Costume Con!

[chargirlgenius]

I’m SO going next year, for the whole weekend, if I can!

The idea of a whole day free made me giddy, so I tried to fit everything in. Considering the rain, that probably wasn’t a good idea. Since MD Sheep and Wool was only 30 minutes from Costume Con, I stopped there first. I walked in, got wet up to my knees, hugged spanish_peacock and dona_violante, marveled at their empty racks, and walked back out.

I went to Costume Con to dry out. (Heh. Ironic, eh?)

I had no idea what to expect from Costume Con. I had an address plugged into the GPS, some dry clothes in the car with me, and that was it. I even pulled out the crackberry and double checked my location while I was sitting in the parking lot.

Found a bathroom first thing to change in. I had no idea where anything was at, or what was going to happen. I saw an amazing 18th century pouffy dress and head first thing walking in, who turned out to be demode.

Quick side note… I want to do 18th century now! *sigh* 1000+ years, and the SCA *still* doesn’t cover enough time. ;-)

After emerging from changing, I was delighted and relieved to see silverstah right away. Whew! She looked great in her 15th century outfit! Her fabric is to die for, and I still have no idea how she pattern matched it that well. sarahbellem swooped me up right away to lunch, and the day was off.

I just have to say, I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t really plan anything, but it was amazing to go to a strange place and immediately feel at home. Thank you!

I did a little shopping, socialized with many people, took a few pictures (not enough!), drooled over dresses (I don’t know if I like the 18th century or the Victorian Walking Dresses better…). I also HAVE to have an Elizabethan jacket now (by “now”, I mean I’ve been wanting one for the last year). Even though it’s been years since I’ve embroidered anything, I picked up one of attack_laurel’s coif patterns from kass_rants and nq3x. Hey, it had my name on it! How could I resist?

Several people stopped me to take my picture, which surprised me a bit. Usually, they’re taking pictures of the boys, and I also felt a bit like I was wearing my day to day clothes, in plain blue wool, next to all of the stripes and silks.

Dinner was with trystbat, seekatesew, lindseyerin37, jubilima, silverstah, pinkleader, attack_laurel, demode, and sarahbellem. All I can say about that is that I’ll never look at a Maunche medallion the same way again.

=8-O

The masque was scheduled pretty late – 8:30, but it only took an hour so I stayed through the whole thing. jubilima’s Anne Boleyn entry was absolutely splendid. isabelladangelo was the only other entrant I was familiar with, in her dazzling Eleanora of Toledo dress. What a hoot the masque was! Results? Anybody?

I slipped out at the end of the masque, because it didn’t look like we were going be set free any time soon for any real chance to say goodbye. I drove home through an absolute deluge. As magnificent as all of the silks were, I was happy to have my wool on for that.

As pinkleader has already observed, the best way to do CC is to stay the whole weekend. I don’t regret going, that’s for sure, as it was the only way that I could, but a lot of the socializing was happening in the evening. And being there only one day I missed so many of the costumes! I can’t wait to see more pictures. There are a few other people that I met, but I was having a hard time remembering everybody’s name (hence all of the names in this post... just to keep track!)

Jeff mentioned to me casually on Saturday night, “Let’s do Rev War, too.” Impeccable timing, darling. Somebody must have tipped him off to what I would see on Sunday. Okay! As long as I can wear stripes…

I’ll get pictures up tonight. Overall, they’re not great, but I do have a few gems. Good subject matter. :-D