Lost time, Venice 2025 recap, and planning stages of a Victorian day dress

 Wow, uh, I didn't intend to take a 3-year break from this blog, but it just seems like life continues racing along faster all the time! This is still an unrivaled format for documenting sewing projects, in my opinion, so as long as I'm sewing I'll eventually come back to update it.

Historical clothing research and site volunteering have both continued pretty uninterrupted, although the sewing has slowed down slightly after a frantic few-months stint of it in 2024 for a big trip. Anyone who follows me on instagram will know that the biggest excitement for me these past few years was traveling to Venice for Carnevale in 2025! I shared an apartment with some wonderful friends and for 10 days we frolicked through an ancient city, attending parties and marveling over art and architecture. I turned 40 that month so the trip was my birthday present for myself and SO much fun that hopefully 2028 will see a return to harassing pigeons and drinking too much Aperol Spritz. I'll add just a very few of my favorite pictures below (but trust me, there are HUNDREDS on my phone, haha).

 

 We spent a lot of time on the vaporettos up and down the Grand Canal, which I really enjoyed... in fact, a wave of nostalgia sweeps over me any time the smell of diesel wafts past and takes me right back to those little water buses. Here we were all together for the first gathering, lunch at Caffè Florian, in operation since 1720 and absolutely stunning. The tourists flocked to take photos through the windows of its glamorous costumed occupants, so it did feel like a bit of a fishbowl!

 

Very pricey little delectables but so worth it for the atmosphere! Would definitely like to go again.
 

 

 

So much gold, everywhere. I just wore a previously-made green silk jacket with old peach silk petticoat, no fuss to throw on in a jiffy. Kendra's back there probably judging my hair, and rightfully so, because we just hastily made a few rolls of it in the bathroom and tossed a strand of pearls at it, when really I should have taken the time and looked at her fabulous wig and hairstyling book!

 

 

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Our first official party's theme was "Preraphaelite," so I'd gone for a mash-up of pseudo-medieval/Grecian while also paying homage to the Venetian fashion designer Fortuny, who's known for the tiny-pleated flowing "Delphos" gowns, starting around 1909.

 

(event photographer credit for this one goes to Marc Chaslin)

 

 

 

Definitely did not hand-pleat this, lol. It was pre-pressed faux crinkle taffeta. Also, that is my real hair and I'm now regretting having like eight inches cut off this summer.

 

 

 Sat on the floor with prosecco for Sarah's SCANDALOUS tales, in one of the incredible party rooms. I had water lilies clipped into my hair à la Waterhouse nymph paintings and enjoyed how comfortable the whole outfit was, because then we had to wander back to the apartment very full of food and drink, very late at night.

 

 

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For the next party, the theme was "Cabinet of Curiosities." Alatheia and I both indulged our newfound fascination with "Catacomb saints," a very short-lived and curious 16th-18th century trend whereby a freshly discovered Roman catacomb yielded random 1st century (probably pagan) skeletons that were seen as a moneymaker boon for the Catholic Church at the time. They were yanked out of their resting places, bundled up, rebranded with Christian saint names, and shipped off to (mainly German) churches who had been stripped of their relics during the Reformation and desired to once again have something holy to draw pilgrims. But no humble shrouds of linen would do for these welcomed bones, oh no, they were beglitzed and beglamoured with small fortunes' worth of jewels and gold and rich fabrics! Sadly, they fell out of favor when people came to their senses about the provenance, and moldered and languished in crypts for the next few centuries, dishonored and forgotten...very much a curiosity for a cabinet!

 

I went as "Saint Caritas" who apparently is the patron saint of geese? Her outfit was actually paid for by a local goose merchant so I hope she protected them well (you can find the original on this great blog post about the bedazzled 'saints' : https://lostlara.com/2020/01/23/catacombsaints/ )  Sadly my outfit was nowhere near as lavish as the original, but at some point, even working with pretty jewels, you get tired of using a hot glue gun. 
 

 

 

Love this shot Alatheia got after the meal, which along with lovely entertainment such as magicians, singers, dancers, etc, was held in the incredible apartments of a wonderful hostess!

 

  Watching Paris try to eat in HIS catacomb saint outfit was truly one of the most hysterical things I've seen in my life. 10/10 authentic and convincing look, 0/10 functionality since he couldn't see and also couldn't find his mouth with the food. Alatheia fed him bites speared on her long golden fingertips.

 

(Clearly I was done with the skull mask by this point)

 

Met lovely internet friends, made great new friends, stabbed everyone in the eye with my halo. 

 

 

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The next costume I made wasn't worn to any parties, but to a photoshoot with the talented Grimilde Malatesta, and I'll post just one of her stunning official shots below. I highly recommend trying to book with her if you ever have the chance to experience her artistry in Venice : 

(all credit to Grimilde Malatesta/Siluna Portraits -- do not steal this photo for any form of re-use because A) it's unethical and B) I'm pretty sure you could get sued)
 

 

Renaissance was kind of a new era for me, outside of a hasty thing thrown together many years ago for a local Faire, but it turns out that my instincts were pretty good because Margo Anderson's Gamurra pattern went together very similarly, swiftly and easily. I regret not putting more ties on the sleeves to keep them tighter in places, but will be rectifying that before the next wearing, along with adding some tinkly gold aiglets to the ends of the ties. Absolutely love this gown. I'd saved this gold silk damask ($10/yd!!!) for years and couldn't decide what to make with it, but it was ideal for this project.

 

Alatheia very kindly took a few more photos of me after the shoot!

 

 (Again, looking at these and regretting cutting ANY of that hair off...) At some point when I've made the modifications to this gown, I'll do another shoot, because it has some amazing hand-applied details on the sleeves. It'll definitely be coming with me if Carnevale 2028 happens, in fact, I feel like it's a crime to not take a Renaissance gown to a Renaissance city if you have one! ;)  

 

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The next costuming event was the Reverie-hosted fin de siècle stroll. Those of us who had committed to it beforehand met up at the appointed time and place, and took a promenade through Venice, along the scenic lagoon to a lovely park, all in late Victorian/early Edwardian clothing.

 

 

(all credit for this group shot goes to photographer Marc Chaslin) 

 

(credit for this and the previous photo to photographer Aggie Morganti)

 

You can see how incredible everyone looked! I felt like I had stepped into a painting the whole time. For the most part we tried to be covert and sparing about taking phone pictures because the event photographers were doing a great job already.

 

 

 

For this outing, an extant 1890s bodice spotted on instagram inspired me to use up some wine-red silk in my stash, and the airbag-poof sleeves really grew on me after a while. The skirt came from a lucky remnant find -- Scalamandre rayon moire. 

 

 

The little black knitted reticule actually belonged to my great great grandmother Mary McCann (the M McC trim on the bag must have been applied by her, in fact, she could have made the whole thing) -- who by all accounts was a tenacious woman who would have loved that her bag traveled across the ocean and back through time, all the way to the era it originally came from. It was in very poor shape, languishing in a box as a stained-up once-ivory scrap, torn and rejected and very nearly thrown away. I snatched it when we were going through items with relatives, mended it, threaded a new tie, and dyed it black since no amount of very gentle washing was going to save it. 

 

 Repurposing and altering extant historic pieces is something I would usually recoil from, but in this case, it seemed such a shame to let this go unloved and unappreciated otherwise. 

 

 For dinner, I went out and met some new friends from the walk at a delicious seafood restaurant, but added a little pouf of an evening cap hastily cobbled together with random ribbon and feathers scrounged from my suitcase and my roommate.

 

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Our last party was a masquerade, in a huge Rococo ballroom and accompanying salons used for dining, but before we headed there, we absolutely had to take a gondola trip together (sans poor Lauren who was ill). I didn't go to much trouble for this outfit, pulling out my trusty robe volante, although I did cover over an old ugly upholstery-fabric mini tricorn with black silk.

 

 

 

The light in Venice is truly otherworldly, bouncing off the water and illuminating everything.

 

I was so peopled-out at this point but thankfully Alatheia made me take another few photos or I'd have had very little proof of being at this party, other than one from the official photographer (Marc Chaslin, again, below):

 

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So there you have it -- probably the most exciting costuming outing I'll ever be able to lay claim to! 

 

 

I've made a few nice things since then:  

 

 

 

A floral jacket and petticoat combination from rare polished cotton:

 

(tormented my poor husband into taking me for an overnight getaway at the lovely Allerton Park but he was a good sport about the whole thing and actually really got into the photography)

 

 A cheery new yellow petticoat to brighten up last year's Winter Rendezvous, shared with my sweet friend Justine:

 

 

Ripped the formerly puffed cap sleeves off this Regency gown and put a new 3/4 length sleeve on them for a Botanical Gardens outing:

 

 

 

Whipped up this cute jacket/petticoat combo to freshen up my volunteering wardrobe:

 

*still making trim for this -- I'd like it to go all round the neckline, the skirt of the jacket, and the bottom of the petticoat.

 

 

And currently embroiled in the most tedious work I've ever made for myself -- painting gold onto fabric so I can make another robe volante like this absolutely stunning dream gown in the portrait below: 

Ugh, tried so many different paint shades and brands.

 Settled on one and it's looking nice. Why anyone made the background 'lace' serpentine an ugly silver against an ivory moire is beyond me, it really should have been gold all along. My new kitten likes to help with this project and my old kitten wants to nap on it so it's taking a million years.

 

 

 

ANYWAY.

 

 

 

I need an actual sewing project to do in between the endless painting sessions of MANY yards of fabric, so I'm going to do my best to throw caution and perfectionism to the winds and whip up a quick "Seaside" Victorian gown from the Black Snail pattern.  It's very close to an extant day-to-night 'transformation' gown that I like from the Manchester City Galleries, so I'm going to do my best to use that as a template for decorating, and will add a little 'skirt' to a self-fabric belt to make it look as though the day bodice is more like a short jacket. For the evening bodice (*IF* I have enough fabric) I have a Truly Victorian pattern.  So anyway, I guess this is me writing down my intentions so hopefully I stay accountable to myself to get this done. The St. Louis Art Museum is hosting a "Women Impressionists and the Land" exhibit and I'd love to have a gown from the 1870s in which to visit it!

 

 

 (Black Snail Seaside gown on left, Manchester galleries night/day extant on right)

 

My fabric is also striped, but is a grey, white, black and yellow synthetic taffeta remnant. I'm hoping it'll be light enough to look as airy as this gown deserves. 14yds for $2 a yard though... couldn't pass it up.

 

 

 

Hopefully I'll be back here soon, rather than in another three years! 

 

 

 

 

 

When life gets in the way

 Going through my photos, it's been very clear I haven't accomplished nearly as much sewing this past year as I usually do. This has been the toughest health year for me yet, unfortunately, with a surgery for a fibroid that was bleeding me dry, a lot of joint pain from what I think is an undiagnosed autoimmune issue, and a lot of nerve pain in my extremities and headaches from spinal stenosis, which was an unpleasant surprise at the ripe old age of 38!  I've been in and out of physical therapy quite a bit, and have a pain management doctor now... did not foresee any of this happening! On top of that, the rest of the year has been punctuated with smaller things like a mild bout of covid, a second degree chemical burn on my arm, and a second degree burn all the way around my ankle from a freakish bonfire accident (thanks to my husband who is still slightly in the doghouse).  It has felt like every month brought a new health challenge!

Setting that aside though, I am really happy with the few things I have managed, including this beautiful cloak from Scroop Patterns: 

This has been something I wanted to add to my wardrobe for a long time (more accessories in general, actually!) because I think the more layers of complexity there are to an ensemble, the more convincing it looks. This silk taffeta came cheap from FabricGuru a couple years ago and I have kept it in mind for this exact project ever since.  

 Making the trim felt like it took an eternity (especially with hurting hands!) but it was also really soothing in the sheer repetition as I waited on hold on the phone with doctor's offices for hours 😒

I also finished a rose-red taffeta petticoat, and while I haven't worn it yet, I think it'd go really well with my black sacque for a touch of drama, or under my blue damask volante for a pop of surprising contrast color. 

One of the other things I accomplished at the end of the summer was to dump out ALL of my badly-organized fabric, measure it, re-fold it, and file it according to fiber content, because I find that tends to be the factor that holds the most importance for me when I need to find something quickly. 

This bin of all-cotton will be quick and handy to reach for when I'm in need of lining for things (other than that chunk of burgundy with the yellow print, which is destined for a Regency day gown).

My sewing room is nothing glamorous, just a basement room that sometimes gets water in the corner (hence everything sitting up on platforms or wheels!) but I feel very lucky to have a dedicated storage space at all! So now I have my synthetics, cottons, linens, silks, furs, and wool all consolidated, and even better is that now it's all CATALOGED. I say that with a thrill because my career is as a public library cataloger, so it gives me tremendous pleasure to have an accessible-from-anywhere catalog of my stash!  I did it in Google Sheets so that I can look at it on my phone as well.

 

 

So now I have a sortable record of everything in those bins; with one click on a column, I can look through my fibers, the colors, how much yardage I have, etc. A lot of things are already designated for projects I've had in mind for a very long time, but this should help me shop more wisely and hopefully less, now that I see just now many ideas I've already got the fabric for.  

This was quite the effort and took me several days to work through, but it's going to be such a good tool. I came across a meme recently that said "Did you know buying fabric and sewing are two different hobbies?" and the shriek of denial that exited me was tremendous... I need to do more sewing and less buying, no matter how much of a dopamine rush I get when I find a great deal 😅

Dancing our feet off

Much belated posting (but what else is new) of fun had at local dances! It's a delight to look back through photos again and relive the events several months later because they really were highlights of my year! This blog is ending up serving as the perfect scrapbook of memories.

First up was a ball in February in Ste. Genevieve where we met up with our friends Ron and Justine and had just far too much fun. Displeased with the Marie Antoinette portrait trim of the last blog entry, I ripped off all the lace and self-trimmed the jacket -- now I like it so much that want to wear it all the time when the weather cools off again. 

 

My husband has been complaining for a while now about his lack of fancy wardrobe, and while I love him, I don't love him enough to stumble through a J.P. Ryan frock coat pattern, so I gave Butterick 3072 a try for the coat and a new vest. The results were delightful! I could stand to add more buttons at the coat's skirts and beneath the pocket flaps, but it went together on the first try for the mockup and this was one of the fastest men's makes I've ever done. There are a number of stash taffetas set aside for more 18thc ensembles for my husband that will be done with this pattern. I don't think the pattern called for a stiff facing for the front edges but I knew even with the fairly hefty lining, the buttons would go all twisty and the edges would droop, so I added an interior strip of canvas. The breeches are Simplicity 4921 and while it may be a tacky pirate pattern, the pants are actually really decent for fall-front breeches. He was happy with it and comfortable in it anyway, so that's what matters to me!

 

 

 We ended up matching Justine's brother, and then their friend Michael was wearing red, so we joked that it looked like the "Christmas War" between red and green. 

 

Somehow we're just not made for the solemn and serious life... any time the four of us get together we can be sure there will be goofing off.

 

 

The BostonTea Boys were getting ready to drop a hot new album, I mean, crate of goods into the harbor...

 

 

These shenanigans were followed up by a late night Taco Bell run so I can't say it was the most historical of events but one of the most enjoyable 😂

Not long after, on my birthday weekend, a small public dance event was held under the St. Louis Arch, and I finished up long corduroy Regency pants for my husband from Laughing Moon pattern 131 (which have since been very much taken in because we both were not happy about how baggy they ended up being but that was entirely my fault over-estimating how much room his legs would take up, lol, not the pattern at all), Laughing Moon 125 for a vest, and then there was a half-finished Regency tailcoat passed on to me that had been sitting in a bin for years, so out that came and was duly finished... I thought he looked quite handsome in the whole ensemble!

 

...even though the pants clearly didn't fit right.

 

 

 

 

 

I feel very lucky he's willing to play dress-up with me, so all the tailoring for these events didn't feel like much of a chore. Usually I hate sewing for other people and avoid it like the plague, but for a well-dressed escort it's worth it!  He is very much a Mr. Bingley... very amiable, good-natured, and ready to please.

 

After the dance (which we weren't at for very long, I was running out of steam that day and working on a headache) I persuaded him to stop at a local mausoleum in our county that I'd heard of but never actually seen in person. It's extremely impressive, built into the side of a bluff overlooking the Mississippi flood plain.

The honey-colored limestone looked warm and inviting next to my gold dress (silk is from my friend's shop at Ensembles of the Past) and I almost felt like I was stepping forth from some ancient Venetian doorway -- at least, so said my wishful thinking and FOMO over all the folks who were at that time attending Carnevale.

And to wrap up the dancing sessions, just this past month we met up with Ron and Justine again for the first (and definitely not last!) dance in many a year held at the Peterstown House in my hometown. The president of the historic house's association estimated that probably no dancing had been done there in a hundred years, but it used to be a very well-trod floor according to local documents!

 

 

Of course historic house air conditioning is never going to be up to snuff and we knew it would be a toasty evening, so the men went very rural-casual in their shirtsleeves and vests, and I wore an older cotton gown (from my favorite Regency pattern, Laughing Moon #126) rather than sweat to death in silk! You can see E's pants are considerably less baggy here than last time after some hasty downsizing, haha.

...I won't show you the more ridiculous selfies we took; good thing we are both wife'd-up, because no respectable man would have spoken to us after our nonsense.

 

(the very picture of gentility, for a couple seconds anyway)

 

 

 

 

 

And we can't seem to be together without needing to get food at some point, so of course we opted for yet another historically-accurate food source on this evening: strip-mall sushi!!

 

 

 

Until next time!