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.

Party by the pool

It wasn’t long before the Christmas parties started. The first costumed one that I attended / hosted as for my re-enactment group RIFF. This year we decided to have a retro themed pool party – making use of the pool at my place. We all brought along a number of vintage dishes to share and of course had more food than you could poke a stick at. In fact, the food was so impressive, I think that’s pretty much the photos that I took of the day.

I didn’t make anything new to wear for the occasion, but simply raided my wardrobe which is mostly vintage pattern clothing and paired my green capri pants with my retro cherry swimsuit and a short cardigan. I did festive it up a bit with a lei and the grass skirt that my mum had in her wardrobe. But the real showstoppers that I put all my effort into was the food. I made empanadas, punch, a sandwich loaf (3 layers of sandwich – egg, chicken and salmon), and a strawberry cheesecake. I certainly did not need dinner that night after snacking on our delicious retro recipes all afternoon.

It was certainly a start to the festive season and it was great to have so many of our members there with us.

An Art Deco Christmas

Last weekend I attended a couple of more Christmas events. The first being the Australian Costumers Guild Christmas Party on Saturday. This year, we visited Brisbane City Hall for a tour and lunch. Of course, we dressed in Art Deco fashions (1920s and 30s). I chose to wear my white silk 1921 dress and paired it up with a handmade felt cloche hat that my parents had brought back from New Zealand for me.

We had booked one of the free tours to start at 11.30am. City Hall was built in the 1920s and opened in 1930. It was recently closed for about 18 months while it was being restored. The main reason for the renovation was the city hall was sinking. It is built on land that was originally marshes and while piles were used in the initial construction, the years had taken their toll. Aside from saving city hall from sinking, renovations and additions were made in other areas of the building, including digging out underneath the auditorium to build an industrial kitchen (previously all catering had to be brought in). As the venue is used by out Lord Mayor and can be hired by residents for events (at an exorbitant fee) it really needed an onsite kitchen.

One of the significant discoveries made during the updating was an original wall which was once a part of the mens urinals (lovely I know). But back during World War 2, men took it upon themselves to leave a mark on the wall. As it turns out, all the names that could be read have been checked out and every man who signed the wall made it through the war alive. And funnily enough, one of the men is my father's uncle. Small world, especially since we originally hail from Mackay (about a 13 hour drive North).

After our tour, we headed down to the Shingle Inn which is newly located on ground level. It is constructed from the original 1936 Shingle Inn cafe which was built in the city. When refurbished in the 90s, the interior was put into storage. Now, they have rebuilt it into City Hall where it is well used. A booking is necessary if you want to visit, but it is worth it for the lovely atmosphere. The staff even dress in traditional maid ensembles.

To finish off our day, we headed up to the top floor where the Brisbane City Museum is now located (previously on the ground floor). It has much more room now and the exhibits have a very professional and polished look. The exhibit currently on display is Hollywood Costumes from the 30s, 40s and 50s. The collection is a personal one from a Brisbane lover of vintage film. The costumes were amazing and it was lovely to see pieces from films that I love on display.

And a photo from the kids area to finish: 

I'm on a boat!