Just a reminder that our Suffragette picnic is this Saturday! The even begins at 10:00 and we'll be having a picnic luncheon on the historical park grounds around noon.
I posted a little hat-shaping tutorial over at my blog. These things make a great base for Edwardian styles, but they could be used for a lot of other periods as well.
Hi everybody! I'm having a blast working on my new dress for the suffragette picnic, so I decided to make a dress diary so that I could blog about my progress.
Shakespeare in the Park of Dallas presents: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Here Ye! Here Ye! Join us October 16th, 2010 as we have the pleasure to attend Dallas’ Shakespeare in the Park in Addison Circle at 7:00PM. The players will be showing The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Those in attendance are able to bring food and drink for a lovely picnic during the show. Are you a CURRENT member of the DFWCG? As a paid DFWCG member you may purchase a discounted ticket in advance for $8. Non members can also purchase tickets in advance for $10. Check out www.dfwcg.org for more ticket info in the next few weeks. In the Shakespearean spirit costumes are encouraged to be around the Elizabethan/Tudor/Renaissance Era. The play itself has a very Italian theme so think Italian renaissance to really get in the mood. Need some ideas? Craft Store patterns are below: http://www.simplicity.com/p-1576-costumes.aspx http://www.simplicity.com/p-2009-costumes.aspx http://www.simplicity.com/p-1547-costumes.aspx http://www.simplicity.com/p-2022-costumes.aspx
Good new! Although we hit a snag with the Liberty Fest thing, the suffragette event is back on! We have moved the venue to Chestnut Square, which is a beautiful little historical site close to downtown McKinney. We are planning to set up a suffragette booth at their farmers market, and then we'll have a private picnic at noon when the market ends. I am SO excited about this event, and I am thrilled that we found such a welcoming host at Chestnut Square. I had the idea of bringing paint and extra ribbon so that people could paint their own "votes for women" ribbons to wear. It would be a fun way to occupy our time, and I think even some of the random market folks might want to get in on the fun. I figured that I would just buy some cheap floral ribbon and make a stencil that people could use for painting. When I was looking for examples of banners, I stumbled across a FABULOUS suffragette site that I hadn't seen before. It has an overview of the suffrage movement in America and an image gallery of various suffragette stuff that was really helpful. Some of us were wondering what colors were used for the banners back then, and the answer seems to be mainly yellow or gold, but purple and white were used extensively as well, and purple/white/green was also used occasionally (those were from the British movement). I also think I'm going to paint a copy of one of those posters and it would be cool to have a banner with a slogan on it too. And I was going to print up some fliers with one of the propaganda illustrations from this site and a quote from one of the speeches. Can you tell that I'm excited about this? ;) After the market is over, we can relax and have fun doing other various Edwardian activities. I thought about bringing cards or dominoes so we could play some games. If anybody else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
It's the Monday after the 2010 All-Con and I'm still recovering. Not only from being horribly sick, but from all the pure excitement. And guess what? I'm still excited. I'm already crazy excited about next year! If there's one thing I love about a good Con is the inspiration. I know I've seen some good costumes if I come home and say, "Man, why didn't I think of that!"
This year, the DFW Costumers Guild hosted panels on the basics of Victorian fashion, we learned to knit, and we swapped fabrics. All of our panels were a success. People learned things in the first two. I can't believe I can finally Knit!!! And I went home with less fabric in my stash than I came with, which was my goal. And some folks went home with fabrics that they didn't think they'd see at a swap.
I'm already thinking about the panels the DFW Costumers Guild wants to offer for All-Con 2011. I have several ideas. I'm pretty sure we'll bring the fabric swap back and we'll knit again next year as well. Although it'll be a basic knitting circle with part focused on knitting for charity and part focused on instructing all at the same time. I hope the ladies who attended our panel this year will come again next year so we can all see who we each advanced. And maybe this time we can offer more items to the Austin Browncoats for their charity auctions.
But more than my own ideas of what I'd like to offer for next year's All-Con, I'd really like to know what other people would like to see us bring to the table. If there's a panel you would like to see, let us know. We'll do our best to work something out. And hopefully we'll see many of you at our events between now and next All-Con!
On November 15th, the DFWCG hosted an 18th century picnic at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. I have to say that seeing the lovely period clothing that everyone made was an inspiration. And the few hours we were able to spend learning to dance and playing badminton just weren't enough for me. I hope that we can do this event again in the future and maybe spend more time learning about the period and playing games.
Here are some of my favorite photos from the day. All photos by Crandall.
The whole picnic party.
Relaxing on blankets. Man it was a beautiful day!
A little badminton?
Our fearless President teaching us a period dance.
