Ladies who do tea..........and not wanting to be vulgar about it

I am a little bit paranoid but do re-establishing the idea of visiting cards seem OTT to anyone? I don't want to be thought of as pretentious or vulgar. I just thought that when I am ready to meet people it would be nice to give them a card, separate and distinct from my business card (which I do pass out on business meets) but I don't want anyone I meet socially to think that I am also fishing for business.  I think the idea of calling cards is quite lovely, they can have just some swirling decoration on it but with your name also, of course, originally they did not have your address on it, but today it would make sense to have some other kind of contact detail on there so people can get back to you if they want to maintain some contact. 

One of the reasons I wanted to do this is because I thought it might be nice to also re-establish, afternoon tea  as a practice to entertain myself (I love to bake) and also to meet people and encourage me to socialise a bit.  I don't know how it will fit around my work hours because the early afternoon is usually when we work but perhaps something can be done.  To be honest we only have free time between 9am -2:45pm so I don't have all the time in the world for it and I really can't entertain in my indulgent old fashioned way with the children at home.

I am aware that I come across as a terrible eccentric and I suppose that I am, but I have not had this sort of opportunity before so I just want to catch it.

I have to admit…DIY confession

First of all....Happy Solstice!!

I really, really am not very good at DIY, I did one single thing only, I plaster washed and painted the kitchen, I did it because it was actually a unhygienic and unhealthy room to begin with, I lived for years trying to get my ex husband to do it and he refused, as soon as he moved out I started working on it myself. 

However after that I stalled a bit, I changed jobs twice, my social life got busy, I was flat broke and I just didn’t have the time or the energy to even ‘think’ about how to do the rest of the flat.  I got in some help from a friend, which was really great and I am grateful  but when it comes from help from friends, you feel quite bad being critical, so when I told him I wanted purple walls (from a lovely rich purple blue colour I had seen in one of the decorating pages) he actually brought a paint himself, from Trade and surprised me with it, except it was a reddish purple, not what I envisaged at all, so when he mixed a sample pot in a white tin for the halls it looks pink.  I am, the least pink woman in the world, really I am.  My daughter loves it though so there is some upside.

But in the end, slightly wrong coloured walls turned out not to be an issue because I moved in with my partners in the country and now I don’t care so much about what the flat looks like. 

The exciting prospect is, we are to move into a new house soon and that house will be ‘ours’  I am ever so excited, I want it to be beautiful and practical, natural and warm.

Because of the children, it won’t do any good investing lots of money in delicate little things that will be broken in a matter of hours (no joke, kids are destructive, I once brought my best friend’s daughter a piggy bank with her name on it, it lasted less than an hour!)  so when I came across the Arts and Crafts movement as a natural follow on to the Artistic Reform, a light bulb came on in my head, William Morris once said “never have anything in your home that isn’t beautiful or practical “  how many of us can say we do that for certain?  I have a whole load of ugly useless rubbish in the flat right now, we have a load of unattractive stuff at the house too.  What we need is stuff that can withstand the kids but look nice also, things that are sturdy but good looking, William Morris was a craftsman, he did not like the way that big industry was producing cheap, rubbish factory made mass produced items.  I appreciate that and I think that is a good way to go.

Of course I have family to consider so I can’t just decorate to suit myself, but I want to have ideas and be fully instrumental in making sure our new home is warm and inviting and a place we all love being in, because goodness knows we adults especially, spend enough time there, it has to be a place that we love looking at!

So, I have started this ID project, I have a folder and I am collecting magazines for inspiration and procurement ideas.  I tend to go for the Country/Period/traditional magazines, because the standard ID/Homes magazines are very much of the mass production types, full of sleek contemporary lines and futuristic monochrome features which is probably my idea of designer hell.

So, anyway that is enough for now, there is very little I can do right now, but  as the weeks go on, I will be adding more about my journey into lifestyles of the Victorian decadents!!!

The reason for the defection

Why have I decided to leave the corsets and bustles (which I love btw) behind? 

Well my life has changed, I live several hundred miles from the nearest Victorian events, my life is much more home focused, I spend far more time curling up keeping warm, I now work from home, running a business, my lounging clothes for the city are not appropriate where we live, they are simple and skimpy, old knee length work skirts, old jogging pants and tee-shorts just won’t cut it.  My gothic walking out clothing is getting distressed from over use and are really the only clothes I have here that are suitable for being seen in and as such, I am getting fed up of wearing them really.

I want to wear clothes in the house I don’t mind being seen in, but are warm and comfortable also, as a Victorian Goth, I am afraid sweater chic just won’t cut it, it isn’t me, it isn’t what would make me feel happy and so what I do, is find something that would work both ways, it is the kind of thing I did when I was working also, you have to find something that is YOUR style but also suits your environment and this time, there is no holding back, I don’t have to look professional-ish, I don’t have to worry about scaring the horses (Shetland Ponies don’t care how you dress).  So I did what I tend to do, I look towards the past, I searched through loads of costume pattern websites and then I came to it…..Artistic reform…It ticks ALL of the boxes and I am very excited about starting out.

My costume experience

My first re-enacting experiences I portrayed a working woman during Restoration times, my costume was very simple, a wool bodice and skirt over chemise and stays and of course, period appropriate stockings and shoes.

Working women clothing pretty much stayed the same for hundreds of year with little variation so I used the same costume for re-enacting the Georgian time period also.

I also made a silk Georgian banqueting dress, which I wore for the annual Georgian Bath ball.

Later, I would make a more complex Regency style gown from La’ Mode Bagatelle Regency wardrobe that I used for Napoleonic re-enacting, I made a travel working dress in brown linen (won’t show the dirt will it?) and I boned petticoat in blue linen.

Victorian costume I made was a (very badly constructed) corset, hooped petticoat, early period bodices, fancy silk bustle skirt and over skirt, tartan skirt for hoop dress and very late period navy poplin travelling outfit.

I have quite a few antique pieces and vintage accessories also but I don’t tend to wear them.

So, I am pretty excited about doing something that isn’t a different time period but a totally different style.  Artistic reform was worn by the wives (Elizabeth Siddal) and models of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and later Arts and Crafts aficionados’ like Jane Morris, William Morris’s wife and PRB Model.

They were not fans of the restrictive corsetry and frippery of the clothing at the time.  Having worn such clothing myself I can attest to its restriction, which actually looks very nice but it is difficult to be active and relaxed whilst wearing such clothes.

The starting point

I had to wait a month for the La’ Mode Bagatelle’s Artistic Reform Gown Pattern.  Once that arrived I got around to the idea of what I wanted to make and what fabrics to use, I have some black velvet previously brought so that will form the basis for my first under dress and so I headed to ebay for some thick velour fabric for my first over gown.  I am really enjoying the freedom to not have to use period appropriate fabric like I did when re-enacting, instead I am using Nordic wind climate appropriate fabrics, the over gown will be to keep out the cold and have enough sweep as it goes down to wrap around my legs when it gets cold, these are my first Artistic reform costumes.