Here I am in the dress that I made for myself. While making the dress, I only tried on the muslins while standing up looking in a mirror. I had quite a surprise when I sat down in the dress. I needed more ease. Particularly in the sleeve caps. Live and learn. It still looked pretty.
Other sewing exploits while in Costa Rica included making my sister a garter for the wedding and making altering my step-mom's dress. But, any sewing that I do, or ever will do, pales in comparison to the boy across the street from my parents. My lucky, lucky little sister had her dress made by a guy going to fashion design college in LA. He just charged her for the materials and first used the dress as an assignment for school and then gave it to her. (He got an A for it and was awarded a "golden thimble.") Check it out:
I am not sure how well you can see the bodice in this picture. But I can confirm that it is amazing. All the sequins and seed pearls were sewn on by hand. He told me that it took him about 120 hours! Phew! He is now graduating with three offers from design houses. Wow.
Here is one more look at all that hand beading.
As for the non-sewing aspects: The groom is a very nice young man. Kind, considerate and calm. My sister glowed, cried a little and smiled a lot. It was great to see so much of my family. I was on my own so I got to read a LOT. I have almost finished "Albion's Seed, Four British Folkways in America" by David Hackett Fischer which is a 900 page book! An amazing feat for a mother of two young children.
I realise that this is a sewing blog, but I do want to recommend this book, especially to my American friends and readers. It explains how people from different parts of Britain migrated en-mass to different parts of British America and created distinct cultures in each region. Even if your heritage is not primarily British (mine certainly isn't) it's fascinating. Because the British came first and established a culture, subsequent waves of white immigrants tended to melt into the established British customs. After reading this book, I feel that I have a better understanding of who I am.
Hmm, white immigrants. As I get older, I realise that my history books in school as well as the ones I pick up to read out of choice don't have much to say about black people which is kind of odd given what a large percentage of the population was/is black as well as the fact that black people have been in North America from the very beginning of migration to the new world. I know I could seek out black history books, but I don't want to read specialist books. I want to read the broad sweep of history in a cohesive narrative, and I want it to be complete. (In fairness to David Hackett Fischer, he was specifically writing about British folk ways.)
Maybe the trouble is that little is known for certain. Here in Britain, Oxford University has done some large studies taking DNA samples from men around the country in order to piece together just who the British are genetically and which ethnic groups settled where (Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Normans, Vikings, Celts, Romans, etc.) It was mentioned that this was probably the last chance to do a study like this because people are so mobile these days and there is so much mass migration. I hope some researchers are doing the same thing in the US South among the black population, while they have the chance. As an American, I think our collective story is so important.
