Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild – Page 2

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.

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.