Friday was the first day of classes at Costume College! For the morning several of us dressed in our Downton Abbey maid costumes, and attended our very first class, a panel hosted by Lauren Stowell of American Duchess, Abby Cox of Colonial Williamsburg, Cathy Hay of Your Wardrobe Unlock’d, and Mela Hoyt-Hayden, milliner and costumer.
I previously posted more pictures and details about my outfit here.
I was very excited to see Jen Thompson’s Grey Lady of Ravenclaw costume!
And Loren’s Rita Skeeter costume, complete with a moving Quick Quotes Quill, was another great Harry Potter costume!
I only wore my maid outfit for a few hours, because I changed into casual clothes for my Pomatum, Powder, Cushions, and Caps! class, taught by Abigail Cox, Janea Whitacre, and Nicole Rudolph. It was a great class, and we all left with a cushion for an 18th century hairstyle of our choosing, and powder and pomatum supplies. Plus, we had hair ready for the Friday Night Social!
The lighting washed out the details on my dress, but it is a silk dress inspired by 18th century fashion, but in a shortened version. It has faux pearl beading, lace, and silk and ribbon flowers, with a sack back super hero cape! I wore it with brand new, super pretty Dunmores from American Duchess. Abby helped me a lot with my hair.
Here is a slightly better photo, taken at home. I made this dress a while back, but this was the first time I wore it with panniers instead of round petticoats.
There were so many gorgeous outfits worn that Friday night! Here are Rebecca, Breanna, and Lauren, spanning several time periods.
Gretchen’s bustle dress was so sporty.
Amanda, Natalie, and Kaila always look lovely.
Abby’s large hat was full of awesome.
Aimee and Loren wore beautiful Game of Thrones dresses.
It was great to see Nicole’s jacket in person!
Katherine’s entire ensemble was quite pretty.
More of my photos can be seen at my Flickr account.
Fresh Frippery 
Love the 18th century lolita dress, would like to make something similar but was not sure if I should wear petticoats or pannier. How big are the panniers you are wearing?
I’ve worn both petticoats and panniers with this dress. Since the front is open, there’s some leeway. My panniers are not very big. I bought them a while back from this seller, but I think these are the same ones: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251900182796
Thank you! I am sure some of my lolita friends out be very interested.
You’re welcome! Btw, do you mean telling me how you found me? I noticed a big spike in traffic to my lolita francaise post, which is a few years old, directly from Facebook, and I’m wondering if it got posted on a lolita group page.
All of the costumes are lovely. The maid costume turned out great!
Thank you! It was a fun outfit to wear!
What fun!! You ladies in your maids uniforms look fantastic!!! Your white gala dress is wonderful! I love how short the skirt is!! Very well done!
Blessings!
Gina
Thanks Gina! It was so much fun. I wish you could have been there with us!