So Jude mentioned the other day that it would be nice if he had a parking lot on his train table.  We boxed the trains away a month or two ago and are now using the train table for matchbox cars.

I decided that I could definitely make a parking lot, but I didn’t want it to be permanent, because with a new little guy on the way, we’ll probably need the table to be a train table again in a few years.  The solution was lots of contact paper and some white out rollers.  I couldn’t find where anyone else had done this, so here’s what I did:

Here is the train table.  It needs to be a parking lot…. (more…)

So, I think I’ve decided upon which dresses to make for DragonCon.  I may not have time to do two, but we’ll see.

The first I want to do it this one:

It is an Day Dress from the House of Drecoll, which I’ve never heard of until this dress, but may need to become more familiar with.  The dress is from 1912.  I think it is perfect for me to make because it is from the 1910s, which is one of the costumes I’ve been hugely interested in making, but has elements from the 1770s.  It is a holding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/80001728

The other dress that I’m going to attempt is From the House of Worth!!!

It is another day dress from 1888 and is also a holding of the Metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/80097075

I am planning on changing out the colors on this one.  I love the brown, but my other Victorian is brown and I don’t think I need to Victorian gowns that are the same color.  I don’t know what color I want, I figure I’ll keep an open mind and go poke about some fabric stores to see what they have.

I’ll post more about both on my “In the Queue” page

So this is supposedly a costuming blog, but there has been a definite dearth of costumes lately.  I apologize, being pregnant doesn’t really inspire beautiful gowns and makes you into a crazy baby-sewing machine.

But the new little one should be arriving any day (hopefully!!) and it is time to plan out my DragonCon costume for 2012.

Shockingly, I’m thinking of doing something historical (that was sarcasm folks!).  I have three time periods that I’m trying to narrow down:

1. A Robe Fracaise from the 1770s: 
2. A House of Worth gown from the late 19th century
3. A 1910s Gown, possible from Worth  

None of these are the exact gown I would make, but they are the correct shapes and roughly the idea.  The benefits/negatives of each are:

Robe Francais: Who doesn’t want a Marie Antoinette/Madam Pompadour gown?? Plus you get huge hoops.  Plus more trim that you can shake a stick at.  Plus a giant wig/hairdo!  The downside is that I’m still pregnant and it will likely be a while before my body sorts itself back out, so a super-fitted dress may not be the way to go.

Victorian Gown: I’m definitely flirting with stripes on this one.  I’ve been wanting a Worth gown for ages and I can do one if I want.  Plus bustles are super fun and I already own all of the undergarments that I would need.  The downside is the same as the above in that I’m not sure about trying to fit this dress on myself any time soon.

1910s Gown: The upside is that I don’t own anything like this at all.  I can still make a Worth gown and it is less fitted than the above two gowns, so I could start on it sooner rather than later.  The other great thing about these gowns is the HUGE hats that they wore with them.  I really can’t think of a major negative and if I have time, I can always make one of the other ones also.  Right now this is what I’m leaning towards.

Even though I have plenty of time to actually post everything I need to, I’ve been really slack about it because there is so much stuff that I want to post and I just can’t seem to get around to it all.

My due date for little guy #2 is in two weeks and I’m already on maternity leave because I’ve been feeling so bad lately.  I had a whole bunch of stuff planned for today, but haven’t done any of it.

I have finished up the nursery and the baby’s quilt and am already started on my next quilting project.  I’ve decided that quilting is pretty good times and I should add it to the list of things that I enjoy doing.

Here are some pictures of the nursery:

I got a great decal from Amazon, I believe the seller was popdecals.  It made me want to decal my whole house. (more…)