Memories of Costume Balls

I was very excited to learn that people who organised the "Labyrinth Ball", The Guild of the Golden Owl,  will be holding another mid-winter masquerade ball in Melbourne again.

It was the first costuming event that I had gone to since I had Tori and I could fit into nothing in my costume wardrobe. So I made my outfit, from black velveteen and the skirt was re-fashioned from another costume. Andreas pulled out his old Regency suit from the Regency Ball we had attended a few years back.

 

It was the second major project I had done on my embroidery machine, the first being my daughters baptism dress. I traced the pattern piece onto the fabric, did the embroidery and then cut it out the pattern piece and sewed it to the other pieces. The pattern was a commercial historical corset pattern.

We spent weeks making the masks from scratch and they sat in front of the "fire" in our back room drying on wire racks. Andreas wanted to go for a steampunk type look, so we made the base mask from paper mache, created the nose and then when it was finished stuck bits of square plastic on it to make it look like plates of metal. The rivits you see are blobs of dimensional paint. A hinge and eye piece completed the look. The paint work was silver spray paint and dry brushed with black.

It was an enjoyable night with lots of other friends making the effort to dress up.

Kerri dragged out her regency ball gown as well and Marina looked lovely in electric blue!

Not sure if we will attend the next one, it is on a boat and I don't go too well with boats. But I am itching for another opportunity to do some costuming, some sewing just for me rather than for etsy or a market.

Edward VI Recreation

Photo via Adventures in Costuming

I stumbled across this site while looking for a pattern for a coif. Adventures in Costuming has documented her process of making a historical costume for her little boy, the result of course is quite gorgeous. I chucked at some of the development pictures in her blog, in particular the one of her son asleep on the changing table while she is fitting the costume.

Photo taken by Kerri Valkova

The last major costume I made was our Regency outfits. I made my husband sit through all 6 hours of the BBC's Pride and Prejudice series as I sewed his costume. In the end I had to get him to sew in the lining to his jacket as I was running out of time. Unfortunately I cannot fit into my dress, still carrying a bit more pudding since I had Tori, but my hubby fits into his and looks stunning in it!. For our next Regency event, I will have to make another dress (what a pity!).