Happy 2022

Once again, the year got away from me, and we are now in another year of this crazy pandemic. This weird semi-normal world where things aren't quite back to normal, yet we are still masking and concerned about the new variants cropping up everyday. I personally have had COVID only once, right after Christmas, when my brothers and sister-in-law were alerted to an exposure after a family gathering. I mostly felt like I had a mild flu. Knock-on-wood, I've been thankfully very healthy otherwise, but busy with the years events; moving out of and selling my childhood home, moving as much as humanly possible to my new place in Boston, purchasing my first sewing machine, flying to Raleigh for a family wedding, losing my job on January 28th, among other adventures that have been slightly stunted by the current atmosphere of the planet.

Despite everything, I still managed to schedule some light in the distance with a rogue Disney World trip at the end of February for the Princess Half Marathon. Now those of you who know me personally, know that I am not an athlete. I'd rather spend my time exercising in a yoga, ballet, or pilates class. The one time I played a sport in high school was my senior year and I signed up for track. I initially signed up for shot-put, but after a week of feeble attempts, the coach moved me to sprints. I still fared fairly poorly at this; one of the meets I placed 6th to last in the whole division. Nonetheless, when I saw the 5K theme for the weekend was Cinderella, I found it my impetus to sign up and run. The RunDisney signups pretty quickly, but somewhere along the way, I also found that Give Kids the World also has race registrations and participants can run and raise money for the Village. At the time of this post, I have raised over $750 and am hoping to raise $1000 by the time I hit the pavement on February 25th.

Character Couture Makeover

So it has been a VERY LONG TIME since I last logged some time here, which is partially due to the whole pandemic that happened and shut down the entire world. Then a new job happened and finally the ability to move out of my childhood home. So this post I meant to type out several months after I came back from Disney World in January of 2020...but over a year and half later here it is. This post is mostly to record my feelings and experiences with Disney's realtively new Character Couture makeover at the Grand Floridian hotel in Walt Disney World. This is just my experience and others may vary, but due to the lack of non-sponsored blogs about this, I felt the need to share. Without much ado, this was a birthday gift to myself on my actual birthday in January 2020.

I booked this package for my actual birthday and spent a good amount of time planning down to the littlest detail. I had already planned that I wanted to be made up like Cinderella, my favorite princess, so I ordered custom printed fabric that was the same as that in the parks and made my dress (no, I don’t take commissions). I would have to say that I had very high expectations and ideas for this whole experience, which was a mistake. Go into this with an open mind and you may be more satisfied. Because my dress was a 1950s style, I was hoping for a hairstyle that was down or had curls, and over all much more sophisticated than what I received. a

To start my day, I had a reservation at the GF cafe, then walked over to the salon for my makeover. Upon arrival, I was the only one there for a makeover which was nice and I didn’t wait long. When I told the stylist what character I wanted and my plans for my hair, she hesitated and stated that when she does Cinderella, it’s a high bun. Always. I shared my ideas but she still fought me a bit because she said that something down wouldn’t hold in this heat and humidity. I ended up agreeing (somewhat disappointedly) and she started. She ended up pulling my hair into a high bun and wrapped it over a foam donut to give it volume, curled my ends, then artistically pinned my hair around the bun. To give me a more vintage look, she did wave the front pieces of hair and pinned that too. As an extra option, they do sell $5 tiaras and sparkly hairpieces to enhance your look. For Cinderella, they clearly usually do a tiara, but I felt that was too obvious. If I had planned properly, I would have made a matching headband to wear with my dress.

As another note, a tween and her mom came in after I had switched chairs and she also requested Cinderella and the stylist went about doing the exact same style as mine, although without the front waves. Kind of disappointing that this stylist didn’t really think outside the box for each client.

After my hair was finished, sprayed, and pixie dusted, I switched chairs to have my makeup done. I requested to have something Cinderella inspired but also somewhat natural. The makeup artist was happy oblige and started with some blue shadow on my lid and some darker brown shadows in my crease and under the brow which seemed like an odd choice for colors. I’m not someone who wears a lot of makeup or eyeshadow so I had her tone it down a bit so most of the shadow was on my lid. It wasn’t anything super spectacular, but it might have been better if I was okay with bolder options. Honestly, next time I’d skip the makeup part and do it myself.

Overall, I’d say the experience was okay. It was nice to feel pampered a bit and get extra dressed up, but I think I had extremely high expectations going into it which made me feel like it was a bit of a let down. If you aren’t super picky, you’ll probably have a better experience.

Despite all this, I did have a fantastic day at Magic Kingdom. I didn’t ride too many rides but nearly every cast member I met sprinkled some sort of pixie dust on me that day, from special desserts at each meal (even breakfast!!) to amazing interactions with characters (Goofy danced with me, Donald bowed like a prince, and the Fairy Godmother pulled out her magic wand). It was a fantastic birthday, despite the misgivings I had with the makeover.

#charactercouture #waltdisneyworld #grandfloridian #grandfloridianspaandsalon

Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi...

If you asked me 15 years ago if I was a Star Wars fan, I would have avoided you with a ten foot pole. I had heard legend of the crazy Star Wars fans and watched snippets of the original trilogy and prequels, but ten year old me was still not a fan of Darth Vader and was creeped out by the looks of Jar-Jar Binks. Jump to 2015 and the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens; I'm hooked. The use of a strong, force-sensitive female character (Rey) with the careful addition of cute droids (BB-8) and old stars (Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, etc) rejuvenated my interest in the series and need to cosplay any form of the leading ladies' outfits.

Porgs!

So this first outfit was a bit of a last minute addition to my Disney wardrobe and was a result of my last minute trip to Joann's to get thread. I'd been eyeing the fabric since I saw it several months ago, but somehow I managed to talk myself into needing a third dress for my trip. Fabric is a novelty cotton featuring little porgs (cute bird-like alien creatures from Star Wars: The Last Jedi) with R2D2 heads scattered throughout the print. It's made from Simplicity 8910 (the same as one of my other gowns from the trip, so more on this later) and came together quite quickly since I had already discovered the quirks in the pattern. It was super comfy and lightweight to wear and it will definitely be a staple this summer.

Disneybounds of 2020

Happy New Year! I just got back from my 2020 trip to Walt Disney World and had an absolutely wonderful time (despite the fact that I am currently suffering from a bit of a cold and sore throat)! When planning this trip, I scheduled it during my birthday and I knew I had to make a couple outfits to wear while in Orlando to make my trip even more magical. I'll eventually post final shots of the various outfits, but in the meantime here's a few shots of my purchased outfits I wore during the trip.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

After attending several events in the Boston area that have required the use of a hoop skirt, I had determined it was time to upgrade my Amazon hoop to something more substantial (especially since I seem to continuously step on the front of my skirts while dancing). While at Costume College, I purchased the Truly Victorian walking hoop pattern and some hoop steel, only to get home and realize I had not purchased enough steel to make the hoop as patterned. My initial thought was that I needed to order a second set of steel, but I was reminded by my mother of the old hoop skirt I had sitting up in our attic.

So a little bit of backstory here; I have always been interested in costumes. Starting in elementary school, I began planning my halloween costumes months in advance, often roping my mom into making something for me to wear instead of the cheaply made options found at party stores. And for a while, my mom enjoyed making my costumes. This resulted in handmade fleece Powerpuff Girl costumes, a white fleece cape to wear over my Cinderella dress (which I have since repurposed into a new, more adult cape to wear with my current Cinderella costume), and eventually a civil war era hoop skirt and dress made from a purple tie-dye patterned quilting cotton and a series of simplicity civil war patterns. I loved that dress and wore it several times for halloween, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back for my mom; I had to learn how to sew. Jump forward to 2019 with the need for a new hoop skirt that would support my pink ballgown. So with the date for Victoria and Albert Ball looming closer, I decided to cannibalize my old hoops for steel and create a brand new set.

Construction-wise, I followed Truly Victorian's Walking Hoop pattern with some minor adjustments. Instead of just pinning the threaded hoops to the support tapes and stitching them by hand, I stitched the casing in place before threading the steel into the casing. The only issue with this is that the front of my hoops are not perfectly finished, but I'll manage. In terms of wearability, the hoops do the job, except I'm still tripping over my front hem. It looks like I'll have to go back to the alteration board with this gown!

Cottage Bonnet Adventures

Hello fall! In typical New England fashion, the leaves are just beginning to change and fall and temperatures have begun to drop. Days are feeling shorter as night falls faster, yet I still have lots of catching up to do blog-wise on my various projects for and post Costume College. As promised, I present information on my endeavor in buckram hat forms.

As I've mentioned a multitude of times prior, I can't seem to kick the bug I have for early victorian clothing and the only way to do that is to make something from that era. Since I already spent time making the proper undergarments for an 1840s gown last fall, it made a lot of sense to make a bonnet to wear with the gown I was making for Costume College (although this bonnet was finished ages before the dress).

"Most true it is that ‘beauty is in the eye of the gazer.’"

Goodness, it's been quite a busy few weeks since arriving home from my first Costume College; with a whirlwind of craziness at work and another costumed event last weekend, I've barely had time to take a breather. As per usual, I've unpacked all over our living room, leaving a bit of a hurricane of petticoats and bonnets (and gloves and hairthings...).

Post Costume College Funk

Happy nearly August! I just arrived back in Boston super early this morning and despite my exhaustion, am beginning the process of unpacking and decompressing after a fantastic weekend. Between the classes and events, Costume College is just a magnet for pure talent of all types of costume construction; Everyone was just so supportive and knowledgable about so many aspects of costuming (historical, theatrical, and others) and it's definitely going to be hard adapting to the average world where I don't have to over-explain myself about anything I'm working on. C'est la vie. Regardless, I'm going to be counting down the days until I can go back, either this upcoming year or the following year. I've also got a few posts planned with pictures from classes, events, and possibly a breakdown of some of the things I bought.

Returning Heroes

Last October, I finished my first go at a victorian ballgown with excellent results and about 4 or 5 yards remaining of bubblegum pink silk taffeta. I wore this gown to The Commonwealth Vintage Dancers' holiday ball in December and subsequently attended their Regency Ball in February where I was convinced to attend their Civil War era, only costume required event in March. Initially I had held off on attending as my first gown is much more 1840s, with the slim sleeves and long pointed bodice, but I was roped in to attending by several of the lovely ladies who run the group.