Some Good English Weather

This weekend, we had some good English weather for faire! It was chilly and gray, although, it didn't rain, thankfully. So I got to wear some of my cold weather costumes!

I decided to wear my fitted English gown on Saturday when it was going to be chillier. It was so fun to wear!

I planned on wearing a pair of plain black gloves but I forgot them. The pocket slits don't actually have pockets but I could still tuck my hands in them to keep cozy!

Plus I got to wear my pocket! It's quite handy for stowing all of my modern bits while in costume.

It was pirate weekend! Arrrr! There were a lot of great pirate costumes around this weekend!

 With it being pirate weekend, we just had to see the pirate stunt show! I adored last year's stunt show because they threw in some Shakespeare references. This year was also excellent.

There were duels to the death, swash bucking action and quite a bit of laughter.

 Some of the non-pirate cast members also got into the spirit of the weekend!

Stay tuned for more costuming adventures coming later this week!

Wearing History for All!

I've been a huge fan of Wearing History Patterns for years! And I'm proud to announce that the proprietress Lauren is launching a line of clothing. Right now, she's running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial costs of production.

The Maisie Dress has that look of separates and features a great music novelty print designed just for this line!

The Victoria dress is the perfect everyday vintage dress! Dress it up or dress it down, I guarantee you'll reach for it again and again.

The line also features some great separates like the Norma Jean Blouse paired here with the Smooth Sailing Trousers.

The last piece is the Ruthie blouse in the same dotted chambray as the Victoria Dress.

As part of the Kickstarter campaign, you can pre-order any of these beauties. There are also some other pledge rewards including a scarf in the music print, a Wearing History tote bag and deals on e-patterns! Please consider pledging towards this project so we can all have Wearing History pretties!

Major Fail

It's easy to be overawed by sewing feats created by great seamstresses. But sometimes well all have major fails. And today, that major fail belongs to me.

I've been working on my Italian striped dress. I posted some trim anxiety on Facebook and Instagram earlier this week. Eventually, I decided to purchase some thinner, green ribbon to do the trim with instead of the wider black ribbon I originally purchased. And I'm quite happy with the switch.

I got cocky and didn't try the dress on till this weekend. (Also lazy because getting yourself into a side back lacing dress alone is a pain in the butt.) And it's about 2 inches too small. I measured and it's 1/2" smaller than my support layer. Eeep! After you add wearing ease (plus my waist usually gapes a bit on the support layer), it's just not going to happen.

Luckily, I had enough fabric to remake the back piece. I'll have to start from scratch, remove the trim, take the back piece off, make a slew of all new eyelets and sew everything back together. In the end, I know I'll be happier especially since the old back had the trim going over a pair of eyelets. But it's going to be so much work!

To give myself a pick me up, I did a bit of retail therapy at the Ren Fest this weekend.

I purchased this pretty pearl necklace for costuming! 

I also picked up this cute ring! It's hard to find a period appropriate ring. I really wanted a gold ring but I'm pretty happy with this one.

 And the last bit of costuming fabulousness is Patterns of Fashion 3 by Janet Arnold. I have a serious case of must sew all of the things right now!!!!!! I have plenty WIPs to finish first.

HSF#17: Yellow

This was a surprisingly difficult challenge considering the fact that I love yellow! Originally, I did have a yellow UFO that I was saving for this challenge but I decided it was a wadder. I had so many Elizabethan projects to do before the end of the faire that I didn't think I'd have any time to do anything.

But then the weekend before faire, I decided that I needed a new petticoat since I turned my last one into a bodied petticoat.

So I scurried off to Jo-Anns for some linen. Originally, I was eying some lovely green linen rayon but then I spied this golden yellow color and I knew it was meant to be!

The Challenge: Yellow
Fabric: 3 yds linen/rayon
Pattern: none-it's just a rectangle pleated to a waistband
Year: late 1500s
Notions: thread, hook and eye
How historically accurate is it? the rayon part not so much, but otherwise pretty good.
Hours to complete: 3 hrs
First worn: September 2014 to the renaissance festival
Total cost: ~$20

Now, you may have noticed that I'm wearing the petticoat on the outside, which is definitely not where it is supposed to be.

Originally, I was wearing it under my bodied petticoat but the bulk of the waistband was too uncomfortable so I decided to layer it on top.

So really, I'm missing a lot of layers in this outfit but it's faire and I was still one of the most historically accurate people there.

And maybe next time I will wear it as an actual petticoat!

Opening Day

It's faire season again! Huzzah! This past Saturday was opening day so we suited up and went out to enjoy the festival day!

Now, I don't normally go in costume if it's going to be 90+ but we're on staff this year so I did. (Plus I was really excited and wanted to wear all the pretty things!) We didn't get a lot of pictures of me on account of the fact that we're actually there to take pictures of other things but never fear! Monday had more photo opportunities!

We got to catch some of our favorite performers including the Wenches A'Wailing. There are always a lot of great shows on on the smaller stages. The pub is a must see for anyone who enjoys a beer with their turkey leg! Most of the acts add in a drinking song and there are toasts all around.

Her majesty was in fine form as always! We didn't see too much of the court since opening weekend is always a bit crazy and busy. But we did get to do lots of window shopping. I decided a head of time not to buy anything opening weekend because it's so easy to go shopping crazy but I did spy some lovelies I'm going to have to go back for!

I was pleasantly surprised how well I did in all of that heat! The key is hydration and electrolytes! The first year I went in costume, I almost passed out since I didn't want to pay for bottled water. Bad idea! If you are going on a hot day, plan on buying loads of water. (Or carry around your own).

I'm so excited for the rest of the season! I still have a few costumes I'd like to finish before the end of the season so we'll see how that goes. Don't forget to drop me a line at girlwiththestarspangledheart@gmail.com if you'd like to do a meet up at the faire!

1950s Hairstyle for Growing Out Pixies

My hair is finally getting long enough for vintage-y styles! Woot! Woot! So I thought I'd share this tutorial for a 1950s inspired style that works great for those of you growing out pixies. It would also work great on bobbed hair!

1930s Fusion

One place I always find it difficult to dress for is work. I'm a chemistry professor and that means I spend a good amount of my week in a lab. Labs have safety rules and that means pants!

My teaching schedule really picked up in the lab department for the fall semester so I had a wardrobe emergency! Enter these linen pants I made 3 years and 30 lbs ago.

They didn't fit that well to begin with and they definitely didn't fit after the weight loss. I hung on to them though since I wanted to save all of that yummy linen. Originally, I made them from Wearing History's Smooth Sailing Trousers but, due to time constraints, I used Wearing History's 1940's Overall pattern to remake them to fit since I already had a properly fitted version of the overalls.

 So these are my Wearing History fusion pants! The blouse I made from Simplicity 3173 from the 1930s. I got it for a steal on ebay! I love all of views included but this casual, sporty top was just perfect for me!

I wore this outfit for my first day teaching lab this semester with a pair of saddle shoes. Alas, I found these shoes are not up to 7 hours of teaching. So I'm still on the hunt for a good pair of work appropriate vintage style shoes. Until then, it's sneakers in the lab!

These shots were taken on the property of one of the guys in my husband's photography group. They were having a model shoot and I tagged along after work. I wasn't planning on modeling but I couldn't resist taking a few shots for the blog! It was very beautiful there!

Do you wear vintage to work?

Photography: Will Thorpe Intelligent Design