Our list of events is growing!
For September, we have the Summer Antique Elegance Show. You can wear just about anything from Regency to the 1950's. Don't have a costume? Join us anyway and have fun shopping and chatting! We usually take a group photo, so stay tuned for more information on when we'll get together for that.
November is our 4th Annual Georgian Picnic, and it's sure to be a blast as well. This popular event is held at the Ft Worth Botanic Gardens, and there's lots of room to play period games (or relax on a picnic blanket in the shade, of course!).
Please check out our event listings for more details on our 2012 events -- we hope to see you soon!
DFWCG Event Listings
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Retro Ice Cream Social Event Listing
The DFWCG is pleased to announce the event listing for the Retro Ice Cream Social!
Last year's ice cream social was such a fun success, we just had to do it again -- and with warm and sunny weather already making its appearance, we're sure you'll have quite the craving for something cold and tasty this August!
The group will be meeting at Beth Marie's in Denton, on August 11th at 2 pm. Dress is 20th century retro, but please feel free to join us even if you don't have a costume to wear.
Visit the Retro Ice Cream Social event listing for more info, and stay cool this summer!
Last year's ice cream social was such a fun success, we just had to do it again -- and with warm and sunny weather already making its appearance, we're sure you'll have quite the craving for something cold and tasty this August!
The group will be meeting at Beth Marie's in Denton, on August 11th at 2 pm. Dress is 20th century retro, but please feel free to join us even if you don't have a costume to wear.
Visit the Retro Ice Cream Social event listing for more info, and stay cool this summer!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Full Costumers' Lost Weekend Panel Lineup Released!
The DFW Costumers Guild is proud to announce its complete panel lineup for Costumers' Lost Weekend!
We previously announced Big Edwardian Hair and Props & Gadgets Fabrication. The remaining panels are just as interesting and sure to cover a wide range of helpful and insightful topics for your costuming needs!
Remember, tickets are limited, so make sure you secure your seat now for these exciting costuming panels!
We previously announced Big Edwardian Hair and Props & Gadgets Fabrication. The remaining panels are just as interesting and sure to cover a wide range of helpful and insightful topics for your costuming needs!
- Ever wondered what equipment is needed to take the best photographs of your latest costume? You won't leave without learning the tips and tricks of costume Photography, taught by fellow guildmember Crandall.
- Do you want to add lights to that special costume or prop? Steve with Airship Nocturne will show us how to light it up with Lighting in Costumes and Props!
- Interested in SciFi Costuming? Deb with Airship Nocturne will go over the design, materials, and fabrication of costuming in the Science Fiction genre.
- And Ginger, a DFW Costumer's Guild member, will teach us to not be intimidated by the Costuming of the Civil War and how to make Vintage Patterns work for the modern body.
Remember, tickets are limited, so make sure you secure your seat now for these exciting costuming panels!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Exciting Updates for the Costumers' Lost Weekend Retreat!
The DFWCG has been hard at work planning the Costumers' Lost Weekend Retreat for July 28th.
This will be a great opportunity to socialize and wear costumes, but there will also be a chance to learn new things at Saturday's panels. The first two panels have been announced:
This should be an excellent opportunity to learn and share a few skills to help us all with completing those costume goals.
Speaking of costumes and socializing, the day will end with a party -- the theme is "mourning," but it's sure to be a lively event!
Here is your chance to make that historical mourning costume you've always wanted to make, but didn't have a reason or place to wear it. If historical clothing doesn't appeal to you, try another take on the subject. Whether it's from your favorite movie or anything you can imagine, get creative and join in!
Why mourning? It's actually a take on the whole reason the retreat came to be. Some of our costumers were very sad and disappointed to realize they would not be able to join in other costume events. "Why not have a pity party?" and it grew from there!
So, instead of just making the best of the situation, we're going to make it quite the event to remember!
There will also be themed activities to make the party memorable -- check out the page to see more details, and don't forget to buy your tickets for the Costumers' Lost Weekend Retreat!
This will be a great opportunity to socialize and wear costumes, but there will also be a chance to learn new things at Saturday's panels. The first two panels have been announced:
"Big Edwardian Hair will be presented by our very own Jen Thompson. If you've ever wanted to learn how to use rats, domes, and hairpieces to re-create the updos from the early 20th Century, you need to see this panel!
Props and Gadget Fabrication will be presented by Steve Liptak from Airship Nocturne. We'll learn how to modify existing items and building from scratch for use in costume accessories. Steve and his wife Deb attended All-Con and had some incredible props!"
This should be an excellent opportunity to learn and share a few skills to help us all with completing those costume goals.
Speaking of costumes and socializing, the day will end with a party -- the theme is "mourning," but it's sure to be a lively event!
Here is your chance to make that historical mourning costume you've always wanted to make, but didn't have a reason or place to wear it. If historical clothing doesn't appeal to you, try another take on the subject. Whether it's from your favorite movie or anything you can imagine, get creative and join in!
Why mourning? It's actually a take on the whole reason the retreat came to be. Some of our costumers were very sad and disappointed to realize they would not be able to join in other costume events. "Why not have a pity party?" and it grew from there!
So, instead of just making the best of the situation, we're going to make it quite the event to remember!
There will also be themed activities to make the party memorable -- check out the page to see more details, and don't forget to buy your tickets for the Costumers' Lost Weekend Retreat!
Monday, March 12, 2012
Georgian Picnic Video
Thanks toDFWCG Members Cynthia and Christopher , we have a fun video of our Georgian Picnic at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. We have such a wonderful time at these picnics, it's great to be able to share that fun with people through video!
Hope to see you at the next one! We'll be at the Farmer's Branch rose gardens in our Edwardian attire this Spring.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
2012 event line-up
We had a wonderful business meeting yesterday, and thank-you SO MUCH to everybody who came out for it and helped us set our schedule for next year. I wanted to give you a run down of the events that we discussed so that you can start putting things on your calendar and start daydreaming about costumes.
February 18th: Antique Elegance show at the Civic Center in Richardson. The early birds can meet at 9:00 for the fashion show, and then we will have another meet-up at noon in the area near the little break room and where all the manikins are set up for the Cat's Meow booth. Costumes are optional, and you can dress in any historical era from Regency through 20th c. vintage. The fashion show is for Big Band Era fashions, so I'm sure 30's and 40's stuff will be big this year.
March 18th-19th: All-Con at the Crown-Plaza Hotel in Addison. We will have a club table and will be hosting multiple panels, including a knitting circle, a fabric swap, a millinery class, a class on working with rhinestones, and... what am I leaving out, Maggie? I thought there were 5 classes, but I'm drawing a blank on the last one. There will be tons of other costume-related classes and panels hosted by others, plus costume contests, a dealers room, celebrities, and all the usual con stuff.
March 31tst: Steampunk Tea Party at the Plano Heritage Farmstead. We will have food and tea plus steampunk games on the lawn of this charming historical site. We will have a gear toss, a steampunk marksmanship contest where you can bring your own modded water or nerf guns and show off your skills, and hopefully croquet for the more traditional Victorian crowd (unless any of you can think of a way to add a steampunk spin to croquet!) Costumes for this event includes anything Steampunk, Dieselpunk, or traditional Victorian or Edwardian. Tickets will be $12 for members and $15 for non-members, and we will start selling them in the next week or so.
April 14th: Edwardian day in the Park, location TBA. This one will be very similar to our Georgian Picnic - we can bring snacks and games and enjoy a lovely costumed outing in the park. Costumes can be anything from 1900-1920, and we are drawing inspiration from the Titanic anniversary, Downton Abbey, and all things Edwardian.
May 12th: Tarantula Train and Frontier Forts Days at the Ft. Worth Stockyards. We were thinking about trying this one again, but this time riding the full train ride that leaves from the Grapevine station at 1:00, then we'll have a layover at the Stockyards, then return to Grapevine on the train at 6:00. If you didn't want to do the full trip, you could just meet us at the stockyards.
June 9th(possibly): Summer Business meeting.
July 28th-29th(?): Costumers Retreat. We will share more info on that one soon!
August 11th(?): 20th c. Vintage Ice Cream Social. We had a wonderful time at Beth Marie's in Denton last year, so we were considering doing this one again. The dress would be anything 20th c. vintage, and we could do a bit of antique and book shopping on the square after enjoying some ice cream.
September 15th: Antique Elegance Show in Richardson. Similar situation to the one held in February.
October 13th: Sewing day, location TBA.
November 10th: WWII event in Waxahachie. We are looking at having our own table in the black market section of this event. We could possibly sell small items as a fundraiser for the guild, but even more than that, it would give us a place to hang out and something to do during the event.
Novmber 17th: 4th annual Georgian Picnic at the Botanic Gardens in Ft. Worth. Come enjoy food, socializing, and period games. Costumes include anything from the 18th c. or Regency periods.
December, date TBA: Lanternlight at the Plano Heritage Farmstead. Victorian holiday event that includes a tour of the main house with historical interpreters, games, food, music, wagon rides, Father Christmas, etc. It is a wonderful family-friendly event. Costume include anything Victorian or Edwardian.
January, date TBA: Titanic exhibit at the Museum of Science and History in Ft. Worth. We will dress in 1912 appropriate attire and visit the traveling exhibit from the Titanic Museum.
If you have any questions, thoughts, or suggestions to help us with this schedule of events, please let us know! It is possible that we might add small additional events (like movie outings) or modify some of these if we find that changes are needed, but we will try to at least keep the themes the same so that you can start making costumes and feel confident that you will have a place to wear them.
We hope you all will join us for some of these wonderful DFWCG events this year!
-jen
February 18th: Antique Elegance show at the Civic Center in Richardson. The early birds can meet at 9:00 for the fashion show, and then we will have another meet-up at noon in the area near the little break room and where all the manikins are set up for the Cat's Meow booth. Costumes are optional, and you can dress in any historical era from Regency through 20th c. vintage. The fashion show is for Big Band Era fashions, so I'm sure 30's and 40's stuff will be big this year.
March 18th-19th: All-Con at the Crown-Plaza Hotel in Addison. We will have a club table and will be hosting multiple panels, including a knitting circle, a fabric swap, a millinery class, a class on working with rhinestones, and... what am I leaving out, Maggie? I thought there were 5 classes, but I'm drawing a blank on the last one. There will be tons of other costume-related classes and panels hosted by others, plus costume contests, a dealers room, celebrities, and all the usual con stuff.
March 31tst: Steampunk Tea Party at the Plano Heritage Farmstead. We will have food and tea plus steampunk games on the lawn of this charming historical site. We will have a gear toss, a steampunk marksmanship contest where you can bring your own modded water or nerf guns and show off your skills, and hopefully croquet for the more traditional Victorian crowd (unless any of you can think of a way to add a steampunk spin to croquet!) Costumes for this event includes anything Steampunk, Dieselpunk, or traditional Victorian or Edwardian. Tickets will be $12 for members and $15 for non-members, and we will start selling them in the next week or so.
April 14th: Edwardian day in the Park, location TBA. This one will be very similar to our Georgian Picnic - we can bring snacks and games and enjoy a lovely costumed outing in the park. Costumes can be anything from 1900-1920, and we are drawing inspiration from the Titanic anniversary, Downton Abbey, and all things Edwardian.
May 12th: Tarantula Train and Frontier Forts Days at the Ft. Worth Stockyards. We were thinking about trying this one again, but this time riding the full train ride that leaves from the Grapevine station at 1:00, then we'll have a layover at the Stockyards, then return to Grapevine on the train at 6:00. If you didn't want to do the full trip, you could just meet us at the stockyards.
June 9th(possibly): Summer Business meeting.
July 28th-29th(?): Costumers Retreat. We will share more info on that one soon!
August 11th(?): 20th c. Vintage Ice Cream Social. We had a wonderful time at Beth Marie's in Denton last year, so we were considering doing this one again. The dress would be anything 20th c. vintage, and we could do a bit of antique and book shopping on the square after enjoying some ice cream.
September 15th: Antique Elegance Show in Richardson. Similar situation to the one held in February.
October 13th: Sewing day, location TBA.
November 10th: WWII event in Waxahachie. We are looking at having our own table in the black market section of this event. We could possibly sell small items as a fundraiser for the guild, but even more than that, it would give us a place to hang out and something to do during the event.
Novmber 17th: 4th annual Georgian Picnic at the Botanic Gardens in Ft. Worth. Come enjoy food, socializing, and period games. Costumes include anything from the 18th c. or Regency periods.
December, date TBA: Lanternlight at the Plano Heritage Farmstead. Victorian holiday event that includes a tour of the main house with historical interpreters, games, food, music, wagon rides, Father Christmas, etc. It is a wonderful family-friendly event. Costume include anything Victorian or Edwardian.
January, date TBA: Titanic exhibit at the Museum of Science and History in Ft. Worth. We will dress in 1912 appropriate attire and visit the traveling exhibit from the Titanic Museum.
If you have any questions, thoughts, or suggestions to help us with this schedule of events, please let us know! It is possible that we might add small additional events (like movie outings) or modify some of these if we find that changes are needed, but we will try to at least keep the themes the same so that you can start making costumes and feel confident that you will have a place to wear them.
We hope you all will join us for some of these wonderful DFWCG events this year!
-jen
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Mad Hatter's Tea Party
The DFWCG folk are rather fond of their tea parties. Since 2009 the guild has hosted at least one tea per year whether in someone's home or in one of the various tea houses in the DFW area. Guild participants have become so fond of their tea parties, in fact, that this year we decided to schedule two of them.
This first tea of 2012 was themed Mad Hatter's Tea Party and was held at Mitra's Tea Room in Hurst. Costumes and grand hats were encouraged, but the only real rule for attendance was that each attendee be wearing some sort of hat. Small, Large, gregarious, or modest, all kinds of hats were represented at our tea party.
Here is a partial group shot that shows the range of historical hats in attendance. And there were also a couple Sci-Fi hats in attendance. Lisa brought two hats as well as her sonic screwdriver!
We had an honored out of town guest for this tea. Maggie of Padawansguide and CostumersGuide was visiting and decided to join us. It was wonderful to host her as reading about many of the 18th century and Regency events she has attended in her home state are the inspiration for our own. Plus, her costume guides have been a big help to several of us looking for research. It was so nice to meet her in person.
The afternoon tea menu was lovely. Mitra's serves a proper cup of tea steeped in individual small tea pots as opposed to bringing out hot water tea pots and tea bags to steep in the cup.
We were so delighted with each course that we forgot to take pictures of most of it until after we dug in. Oops! These scones and muffins were great as was the cream that came with them. There was also a strawberry butter and a lemon cream that's not pictured. Both were lovely compliments.
Their chicken salad sandwiches, shown here in the round whole wheat bread, were absolutely wonderful as were their cucumber sandwiches, which got gobbled up before a picture was taken. I didn't have an egg salad sandwich, but they were all gone too, so I believe they were good also.
Our fearless leader, Jen, surprised us with some games to play as we waited between each course. First we played a guess the hat game. You can see that one in the picture of the sandwiches above. Then we played a game where we named as many hat names or types as we could think of.
Here we are all thinking very very hard to list as many hat types as we could in 5 minutes.
And here the winner of the game, Ginger, compares notes with Maggie who just barely missed the win by one hat. There was actually a tie, then a sudden death round where Ginger came up with one more hat and Maggie accepted defeat.
After the tea we all decided to head down to a local park for some nice photographs in our costumes and hats. But Beth couldn't go, so we made sure to capture her lovely bustle ensemble at the tea room.
And of course there is the obligatory group shoe shot.
It's so much fun when we can get together in a park setting and finally photograph the clothing we've worked so hard on. Jen took photographs of each of us in turn so we have new pictures to add to our scrapbooks and portfolios. Everyone looked so lovely!
Jen sporting her lovely Regency wear. I wish some of the details in the Spencer showed up better, like her lovely silk lining.
This is an outfit that several of us read about on Maggie's blog. It was just as beautiful up close as it is in pictures.
Arranging the train and shaking out the train were common occurrences with Christy's lovely dress. It takes a village for a perfect shot.
But look how beautiful it is!
We all oohed and ahhed over Ginger's lovely fur muff accessory.
Cynthia has been working on her 18th century garb for quite some time now. She hand sewed a great majority of it. Her results photographed beautifully!
Maggie's Tudor fitted gown and kirtle are part of several projects she's been working on for a couple of years via The Tudor Tailor.
Christopher and Lisa were sporting their Sci-Fi gear. Who doesn't love crazy fun hats like that?
Lisa's 2nd hat, the tardis beanie!
Our 3 Regency ladies.
The adorable couple.
And finally here we are together as a group.
We laughed a lot told funny stories and played games. It truly was a wonderful day. And just think, our next tea is just right around the corner. If you'd like to join in on our tea party fun, plan to come to our Steampunk Tea Party in March at the Heritage Farmstead Museum in Plano. Remember, you are not required to be in costume for our events, you can just come to chat and play games with us as well. We hope to see you then!
This first tea of 2012 was themed Mad Hatter's Tea Party and was held at Mitra's Tea Room in Hurst. Costumes and grand hats were encouraged, but the only real rule for attendance was that each attendee be wearing some sort of hat. Small, Large, gregarious, or modest, all kinds of hats were represented at our tea party.
Here is a partial group shot that shows the range of historical hats in attendance. And there were also a couple Sci-Fi hats in attendance. Lisa brought two hats as well as her sonic screwdriver!
We had an honored out of town guest for this tea. Maggie of Padawansguide and CostumersGuide was visiting and decided to join us. It was wonderful to host her as reading about many of the 18th century and Regency events she has attended in her home state are the inspiration for our own. Plus, her costume guides have been a big help to several of us looking for research. It was so nice to meet her in person.
The afternoon tea menu was lovely. Mitra's serves a proper cup of tea steeped in individual small tea pots as opposed to bringing out hot water tea pots and tea bags to steep in the cup.
We were so delighted with each course that we forgot to take pictures of most of it until after we dug in. Oops! These scones and muffins were great as was the cream that came with them. There was also a strawberry butter and a lemon cream that's not pictured. Both were lovely compliments.
Our fearless leader, Jen, surprised us with some games to play as we waited between each course. First we played a guess the hat game. You can see that one in the picture of the sandwiches above. Then we played a game where we named as many hat names or types as we could think of.
Here we are all thinking very very hard to list as many hat types as we could in 5 minutes.
After the tea we all decided to head down to a local park for some nice photographs in our costumes and hats. But Beth couldn't go, so we made sure to capture her lovely bustle ensemble at the tea room.
And of course there is the obligatory group shoe shot.
It's so much fun when we can get together in a park setting and finally photograph the clothing we've worked so hard on. Jen took photographs of each of us in turn so we have new pictures to add to our scrapbooks and portfolios. Everyone looked so lovely!
Jen sporting her lovely Regency wear. I wish some of the details in the Spencer showed up better, like her lovely silk lining.
This is an outfit that several of us read about on Maggie's blog. It was just as beautiful up close as it is in pictures.
Arranging the train and shaking out the train were common occurrences with Christy's lovely dress. It takes a village for a perfect shot.
But look how beautiful it is!
We all oohed and ahhed over Ginger's lovely fur muff accessory.
Cynthia has been working on her 18th century garb for quite some time now. She hand sewed a great majority of it. Her results photographed beautifully!
Maggie's Tudor fitted gown and kirtle are part of several projects she's been working on for a couple of years via The Tudor Tailor.
Christopher and Lisa were sporting their Sci-Fi gear. Who doesn't love crazy fun hats like that?
Lisa's 2nd hat, the tardis beanie!
Our 3 Regency ladies.
The adorable couple.
And finally here we are together as a group.
We laughed a lot told funny stories and played games. It truly was a wonderful day. And just think, our next tea is just right around the corner. If you'd like to join in on our tea party fun, plan to come to our Steampunk Tea Party in March at the Heritage Farmstead Museum in Plano. Remember, you are not required to be in costume for our events, you can just come to chat and play games with us as well. We hope to see you then!
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