The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
One of my goals for this summer is to sew as much as possible. And since I am a terrible procrastinator, this hasn’t happened very much. I did, however, get a pair of shorts sewn.
First showing project in a long time. I feel so 50’s when I wear these!
Well, shorts are practical for about 3 months in Wisconsin.
I was out shopping with my mom and grandma when I had a whim to go to the fabric store. Lucky me found out that there was a sale on Simplicity Patterns. $1 each! So, knowing that a vintage reproduction pattern that I have been coveting is a Simplicity pattern, I snapped it up. Along with two other vintage reproduction patterns.
The three patterns that I picked up. The top two are 1940’s style, the bottom is 1960’s.
I’ve been working on the top pattern’s shirt for the past couple weeks. I’m not very good at sitting down and doing it all in one or two days. I figured this is OK, because it’s a 3/4 length sleeve that I won’t be wearing until this fall.
A better photo of the pattern I’m currently making. The fabric that I picked out is an embroidered batik, and it makes me feel like a fortune teller.
I’m actually really excited to learn how to do a lot more sewing techniques. So far with this blouse I have hand-stitched the neckline. I used to be horrible at hand stitching, so I avoided it as much as I could. I realize I do need to know how to hand stitch, and the only way I’m going to become better at it is by practicing.
I’m also becoming a fan of darts. I worked with them in the shorts I made last month, and now I’ve put in eight darts (all in the sleeves) for the blouse.
I think my next project will be a skirt. The other 1940’s pattern has a skirt that has a darling waistband that is scalloped. Hopefully by the time I finish the skirt, I’ll be ready to make some Katherine Hepburn-style trousers.
I haven’t posted in a while for many reasons. One of the main ones is the fact that it is summer and my parents have a limited amount of internet access. Another is the fact that I just spent the last week in New Orleans going on a Youth conference with my church. It was a lot of fun and I swear it was cooler down there that it was up here. This is my second time in New Orleans, the first was a year after Katrina and I went down with a group to help rebuild. Now I didn’t get to see much past the French Quarter, mainly because when you with a group of 5,500 teenagers you do not let them wander too much. It was a little disappointing to travel for two days and not get to see more of the wonderful historical city. However, I did enjoy wandering around the downtown district and check out some of the traditional sights of a classic Southern city.
My personal favourite was looking at some of the candy shops and buying some pralines. Of course I really shouldn’t be eating so much sugar on a regular basis, but I had to treat myself.
These are some beauties from a shop in New Orleans and I’m still salivating over the taste. However, the cost of these treats are too much for my budget (with some of the better prices beings $10 a dozen) So I’m going to start looking for some easy recipes for this candies. Hopefully they won’t be too fussy like other candies.
While I would never go down during Mardi Gras season, because like 0ther college-age hallmarks such as the migration during spring break, I find it slightly distasteful and slightly dangerous (since I don’t trust a combination of strange new city, tons of drinking to excess and the sexual drive of the events). However, if I was going on a trip with friends I wouldn’t mind revisiting New Orleans while taking safety precautions. It is a beautiful place with a great deal of history and is worth visiting. That being said trying to find a souvenir for my twelve-year-old sister was close to impossible.
Last week I mentioned that a friend of mine would be hosting a 1912 Titanic themed murder mystery party at the end of July. Since I believe it’s never too early to start planning for themed murder mystery parties, I’ve already began to research hairstyles. It’s really best to start from the top.
A drawing by Charles Dana Gibson. This shows the basic hairstyle that the Gibson Girl wore. From Loyola University.
The first hairstyle that I am thinking of going with is a Gibson Girl hairstyle. The Gibson Girl was created in the late 1890s by Charles Dana Gibson, and embodied the ideal woman of the turn-of-the-century. Gibson called her ‘the American girl to all the world.” The Gibson Girl was supposedly based off of Evelyn Nesbit, a artists model and chorus girl from that time. Nesbit had quite the life, and rumor has it that L.M. Montgomery used her as an inspiration for Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables fame.
Evelyn Nesbit at age 17. Said to be the model and inspiration for the first Gibson Girl. From Wikipedia.
Since I’m not the best at figuring out how to do hair (and by “not the best”, I mean I wear my hair the same all year long), I found this lovely tutorial for a Gibson Girl hair style on Locks of Elegance.
I think this turned out well on my hair, despite it being my first time trying this tutorial. I don’t have the thickest hair, so it may be best if I gave my hair a little curl before trying it again. It’s a little messy, but I think it gives me a mischievous “first class – Nouveau Riche” look.
My first try doing a “Gibson Girl” hairstyle. I have very fine hair, so this look isn’t as full as a real Gibson Girl look.
An easier version of this hairstyle is from Simply Stardust. I’ve done this version many times before, and it’s a really easy, really nice hair-do. I think for dress-up parties it needs some dressing up itself, though.
I like to dress up the “Simple Gibson Tuck” with a bejeweled comb. Or you could choose flowers. Whatever suits your fancy.
Historical Hairstyles is a nice blog for looking at different hair from all eras. It doesn’t have very many tutorials, but it’s a good source for ideas.
Finally, here are too hairstyles that I think would look really nice and really unusual for a theme party.
Irene Castle, circa 1910. I really love that she was one of the first women to have a bob. This could be easily done on shorter hair with a curling iron, and longer hair with a few tricks and tucks. From Pinterest.
Wedding site BHLDN has a nice look-book with downloadable tutorials on how to create these hairstyles. This one is very romantic and could easily be modified (a ribbon around the head instead of a feather) to look Edwardian.
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