One Lovely Blog Award

Before I left on my trip, Susan Ardelie of Life Takes Lemons, was lovely enough to grant me the One Lovely Blog Award! Thank you, Susan!!

I'm ashamed to say, with the busy holidays and then going away, it's taken me this long to pass it on.

Check out her post about her award here. She has some beautiful photos posted, and also links to other blogs she nominated. All very cool and interesting!

So, on to the award goodies...

1. Thank the person who nominated you.

2. Add the ‘One Lovely Blog Award’ image to your post.

3. Share seven things about you. 

4. Pass the award on to seven nominees. 

5. Include this set of rules.  

6. Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blogs. 

I just love how Susan posted seven pictures, instead of just things about the blogger, so I am going to do similar: seven things about me, illustrated, and for difference, how about not regarding costuming?... Cheers!

Another dress from the India Rooms. Muslin, c. 1795.

Oh, this is a pretty one!

I don't have much to say. I'll just sit here and drool and let the pictures speak for themselves.

Chintz Gowns at the V&A

In an earlier post, I mentioned there were some beautiful chintz gowns in the India rooms at the V&A. There were three on display, two of which I have seen before. The third, the embroidered gown on the right in the picture above, was new to me. I think it's my favorite of the three. It has tons of darning and patching, which I always love to investigate.

First, a printed fabric from South-east India, made up in the 1770's. 

Back in the sewing room: new year, old projects.

I'm back home after my trip, and while I looooooooovvvvveeee vacation, I love coming home, too. And, yipee! Now that the holidays are over, I have lovely me time again. Yay!

I've been itching to start a new project, but in the spirit of the new year and resolutions and all that, I have decided to challenge myself: I'm going to try really hard not to buy new fabric (I have soooooo much at home) and I'm going to try to finish up some of those pesky UFO's that are cluttering up my sewing room. 

Oh, and mending. I hate mending and altering, but those are piling up, too...

So, pat on the back today. I started by finally repaired the wool braid on the bottom of my brown wool dress. Then I gave some thought to the next challenge in the Sew Fortnightly challenge, since now that I'm back, I can participate. Fun!

1913? 1813? 1713?... I batted around some ideas and settled on 1813. I was just starting to trace out a new pattern when I came across the Patterson gown pieces, tucked away, half embroidered, half cut out. Half way there! Yay!

I managed to stitch up most of the bodice this afternoon, taking a break half way through gathering up the front bust. I pinned it all on the mannequin for a look. So far I'm pretty pleased. I'll probably sew up the dress and then go back and finish the skirt embroidery. That will take a minute or two...

Detail of embroidery on the Patterson dress.
Metropolitan Museum, 1983.6.1

It's not strictly 1813. It's actually almost ten years earlier, but the fortnight challenge was the incentive I needed to get it out of the pile. Maybe it was given to a poorer relation or maid and lived on after it's more fashionable owner discarded it.... Haha excuses...

A New Year's Day Well Spent

Ooooo I had a fun day yesterday!

I left the hotel and had a nice long walk to the V&A. Living in Vegas, I'm kind of enamored by pedestrian cities. No one walks in Vegas. It's too hot and everything's too far.

Unfortunately I can't share the exhibit with you, since there were no photos and no sketching even. Which I think is pretty silly, considering you can just pop in a movie, you know... Maybe they want to keep people moving. It was packed in there!

It was a great exhibit. Sooooo many costumes. Period costumes, modern, even digital costume design. All my favorites were represented: Gone with the Wind, Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth, Titanic, Moulin Rouge, Atonement, My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffany's... It went on. And most of the costumes you could get pretty close to, to see, which was nice. 

One of the most interesting costumes had to be Vanessa Redgrave's gown from Camelot (1967). The long, long, train was covered in stitched on pumpkin seeds! Another interesting tidbit: this blue moire dress from Marie Antoinette (2006), was embellished with Christmas tinsel - that's an idea...

After the exhibit - and I was in there for a good two hours! - I went to go visit the fashion rooms. Walking down the sculpture gallery, on the way, I passed the "India" rooms and did a double take.

Yay! Chintz!

So of course I detoured and took a million pictures of each dress. I even got up the skirt of the middle one. It has a different print inside! And the one on the right has a ton of darning and piecing. I love piecing :) 

I'll share more of these pics another day soon. 

Oooh, and this pretty thing, too. A muslin gown from 1795. I don't think I've ever seen this one before. So light and gauzy!

Things I've been up to: fly fringe, Christmas, England, Titanic, knitting...

It's early morning here in London and I'm sitting in the lounge of my hotel with toast and a cup of tea. No one wakes up this early on vacation except the businessy types and the jet lagged. 

It's very nice and quiet. 

Actually, I'm the only one. Cricket, cricket.

Since my husband's still asleep and I'm sitting in this nice, quiet room, finally with a moment all to myself, I thought I would catch up on the last few weeks of fun things I have been doing.

And first things first, a belated Merry Christmas to all, and an early Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday season.

Test go of creating passementerie.

It's almost the weekend. Let's go somewhere! Join me on a little trip to Hampton Court.

Ok, it's friday. Let's pretend we don't have to do anything and we can up and leave and magically appear in a different time zone. Oh wait, we have the internet. We totally can!

Let's go visit Hampton Court today. The home of so many monarchs (and the Royal School of Needlework!), it's often associated with Henry VIII, but William III and Mary II and George II had rooms there as well, so it's not only for Tudor fans, but Baroque as well. William III redid a lot of the palace with Sir Christopher Wren in the late 1600's, and George II completed the renovation during his time there in the early 1700's. Read more about the history here, on the Hampton Court official site.

So on to the trip! We depart from London Waterloo in just a few minutes. Better hurry up!