I'ts Alive! (Mostly...)

 Happy Holidays everyone! I would have written sooner but was laid out for the past two weeks with a very aggressive cold. Since my last post, I have weathered November and most of December (cold notwithstanding,) and have a few blessedly free weeks before the next big project.

Victorian Ball was a lot of fun, as i got to dress up two of my friends and introduce them to all the dances. Oddly enough, I was asked to dance more usual and I had a wonderful time.

Dickens Fair was glorious! I saw all of my friends, ate entirely too much food, and got shanghaied by the crew of the HMS Hatefish! The entertainment was brilliant as always and there was a fabulous  new attraction this year: The Empire of Wonders, a mini tour that kind of reminded me of a ripley museum. I also visited the Adventurers' Club and watched Prince Albert present his plans for the Great Exhibition! The stage shows were hilarious, the food was wonderful, and I wish I could do more than one weekend a year.

I managed to finish my dress in time, and I have to say it turned out pretty well. I wore it with my sheer black bonnet and my velvet pelerine and got a lot of compliments on it. 

 Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of it as my tablet was out for repair during most of the construction.
                                                     

And now, a breather before the next project. Codename: The Blue Eugenie.

Is it procrastination if you have a legitimate reason not to do it?

The news on the Dickens Fair outfit is... there is no news. But I have a legitimate excuse! Unfortunately, I find myself in need of a new corset.
The story is this: After my last corset died, I needed a new one quickly for an event and therefore purchased a budget corset online from a suttler for about eighty bucks. While it gave me the basic silhouette I needed while still being comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time and dance in, it's true that one gets what one pays for. It was made of the cheapest material and boned with plastic coated braided cable (which I didn't find out about until one of the seams split. The description had said spring steel boning.) and two years of wear has warped it so that it is neigh unwearable. I am many things but a corsetier is not one of them, and so the short and long of it is that until I have a new one, I'll have to put the dress on hold.
The good news is that I'll be able to work on the accessories while I wait. I'm re-trimming the black tulle bonnet to match the general color scheme of the outfit (purple and black) and I'm going to need a pelerine to go with it.
I'm aiming for an 1840's late mourning dress. Cotton preferably, since Dickens Fair can get pretty warm indoors, in a nice deep purple. The pelerine will probably be out of black velvet since that's what I have on hand.
And now I'm off to see a lady about a corset!

Next post: Accessories