Seven outfits eleven weeks.

Well thats the long and the short of it. In eleven weeks I need to be ready for Costume College 2014. We have friends from Northern Ireland coming for a visit in July, after they head back across the pond I will have about a week before I fly to California. I need that week to clean house and pack. So dear ones, that means counting backwards from the visit I have eleven weeks for seven outfits. 

Now the good news, they are not all insanely intricate, tedious, or grand Victorian gowns. So time for some projects is much shorter than others. The bad news, I am at the moment disgustingly lacking in corsets and will need a late Victorian, and a 1910 and a regency at a bare minumum. I'd like to have a 1903 and a black 1910 to round out the undies but I can get by with three..not less. More news on the nervous side. I am tackeling a regency dress and bonnet and need the whole era from the skin out, why this makes the hair on the back of my neck rise I will never understand but there you go- butterflies over a simple line with minimum undergarments. 

While all these thoughts float around my head I am smack in the middle of insulating my studio and drywalling. Which happily is going so much faster than I could have dreamed and has made a huge (huge!) difference to the enviorment in my little zone 9A south TX metal building studio. Once we get drywall up I will be removing everything from the studio that is not coco required. This is a tactic to keep me focused and limit my ADD/OCCD where by I sometimes get so distracted by ideas I get little done. Looking at my stash through tranlucent bins can trigger this effect. 

So I will have my cork boards with dress images, to-do lists and project drawers. I will most likely be listening to "Time management from the inside out" on a continous loop. Yes this is me giving myself a hard kick combined with a pep talk. 

Here is the studio... I know you are thinking where in the name of blogging are the pictures?! 

A bit of a mess no? That is ok, I actually enjoy cleaning and organizing, very cathartic that. The white white insulation makes the room very bright indeed and something about white space is very productive for me. If I paint it will be a pale color so close to white as to be barely noticable. 

So what will I be making? What is on this list of must? Without giving too much away here it is. 

Regency corset

Victorian corset

1910 corset 

regency petti 

plain bloomers

a bathing VBS or a 1940 easy breezy dress (one or the other not both) 

a 1920's dress

short black petti 

cloche hat 

reticule (optional) 

The Wearing History Suit Along (note to self learn to link with the ipad app!) 

Regency dress

Regency bonnet

Gala dress (yep thats all I'm gonna say about that!) 

Breakfast gown

Black Ascot (because seriously who does not love that theme?) 

Epic hat 

So thats it, seven outfits with various pieces to flesh them out and underthings to make them lay.

Brought to you during my retreat week with the hubbie...see what happens when I have time to think?