Two Blogger Awards & An Upcoming Trip To….

Posted by Edelweiss Patterns on January 20, 2013

Hello, Ladies!

I was recently nominated for two blogger awards!  In case you’re not familiar with what those are, they are something you are awarded from another blogger (who has also received an award for their own blogging).  Once you are nominated, you then thank the person who gave you the award, nominate seven of your own favorite blogs to receive the same award, and then share seven things about yourself on your blog that your readers might not know.  Well, since I’ve received two awards, I guess that means I will have to choose fourteen of my favorite costume blogs – seven for each award.

 I was most excited when Quinn awarded me the “One Lovely Blog” award!  It’s something I’ve hoped to get for a long time, so thank you, Quinn for giving it to me. : )  Quinn makes the most amazing historical costumes from all eras, so I heartily recommend viewing her lovely blog here.

My seven nominations for the “One Lovely Blog” award are:

Quietude – A lovely blog written by a very pretty mother of two who sews the most dainty dresses!  Her style reminds me very much of Laura Ashley.

Story of a Seamstress - Atlanta, the seamstress behind this blog, is an expert at recreating historical fashions, and she mainly sells Civil War era gowns to customers all over the world.  At the moment, she’s sewing towards her upcoming wedding which is bound to be a very Victorian sort of event!

Lass of Yesteryear - This girl sews lovely dresses, both for modern day use as well as the occasional historical costume, too!  She always has the most beautiful photographs of her vintage-inspired outfits.

It’s the Simple Things – I’ve been following this girl’s blog for the last six years!  She is an enthusiastic costumer (or was before she started having babies), and her silk and antique lace bridal gown is one of the most incredible wedding dresses I’ve ever seen. : )

Wearing History Blog – A fellow pattern designer and blogger who frequently covers all eras from Regency, to the 1880s, to the 1940s. : )

Bobby Pin Blog – I love the vintage hair tutorials on this site!  It is written by the incredibly knowledgable Lauren who wrote my favorite hair book, Vintage Hairstyling.  While some of the fashions are hair dos are a little more “extreme” than what I like (lavender hair, for instance), the tutorials still come in handy for any girls who wants to recreate vintage hairdos!

Lilacs & Lace – A lovely blog run by a very fashion-forward lady who sews a gigantic amount of retro dresses each year!  Quite a few of her outfits look just like something I would wear.

And thanks to Laurie for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger award!  The blogs I’m nominating for this award are:

Tuppence Ha’penny – One of the cutest retro blogs out there!  This English lady sews an amazing number of retro outfits, and she shares lots of lovely vintage catalog images, too.

The Lady’s Resource Site – An excellent all-around resource for hairstyles, sewing tutorials, and period movie reviews.  It has a really charming blog design, too!

Dreamworld of a Jane Austen Fan – This girl practically lives in Regency dresses!  She travels to all kinds of Regency dances and events across Europe, and sews lovely gowns for each occasion.  I love all her posts about the Jane Austen Festival in Bath.

Aylwen’s Historical Costuming - I went to England with Aylwen in 2009, and it was obvious she was quite passionate about Regency gowns and historical dancing!  She and her husband host huge Regency events in Australia, and she’ll be back in England for the Jane Austen Festival this fall.

Elegance of Fashion – A beautiful blog with lots of period movie reviews, including a number of Jane Austen film adaptions.

The Dashwood Sisters - This is a cute blog written by three sisters who share a fondness for sewing and historical costuming projects.

And last, but certainly not least,  Sense & Sensibility’s England Costume Tour Blog – This is my favorite costuming blog, if only because it contains pictures of gorgeous costumes from a trip I took with them in 2009.  If you are into Jane Austen, the Royal Family, England, or costuming at all, you are bound to love this impressive blog!

 Please note: While I strive to make everything on my blog 100% family-friendly and try to choose links that have excellent content, I cannot guarantee that everything on every single one of these blogs is necessarily something I am promoting.  I have tried to select blogs whose overall outlook or focus are similar to mine in either fashion or sewing, but this is by no means an endorsement of every outfit or sewing project which these blogs may show. : )  That being said, I love reading these blogs and hope that you will enjoy them, too! 

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 Okay, so now for the second part of the award requirements – I’m supposed to write seven things you might not know about me…  I’ve had enough text already here, so I will try to share most of these things in picture form:

I was in the front right of this photograph, and I still have that flower girl dress hanging in my closet today.

 1. As a little girl, I was a flower girl four times, but this first time was the funniest experience.  Once I got on stage, I was mortified to discover that my basket was still FULL of flower petals – so I promptly proceeded to dump the entire basket upside down on my head.  I remember the entire audience roaring with laughter, but I had no idea why…

2. My fascination with the Sound of Music costumes began when I was two years old – here I wore a sailor dress which I insistently told my mother was “just like Gretl’s dress!”.

3. I spent many of my growing-up years in serious ballet training.  By the time I was eleven years old (as in this picture above), many of the girls in my class were thirteen to fifteen years old.  I was always the shortest student in my grade, but I did love it!  I still do my ballet exercises around the house to stay in dancing shape. : )  And the Royal Academy of Dance is the only way to go!

4. The largest group of people I’ve ever had to be in front of was an audience of 8,000.  My dad was on staff at one of America’s largest churches, and I got the lead child’s role in the church’s Christmas play!  The set designer flew in from Hollywood, and the director of the production (Wendell Burton) was a man who had written music with one of my favorite singers of all times - Keith Green!  I had soooo much fun with this stage production!  It will always be one of the happiest memories from my childhood.  (I was eleven years old in the photo, as well.)

5. I speak, read, and write Hebrew.  I am nearly fluent in reading modern and Biblical Hebrew, but since I haven’t spent more than a month in Israel, I’m not totally fluent in listening comprehension.  That being said, I can speak it pretty quickly, and I’d like to think that I don’t have  much of an American accent.  (While in Israel a couple of girls thought I was Israeli, but that could just be because I’m Jewish anyhow and therefore look the part.)  I’m very proud of my Jewish heritage!

 6. When I was fifteen years old I had the opportunity to be in a vintage bridal show!  This particular gown I wore was a custom-made dress from the 1950s which fit me to a “t”.  Please note that this was a very long time ago, so that’s why I looked so very different in this picture than I do now!  (It’s been almost a decade, actually.)

I still have the cluster of baby’s breath flowers that I wore in my hair that day…

7. And now for the last thing you may not know about me – I’m going to England this fall for the 200th Anniversary of Pride & Prejudice!!!  After my first trip to England in 2009, I came home with a camera full of pictures and a mind full of memories, but I never dreamed that I would one day be able to go again.  Well, miracle of miracles, everything just fell into place for me to go again in 2013!  The trip will be a whirlwind of activity, covering everything from Jane Austen’s Home in Chawton to the Museum of London’s costume exhibits,  the Jane Austen Festival’s Costumed Promenade to studying the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum.  I am quite excited to go back to Fortnum & Mason’s, and I can hardly believe that Kensington Palace will be putting Queen Victoria’s wedding gown back on display in March of this year!  That means that by the time I go, it should still be up to view.  Yippee!!

I was in the white dress and light green spencer in this 2009 photograph.

Despite the busy schedule and probable jet-lag, I want my readers to be able to join in the fun!  So I will be live-blogging from my hotel room each night (if I can possibly help it!), and with some of the surprise locations that I’ll be going to you won’t want to miss it!  The main tour that I will be going on is the outstanding Sense & Sensibility Historical Costume Tour, which you can read all about here.  So if any of you would like to jump on board for this tour soon, I would love to meet you in person!

Well, ladies, I’m sure you can all guess that I will be wearing vintage dresses nearly every day of the tour, and of course you know that I will be sewing like crazy between now and then to recreate some Jane Austen film costumes.  Since it is, after all, the 200th Anniversary of Pride & Prejudice, I suppose the 1995 version of P&P should be my main inspiration.

So that’s the post for this week, and I’d love to hear what you think about the upcoming trip to England!  If any of you will be at the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, please make sure to let me know so we can meet each other!

Have a wonderful week!

Happy sewing,

Katrina