Bootlegger's Ball

Jim and I found out today that we would be one of three display couples dancing at Bootlegger's Ball. This means not only do we get to be there in period clothes and doing period dances, we're obligated to lead by example and dance for the entirety of the band's 3 one hour sets! That's A LOT of dancing. Needless to say, hubby and I will be building endurance and dancing as much as possible between now and the 30th. We also have to figure out what we're going to wear!

If only Prohibition had been during the 30s we would have been set. No shortage of dance clothes for that era! Jim should be easy enough. He may not be spot on, but we only have 2 weeks and no money, so I cannot make him something 100% correct but I very seriously doubt any one will notice any little difference in the cut of trousers and things like that.

Unfortunately for me, we've been pretty exclusive to the late 30s and the 40s and the sillouhettes were VERY different for the 20s...a figure that I cannot even hope to accomplish on my own, so out comes my old friend the Ace wrap to squish myself into some semblence of boy-shaped girly cuteness. Not exactly my idea of a comfy night, but well worth it.

Because of the finance constrictions, I decided that while I will make a dress to wear, I will be limited to a $10 budget. I've found fabric in stash and will mostly be draping and designing the dress sans pattern. Joann's is having a pattern sale and I would really like at least something to start from, so I may be off to spend 2 of my $10 on a slip pattern. I googled and flipped through every book I own with 20s fashion (which sadly is limited) and I think this is what I want to go for...ish.

My underdress is going to be the same ivory dupioni as my wedding gown, because I have scads of it. As for rest of the dress, I don't really have the time (read patience) for lots of beading, so I decided on a floral chiffon (probably poly, but at this point I can't really afford to be picky) from stash with large roses in multiple shades of pink, which should look very nice with my mauve dance shoes.

I'm also thinking that instead of the straight hem and skirt, I may do the chiffon skirt with a hankerchief hem so that the points add a little more interest. Any opinions?

I've got the dress picture printed off so that I can trace off a line drawing and get draping. Now that I'm really thinking about it, I don't even know that I'll bother with driving all the way to Joann's for a pattern. I think I'll at least give it a go on my own. I don't have a sloper to work from yet, but I don't think I'll need one for this. I think as long as I drape onto my dressform I should be able to hack it out.

Swinging at the Museum

So, I was going to be all clever and computer savvy and upload the video of Tuesday's performance here for all to see. Turns out, Blogger still hates me and I never could get the stupid thing uploaded. Compounded with a fight with my brother and I'm just not in the mood to keep trying. So, if you'd like to see it, the video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiw27J_jDU0

Many thanks to my wonderful fellow dancers who helped me through this and rocked out on all of it! For any of you not familiar with what I look like, I'm the on in white top, brown skirt (recently finished but not yet reviewed) and red shoes...those shoes are hard to miss

7 Days

7 more days to go. In fact, 7 days from now, we will be half way through our reception. I guess it's a good thing the dress is almost done, huh? That's right, I said "almost done". There's really not much left to do though, and depending on my sanity level, I should have it completed by tomorrow evening. Just need to figure out the bustle, attach the lining to the top of the bodice, finish sewing down the lace motifs around the shoulders and trim out the underlying lace. Please pardon the lack of pressing and crinoline. The crinoline is attached to the bodice lining, so it's not in there yet. Not to shabby, eh? When not on a mannequin with a big gaping hole in the middle of the chest, the lace lays very nicely, and I'm quite pleased with myself. All the lace motifs that trim the top and bottom edge of the bodice were harvested from my aunt's dress. I couldn't have asked for prettier trim!

Am I that dorky? Why yes, yes I am! I purposely planned the lace motifs across the center front so that they would form this little heart right smack dab in the middle. It's rather adorable I think.

The center back has almost the same effect, but not quite as obvious.

And boy, oh boy, am I glad I put a waist stay in! This is a heavy dress, but thanks to this little guy, it's not going anywhere! There are about 4 feet of train rolled up under that hem. It's a biggun'!

As the crinoline creates a fully lined skirt, I opted not to add an actual skirt lining, thereby adding more weight. I've got to be able to get this thing down the aisle without the aid of a small pony, which my father swears I'll need. Instead, I decided to just put some hem tape on and turn it up over the horsehair braid. It only took the better part of 5 hours to hand hem it to the underlining. That's not including the several hours it took to hand sew the horsehair braid in and even up the hem!

And now, in a moment of sheer brilliance on my part, I appear to have fractured my foot a week before my wedding. Good job, me. A friend and I are part of a choreographed performance at a WWII event at a local museum as part of their community outreach program. On Wednesday night we had our first practice and decided to try to perfect our frog jump, which we'd like to include at some point. For those of you that don't know what a frog jump looks like, check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siKuGLwF4yA

It's kind of like that, only assisted by your partner in a closed dance position and my whole body mass is about 6 feet in the air. The very first one we did, I came down a little hard on my foot but just laughed it off. We did so many that the next day my thighs were so sore I didn't even really notice the foot pain. By yesterday I was limping a bit and today my foot is swollen. Oh joy. Hope it heals quickly! Needless to say, Jim and I WON'T be going dancing tonight :(

Valentine's Day at last!

Phew! Two pair of Valentines pants done with no time to spare. I finished Jim's amazing plaid pants just half an hour before we needed to leave for the dance. Talk about crunch time! All week while I was working on these two pair of pants and still taking other projects, I was including at least part of Saturday as a work day. I guess I should have been more clear about that point with Jim, who waited until Thursday afternoon to announce that he had a Valentine's Day suprise for me that would take all day and was out of town. Friday night crunch time! Luckily, I was already doing the button fly on Jim's pants with hand-braided buttonholes, which can be done in the car. That is exactly what I did all the way to our secret destination. I fininished the second to last buttonhole as we were parking.

My suprise? The Newport Aquarium! Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I am a shark fiend. I count down to the Discovery Channel's Shark Week every summer and own multiple shark documentaries. The aquarium was great. We got all kinds of pictures of weird fish and frogs, some really beautiful jellyfish and other critters.

The very, very best part was the sharks. I got some really incredible pictures and some even better videos while we were in some of the little tunnels that the sharks swim around.

And then?! And then I got to pet some. I pet a shark! Several, in fact. One was really slippery but not slimey and it felt like it had a row of tiny little teeth down it's spine. My favorite was the 3 1/2 foot shark that felt like wet and velvety. I was in heaven and hadn't even gotten to go dancing yet!

The Louisville Swing Dance Society's "Let Me Call You Swingheart" dance was a huge success. The music was good, the dancing was even better and our new pants were a smash hit! The best part that my darling friend Emily, who was visiting from school just for the weekend, wore the 1940s style outfit that I made for her last summer. Needless to say, the dance seemed a little like a showcase for my work.

I knew I should have worn a black bra...