocket welts. I even went to the trouble of putting in the pockets. I think the more I do of the wretched things, the better I am getting at them - but they are hideously fiddly.

For me, I decided I wanted to wear my natural form gold bustle, but since I wasn't happy with my original ballgown bodice, I thought I would have another crack. I unpicked all the trimmings and tossed what wasn't usable. Thankfully I still have a good chunk of the gold fabric that I was able to get another bodice out (I still have more of it too). I hunted through a few fashion plates to get a little inspiration, and came up with a new apron and bodice option. The apron is made of some white chiffon that I had in my stash and trimmed with ruffled white silk ribbon (again from stash), and then a couple of pin-on fabric flowers. As for the bodice, I used my day bodice as a base for the pattern as I really like the hem and the neckline on it. This time though, the bodice features deep pleats in the back seams and front lacing. It is also trimmed in the gold lace that I pulled off my old bodice. I was a little disappointed on the night that it was a little too big across the shoulders (I suspect my body has changed from the sword training I have been doing these last few months). We pinned it to hold through, so it's not too bad, and I should be able to fix it.

I had an absolute blast of an evening and danced until I was ready to drop. You can really understand how some of the women stayed fit at the time - between being unable to eat heaps of food due to corset lacing and dancing the nights away, it would be easy to stay in shape. And before you ask, yes those are sparkly hello kitty shoes that I wore with my ballgown - I had forgotten that the shoes I normally wear were tossed after last year and had not replaced them with anything really suitable. I was comfortable at any rate.

Here are some of the other photos from the evening: