Update!

I have to say I'm extremely sorry about my lack of posting this summer during my internship. Even though I'm not posting regularly, I am making many things on a daily basis. I'm simply finding it hard to fit blogging into my busy schedule. It seems every evening there is something new to do and also I have been receiving visitors every weekend.

Soon I will post more in depth on some of the things the employees at the Margaret Hunter Millinery Shop have  been so gracious to teach me. If you simply cannot wait to hear of the things we are doing at the shop you can follow our projects on Facebook.

Hoop!

While I've been down here, in Virginia, my personal projects have been pushed to the back of my mind. I either haven't gotten around to them or didn't feel like working on them.

Yesterday I finally checked one thing off my to-do-list.

I covered my hoop!

Hoops!

For those of you who don't know, I am recently engaged. And though I had known for a long time that I would be getting engaged soon, I decided to not start on anything "wedding" until after the official engagement. Now I have a year to go until the knot is tied, so I'd better get to crackin'

I am not going to make my dress, but I am going to make my veil. Before I left for Virginia, my most trusted seamstress ordered some silk gauze that is absolutely STUNNING. I plan to bead and possibly embroider the veil, but in order to do either one needs a hoop. And hoops can scar.

I ran into some scarring with the Ophelia beaded sleeves, so I know how easy it is for it to happen. I certainly don't want to do that to my wedding veil! I decided to cover my very large hoop (a quilting hoop I purchased for $7) so as not to scar.

Last weekend I stopped into the nearest JoAnn Fabrics and found a remnant of a flannel that's pretty cute. It was cheap and should grip well to the fabric, while also providing a little "kush" for the silk gauze.

Wittle Polka Dots

Since I didn't know what I was doing, I used a nice Tutorial by Mary Corbet of Needle 'N Thread for some reference and flew from there.

My pseudo artsy photo of what's going on

My hoop is of larger scale and I didn't use bias tape. I cut the cute polka dot flannel on the bias and wrapped away.

A lovely view of my worktable ;)

Since I do not have ample space in my apartment, my bed has been serving as my table. As you can see; I lay a piece of cutting cardboard/sewing mat on my bed that was so kindly given to me last summer. ;) Resourcefulness.

Nearly finished!

 After the initial wrapping, the fabric has to be sewn to itself in order to stay put. Et Voila!

Add caption

A lovely polka dot covered hoop!

Now I need to figure out the exact design of my veil!

Under the Redcoat 2011

I have a confession to make..... I have never been to an 18th century reenactment before. D:

Fortunately, my living in Williamsburg has changed that. My debut was Under the Redcoat at Colonial Williamsburg, just last weekend. It was wonderful.

Photo Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg

  For those of you who don't know what UtR is, I'll give you a quick overview. British. Invade. Williamsburg. And let me tell you, there was a LOT of red.

The redcoats leave town.

I spent my weekend walking about with Eliza and befriending quite a few redcoats and fellow costume bloggers. They were very pleasant and great fun; teaching us some new dice and card games, as well as letting us try some of their homemade meade, which was very delicious.

Eliza and I with some members of the 40th

That was the only picture taken of me (that I know of) at the event. I hope to trim the new hat I bought (it's the one I'm wearing) once I get hold of some nice stuff to work with.

I had a great time and hope to attend it next year too :)