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Well mostly. The hem was a machined rolled hem that needs to come up an inch (which is great so I can hand hem it). But overall I was happy with it! I think I want to strategically place the front gathers and tack them in places as the faille wants to just explode into one BIG pleat.
So lets see here's the real event write up: I left on time and arrived 15 min late because traffic sucks and there was an accident closing some road. Also I was starving and ate 75% of my lunch in the car... But I quickly found the other cars of people half dressed in the parking lot. It was a stunningly gorgeous day, which mean there were lots of people out but it's a HUGE park and we didn't have any trouble tucking ourselves away.
I confess I expected just Me, Amanda, Alice, Adrienne, Mackenzie and Jess and Meredith surprised me the night before by saying she was coming. so when Erica-Anne and her husband showed up I was very surprised and pleased and then Alexandra showed up too! It was PERFECT. Just enough people to feel like An Event! but not so many that I didn't get to chat with everyone at some point.
We ate our unimpressive lunches on some very suitable wooden picnic tables that were even nice enough to not be offensively modern. Then wandered around the cloisters taking a few photos while headed in the general direction of "the bathroom" Then we broke off and everyone sans meredith and Adrienne took the 10 min walk to the bathrooms. This was probably the most contact we had with other people. But almost everyone wore masks (and EVERYONE in our party) and we were outside and keeping space was easy. I felt safe and it was SO NICE to be out in the world being silly with friends.
The bathrooms are VERY unimpressive at valley forge FYI. we admired the vistas then wandered back to the cemetery, which is also pretty unimpressive. It was really filled in post WWII and by then most people had kinda boring headstones. I both want to be buried in a huge offensive monument and also think it would be a stupid waste of money.
From there we ended up back in the gorgeous gothic cloisters outside the chapel and pretty much took over one side and sat in a big circle and read Poe to each other. Next time I need to prepare better. Amanda had hers memorized and I felt very shown up ;-) We also of course took a ton of dramatic photos.
Amanda made me this STUNNING bonnet, I was very skeptical of 40s style bonnets and my face shape (would I be all jowels ala hitchcock) but I was really surprised how much I liked it.
Adrienne very kindly leant me her antique mourning veil and I have to say it was SO FUN to wear and almost an exprience. You have a fascinating amount of social..protection? space? isolation? inherent in it. Someone asked me if it was my wedding. Someone else asked if there was a funeral. And the BEST part was some lady was sneaking photos of us and gave Meredith $20 at the end! That's most definitely never happened before. haha. We all bought a beverage at the chapel gift shop and told them to keep the rest.
all in all it was a delighfully easy event. Would definitely do a poe picnic next fall now that we all have the clothes! And now that I understand the period a bit more I'd like to make a cotton dress in an absurd print. And buy a mourning veil, or make one. Then I was wired and couldn't sleep till after 11 and Ellie woke me at 4:30 and I couldn't fall back asleep so today was interesting at work...
So lets see here's the real event write up: I left on time and arrived 15 min late because traffic sucks and there was an accident closing some road. Also I was starving and ate 75% of my lunch in the car... But I quickly found the other cars of people half dressed in the parking lot. It was a stunningly gorgeous day, which mean there were lots of people out but it's a HUGE park and we didn't have any trouble tucking ourselves away.
I confess I expected just Me, Amanda, Alice, Adrienne, Mackenzie and Jess and Meredith surprised me the night before by saying she was coming. so when Erica-Anne and her husband showed up I was very surprised and pleased and then Alexandra showed up too! It was PERFECT. Just enough people to feel like An Event! but not so many that I didn't get to chat with everyone at some point.
We ate our unimpressive lunches on some very suitable wooden picnic tables that were even nice enough to not be offensively modern. Then wandered around the cloisters taking a few photos while headed in the general direction of "the bathroom" Then we broke off and everyone sans meredith and Adrienne took the 10 min walk to the bathrooms. This was probably the most contact we had with other people. But almost everyone wore masks (and EVERYONE in our party) and we were outside and keeping space was easy. I felt safe and it was SO NICE to be out in the world being silly with friends.
The bathrooms are VERY unimpressive at valley forge FYI. we admired the vistas then wandered back to the cemetery, which is also pretty unimpressive. It was really filled in post WWII and by then most people had kinda boring headstones. I both want to be buried in a huge offensive monument and also think it would be a stupid waste of money.
From there we ended up back in the gorgeous gothic cloisters outside the chapel and pretty much took over one side and sat in a big circle and read Poe to each other. Next time I need to prepare better. Amanda had hers memorized and I felt very shown up ;-) We also of course took a ton of dramatic photos.
Amanda made me this STUNNING bonnet, I was very skeptical of 40s style bonnets and my face shape (would I be all jowels ala hitchcock) but I was really surprised how much I liked it.
Adrienne very kindly leant me her antique mourning veil and I have to say it was SO FUN to wear and almost an exprience. You have a fascinating amount of social..protection? space? isolation? inherent in it. Someone asked me if it was my wedding. Someone else asked if there was a funeral. And the BEST part was some lady was sneaking photos of us and gave Meredith $20 at the end! That's most definitely never happened before. haha. We all bought a beverage at the chapel gift shop and told them to keep the rest.
all in all it was a delighfully easy event. Would definitely do a poe picnic next fall now that we all have the clothes! And now that I understand the period a bit more I'd like to make a cotton dress in an absurd print. And buy a mourning veil, or make one. Then I was wired and couldn't sleep till after 11 and Ellie woke me at 4:30 and I couldn't fall back asleep so today was interesting at work...
