Curtain-Along Meetup!

When I first started the Curtain-Along project last year, it was a dream of mine to be able to get a group of people together who had made gowns from this fabric and take a big awesome photo of us all together in our semi-matching gowns.  I am so happy to say that this dream actually came true at Costume College this summer!  We ended up with 11 people in curtain dresses at the meetup, and I had SO much fun chatting with everybody and seeing how different each dress looked, even though they were all made from similar fabrics.  After the meetup, I ran into 3 more ladies in Curtain-Along dresses who couldn't make it to our meetup time, but it was wonderful seeing them in their gorgeous dresses too.  I was in Curtain-Along heaven!

A group of Curtain-Alongers in chronological order (as you do)

From left to right we have Trish from Trishstuff.com, Cait from Curse Words and Crinolines, Rebecca from Diary of a Costumer, Elizabeth (aka ashamanja-babu on LiveJournal), me, Christina Walley (who you can find on Facebook), Loren from Costumer's Closet, Alexx Iannetta (on FB and also Love3Angle on LJ), Lauren from Wearing History, Ginger from Scene in the Past, and Lauren from American Duchess.  

Roaming around the halls, I ran into Aimee from aimeemajor.com  Isn't her little jacket adorable?

Then I saw Aurora Celeste from dramaticthreads.com in a stunning gown made from the blue colorway of the Waverly Felicite fabric.  It looks so different from the others that I almost didn't recognize it as the same pattern.  I love how light and delicate it looks. 

I also totally swooned over Jackie's Victorian Curtain-Along tea gown made in an 18th c. revival style.  The Watteau pleats and little train in the back were so gorgeous!    

Christina found a different Waverly curtain pattern to use for her gown, and I was really excited to see a new option for for Curtain-Along projects.  She used the Waverly Imperial Dress Brick curtains for her gown, and like several other costumers at the meetup, she combined that with the Simply Shabby Chic embroidered curtains sold at Target for the petticoat.  Brilliant!

Loren and Alyxx were two of our ladies in black at the meetup.  I loved how Loren's gown looked combined with her black bonnet and mitts.  You see so many pale colors in 18th c. dress that it's really refreshing to see a darker palate at times.  Alyxx's little pierrot jacket was absolutely adorable, and I especially loved her ruffled peplum in back.  That type of jacket has such a great shape.  After seeing these ladies, I think I like the black colorway best of all, and it is taking a monumental effort for me to resist buying more curtains and making myself a gown in this fabric too.  

It was also great to see the Curtain-Along fabric paired with a variety of other prints and colors to see how the look changes with different fabric combinations. Cait's pale blue quilted petticoat and frothy white ruffles made it look very light and spring-ish to me, which I thought was really fabulous since I've heard several people say that this fabric is more of an autumn palette.   I think Cait's combo proves that it can be perfect for any time of the year.  

Rebecca, on the other hand, played up the warm colors in the print with her rich burgundy colored petticoat, stomacher, and fan.  So beautiful!  

We got such a kick out of taking photos of people in "matching" groups.  Here's Cait and Rebecca in their pair of caracos.

I was thrilled that another person in our group had an appreciation for the wacky mis-matched print look that I was inspired by when I made my working class Dutch outfit.  Trish made her fabulously mis-matched jacket out of crewel fabric to wear with a black Curtain-Along petticoat.  We make quite an eye-crossing pair, don't we?  LOL!  

I was also tickled pink to match my friend Elizabeth with our pair of Costume Close Up swallowtail jackets and petticoats.  We each made some alterations to the basic pattern to make our jackets more unique, and I think it's so fun to see the same garment reinterpreted in a variety of ways.  

Lauren made quite an entrance with her dress flowing behind her in the breeze!   I looooooove transitional style fashions, and her 1790's gown with its higher waistline and long train is such a perfect example of this style of dress.

Then we round out the 18th century with our Empire ladies in the two dresses that I think I liked best of all.  OMG.  Ginger and Lauren both looked incredibly gorgeous and elegant, and it was a joy to see Regency gowns with Color! and Pattern! instead of the more typical white and pastels.  If either of these dresses come up missing in the future, Ginger and Lauren should probably come search my closets to find them.  ;)  They were both absolute perfection.  

I want to thank everybody who participated in the Curtain-Along meetup at Costume College this year. It was an absolute blast and more successful than I ever dreamed it would be.  I'll leave you with a few more of my favorite snapshots, and you can see the rest of my meet-up pics my CoCo flickr set.

I have no idea what these ladies were talking about at the time, but my mental caption for this pic has them discussing the joys of BIG hats and hair!  LOL!  

How pretty to see all three colorways together in on shot.

The two Laurens made perfect bookends for early and late 1790's dress.  :)

Sometimes it was hard to remember that it is all the same basic fabric.  Everybody looks so different.

And one last parting shot to show off the fabric in all its glory.  Thanks for making this possible, Waverly!