Costume Con is two weeks away and I really need to get my dresses done! The only outfit I actually have completed is my 1898 summer suit. I have about half the work still to go on the bustle dresses, and I think only two of them will get done. I've decided to do all the same era so that I would have less new undergarments to make- the 1870 crinolette bustle has a lovely silhouette, and is my personal favorite, so I went with that, but I hadn't anticipated how impossible it is to sit down in one of those things! I'm quite worried about what a nightmare it'll be to wear at the convention, but I've committed to it, so no going back now! I feel slightly guilty about using slubbed silk though, since it's not period, but I'm far too broke to afford silk taffeta at the moment, and the day dress I'm making is inspired by a vintage hat I own and plan to wear with it, and I already had some dupioni silk in my stash that was the exact matching colors, so free and matching trumps expensive and historically accurate in this case. It's all for fun anyway, and I hope I won't encounter any of the sort of costumers who'd look down on someone for something like that.
(Some references to what I'm talking about for anyone not steeped in 19th century fashion: the day dress I'm making is based on this dress from the Mint Museum:)
http://www.mintmuseum.org/?open_collection=%2Fresources%2Fcollection-database%2Fitem%2F2005.36.1A-E%2Fafternoon-ensemble-bodice-skirt-overskirt-coat-unfinished-2nd-bodice%2F Fandom-wise, I've at least had the opportunity to listen to lots of Big Finish Doctor Who stories while I cut out fabric- more than I can properly review here right now, but I just heard 'The Companion Chronicles: The Last Post' today and absolutely adored it. I liked Liz's mum and think they're great together, and it was a clever story, how it was woven through all of the serials of season 7. I guess it was Caroline John's last time playing Liz, too, which I didn't realize till I looked inside the CD booklet after it was over, and it's a good thing I didn't know while I was listening, because I would have been very sad! I love Liz so much, and we're so lucky we get to have a few more stories with her because of Big Finish. Bless Big Finish, for they are doing the Lord's work. ♥ (Well, Time Lord's work, at any rate! LOL)