Wednesday, January 28, 2015

New Orleans wardrobe!

I know, I know, it's rather late, but I'm finally getting around to posting about my wardrobe for New Orleans! January has completely gotten away from me, so everything's running a bit behind. Eep! Anyway, on to the clothes!

First up is a green evening gown with gold embroidery and spangles, which I made from a taffeta sari that I happened to come across in the fabric warehouses one day. At the time, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to finish Charlotte in time, so I picked up the sari especially to make a backup ballgown, just in case.

The dress went together super quickly, and I had it finished over the course of two days. I wore it to the Napoleon House Soiree on Thursday evening (The Glorious Eighth of January) and the Irish Music concert on Wednesday evening.

   

During the day, I wore either my JCP Regency dress, or the grey and black plaid day dress that I made for this trip.The fabric of this gown was a total beast. It's some sort of wool blend with a weird stretch to it. The back of the dress pulls down, and I had to put a false waistband in there to take up some of the length so it would sit at an Empire waist instead of pulling down to the natural waist. I finally managed to tame the darned thing, but this dress fought me at every turn.


The week before New Orleans, I realized that I hadn't gotten around to making a pelisse or spencer yet, and the weather forecast was for terribly cold temperatures the week of the festivities! I still had a ton of the evil black plaid fabric, as well as some solid blacks, so I made a quick pelisse. I kept meaning to make a hat to go with it, but kept putting it off, until I finally whipped one together the day before we left!

 


Also, yes, I am wearing a chemisette in the photo above. Somewhere in New Orleans, there is a lost little chemisette. It vanished somewhere between the French Quarter and our hotel (after we had changed into our evening wear for the concert), and has never been seen again.

For the Ball on Saturday, I finally wore Charlotte! I was literally finishing this dress in the hotel room, and had to sew myself into it just before the Ball!


Sunday I wore the Charlotte underdress, which is a complete a separate garment on its own, with some detachable sleeves to make it suitable for the day, and a pink silk wrap turban.I didn't take the sleeves off for the evening, I just kept them in all day. I was told the dress looked very ethereal.




So there you have it! All the New Orleans goodies. I had planned so many more dresses, and spencers, and chemisettes, and hats, and all sorts of things, and time completely ran away with me, especially over the holidays. I thought I would have so much more finished, and nothing came together in time. Still, I've very pleased with how my wardrobe turned out, and I feel like I have a good selection of dresses now for future events.

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