And last of all--Edwardian.

I love this era--all the Gibson girl, Gilded Age, crazy hats wonderfulness.  So elegant and dramatic at the same time.

I know what I want to make from this era--but the problem is, I'm not sure if I mixing up the outfit correctly.  I want a shirtwaist (below) with a trumpet skirt and maybe a jacket.  But I also want a huge flouncy hat and that doesn't seem they go together.

Those skirts at the bottom.


These women are the closest I've found to what I'm picturing.  

 
But I love the jackets on the two above pictures--but no flouncy hat.    :(


And oh my heck, these dresses and even more for the hats!!!



And they're actual dresses not skirt and top, so I don't know.


And then this for Elena:

Next next costumes

  I finally landed on 1875 as my bustle era of choice (it was a huge debate between then and 1885).  To sum up, 1875 is more trailing and a lot more frilly, 1885 is more a huge bustle backside, less frou-frou, and minus the trains.  Basically my problem with this era, is I can't decide what dress style to make either.  I LOVE them all!!!!

Wouldn't a recreation of this dress be AH-MAZING???

But this pink and red dress????  I love pink and red! The dress below I think is 1885 but I could make it in a 1875 style just using it as my base too.  See this link for a copy of dress from another Tissot painting in similar style.

Or this in red and pink instead.

But then royal blue--SO beautiful!!! Could you just imagine how beautiful any of the above using royal blue?

And then my other main attraction is velvet and taffeta.  Royal blue or red.  Like in the dresses above. (I'm not   sure when the last one is from.)

And then no, I haven't forgotten my daughters.  I love the one at the end for Elena.  

Ridiculousness

I should be doing so many other things right now, but I'm obsessing over costumes.  Not the ones I intend to make this fall, oh no, the ones I plan on making over the next couple of years.  And I'm so torn on a few of them, so to distract myself from packing and other meaningful things, I'm posting this.

First, I plan on making my girls and I late 18th century gowns.  I already know what I'm doing for Elena and Isabel. In fact, I've even bought part of the fabric for Isabel's.  The problem is mine!  I can't decide, I want to make them all!

So Elena's is going to be a robe a la francaise.  Like this:

Defining characteristic of this dress being the long trailing part front the upper back of the dress.  Super fancy.  Here's one actually on someone:

Or follow this link.

Isabel's is going to be a robe a l'anglaise like this:



It's going to be like this with a pattern, but bustled like the one below.

And then she really wants a belt like the little girl has and the red belt.


And then there's me.  I love this dress which is a robe a l'anglais:

And then just look at all these gorgeous options of styles:

 

And then there's the chemise a la reine:

  

Or a pierrot jacket (like Kiera Knightly is wearing) or the chintz caracao, not sure which I like better:




It's killing me.  I want it settled.

My friends came!

My good friend Britney B. and her family came and spent the night on their way back to Houston via Kansas City where they're moving next year.  She is so awesome!!!  They put up with waiting forever for dinner and then the pizza crust I made went everywhere and they were just so nice about it.  Anyway, she had me take a picture with her before they left and then later posted it with this quote.  (She had other friends she had taken pictures with too.) Anyway, so kind, I loved it.  
“In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to his disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others."