Blog

Did you know I have a Youtube channel?  I do!  I have been making videos about my sewing projects and costuming adventures.    Take a look here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU-6G2XW_aJh6_FkoiI-T1Q   Are there any videos you would like to see me do in the future?  Please leave a comment and let me know. 

Hi friends!  I will be be travelling to Venice Carnivale again this year, so there will be a shipping delay until March 2nd.  All orders placed will begin shipping again by March 3rd.  You can follow along on my Venice adventures on my instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/dames_a_la_mode/?hl=en  

Oh the 1830s!  Such excess!  Such silliness!  Big hair and even bigger sleeves!  And oh yes...big jewelry to match.  Quite some time ago I received some vintage teardrops in the mail and they ended up being *much* bigger than I realized.  I tucked them away in a drawer thinking I'd never use them and then while doing some research on 1830s jewelry I came across this image:  Miss Major by John Wood Dodge, 1835.  Cincinnati Museum of Art. There are many examples of large-scale earrings in the 1830s, but these in particular had a resemblance to the pieces I had...

An 18th Century Ballet Costume When I started musing about costumes I wanted to take to Carnivale in Venice, I immediately knew an 18th Century ballet costume was going onto my list.  I'd always love the frothy, impractical silliness of these costumes but had never had a good excuse to make one.  But it seemed perfect for Venice!There's a large series of ballet costumes painted by Jean-Frederic Schall in the 18th Century, and while they are obviously stylized (um...look at those waists!) they provided my main inspiration for my dress Starting out I only had two specific ideas: I wanted...