OMG I can’t believe its been a YEAR since I last posted!
I just read Rochelle’s post at Lucky Lucille which she ended with: “Instagram was the new blogging but I foresee blogging becoming the new Instagram…”
For a bit Instagram was the ‘new blogging platform’ and it was great. I mean, you can post something and get IMMEDIATE feedback. Makes the brain happy. Only….only…facebook owns it so they have the same silly algorithm in place that shows you what someone posted 5 days ago and then 17 seconds ago. SO frustrating. In the last year my house has changed, good life circumstances have come up, vacations were enjoyed, sewing projects have moved forward and much has evolved. I’m not going to abandon Instagram but it’s time to get back to this space.
I’m going to start with the project that meant the most to me LAST year so I can show you all the progress I’ve made THIS year.
THIS
Last year I attended the Miss Fisher Convention. You have all heard of that, right? (just kidding, it was the first year they had it) My daughter had sent me a link to a new convention in Las Vegas so I clicked, bought a ticket, booked air fare and hotel and then had that age old conundrum….what to wear. That image ^up there^ was stuck in my head.
I had the boots, I had the hat, I just needed to make *everything* else.
See? Accessories!!
The convention was technically scheduled over the course of 3+ days although I couldn’t get off work to fly in Thursday evening for the meet and greets. I still had to come up with outfits for the first day, second day and costume parade/party. Which lead to this:
Which led to learning how to take selfies in the mirror:
I tried doing a wig to imitate Phryne’s hair, that didn’t work out so I ditched it part way through the day.
Which led to some stranger taking pictures of me in a meeting room trying for a better shot of the outfit:
Brief info on the outfit: The jacket was self drafted. It’s a very basic jacket pattern with straight sides, easy straight sleeves and no collar. Marion Boyce does a lot of these long ties instead of a collar for Miss Fisher and while easy to make, those of us with bigger chests find them constantly in the wrong place 😉 To recreate the detail on the sides of the coat I cut bis strips that I then slightly gathered and set onto a rectangular panel that was inserted into the bottom of the coat. I got WAY too gather-happy so mine are much fuller than hers were. I splurged and bought imported Italian wool suiting that I found in the sale area at Stone Mountain & Daughter in Berkeley. I think it was a whopping $8 a yard and made up magnificently. The blouse fabric was ironically a Joann’s find, it came it just as I was looking for something remotely like her blouse fabric and then disappeared forever a month later. #serendipity
I did meet new people and make lots of friends (Hi Laura!)
Then THIS happened:
Recognize them? They’re Travis McMahon and Anthony J. Sharpe, Bert and Cec from the series. The Red Raggers! They were funny, approachable and supremely generous with their time. Anthony actually SANG for us, and nearly made us weep, and the hour they were going to chat with us stretched into two.
It was amazing.
The second day of the convention was the Day of Costume Changes. And Fancy Meals. And Meeting of More Friends. I got the selfie-in-the-mirror thing down.
And I met more friends. This lovely lady is “Doc”
And this is the winner of the overall Miss Fisher Look:
And Laura is wearing a REAL 1920’s dress for her first look of the day:
(Check out her hair, SO GOOD!)
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We had the joy of meeting the supremely talented ladies who do the Miss Fisher Philes podcast (Find it here and LISTEN, you’ll learn SO MUCH!)
And then…..it came time to change into our Fancy outfits, the ones we would compete for a variety of prizes. Yay!
My accessories – the purse is an actual 20’s purse (silver creature on the far right), necklace and earrings are vintage, a gift from my boy friend. They were his mother’s pieces and more 50’s than 20’s but I thought they were beautiful. The shoes are dance shoes so soft soles. adjustable straps and stupidly comfortable. The fascinator on the right was an onsite purchase, more on that later 😉
Dress laying flat, apparently this is the only shot I have that really shows the embroidery.
First part of outfit – THE COAT. Pattern is the Sugar Coat from Decades of Style. The fabrics in this entire outfit were either the scraps or the actual wedding dress from my wedding in 2007. I used a sari for the basic part of the wedding dress skirt and train and made an overskirt from a stunning red silk satin I purchased from Exotic Silks a decade ago. All was in a box, just sitting there, and the marriage long over. So I pulled everything out and started taking things apart, calculating where pieces would go and if I’d have enough a VOILA! I bought NOTHING except the gold beads that hold the “organza tacos” onto the coat. It is by FAR one of my favorite makes in a long, long time.
Then there’s the dress. Ta Da!! It is the sari that was the wedding dress!
I used this Ruth Wyeth Spears pattern as my inspiration:
My inspiration for the the skirt overlay layout came from this. I ended up doing two layers since I had LOTS of sari fabric to work with.
And the head piece? Came from this talented seller:
Her name is Debra Shirley and you can find her creations here.
I didn’t recognize this person at first:
Then it dawned on me it was the woman who gave us the history of burlesque and shared with us a show her company in Seattle had put together with a Miss Fisher theme that was a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood. SO MANY cool people!!
With all of that excitement I ended up winning the Best Costume Workmanship prize! Two of the judges were our special guests from the show and they graciously took a pic with me.
My prize? Another headpiece from the talented lady I bought mine from the first day! We’re going to collaborate on a project I’ve had on the back burner for a while.
We had a rollicking good time! I was tired when I got home, which is the best kind of vacation, isn’t it?
There is another convention this year, they’re holding it in Portland. I, alas, am not going. I thought I was going to be elsewhere when they first announced the dates, then when that cancelled the tickets were sold out. I’m going to miss seeing all the friends I made last year but hopefully I’ll be around next year (we’re going to France!) and can show off some more of my 20’s creations.
Update- Due to computer issues I didn’t get this published last week as planned so the Miss Fisher convention just happened. While sad I didn’t go I loved seeing all the pics on Instagram so thank you!
Onward!
