Upon waking...

I awoke this mourning with dresses and other ideas coursing through my head. This is not new. More often than not, my ideas are born out of my sleep. And driving, I dont know what it is about driving that inspires me to design new clothes.

So in order to keep track of what is and what shall be, I am opening this shiny new blog.

I will back track a bit and share details of my first adventures with my Victorian clothing operation, nothing much has changed since Victorian times, I still need a billion details, and a whole 'nother person to get dressed, much like my Victorian ancestresses...BUT since I am stuck here in this 21st century, I need to be dressed as such. Which means double wardrobes. gahhhhhh

Thus as how we begin...at the beginning.

My interest in fashion history began years and years ago. Maybe as a little girl? For sure I can pinpoint my first viewing of Gone With the Wind on the big screen at the Bay Theatre on Second St in Long Beach as a marker. The story goes, I had my allowance and I used to go see a movie on saturdays, this week it was GWtW. So I got my ticket, sat down and was absolutely mesmerized for several hours. THEN I sat through it again, until intermission then I realized I needed to get home where my mom promptly said "Oh honey, Im glad you are home, change your clothes, we are going to the movies. Gone With The Wind is playing!" heh....yeah I sat through it 2.5 times. ANYWAY, long story even longer. I was hooked. Hoop skirts, corsets, petticoats. I wanted them. But in 1970's Long Beach well you know. I was in 5th grade. No outlet.

Fast forward to 8th grade. I had to write a history paper for my final. Of course, I chose "Fashions Through History" I got an A! Thank you very much. So you see, its all there, all the puzzle pieces are on the table.

Cut to 2009. Tired of being a "Fire Widow" you know, the woman who loves a firefighter, who loves his job. Hes away so much. So in effort not to be such a 'sad sack' I began looking for outlets. We drove up to Pasadena for coffee one afternoon, and I looked at the place next to the freeway which has those neat victorian era houses, and a chruch. I had been looking at those places for years...since before Nigel was born actually.

This time was different. I looked up their website and found that they have volunteers. Ooooooooh VOLUNTEERS. So being mostly unemployed, I signed up. With pounding heart and hope that I too could lead tours whist wearing a hoop skirt.

Back up again, just a bit. Whewww this is getting long. I began to make corsets in 2008 Couldnt afford to buy a decent corset, so me being me I learned to make them. That is a whole 'nother blog in itself.

To my delight, the museum was super happy to have me. Of course I won them over with my overwhelming enthusiasm...hehe. So off to training classes I went. I went to 1. ONE and being the HAM I am, I gave a tour that day. Oh how hooked I was.

The rest is dress history, now I have an outlet to wear the delightful, frothy confections I design. All while being tightly laced into a corset with hoops, 5 layers of under wear and happier than a litttle clam.

So measure up a few yards of lace and come sit with me while I stitch it onto a skirt.