Perfect Ending for a First Day in England

After finally getting on my flight and making it to England, I found my way though the Manchester Airport and got on the bus I needed to be on. I was heading to meet the rest of my group at an old cotton mill a few minutes away from the airport. When I arrived, they were nowhere to be found. After asking the lovely people at the desk, they got in contact with my group and found out that they had missed their bus and the next one wouldn't be coming around for another hour. So I spent that hour wandering the grounds of the mill.

 

             

Very English Countryside

 

 

We had a lovely lunch of tea, coffee, sandwiches, spring onion and nettle soup, and then a yummy dessert tray.

 

As you can see from the picture above, the gardens were beautiful! They had many demonstrations going on inside the mill, but it was dark and many of the photos didn't turn out right.

 

My roomie and I were going to get the famous fish and chips, but then we saw the fish burger...it was interesting.

 

And our day couldn't be complete without getting poured on as we walked back to our hotel room!

 

 

Now I'm quite ready to plop down on this bed and never move! I've been up since 9:30am on Sunday (New York time), and its now 10:10pm on Monday (England time). We get confused every time we try to figure out how long I've been up...jet-lag is getting the better of us!

 



 



 

Off to the Land of Austen and Tea...Eventually!

This is the first time I've have to navigate through all the security, gates, terminals of the airports by myself. Actually, the last time I was on a plane I was 3 or 4 years old, wearing bright red sweatshirts and sweatpants along with my siblings so my parents could keep track of us better in the busy airports.

Yesterday my flight was scheduled to leave around 5:30 pm but there was horrible weather and it was delayed until 6:30 pm, and again until 7 pm. We finally boarded shortly after 7, which meant when we landed in Philadelphia, I'd have to make a mad dash to the right terminal to catch my 8:40 flight.

If my outgoing flight had been in the same terminal, I would've had time to make the flight, it wasn't. Nope, we landed at terminal F and I had to take the shuttle alllll the way around to terminal A...and then run down the entire terminal because of course my flight departed from the very end of the terminal. Though, I don't know if you could classify the way I was moving as running, between my backpack on my back, a bag in one hand and clutching my ticket in the other, I'm pretty sure I resembled and mad woman waddling in a hurried manner through the terminal.

So I missed my flight. Now what?  I called my parents to let them know what happened and then got my ticket replaced. I was given a voucher for a hotel and just as I was starting to feel very small and lost in the airport, my brother called me and helped me figure things out. I ended up figuring out where I needed go, called and booked a hotel, found the shuttle to get me there and finally, around 11:30pm, I flopped onto the hotel bed. And I didn't move until it was absolutely necessary. I slept into a shocking 9:30 the next morning, had some breakfast, called the shuttle and got ready to head out to the airport.

So now here I am, sitting at the airport waiting for my 8:40 flight and wishing so much that I could be with my group in Manchester right now as they are looking at antique garments. *sigh* Oh well, least I was still in  U.S. so I could use my cell to make phone calls, and I'll be on my way in roughly four hours.

For now though, I think I'll search out some tea and finish my book. Cheerio!

 

Off to the Land of Austen and Tea!

Today's the day! After talking about this trip for years and having my spot reserved for a little over a year, I'm finally setting out on this adventure! It still doesn't feel real. Whenever we would talk about it, it always felt so far off. "Yes, I'm going to England and Germany in the fall", I would say when people asked about my trip. But now suddenly it is fall (ok, not technically, but it is September and for me that is fall.) and the fact that I'm staring at my plane ticket and passport is telling me that this is really happening!

 

 

Obviously my packing still needs some work. I'm afraid I'm not a good packer, though my excuse is that I never go anywhere so why would I be good at it? I have my books, (The Great Gatsby, A Picture of Dorian Gray, Jane Austen Ruined My Life, and All Roads Lead to Austen) along with my regency dress, short stays, a couple chemises, and a pelisse with a removable skirt to turn it into a spencer. I have no idea if that is accurate (probably not) but it is so much more convenient. I also have my bonnets, which all of my packing was worked around. I'm heading to the airport in a few hours, so I should finish up. I shall try ever so hard to share pictures with you and write as much as I can during my trip. Goodbye good ol' U.S.A. Hello U.K.!

All booked?!...Can't believe it!

All of my plane tickets are booked for my trip! I can't believe it's finally happening. This is something that I have dreamed about for years, and now it's actually coming true! Only 39 days, and there is still so much left to do! I still have to make a chemise, a petticoat, a dress (possibly 2), and then a spencer and/or a pelisse. Not to mention getting and trimming a bonnet and then making sure I have the little things like a reticule, a fan, gloves, etc. Phew, so much to think about! I'd better get going on this. I want to make my outfits historically accurate, but also interesting and with some fun colors, so I'm a little stumped. If anyone has some ideas or suggestions, please let me know! I'm open to all thoughts on the subject!

Another Pretty Park

As my parents and younger siblings were out of town this past weekend and my older sister working, I had the house all to myself for most of the day! What happiness! What bliss! Don't get me wrong, I adore my family and love spending time with them, but anyone with a large family can understand where I'm coming from when I say that I do enjoy a quiet day every once in a while. I was able to work un-interupted for hours on some of my sewing projects.

I had my own little tea table in my sewing nook.

My sister and I did a friends senior pictures at a beautiful park. I've been discovering such lovely places lately! Unfortunately we couldn't get any closer to the house as it is on private property.

So many fountains!

There is a huge (and I mean HUGE!) house on the property where the family used to live.

The story is that a well- to -do man built the gardens and fountains for his wife.

It looks like the statues guard the forest.

Working on the shoot

Roses in the rose arbor.

Overview of the rose garden. I wish they had all been in bloom...it must be magical!!

I love sundials!

Right behind the rose arbor there was a forest with more fountains and rock gardens.

There were a few pretty little walks through the woods.

And so in between helping with the photo shoot, I wandered through the park, imagining myself coming back someday with costumes to do a photo shoot. Maybe it will happen... :)

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A walk through the park

The other day was one of those days where everything seems to go wrong, work was crazy and all I wanted to do after work was go home, have some tea and watch Gilmore Girls til I fell asleep. But as I walked towards my car, I looked over to the park and was instantly drawn to it.

I love this section of the park. There are nymph statues and a sun dial.

A lovely model posing in a beautiful dress for a group of artists.

Needless to say, this cheered me up immensely.

Third time is the charm!

Years ago, shortly after I started sewing, I saw some silky print fabric on sale. It was white with red and blue polka dots, and I thought it would be perfect for some amazing pajama pants. However, when it got home, it was put in a fabric drawer, forgotten and lived there for many years. I recently discovered it again and, being a little more ambitious now, I decided to make something a little more interesting than pants. There were two vintage dress patterns in my stash that I had been dying to use and the polka dot fabric would add the perfect touch! As I started to cut the material for the first one, I realized that the dress would require a stiffer fabric to get the right look, since I only cut a few pieces, I was able to re-cut those same pieces to fit another pattern. I finally got everything cut and was happily sewing away. I was almost done with the dress by the end of the day when I noticed that it wasn't turning out like it should. I thought it was just that it was late and I was tired so I wasn't thinking straight. But when I got up in the morning, it was a mess. after going over every seam, I finally realized that :
1. It was indeed very messed up
and
2. I couldn't so anything to fix it because it was the fabrics fault. (it didn't have the stretch it needed for some parts.)
I was so frustrated I ripped all the seams open and sat there looking at the pieces that were now scattered all over my sewing room. I finally decided to try and turn those odd pattern pieces into a dress that I would design myself. The most important thing I learned while working on my new dress, is that it is very, very hard to fit a dress without a dress form. I would put it on stand in front of a mirror and try to pin it to fit! I got so many pins poked into me during that time! But it finally all came together.

I just did a simple V in the back.

The skirt is excellent for twirling!

See how much fabric is in the twirly skirt?!

This angle kinda throws off the proportions a bit, but you can see the front of the bodice. I made it not so fitted because the fabric is uncomfortable to wear if it's super fitted and sticks to you if it is warm out. Considering that it is a summer dress, it will most likely be rather warm when I wear it, so the loose bodice works nicely. I also added a little red belt to the dress.