HSF/M #12: Green Regency Shawl

December 24, 2015December 24, 2015 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 2 Comments

I was inspired this fall to make an extra long Regency shawl. Others around the blog world have done this before–it’s certainly not a new idea I came up with so I can’t take credit for the creativity of sewing two pashminas together to make one longer one.

I started by looking at my Pinterest boards to see what colors popped up often in fashion plates and extant shawls so I could pick a reasonably Regency color for my own creation (this board has a number of fashion plates and extant shawls). Common colors I saw were cream, dark red, grassy green, and dark blue. Occasional other colors included vibrant autumnal orange and rich yellow.

The second step was to consider the colors in my current Regency wardrobe so I could pick a color shawl that would harmonize with my outfits. Lastly, I looked at what was available on eBay for available color options and with sufficiently wide borders around all the edges to have the look of a Regency shawl. I found a few that matched my research but the color that best fit all of my criteria was grassy green. This shawl from the Met is a very similar in color to mine and was an inspiration in terms of border proportions.

The shawl fulfills the HSF/M Challenge #12: Re-Do, with a re-do of Challenge #7: Accessorize. Just the facts:

Fabric: Two pashminas.

Pattern: None.

Year: c. 1805

Notions: Thread.

How historically accurate is it?: It definitely passes Leimomi’s test of being recognizable in its own time in general and in terms of the color and border trim proportions, but most shawls would have been silk or wool, which mine is not. Also, since it is two shawls sewn together, it has an inaccurate seam down the back. So we’ll sway 75%.

Hours to complete: Less than 1.

First worn: December 5, 2015.

Total cost: About $10-$15.

I was dancing in a Regency period hall in December and it was the perfect opportunity to get some of the classic Regency shawl pose pictures. (The hall was decorated for the holidays, which matched my accessories perfectly!) It’s always amusing to me how the shawls are often depicted halfway off the wearer or draped artfully but with no apparent desire to keep warm.

I wore my 1812 square neck dress but removed the pink sash that I’ve had on it for the last two years or so. It was nice to go back to a plain white dress for a change. It’s not plain at all with the new shawl!

I took the time to create a fun hairstyle with small diameter face framing curls and an extra braid of fake hair. I was very pleased with the overall shape and silhouette. (I’ll be sharing more about how I made the curls at some point in 2016 when I post more information about my Vernet ensemble and the photo shoot of the completed outfit.)

I had a blast dancing all day in such a beautiful space. When I cooled off between dances the shawl was great to keep me warm. And I love how festive it looks with the red necklace! I hope your holidays are full of fun, joy, and blessings!

Honeymoon Pictures, Part II

December 13, 2015 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 3 Comments

Being in London, I was relatively so close to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Harry Potter experience that it was very important to me that I made it for a visit! With some finagling, I managed to do it, and it was silly and fun and really quite amazing! Mr. Q and I actually split up for this day’s activities, because going was rather expensive and while he’s seen the movies once he doesn’t remember much about HP (sad, I know!). He had his own fun, though, that I wouldn’t have been interested in, so it worked out well. I took hundreds of pictures and had to comb through them to find the ones that made it to the blog.

I did the HP tour bus thing to get there. Easy and pretty darn eye catching.

In the line to enter… it’s the cupboard under the stairs!

After a short movie introducing things, there’s a spectacular event where the last image is the door to the great hall, then the screen rises… and the actual door to the great hall is waiting for you! These are the awesome knights outside the great hall.

I believe that part of my reason for liking HP so much is that there is such an immense amount of detail in the creation of the world in both the books and the movies. I love being able to step into such a well-developed reality.

Inside the great hall. I couldn’t get a good shot of the whole thing (too big!), so you just get part of it.

This is so neat. You walk out of the great hall and into the general warehouse space and get to see the back sides of the set pieces. These are the supports of the great hall!

There was a special interest area devoted to the costumes and hair in the show, which of course was right in line with my interests. There was also an employee talking about the wigs and hair and answering questions, which was really interesting and informative. Even some of the every day hairstyles were wigs, so that the actors would always look the same for certain scenes, even if re-filming was necessary and they had cut their hair, etc.

This display had a Beauxbatons dress right next to the pattern for it on a dummy!

And a bit of distressing. Multiples of garments that are distressed is standard for film and it’s interesting to see multiple stages side by side.

There were also costumes on mannequins scattered throughout the tour, but I can’t show them all! Again, there is so much detail in the costumes. Such amazing fabrics, and construction, and details…

Wands obviously play a huge part in HP. This was a creative way to display lots of them. There is such attention to detail and character!

What do you see in the Mirror of Erised? I see me, at the HP studio!

Part of the Gryffindor common room. There is a painting of Minerva McGonagall in her younger days on the wall that I never noticed in the films. I rather like her outfit!

The Weasley house–there were interactive objects that would “magically” move when the controls were activated. In this case, I’m causing the knife on the table to chop the carrots.

The iron also “magically” ironed the dress on the ironing board.

See? There are about four of these in a line along a wall so the line doesn’t get too long for people who want to take pictures.

Yes, that’s me with the Hogwarts Express!

Just one of many cases full of the printed material from the films. I bet creating all the books and papers and letters and labels and everything was a fun job at times!

On the backlot–the triple decker Knight Bus. Turns out they stuck multiple buses together to create it. And they actually arranged to shut down very specific streets in London to film it. Why specific? Because it’s too tall to fit under bridges!

Next to the Knight Bus is Number 4, Privet Drive.

Or at least, the front of it! Right next to…

The life size chess pieces are also in the back lot. They are really neat!

Then there’s a look into the creature studio.

And there’s Diagon Alley! So much detail, so many HP scenes… Gringotts was always in shadow, so no good pictures of that.

Then there is a whole area devoted to the designing and drafting of all of the elements in the films. It’s amazing to think that every little thing had to be designed down to the smallest detail!

And there’s also concept art…

And models of different sets. These have such detail in them, but were relatively small–this one is maybe four feet across?

There are paper owls in the Owlery nooks!

It has it’s own room, with a ramp that circles around and slowly descends, so you can see the castle from every angle. This is what they used to shoot some of the outside scenes of the castle.

I firmly believe that those behind the scenes deserve credit, too, whether they make it into the credits or not.

Finally, you end up in the HP store. Mostly overpriced, in my opinion, and I really didn’t need stuff to take home with me. If I was going to be tempted by anything though, these were them.

And there were so many other really awesome things I didn’t include pictures of! If you like HP and you’re in London, I highly suggest visiting. Of course, if you don’t like HP, I wouldn’t spend the money, because while you can still enjoy the attention to detail, if you don’t know what all the things are it wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining and fantastic.

Anyway, here’s the last picture–from the green screen broomstick experience!

Vernet Project: Check Out The Finished Ensembles!

December 7, 2015 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ Leave a comment

Photos of each recreation of one of Vernet’s Merveilleuses and Incroyables fashion plates start to be released tomorrow (December 8) on the group Facebook page! One fashion plate per day will be shared right next to a photo of the recreation, right up through the 31st of December (my plate will be on the 21st). Check it out! It will be a fun way to end 2015!

I’ve seen some of the finished ensembles ahead of time, and let me just reiterate how wonderful, weird, and wacky they are! Further posts with more images and specifics about construction, etc. will be released by participants in 2016, so don’t forget to check back to see updates on the ensembles that most capture your fancy.

(You can see all my posts from this past year relating to this project here, and I’ll be sharing more in 2016!)

Our Honeymoon Pictures, Part I

December 1, 2015 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 6 Comments

Back to wedding related things for a few quick posts, here are a a select number of pictures from our honeymoon! We went to Edinburgh, Conwy (Wales), and London and had a glorious time. There are so many things to see and do that we couldn’t take it all in. By the end we had been museum-ed out and were ready to go home, which was a nice feeling actually, because we weren’t lamenting the fact that we had to return to real life.

The hair flowers from the wedding day (photos here) traveled around with us and lasted a week into our honeymoon! Here they are on the plane on wedding day with super adorable salt and pepper shakers.

The weather in Scotland mostly looked like this.

Here’s some clouds over the castle, with the stands for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo off to the right.

One of the highlights of our entire trip was getting day-of tickets to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This amazing annual performance of military bands, music, and dancing from around the world brings together thousands of people and is televised in more than 40 countries! It was suggested to us by our local host and was downright jaw dropping! The performances take place literally outside the gate to the historic castle and involve, amongst other amazing performances, hundreds of bagpipes and bagpipers wearing so much tartan!

I couldn’t even get close to getting all the performers in one picture!

We took most of a day to walk/hike up Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano, right in Edinburgh. The orange speck on the rocks is Mr. Q.

After Edinburgh, we headed to northern Wales for a long weekend for some in-between-cities time. This is Conwy, the town we stayed in, with a castle from the end of the13th century.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast that backed right up to the town walls.

Conwy was lovely and small. We could walk across the town in about ten minutes, had a variety of really neat historic house and castle museums to visit without being overwhelmed, and even got to hang out on the wharf for a local Saturday festival with live music. And Wales was nice and green, reminding me very much of the Pacific Northwest, where I grew up. I highly recommend it!

Modern roads don’t quite fit under 13th century castle walls…

Also, Wales (well, and the UK in general) is full of sheep! We took the train between each destination and got to spend lots of time looking out the windows and exclaiming at the sheep! Plus, I got my tartan wool picnic blanket and scarf. Sheep!

It only took about a day and a half to see everything inside the town walls of Conwy, so we took a day for a little trip not far outside town to Bodnant Garden. It’s an amazing garden that’s been tended for over 150 years with plants from around the globe. There are all sorts of different types of gardens and forest areas to explore and it was easy to spend hours roaming around.

Mr. Q, looking short next to other tall trees.

Our final stop was London, where we went to shows, got thoroughly drenched in rainstorms almost every day, went to many museums and sights (The British Museum, The Victoria and Albert, The National Gallery, Portobello Road, The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s, to name a few), visited famous stores (Liberty of London and Fortnum and Mason, for example), and generally stayed super busy. We also discovered a super yummy vegetarian restaurant called Tibits in a lovely, quiet little alcove off of Regent Street, which was perfect for hanging out as the sun set and people watching while eating really amazing food. So amazing, in fact, that Mr. Q bought me their cookbook for a birthday present (with a hint from me, of course)! I haven’t had a chance to make anything from it yet, but I look forward to having the time!

The view from the top observation area at St. Paul’s.

The sun did come out at the very end of our stay and it was such a change from grey!

And I took a day while we were in London to have a special day trip that I haven’t mentioned yet… A Harry Potter day! I’ve got enough pictures to do a whole post just for that, though, so watch out. I’m really looking forward to some hang-around vacations vs. the go-do-everything style of our honeymoon, though I don’t regret getting to visit so many amazing things and places! It was quite a memorable trip.