Jenny and I volunteered to help our dance teacher with a benefit she was putting on for a local private school this past weekend. She was doing a dinner and silent auction with a Victorian Christmas theme and had seen my Victorian day gown on my dress form a few months back. I told her about our Thimbelina Sewing Guild with an affinity for historical and fantasy costumes, and she asked if Jenny and I would be willing to come in our Victorian gear and be greeters, interact with the guests a little. Of course we both love an opportunity to dress up and play pretend and Jenny had been wanting an opportunity to get to work on a Victorian ballgown so we agreed.
We had fun preparing for the event. It took a week to get Jenny's dress from cut fabric to a finished product. We set our sewing machines back to back on a folding table and pressed through together, matching seam for seam. All together it was about 20 hours of work each and we got it done inside a week. There were a few late nights and more than a few pots of strong tea involved. And to pass the time as we stitched on lace and ribbon, we practiced our English accents.
On Saturday afternoon, I laced, tucked, and buttoned myself into my favorite Victorian gown, a maroon-checked day dress I made for Dicken's Fair last year. Then I went over to Jenny's and helped lace, tuck, and hook Jenny into her very recently completed blue satin ball gown. We squished ourselves in a vehicle -- a comical site, I assure you, as Shawn's Pathfinder was a sea of fabric and hoopskirts up to the windows-- and set off for the event. We met with our friend Ania at the church and had great fun prancing around in our lovely dresses and interacting with guests at the party. The carolers, who were lovely singers, came in costumes circa 1890, which amused the three of us as we were in gowns dated at approximately 1850. For a modern frame of reference, imagine wearing a flapper's dress to a sock hop. However, I'm sure none but us were the wiser regarding the distinctions. We kept our accents up and even managed to convince a few guests (though they were rather tipsy guests) enough that they asked how long we'd been in the country. I was stationed at a cart selling baked goods and while typically I'm rather shy about playing sales girl, my Victorian character had no problems with it at all and was quite successful. I even sold myself a chocolate cake. :-)
Back at home, unpinning my curls and folding away my gown in a state of elation, I wondered about my career choices. I used to be quite involved in drama as a child. I took classes for quite a few years and had a few small roles in local productions (I did a very convincing ace of hearts in Alice in Wonderland, I'll have you know) and I was forever organizing the local kids into my own little plays in my backyard. And then suddenly, somewhere around adolescence, I became shy and no longer wanted to step into the spotlight.
I don't know where that early drama girl went all those years, but it seems I unearthed her for Saturday night and I was happy to see her again. It's a shame I can't be a Victorian lady or a Renaissance peasant or a hobbit of the Shire for a living. I think I'd enjoy that.
The rest of the weekend was lovely. Our friend Ian was visiting from Santa Cruz, and it's always wonderful to have him around. We stayed up late playing card games and had a wonderful sushi lunch. He even offered me some design tips for The Crow, wonderful graphic designer that he is. On Sunday, I found a little time to clean the house and Shawn and I got the Christmas lights up. It's always a wonderful moment after balancing on ladders, futzing with cables, and defending yourself from over-friendly rose-bushes to flip the switch and see the house light up. I finished off the night with a cup of tea, reading Crow submissions in front of the fireplace with the soft, colored glow of Christmas lights beaming in at me through the window.
A lovely weekend.