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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Celebrity Loss ...

Sometimes we look at Celebrities as being larger than life.  Many are deemed Royalty, and whether it is on the screen or the stage, nothing seems to get in the way of their success.  We tend to forget they are people just like we are. They have their trials in life. their emotions are not any different than any one else. They love, they laugh, they cry, they live .... and like we have found out this week, they die.



On August 11th we lost a tremendous Man.  Not only was he a huge success as an actor and comedian, but an incredible humanitarian as well.  Loosing someone through natural causes is difficult enough ... suicide amps the loss to another level.  Seems harder to believe.  Harder to understand and comprehend.  Robin Williams captured the hearts of probably everyone in one form or another, in a multitude of age groups.  He was literally adored.  As a friend of mine stated, "he was different". And as his wife stated, "remember him by his life, not his death", and remember we all will. At 63, he was way to young to leave this earth, but Heaven all the richer to have him.





And then while I was on Facebook earlier this evening, I saw that Lauren Bacall passed away today at the age of 89 of a massive stroke.  I like to think she is now, finally, back with the man she was so perfect with in life.  Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall together at last.  I loved the sound of her voice!  She was a class act. A beauty .... who didn't even see herself as  such, and in my minds eye, that made her even more beautiful.  Her most famous line came in the movie "To Have and Have Not": "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together ... and blow."

Rest in Peace you two!  You will be sorely missed



Friday, August 8, 2014

Hi!!

First of all, this gown sold last week and is now on its way to live in Canada.  Really excited about that!


It is a 1878 reproduction of this gown:






Now onto the next gown in progress.  See the two gowns on the left and right?  I am going to replicate by merging the two skirt looks together:




This picture is actually taken in 1877 (I think), but what they are, are gowns during the Natural Form era (the phase in between the two bustle eras).  However, what I am going to do is make the gown right when the bustle was once again introduced.  Historically, this happened all of the time.  It was too costly for many women to go out and have a new wardrobe made just because the bustle came back into popularity.  What many women did was turn their gowns into a bustle gown ... which was easily done as the Natural Form era gowns were usually trained, so all that some women needed to do was bustle up the train and they were at least back in fashion again, for the most part.  Some women left all of the skirt decoration in place (which is what I am going to do), while others removed some of the ornate trim, as the second bustle era was generally minus the foo foo that the first bustle era through the Natural Form era had.  I am generally a no, to relatively little, foo foo type of person, but in this case, I am going to foo foo away ;).  I have no way of knowing what the backs look like, so I am going to wing it ... basically will be leaving it relatively plain and just let the poofs be the decoration.

The fabrics I am using are a silver blue Grosgrain fabric and a loosely woven white fabric:




A little spring to summer colored, I realize, going into Autumn, but perhaps I'll accent with a darker fabric to bring it into a cooler season (the Victorians did that sort of thing as well).

I am happy to say, business is beginning to pick up ... been kind of like feast or famine (mostly famine) for a while ... here's to hoping it keeps up ... but I'll just keep on making the gowns any way regardless.

Keep your smiles firmly in place, and have a wonderful day.