procrastination and pretty dresses

I know I should be going crazy because the semester is ending and finals are coming up, but honestly, I'm not. I have one paper and one final that I really need to study for, and I feel rather calm. It makes me feel a little weird being the only one who's still wasting time on pinterest and movies and staring at my toes, but maybe finals week can be calm? After all, I did have a week in early April when I had three major papers, a geology assignment, and two presentations to work on at the same time that I was doing tech week for a dance performance. I already did the stressed out thing!

So now, I'm relaxing and writing a paper about the Titanic (part of the reason you got that lovely post a couple of weeks ago!). And in my spare time, I'm pinning all the lovelies from the 1910s. Here are some of my favorites!

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Of course, the movie is always a solid point to start. So lovely!

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I love the sleeves on this evening dress. I'm not sure if this is at all accurate, but from my research, it seems like the 1910s were not a time to have an evening dress with sleeves that went past your elbow. But these are so elegant!

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I could imagine wearing one of these dresses to class if I went to college 100 years ago! They look so neat and polished.

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And I can't even describe my excitement when I saw that Stephanie had posted this lovely paper doll. It might be later teens, but it's so fascinating!

because 101 years is not long enough to forget

As I write this, I am sitting in the main library at my college, crying. I'm supposed to be writing my paper that analyses the ways that the media has affected our perception of and interaction with the Titanic myth, so to speak. This is a fascinating paper topic for me. I love it and I want all the books I checked out from the library to be mine forever.

That being said, some of the "research" that I've done today has led to some tears. And I think rightfully so. Because 101 years is too short a time to forget the night to remember.

This is why we cry. This is why we should cry.

Karl Thorsten Skoog, age 12

The grave of the only child recovered by the Mackay-Bennet (now known to be Sidney Goodwin)

The Goodwin family--all of them held third class tickets, all of them died. 

Jack Phillips, first Wireless Operator

The engineers who kept the lights burning, the pumps on, and the Marconi spark dancing to the very end, all so that other people's lives would be saved 

There are uncountable others, others whose faces have faded away because all who knew them are now dead. Now, they are only a name without italics on a page of victims. But each of those names was a person, one who had hopes and dreams for what the end of this journey would bring them. 

The night lives on. The night will always live on. 

perfect timing: the American Duchess giveaway!

So what happens when you post about a favorite shoe company and their lovely new shoe that you wish you could but can't afford to buy?

Not only do you write convoluted sentences like the one above, that shoe company just might hold a giveaway for that very shoe that reinstated your shoe envy.

American Duchess is hosting a giveaway for her lovely, oh-so-Edwardian Gibson shoes. Which, coming after that shoe envy and a two episodes of Downton day, is the perfect addition to a slightly sick day.

I have to say, the Gibsons look amazing. They may not be Astorias (oh Astorias, someday I will own you!), but they are still amazingly cute. I could easily imagine wearing a black pair with my Titanic prom dress or with a skirt to look all shnazzy for walking to class in...or even jeans for just Those Days when caring is harder to do (I am a college student after all!). I would love to own these shoes--they're just beautiful!

filmspiration friday: fruition

I actually have succeeded in taking one dress from filmspiration on the screen (TV) to actual sewn dress reality. (Other than that mess of a sweater recreation from this summer. I try not to think about it.)

It was my senior prom dress, inspired by the wonderfully-costumed Downton Abbey. I went from this dress that Mary wears in Season 1 (shortly before her scandalous tryst with that most-mentioned, yet shortest-living character Kamal Pamouk)...

To this final product...

Once again, sorry for poor picture quality. I've always meant to take nice pictures of this, outside perhaps, with good lighting, instead of the crummy one light bulb I have in my bedroom. Also with someone taking the pictures, instead of me armed with a stack of books on my dresser and a self-timer. But until then...

The dress itself is a combination of a couple of patterns: Simplicity 2252 (which was my original prom dress idea, until re-watching season 1 of Downton) and Sense and Sensibility's 1912 Kimono Dress, along with some so-so self drafted straps. I used the pattern for the bodice lining of the Simplicity pattern to make a princess-seamed, Empire-waisted bodice, which I then attached to the skirt from the Sense and Sensibility pattern. I did the same with the lace. I was planning to puzzle out that cute little v from Mary's dress...and then I went and saw Titanic in theaters essentially a week before prom. And this dress made me change my mind about the straps. 

So I made a last-minute change and went with lace straps to give a (albeit small) reference to the dress I would have made had I had the guts to attempt it. (sigh) Someday, my dear!

It was a lovely dress (in my very-biased opinion), and I had a lovely time. 

Me actually on prom night (cropped so I don't have
 to ask permission to put pictures up on the internet)

so this is love...

That magical summer before I went away to college, I fell in love. Completely head over heels in love. An "I'm planning the wedding" kind of love--or at least the dress.

Nope, it's not some romantic boy who swept me off my feet. It's a dress. For many Titanic fans, it's the dress: what we call the "Dinner Dress".

Really, it's a love 15 years in the making. At the tender age of three, I fell for the movie (or at least with the ads I saw on TV) and I made Rose and Jack paper dolls. Back then, I wasn't allowed to touch the sewing machine because I couldn't reach the pedal and see the fabric at the same time. Otherwise, you better believe that a toddler-sized, poorly done version of Rose's "pretty dress" would have been made up faster than you could say "PG-13".

Now, I've finally got the sewing/designing abilities to start thinking about the dress in a more three-dimensional, fabric-and-sequins kind of way. So during this in-between summer, I started doing the extensive research necessary to turn a toddler's daydream into a twenty-something's reality. And I found what a lot of people have found: the same three images, inaccurate reproductions, and the lovely concept sketches. But these sites turned out to be better than the rest.

sensibility.com's Titanic Project: This was the first site I ever saw about how to sew the Dinner Dress. I was thirteen and still sewing my hems on the machine. But unlike my sketchy sewing abilities then, the site actually was and is sound. It has a lot of good recreations to look at and some great information for making your own.

humblebeeandme.com: I stumbled on this site because (drumroll please) I was looking for pictures of the Dinner dress, and her reproduction is undoubtably stunning. It's not perfectly accurate (sorry, Marie!), but it is an excellent jumping off point. It's defninitely worth a poke around for all things Titanic.

make-it-count.org: I was led here from Humblebee and Me.  Together with the previous site, it perfectly describes how Marie made her dress.

titanicdinnerdress.blogspot.com: What a pity that this woman never posted the end result of all the research and drawing! But there is nothing like her pictures. Not the Sensibility library. Not my library. Not even the Costume Designer's library. Because she has A. the left side and B. the back. You could sift through dozens of stills and watch the scenes til your eyes dry up in your sockets from lack of sleep, but you will still not get the angles that she has from a costume display exhibit.

She has pictures like this--and more!

And of course, the classic: The Costumer's Guide. It's definitely a good place to start for picture research.

I keep telling myself that someday this beautiful dress will one day be in my closet. Until then, I'm going to watch the movie until my tear ducts keel over from overuse.