Malvena Pearl's Emporium – Page 11 – for the costume and vintage enthusiast

18th c. hat progress

It has been unseasonably hot in our region of late. I don’t know about where you are, gentle reader, but the area of Oakland, CA has been very sweaty. So warm in fact that Roo the Magnificent, (the Cat of the Emporium) has been lolling about on the floor under the sewing table for several days now, flicking her tail and consuming vast quantities of water. And making ungodly noises –not unlike a screech owl –in the wee morning hours to get her Minion to feed her. Ahem. (Minion is what she calls the lowly human who feeds her and cleans her box.) The single, industrial sized electric fan has been on full, in the studio and the heat just let up this morning thanks to some fog that may have rolled in last night. Phew. It’s been tough to sleep, especially with all the chocolate left over from the egg hunts at the day-job.

The seamstress/Minion has been hard at work helping Ms. Mia with her hats, chemises and other garments, for her impending visit to a Costume Convention in Baltimore, MD, to see her family and to join our pal Sahrye in Williamsburg, VA at the historical village there.

Thankfully, the fog came in tonight and there’s even a breeze. I’ve been reviewing books on ribbon work. I got more work done on Ms. Mia’s hat. Here is the evidence.

Starry Night of Steampunk at Chabot Space and Science Center

The Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild arranged for our steampunk event to happen at Chabot, so we could view the stars through several different telescopes, see the planetarium show and eat cupcakes that were frosted like Van Gogh’s Starry Night. We heard a talk on the history of the Science Center. One of the telescopes was donated to the city and built in the 1880s. We had a great turnout for this event. Met lots of familiar folks there and made some new friends, too.

Of course, this event has made me re-think several projects, as did my sewing/construction session with Claudine and Helena before the event yesterday. We had a “bustle parade” which was hilarious and fun. Sometimes it takes a village to complete a costume project.

chemise details

I think I am finally done sewing M’s chemise, or shift. It’s linen and she had some vintage lace for me to add to it. I put in a channel so she may gather it up at the neck. Here’s a photo of the lace I sewed along the neckline. I enjoy hand sewing.

inspiration for 18th c. hat for Ms. M.

So, I’m sewing away on M.’s chemise and she calls me today and tells me to get ready to see the inspiration for the hats I’m going to help her create to go with the rest of her 18th c. wardrobe! Whoa. Here’s the first one:

beautious hat image found on web site by Ms. M.

I think she even found the right ribbon to emulate this effect. She’s going to look lovely in Williamsburg. That’s our goal.

tiny chairs added to Emporium

I’ve always liked making miniatures. Here are the latest items I’ll be selling on the Etsy. com web site: tiny chairs that I made from the wires and tops of champagne bottles. Why tiny? I like tiny. I’ve been making tiny things since I was, well, small. I had a doll house but the fun part was making things for it and decorating it, not actually playing with it. Tiny, a bit fragile, and complex. A little world unto itself. I have some small wire-back cafe chairs and the tops to champagne bottles just lend themselves to this shape.

Costume Academy in Berkeley

March 7 was the annual Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild Academy, held in Berkeley. The Greater Bat Area Costumer’s Guild offered three class sessions at the spacious Judas Magnes Museum. Costume enthusiasts joined up to take classes on 18th century shoe recovery; makeup and hair techniques for both the Victorian era and the 18th century; sewing tips and tricks; ribbon embroidery; advanced crochet techniques; and several hat embellishment classes. One class offered students a chance to make a reticule out of an ostrich egg and fabric.

Vendors and instructors from as far off as Fort Bragg, Sacramento and Watsonville, California came to sell their wares and students exchanged fabric, shared books, findings, jewelry and patterns.

And at lunch my group had a little birthday celebration for Amy and Mia!

I took Lynn McMaster’s class, “Millinery: Flowers & Net”; Kendra Van Cleave and Bridgit Bradley-Scaife’s class on sewing tips and tricks; and Bridget’s class on Hair in the Crinoline era. The attendance was really good and the location was great. We had room for the many class offerings and the vendors lunch were held in an auditorium.

Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild

Tudor Event with the Costumer’s Guild

Mia and I got our outfits prepared for the “Tudor Family Reunion Feast” held by the Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild. We’d been working on these garments for months. I helped Mia (center of photo above) sew the black trim on her red, linen English gown – on the sleeves and hem of the gown. Our friends Sahrye (left) and Gloria (right) are on either side of Mia. Sahrye made the gable hood she’s wearing and Claudine made Mia’s French hood.

The Guild organizers had a lovely and authentic multi-course meal that we ate by candlelight. We also had a woman performing songs on her harp and singing songs from the Tudor era. We brought our own cutlery and candles.

Here’s a photo of Claudine, as we were setting up:

And here’s yours truly next to Helena and Deborah. Helena and Deborah, below, are both wearing outfits that Claudine made. Mia inspired me to join her group at this event.

Decorating a bonnet

My friend got a plain, green bonnet form to match her new outfit for the Dickens Fair. She’s making the rest of the outfit so she asked me to decorate the bonnet. Here’s what I did.