Happy Thanksgiving!

I dressed like a turkey at work today and everyone loved it! The "feathers" are two fans I glued together and painted, the caruncle (red hanging thingy) was made from felt *THX Mom* and I wore a sign in the front saying "EAT HAM" and on the back of the fans "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" hope you enjoyed the pics. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Dressing up!

This is my Civil War Ball Gown. I made the corset,chemise, hoopskirt (the cheep and not totally historically correct way) ,petticoat, and dress my self...and the fan is my mothers. I am not completely happy with it so I am currently working on a new one. :)

I hand sewed the button holes and the lace collar. The wreath in my hair is made from ivy vines from our yard and the ivy on it is real ivy from the vine you see in my hair. The red leaves are from our burning bushes and the little pine cone things are from our neighbors tree.

~♥~♥~♥~☼♥~♥~♥~
This is a dress I saw at a wonderful online store and fell in love with. I was looking at the new arrivals at the website (fanplusgarden) and saw this in the dress section. I REALLY wanted it so I printed the pictures (yes I stole the design but give all the credit to them) it is kind of a East meets West dress and this is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy!
The bubble thing on my head and the braid hanging down ↕ is not my real hair. It is made from doll hair you can buy in a craft store and I put boiling water over it to make it straight then used my hair straightener on it and braided it.

The flowers were a stencil as were the feather design around the bird. The bird I painted on free hand.

It had 4 rows of ruffles on the skirt and a row on the bottom of the shirt/apron giving it a very full, fluffy, and bouncy effect.
I have NEVER worn fake eyelashes before so I had to go on youtube and look up how to do it and have come to the conclusion that I do not want false eyelashes in my daily routine!! But I admit that I do like the effect that it gives to the over all appearance of my outfit. It helps set it off. I also made the bow in my hair to match.

GIFTS!!!!!

Carol GAVE this to me! Can you believe it!! I am IN LOVE with it!!!! It's a treadle that was converted into electric.

It has a fanbelt in the back!

You just can't find detail like this anymore!

Jason and Sheri bought me some material for my 21st B-day YEA! *sniff sniff!* ( mid-life crisis... just no pleasing me!) with the 2 blue bolts I am going to make and 'Alice in Wonderland' dress, the peach is going to be a Sunday skirt and maybe a jacket, the pretty, pretty pink is going to be my full skirt, and the last two are my "summer fun" skirts! The white..I'm not sure if that wants to be a Victorian shirt or a trial and error test run. hhhmmmm.
Thanks for looking! I hope you found something you like and will come back again! ~_*

New projects!

I spent today staining and sealing these two boxes. One is a gift for Carol and I'm not sure about the other...I have to put the flowers and things in it but, it is almost done!



I am getting into a steampunk phase. Steampunk for those of you who don't know is a mix of Victorian, Edwardian, sci-fi, and futuristic things all mixed together in one pot. Whatever you like you can put it together even in historically it is wrong you can do it , put some gears on it and call it steampunk! ^_^
So what we have here are 2 big pleather bags I picked up at the thrift store for $3.00 each. I took them apart (my hands were VERY sore after that!) and here is what I have! I took the shoulder strap from one and it makes a GREAT belt and the part that held the handles together is going to be a wrist protector! Just use your imagination and see what you find. The top 2 pieces on the left (see 2nd pic.) are going to make a satchel for the book I made. neat huh? I am also going to make a outfit to go with it! maybe something with a bustle..?


I sorted the paper into 10 groups of 5 then folded them in half (making 100 sheets) and sewed along the back, when I had all the groups sewn I then sewed them together along the back with a thicker and stronger thread. I then covered it with interfacing (what I use in sewing) to protect the threads. One step I did not do that if (when I) do this project again I would cover the back with something like rubber cement before putting the interfacing on that way it would also stick the back of the pages together. I went to walmart and bought some thick cardboard and cut it into to large pieces and one small thin one for the back and glued some soft blue material over it. I then glued the first and last pages (making my book only 98 pages instead of 100 ...my bad) to the cardboard and there you have it!
The finished product!

Family reunion

We had a family reunion of my Moms side of the family earlier this July. One of the places we went to was Fort Stanwix! I had so much fun there imagining what it must have been like to live back in that time...and getting to wear those clothes!

Here Dad and Mom are standing by the cannon.

This nice soldier agreed to let me take his picture. ;) Haha! he looks like my younger brother!!


This is the inside of the trading house. Look at all those furs! (no animals were harmed in the recreation of this fort..except that squirrel and he was asking for it!!)


Then we made our way to the Erie Canal! Welcome to the 19 century!
See? No pollution! :)
Okay maybe a little..XD
The horses pulling us 15 miles down the Erie Canal...haha! I don't know that we went more than 1 mile down. :)
View over the bridge...
and under the bridge!

I forget what this building is but I love this picture of it!! <3I would have loved to work here!! Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in this era, wear these clothes, work in the mercantile...and be married to the blacksmith!! I could run the mercantile and he could that care of the livery! ~_*

I LOVE the boots!
Things displayed in the store.
Speaking of the blacksmith....here is where he would be working...
and here are some of the things he would work on.


I LOVE this one!!!!^^^^^

O_O<(....)^^^^^^ Jeffrey and myself standing in the gazebo. The flowers I am holding are from Jeff, he had the conductor on the train we went on to pick them for me. :D
This would be our house (mine and the blacksmith's not Jeff's and mine..though he could come over for a visit. ^_^)
Me outside our ahem *THE* house. ;)

The inside of one of the other buildings...but this would be my parlor.

New Bathrobe

Victoria modeling my bathrobe that I'm making. I have not completed it yet lol. It is a beautiful purple, light weight, silky-ish material that screams "make me a summer bathrobe!"

Here she is peeking out of the curtains in the hall to play with Uncle Jeff and Grandma.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY ! THANK YOU TO ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN THAT SERVE AND HAVE SERVED TO KEEP THIS NATION FREE! GOD BLESS!!


This is how I spent my Memorial weekend. I worked on my Victorian walking dress. The blouse pattern I bought from agelsess patterns. It is a " Truly Victorian" pattern and I LOVE it! It was about $15 for 5 shirt patterns (it was a kit) and it is so easy to follow and is one of the best patterns that I have done! Some patterns you have to "jimmy" to get them to work but not with this one! It ALMOST goes together on its own and fits perfectly.
This is something like what the finished product will look like. I am also making a bolero in the grayish blue that matches the insert in the skirt.

This is the back of the blouse. There are 11 buttons on the back. They are all cover buttons and I hand stitched the button holes as the material likes to bunch up if done by machine.

Here is the front. The lace on the front used to be an old shirt but it didn't fit right (down low in the front and up went high at the bottom) so I kept it to use on one of my projects and am quite glad I did!

This is the jumper that I am making for my niece. It's not done yet. I have to finish the top seams and add buttons on the back. It has a bunny made from fuzzy material peeking out of the pocket on the front . I think my niece will like it!