My lovely day yesterday :)

[Cynthia]

Let me start off by saying there are no photos -- I was too busy having fun, didn't have a camera handy, and I don't like posting photos of people without their permission.... but it DID happen!

I've mentioned a little, here and there, that I'm part of a costuming group that branched off from another bigger one. It's private, and in order to have some 18th century fun (not to mention have an excuse to make tons of 18th century clothing) we normally wouldn't get in this area, we're not fully accurate (yet -- we'll learn over time)... thus why it's private.

Thing is, everyone has been so busy, and I've been so slow (still learning to sew even though I've been doing stuff the past year or so I never dreamed I would be doing this soon. I also have to sew not only my clothing, but Christopher's as well. Plus our budget has been less due to unemployment issues -- he has a job now, though. Yay!). You get the idea... although many of us have been sewing as much as we can, life just gets in the way and there's only so much a person can do.

We finally decided enough is enough, and we wanted to have a tea at the main member's house this past Saturday to discuss plans and even some non-costumed get-togethers while we sewed our 18th century clothing. We weren't even sure enough people would show up -- we had two people say they couldn't make it, the other lady who helped create the group wasn't sure, and I heard last minute from another couple who weren't sure if they could make it. Everyone else was quiet. We decided to continue on and see what happened.

Friday night, I was teasing Christopher and said he should wear his Stillwater Standard kilt, since he'll be wearing a great kilt in the group. I'd heard the hostess was going to go ahead and wear a Regency gown she'd only been able to wear once, even though Saturday's tea meeting was just regular clothing. I was half teasing, mainly just wanted him to have a chance to wear his kilt out. He replied "Sure!" Later, he posted to something I'd said online where a few of the costumers could read it and teased me back about maybe he'd wear his kilt. One of the costumers saw it and said HE would wear his kilt if Christopher wore his kilt -- deal?

It was decided!

To make a really long story short... we had the tea. The hostess had the table set up in her backyard, and it was lovely! The hostess had on her Regency gown, my hubby and the other gent had their kilts on, and it was a grand time! It was even said by one or two of the mothers who had their sons there that they'd wished they'd had their kiddos in their kilts (although they'd probably outgrown them by now).

My favorite memory from Saturday: My husband standing there in his kilt showing one of the ladies how to start a diabolo, and doing some over the leg tricks. It was fun seeing him doing some tricks like that even while wearing something like the kilt (I wasn't sure if the pleats would get in the way).

I'm really looking forward to hanging out with these folks more. All of the people are SO nice, and Christopher really gets along with the other kilted gent. They're a nice couple... everyone is! The other gent had mentioned it was nice -- he hadn't worn his kilt in a while, so he was glad it was decided.

Just had to share the story.

[Cynthia]

Oops! I forgot to mention what the other gent was wearing... he decided to wear his Stillwater Thrifty Irish National kilt. What was neat, however, is that he had one of the Stillwater Nightstalker cargo sporrans. I think that was the first time I'd seen one in person. I asked him what he thought of it, and he loves it.

[Spartan Tartan]

Sounds like a great afternoon! Thanks for sharing your story (even without pictures). I find it impressive that you sew all your own 18th century clothing. I continue to be amazed at the talent and skills people have in this forum. I am glad to hear you had such a great afternoon

[Cynthia]

Thanks so much! I'm very fortunate to have some of the amazingly talented people who can help me learn if I need... they're also wonderful people and so very helpful.

I'm sure I'll share some photos (kilt-related, most of the time, I'm sure) over time when I start finishing garments. I had thought about trying to be more accurate with fabrics, etc, but I just want to have fun first. I was given some fabrics I normally wouldn't have picked out, but the colors were either perfect or I was inspired by them... it's going to be a huge help! I think my first few outfits will just be a learning experience, and then I can feel more confident about buying more accurate fabrics and cranking out even more garments.

I don't have anything kilt-related at the moment, but I do have photos on my website (see my signature below) if you want to check out what I've done so far. I went through a non-productive stage for a while, but now that I've got fabric to play with I'm hoping to start working faster. I just want to be able to be active with the group and then replace items I'm not happy with, or make better things later. Tired of sewing all by myself and not being able to laugh and hang out with my sewing-buddies and celebrate all our hard work -- so it's time to get rollin'!