Ball pictures!

I finished up all my last bits on Friday - I made pockets, tacked in the sleeve flounces, and tacked the bodice to the lining under the pleats in the back. I decided to hold off on gloves/mitts as they weren't needed for this event. We watched Marie Antoinette on Saturday morning for inspiration, and I am glad I did - I got the idea to stick the foam rollers in my hair, which helped a lot with the back of my hairstyle.

For the hair, I followed an American Duchess tutorial. I used a hair rat on top of my head, and a false long curly ponytail. The ponytail was pinned into curls in the back, and I teased up my own hair in front and smoothed it into place. There definitely wasn't enough hair in the ponytail to cover the back of my head, hence the curls in my own hair helping to fill it in. I pinned white silk roses into it and added some ostrich feathers.

18th century makeup consisted of very pale skin, lots of exaggerated rouge, red lips, and a beauty spot. No eye makeup, which is great because I suck at eye makeup! Here I am in the car on the way to the ball, and the back of my hair once we got there.

The back of the gown - don't those pleats look amazing?

I didn't have time to make boyfriend anything, so he wore his tux. We call this one our '18th century prom picture'.

Front of the gown - the trim looks so beautiful. What you can't see is that the pinked edges have already started to fray badly. Apparently silk in the old days was much more tightly woven and didn't fray when pinked. So I need to re-pink the fraying areas and am going to treat the entire thing with fray block, or possibly gum arabic that someone told me about at the ball.

Showing off my shoes! 

And the post-ball hair! You should have seen it the next morning!