A Merry Dickens Christmas To You All!!!

This past Saturday was Ye Olde Fashioned Family Christmas celebration at my church and some of the members of We Wear History dressed up to add "atmosphere" to the event.  The ladies attended as villagers who were out shopping and making merry and the gentlemen were Ebenezer Scrooge.  One was his young not so jaded self, the other, the older "Scrooge" self.  We also had a sweet Belle, Ebenezer's love interest in his youth.  It was a really fun experience as we got to visit with people, watch children make crafts, listen to "A Christmas Carol" read my by Brother in Law, and general have a merry time!

Village ladies, the two Scrooges, and Miss Belle.

The elves from Stained Glass Coffee Shop.  Free brewed coffee and hot chocolate was served to the wet (it rained most of the day) event goers.  The "one horse open sleigh" was loaned to us by the founding pastor of our church, Tri Robinson.  It was fabulous.  Many a family had their pictures taken in it!

Ebenezer in his night clothing.  The Victorian Smoking Jacket was made a while ago.  I really quickly made the night shirt using Simplicity 4923.  I extended the body part to 50" to make it longer.  It is about as long as the smoking jacket so you can't see it in the pictures... Chris White, my BIL is an author and the visionary for the event.  He read "A Christmas Carol" in 4 segments throughout the event.

Young Ebenezer and his Belle....aren't they the cutest?  Belle's outfit is actually my very first Regency Era dress I made over 12 years ago after binge watching "Pride and Prejudice".  There used to be a burgundy bonnet that went along with it.  It was patterned after Lizzie Bennet's dress when she sees Darcy coming out of the lake all dripping wet....

Yay for completed dresses!  1837 Cranberry Christmas dress.  The sleeves maintained their shape nicely, but as I said, next time I will be adding netting between the layers.

The little girls I encountered were so funny about my basket.  They asked what I had in it and were severely disappointed when I showed them my phone, camera, gum and car keys.  I think they were expecting something exciting like a pastry from the bakers or some needle work!

The shape of this bonnet makes me really happy.  Lynn McMasters has done a fabulous job making the pattern!

Miss Villager with Mr. Scrooge... My fabulous husband grew mutton chop side burns especially for this event!!  He looked aaaaawesome!!  He shaved them off yesterday.  I am so sad.

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  I hope your day is filled with joy, blessings, family, fun and great food!!!

"But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

Luke 2:10-11

Be blessed my friends!!!

g

Completed 1837 Christmas Dress, Pelerine, and Bonnet!!

Whoo!!  I almost didn't make this deadline!  I am acutally kind of shocked that I got everything done in the amount of time I had!  And might I please add that I NEVER want to do this again?  Yes, I did put this on myself, no one forced my hand or twisted my arm.  But please, next time I talk myself into doing this, someone please slap me...hard...right across the face!!  I totally give you permission!  Since I started the dress earlier this week, I completed said dress, the pelerine that goes with the dress, an 1837 bonnet, and a Scrooge night gown for my husband to wear for his roll as Ebenezer.  Like I said, I NEVER want to put myself through this again.

Anyhoo, here is the completed dress and bonnet!!  I acutally ended up wearing the lace pelerine today as my mom said that she didn't like the red pelerine because it covered all the pleating on the upper sleeves.  For the bonnet I use the Lynn McMasters 1830s Romantic Period Bonnet again.  I didn't have enough time to alter it so I made it as is right out of the envelope.  I really love how it turned out! I wanted the color to be totally non matchy-matchy and I think the teal and yellow worked really well with the color of the dress!

Items finished and ready to wear!

I know that I said that I would take tons of pictures of the sleeve making process, but I only took three.  I think the problem is I get going and in the groove and I plain forget to take pictures of the process!  But, the sleeved went together really smoothly.

Pattern piece.  The pleating of the sleeves took a bit of time.  In the future, I will put some layers of tulle in between the fashion fabric and lining to make sure the puff stays puffy

In the process of pleating.

Finished with the pleating!!  The black arrow shows where I placed a strip of self bias tape.  The pattern said to just bast across the bottom of the pleats but I wanted something a little more fancy.

You can see the band in this image.  

The next part was a bit time consuming.  The pattern said after you sew the sleeve up, to sew it into the bodice and then play around with the tightness of the sleeve.  I guess I have freakishly small arms as I took the sleeves in quite a bit to get them to really fit snuggly to my fore arms.

The pelerine was very simple to make.  The pattern didn't call for it to be lined, but I lined mine as my silk is stupidly thin!  I really like how the scallops look!  Next time I wear my dress, I will be wearing the pelerine!

Fun stove pipe bonnet of teal poly satin and pale gold silk.  The flowers came from hobby lobby and were made of paper.  I thought they were the perfect color to compliment the bonnet.

Inspiration for my bonnet came from Whitaker Auctions

I LOVE this bonnet!  The color combination is so incredible!

I did this bonnet in such a quick manner that the back seam ended up being off center.  It speaks volumes as to how tired I was that I didn't tear it apart and make it center.  Yay for conquering OCD!!

Tra la la la!!!  Sewing marathon is over and today was a fabulous day of playing dress up!

Next up... pictures of the wearing of the dress and bonnet and pics of the characters from our Ye Olde Family Christmas Event!!

Be blessed my friends!!

g

Cranberry Red 1837 Christmas Dress

Ok, I lied.  Weeeeeeellll...I didn't really liiiiieee.  It was actually a rather "Squirrel!!" moment.  You know...the kind that Doug from UP! had! 

This moment....

I was calmly going along, taking a break from sewing, when all of a sudden I was sucked back into the tormenting whirwind of the sewing machine.  You see, I was at the birth of an event that my church will be having this coming Saturday.  My Brother in Law, Chris,  is going to be reading Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" during the event and I volunteered my costuming group to come dressed up in our Dickens' best!  Well, it has sort of grown and taken on a life all its own, which is so fabulous!!  My Greg is going to be Ebenezer Scrooge, there will be a young Ebenezer and his love Belle, villagers who are out and about shopping for the Christmas holiday!!!  It is going to be a super wonderful event and I cannot wait for the day!  

I got some ladies from the church to volunteer to dress up as well, wearing two of my 1863 dresses.  The reason for my sewing a new dress is this...my one hoop is being lent out, so I will be wearing my corded petticoat and 1830s petti.  I need a dress to go over it.  Well, I just made the 1830 Cranford dress and that's just fine but it is very Autumn-y and not at all Christmas-y, like I really want it to be.  To that end, I have decided to make a new dress for the event.  I had a HUGE drapery panel of cranberry dupioni silk (yes I know they didn't use dupioni in the 1830s, but I am sticking with the stash!!!!) in my stash that I thought would be perfect.  I had already made the Past Patterns 1830s Full Round Gown and it went together so smoothly, so that was a cinch.  I have chosen to use the sleeves from the Past Patterns Lowell Mill Dress pattern as the sleeves are more appropriate for the era that "A Christmas Carol" is written.  Plus, I really wanted a dress from the year the young Queen Victoria took the throne.  So, killing two birds with one stone!  Huzzah!!!

The inspiration for my 1837 dress is this faaaaaabulous one from The Litchfield Historical Society.  It makes me so stupidly happy!  Hello Popeye arms!!!

This is what I have done so far.  All I need to do now is the sleeves and the pereline!

The only buckle I have on this short notice is this silver one that was also in my stash.

Bodice and skirt pattern Past Patterns 003

Sleeve and Pelerine pattern Past Patterns 806

Since I could find noooooooooo trace of anyone who had made this sleeve pattern, I shall do my best to document the construction of the sleeve in case anyone else is interested!!!

Until next post, I will leave you with the "commercial" for the event on Saturday!!!  It is so funny!!!

Ye Olde Fashioned Family Christmas Promo Part 1

Blessings to you all!

g