  I guess it could be said that I've always lived in my own little world, and playing "dress-up" has been a favorite pasttime with me since I was old enough to take my doll's table cloth and stuff in the waistband of my pants to make a "skirt" and stick a paper bag on my head to complete the "costume." And I've got the picture to prove it! My Grandmother taught me to sew when I was very young, and we spent many of our Thursday afternoons together sewing gowns for Barbie, spare pillows to decorate my dollhouse with, or Victorian dresses for my dolls to wear to their tea parties. Estelle Ansley-Worrell's "Doll Book" became my favorite book to take out from the local library, as it is filled with an assortment of historical costume patterns for dolls. When I got into high school I began attempting to sew my own clothes, and started becoming obsessed with movies set in other eras. I took an elective in my senior year about "Colonial History" in response to my adoration not only for history, but for the 18th century in particular. For our year-end project, we could do any visual thing we wanted to accompany a paper on any subject we wanted, as long as it all pertained to something in American 18th century history. You bet my paper was all about the fashion of the 18th century, and for my visual, I made my very first stab at sewing a "historic" costume. Of course, it was completely inaccurate and did not involve underpinnings of any kind, but everyone has to start somewhere, and it definitely sparked my obsession with sewing historic costumes! Multiple trips to King Richard's Faire around this same time inspired my second attempt at historic sewing, which ended up being two costumes: one for myself and one for a good friend. They were not at all accurate, but were a great deal of fun to wear to faire, and I look back on them with fondness, especially since I managed to make both costumes entirely with a "Tiny Tailor" sewing machine, which is a miniature machine meant only for fixing little things on extant clothing and what-have-you. It couldn't sew for more than about four inches without missing stitches. Ah, those were the days! ;P Since then I have devoted myself with increasing dedication to studying the history of fashion and it's construction. I compulsively acquire books, patterns, and partially-finished projects. I started "Historically Dressed" in 2000 in an effort to share my own experiences and information with other interested persons. I do realize that many of the costumes displayed on my site are lacking in one area or another when it comes to accuracy. One of my biggest problems has always been funding, especially when I first started out. I would love to have made all my ball gowns in 100% silk taffeta, but on my budget, it simply was not always feasible, so I have been forced to make many in synthetic representations of period fabrics, or else I would not have been able to make them at all. Now that I have enough costumes to attend pretty much any event I get the opportunity to, I'm taking on less projects, meaning I'm able to spend more money and time on each, so you should see a lot more period-correct fabrics and nicer fits from me than I've shown in the past. That, and, I've recently learned to drape my own patterns! As far as period construction and styles go, I feel I learn a little bit more with the research for each project, and that each attempt gets a little closer to being "just right." Sometimes, (as with the ensembles I make for wear to the local renaissance faire), my goal is not to be period-accurate but just to have some fun, but I do try to indicate in my individual project pages when I have decided to go for something totally inaccurate, so as to keep from giving visitors inaccurate ideas about historical fashion. In the last couple of years I've started "stepping out" in costume and beginning to meet some of the excellant folks out there who share my passion for dressing historically, as well as getting a chance to wear more of my creations, (not to mention, having excuses to add even more projects to the "to do" list!) One great way of meeting people interested in this sort of thing is to seek out existing groups, and so I've joined two groups: the International Costumers' Guild or ICG (which I joined in April, 2004 - the GBACG chapter, to be exact) and The Ladies' Tea Guild (which I joined in May of 2005). I attended my first (other then the renaissance faire) costumed events in July of 2004: an 1860s ball sponsored by the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers, (and I can see that vintage dancing is also most likely going to be quite an obsession with me), and Costume College, which is a three-day convention of sorts held in California, consisting of classes, social events, and a whole lot of costumes (sponsored by a chapter of the ICG). I continue to attend as many of these events as I can manage, and also hope to find my way to a Costume-Con one of these years. Above and to the right, you can see a list of all the events I am hoping to be able to make it to in the coming months. So what else is on the table for me? One of my dreams is to have my own pattern line, and so I have begun work on the first few patterns for this future pattern line, and am determined to make this dream a reality. I am also currently considering doing some sewing for comission, but have yet to decide on the details of exactly how much time I could devote to it, and therefore what I would be able to do. These thoughts about making my hobby into a part-time business as well are what finally motivated me to move "Historically Dressed" from its long-time home at the Topcities server to its very own domain name in May of 2005. And of course, I plan to continue sewing my historic costumes as much as ever, and to continue learning all I possibly can about historic fashion and the reproduction of it. In addition to sewing and keeping up my web site, I enjoy knitting, music (listening and playing - mostly the piano, but I also occasionally pick up my flute, and have been known to dabble with the guitar, have picked up a ukelele a couple of times, made a few sad attempts at trying to get sound out of a chanter - which is the first step to learning the bagpipes - and just bought myself a violin so we'll see how that goes), writing, reading (classics, historical romances, costume books, and biographies, for the most part - but my current obsession is catching up with the Harry Potter series), and watching movies (especially "period" films!) I live in Southeastern Massachusetts with my husband, nine fish, and one very extremely spoiled cat, who happens to love to "help" me costume. (Her job is coating everything with fur by christening each project with a lengthy nap, and also helping me to procrastinate with the sticky bits of projects by instinctively knowing when to jump up and step between me and my sewing machine, purring and smacking her head against me). ;) If you want to know more about me, you are most welcome to drop by my blog or email me. I love making new costume buddies, getting feedback about my site - good or bad - and helping my fellow costumers with any questions they think I may be able to help them answer, (as they say, the only stupid question is the one that goes unasked!) If you do decide to email me, and are not someone I've corresponded with before, be sure and put something specific in the subject line related to costuming or my site, because I delete any conspicuous-looking emails I receive, in an effort to block out all spam and other nasty email stuff. (For example, don't write "hi!" as the subject, try something like "question about your bustle gown.") Thanks for taking the time to read more about me. . . Hope you enjoy the site! Yours truly, Jenni |
||||
Home
New
Projects
Patterns
Research
Events
Links
|
