Scarby and a new dress!

So, this past weekend was the opening of our local ren faire, Scarborough. I had fully intended to wear a dress I had made in a previous year, but, well, you know how plans go. A few days before the opening day, my friend sends me a text along the lines of, "Is that black and gold dress of yours (referring to Esther) going to be finished in time for Scarby? Because we're all going in black and gold and it would be just perfect!"

...

Well, there was no way that I was going to be able to finish Esther in time, so instead, I dove head first into my Stash and dug out some fabrics for a very last minute new gown.  Since I still had about 45 yards of that green damask left, I cut some yardage off of that bolt and, crossing my fingers, attempted to dye it black.  Tricky, since I had no idea about the fibre content, but I used three different dyes, all for different fibres, and managed to get it to a fairly decent level of black. I jotted down to the store and bought myself about 10 yards of trim, and a few days later, I had a dress!

Donning my new dress, I made my way over to the faire grounds, arriving at around 12:30, where I met up with the Lord of Lace and his fair Lady Wife, and I handed over a petticoat since she had forgotten hers at home. Oops!

Once everyone was dressed, we ran inside to watch the parade and opening speeches by the royals and courtiers.

At this point, we were all famished, so we went back out to the car for some lunch. There was quite a storm rolling in, and it grew darker and darker as we were eating, and before long the thunder and lightning came along to scare us back into the faire grounds.  We debated on whether to just enjoy the faire in the rain, and had a conversation somewhere along the lines of :

LW: "It might be nice, at least we would be cool!"
LoL: "I don't know, I don't really want to get wet."
Me: "...my crown is made of cardboard."
LoL: "Shelter it is!"

It started pouring almost the moment we were back inside the gate, so we took shelter under one of the large pavilions and waited out the storm, which lasted for a good long while.  Some of the courtiers came and entertained us by telling stories to pass the time, which was very entertaining. Thankfully, the storm let up just in time for us to make our way over to the large grove where the court dances were held to have ourselves a dance lesson.  Turns out that the courtiers had decided that they were going to have themselves a very large game of Kitty in the Corner.  We joined in and had ourselves a hugely fun time running around and sliding in the mud.
We did have our dance lesson, where we learned the Molly Go Lightly and the Spanish Pavane, and then the formal court dances started up and we were able to join in and really enjoy ourselves.

Once the dances were over, we were all thoroughly exhausted, so we bid each other adieu and headed home.

(I swear, I thought I was smiling when that pic was snapped. lol)
All in all, a very enjoyable opening weekend, even with the torrential downpour. It was actually quite lovely sitting under the pavilion, chatting with other faire-goers and relaxing and listening to the rain. Our little group is going to be heading back next weekend, donning Roman garb for the beer tasting!