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!

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)

invited to dinner

When you have a family of eight all (mostly) obsessed with Downton Abbey, how do you celebrate the beginning of the new season?

With a dinner, of course.

My mom texted me while I was still at college--before finals had officially started, even, to tell me that we should have a Downton dinner. Fine china, real crystal, fancy food. Heck yeah, count me in--with the small edit that it be a dress-up affair.

My mom and I came up with the menu after studying a couple of Titanic books--one was The Titanic Pocketbook  and the other my siblings' picture book --with reproduction menus inside. Then we looked up how exactly to make the mystery dishes that the menus contained. In other words, we became Mrs. Patmore and Daisy.

So this, my friends is what happens to that family when creativity struck.

Menu

Hors d'Oeuvres Variés

Beef Consommé

Salade Verte

Baked Salmon with Dill Sauce

Creamed Carrots

Boiled Rice

Green Peas

Cucumbers

French (Vanilla) Ice Cream

My older sister and I decided to dress period--me in my 1910s prom dress and she in a nineties-goes-twenties kind of remix dress. And then everyone followed us in getting all gussied up for the affair, except for my parents. Well, you gotta try. The fact that my younger brothers wore tucked in shirts and that my brother Joseph wore a tie just goes to show what a fantastic (and slightly odd) family I have. 

All in all, it was a wonderful night. Excellent food, fine dining, and getting to play pretend, which doesn't happen often enough anymore that I'm eighteen and expected to be this mysterious "adult" thing. (Lies!)

I won't pass judgement on the season as a whole until I've seen more, but so far it's at the very least interesting. I've been enjoying myself as I watch them, curled up in a chair in my dorm room as everyone else does sensible things like homework. But that's overrated! Who needs to do homework? 

Oh yeah. College students. Well, I guess that leaves me to go back to writing my paper.