It’s Almost Time for SLO Faire 2014

The countdown to SLO Faire is at 8 days and it’s our 30th year!

I still need to finish my new bodice (if I don’t want to be stuck in the one with the tight arm holes – and I really don’t), finish stitching the dags on the short sides of our new pavilion, make a tall hat for a Puritan, make a new pair of bloomers, stitch some eyelets. Oh, and locate the hanging’s for the Lord Mayor’s pavilion as well as pack. No pressure.

Faire is July 19 & 20, 2014 1585  at Laguna Lake Park in SLO. Come one, come all for meat pies, pasties (that’s pAsties you eat, not pasties you wear), jousting, stage shows, vendors, Queen Elizabeth and her court, as well as dirty peasants, constables, rogues, falconry and a good time.

For more info and to purchase tickets, visit the Central Coast Renaissance Faire.

 

The Steampunk Jones

I have been jonesing for a Steampunk event. I missed the Steampunk Symposium aboard the  Queen Mary in January and will likely miss the GasLight Gathering in San Diego. But now there is another new event, the Clockwork Academy (in San Jose) May 24 through 28th. It’s put on by the Fanime people, and is the same weekend, but held at a different location, the DoubleTree Hotel. Hmmm… worth a look-see.

Here is a whole list of Steampunk events for 2012, via Gnostalgia.

 

Her Royal Majesty’s Steampunk Symposium

A Masque and midnight buffet, a dance, the Queen’s Couture and Luncheon, a Murder Mystery, a midnight ghost tour and steampunk entertainment all aboard the Queen Mary. I know where I’d like to me this Jan 13 – 16! The last day to preorder tickets is Jan 8th. For more information see HRMsteam.com.

 

Follow the White Rabbit

Sometimes 100 pounds of candy just isn’t enough… At least not in my neighborhood, on my favorite costume holiday of the year – Halloween. When I say there were hoards of children descending on our tea party, I am quite serious. The parents descended on and disappeared two large to-go containers of Starbucks coffee, though they kept spilling it thanks to he cup holder thing that is attached. And then it was 8pm. We were out of everything.

We had a White Rabbit (who ended up handing out much of that 100 pounds of candy as we all said, “follow the white rabbit” and pointed at her), a March Hare, Mad Hatter, Caterpillar, White Queen and me, in my slightly steampunk, could have been an adult Alice if my costume had been black, white, gray and blue instead of green, costume.

Costume-wise, we had the lazy (our Hatter wore leather hat and leather trench – only lazy because he made the hat last year), the simply but effective (our White Rabbit wore a red vest, white shirt, gloves, pants and knit hat with ears) and the clever (our Caterpillar had wings and many stripped legs made from thigh-high striped socks). My shoe heel fix was a failure. By the end of the evening I had only one tiny piece of heel left! My Eton Jacket turned out really well (additional images forthcoming); the striped turn-back cuffs and bias binding really made it.

Lessons learned?

1. I can’t fix everything myself. I need to visit the cobbler to have my heel repaired (or create a stacked leather heel from some really thick leather – wait, didn’t I just say I can’t do everything myself?!?)
2. Figure out how to make the coffee container less cumbersome to avoid spillage,. Buy more coffee and creamer.
3. Find out of Costco will drop-ship candy to my house. Will 150 pounds be enough? Where does it end?

Next year’s theme? That’s right – Mad Science! I can’t wait for next year!

 

(White Rabbit image John Tenniel’s original illustration, via Alice-in-Wonderland.net. Mad Scientist image via Dian Kress’ blog.)

 

40s/50s Viva Las Vegas Wedding

It was someone’s bright idea to get married in Las Vegas in July. And then, to make it irresistible to the Rogues (as if we weren’t already excited), they made it themed – 40s/50s.

The ensuing costume is an original design based on a 1937 Butterick dress, floral patterns of the era and a 1990s Vogue skirt pattern, both altered with some ad-libbing in the middle. I ended up using a stretch pinstripe fabric for the body of the dress and a Kaufman fabric for the bodice and skirt flounce, with a coordinating fabric to line the inside of the large brimmed hat. I’m sorry I don’t have images of the original hat. It had a deeper crown and was completely floppy. I added wire to the brim, cut down the crown and pleated the lining fabric into it. I also made a coordinating clutch purse for me and a tie for my husband.

Despite the heat, the wedding was awesome! And yes, it was Elvis themed. Note the Elvis glasses. I even found out how to make hair setting solution like they would have used at the time. It worked well, but didn’t hold up to the heat.

   

All images by The Rogues of Thread (bythebodkin.wordpress.com) and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, unless specifically attributed elsewhere.

 

A Steampunk Halloween (2008)

 Halloween brings out all sorts of strange creatures. What better time for intrepid explorers to go hunting?

Just in case you thought we Rogues were all bodkins and thimbles (thimbles are for the weak willed!), here are a couple custom steampunk weapons we’ve added to our creature hunting arsenal. All steampunk guns are original designs made from copper, brass, glass, leather and optics, with precision Swiss clockwork internals, hair-trigger action and minimal recoil.

 

All images by The Rogues of Thread (bythebodkin.wordpress.com) and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, unless specifically attributed elsewhere.