Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Pandora's hat box

I was a part of a huge group presentation for this year's Masquerade.  The theme was Pandora's hat box, and we based our silhouettes off of clothing styles from the 1890s-1910s, although historical accuracy wasn't a big deal for us.  Pandora opened the hatbox and released the following evils: gossip, lust, greed, pests, plague, pollution, misery, jealousy, and death.

I picked Lust as my evil.  Lust is represented traditionally by the color blue and the goat.  With the goat, I of course had to go with gigot sleeves, and I picked a hobble skirt pattern for the va va voom factor.  I found an incredible patterned upholstery velvet and some black and blue satin brocade.  To represent the goat, I made a "beard", a cravat with some angora wool, and added horns to my hat.

wool cravat

(I just realized i haven't taken any good pictures of the hat!  I'll have to remedy that.)

The skirt has a ruched panel in the front of the contrast fabric.  I found two incredible blue metallic trims to go with the outfit, and used one of them to outline the skirt and another around the hem.

pandora's hat box - lust

The trim was laid out on the back and tacked down with my sewing machine, but then I had to hand-sew all along the edges to keep it from curling up.

pandora's hat box - lust

pandora's hat box - lust

Here's the finished outfit with the hat:

Pandora's Hat Box

Pandora's Hat Box

Pandora's Hat Box

I actually took about 6" out of the sleeves, believe it or not!

Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of all 10 of us together.  Here's me with gossip and greed:

Norwescon37-168.jpg

Pandora's Hat Box

Our group won Best Use of Theme, which was Elegance and Entropy.  My first Masquerade award!

Planning ahead - I'd realized that this outfit had potential,and put together a custom wig to represent District 1 for the Hunger Games.

blue wig, side view

With different makeup and a lace cravat:

pandora's hat box - lust

pandora's hat box - lust


Very much looking forward to getting a lot more wear out of this, as I love the color and for once the outfit turned out exactly as I'd pictured it in my head.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Cherry blossom time

A spring tradition, going to see the cherry blossoms at the Washington Park Arboretum.  Here's a few of this year's pictures:


Cherry blossoms by dbvictoria on deviantART






I ended up spending a lot of time looking at tree trunks and branches this year, it seems.


Mossy tree by dbvictoria on deviantART


Moss on red birch by dbvictoria on deviantART






The full set is here.



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