Here are some pictures from the VC Ball we attended yesterday. I am still trying to perfect the "aged" photo look with my computer program. It's harder than it looks! In attempts to make my part easier I decided to wear a dress from the last ball. But it was impossible for me obstain from making something, so I made some men's clothing instead for MT and JB. I made MT's wool gabardine overcoat, vest, collar, and supplied his hat and shoes (both vintage). I also made JB's black vest and gold paisley silk Osbladestone tie. I showed MT how to use my sewing machine and he made himself the red Ascot tie. He was one the most distinguished gentlemen there - the talk of the town! I thought we were walking tourists attractions last time, but this was more like a "walk back in time". The pictures that I have aged were taken at the Fairweather Inn in Virginia City. Besides the extreme heat (inside and out) and the affects of staying up late the night before, it was one of the best balls yet.
Hester is an obsessive, needlework-aholic who spends most evenings and weekends researching, or working on a sewing project. She usually lives in Bozeman, MT with her books, mannequin, and needles, but is known to take extended journeys to other parts of the globe.
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From "The Mirror of Graces" , 1811
"The secret of dressing lies in adaptation to your figure, your rank, your circumstances. No woman is at forty what she was at twenty, nor at sixty what she was at forty. Each age has an appropriate style of figure and of pleasing; and it is the business of discernment and of taste to maintain these advantages in their due season."
"She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its exercise....It was the art - then, as now, almost the only one within a woman's grasp - of needle-work." -The Scarlet Letter