Time Traveling in Costume: May 2022

Last weekend (April 29-May 1) was my first “official” costume outing this year, other than a previous fashion show. It was at the Port Townsend Victorian Heritage Festival in Washington state. After a two-year hiatus from the Pandemic, it was wonderful to be back and seeing all my friends there. And a little strange. I actually introduced myself to one lady before sitting down next to her, saying my name, and I’m fully vaccinated. LOL! Is this what we’ll be doing from now on?

The PTVHF is different from most festivals, as it’s held within a couple buildings with presentations, a Victorian Parlour, a contra-dance, and of course, our fashion show. Sometimes there are afternoon teas in one of the historic homes or B&Bs. This year there was just a small fundraising tea at one of them. Along with them, there are guided walking tours of the historic areas, and of a couple restored Victorian homes. So, what you see on the streets might be just a few people dressed in costume.

It took me over a month to finish writing the 29-page narrative to the fashion show held on Saturday, and this year it included some 5 to 9-year-old girls wearing white antique dresses from Tracy Wirta’s collection (she was the festival co-chair), a couple ‘teens wearing antique dresses from my and Tracy’s collections, and a couple other local residents in their own costumes. It was nice to pull the locals into their own festival, and it went over really well, especially with the little girls. They looked so sweet. It was, once again, a sold-out show, and this year also included a display of antique dresses belonging to Julie & Terry Cheetham’s collection. And the American Legion Hall we were in looked newly painted and all bright and shiny. We looked really classy this year, and it was a great comeback!

Many of us models in the fashion show decided to just wear the same outfit as we had planned for the 2020 show and it took a lot of stress off us, as many were having trouble getting back “into it”. But a couple just had to make something new.

I also decided to wear two of the 1890s outfits I had made two years ago to wear walking around on the streets and to tea. I had refurbished an antique 1890s black straw hat with a wonderful wavy front to go with the burnt orange outfit. And then I trimmed out a vintage straw boater hat I’d found in Port Angeles, WA, a few years ago to wear with the purple outfit that I was wearing to the fundraiser tea. I used a bunch of pretty little flowers I had bought at Michaels last year for $.99 each. My purse was a fairly modern black suede one that I shortened the strap on, and it looked like purses I’d seen in photos from the 1890s. My jewelry was an antique brooch with coral in it, and a tiny pair of gold acorn earrings I wore with both outfits. I had a pretty pair of lavender earrings but I couldn’t get the curved loops into my ears.

I wrote a detailed blog on both my dresses back in March 2020 just before the festival was cancelled, so if you want to read about them, here’s a link to it. 1890s dresses

For the fashion show, I brought my 1855 green floral multi-tiered dress that I had planned to wear in 2020. It could have been a monster to pack with all those tiers, the tiered petticoat, and a caged crinoline, but because the fabric in the dress and the petticoat were cotton voile, they were pretty flat. And I feel light as a feather wearing it all. I wore my shirred bonnet with it, and carried my antique parasol in the show.

Afterwards I’d remembered I had planned on making a flat hat to wear with this but forgot all about it. So that’s back on the planning board. I want one that looks like these from the PBS “Victoria” series.

In the past I would pack up my costumes for the festival, and ship to my Mom in WA, since she only lived 45 mins away from Port Townsend. But last year we moved her down to CA near us so we could take care of her. So, there went my free hotel and shipping location. I had to pare down how many costumes I would bring, and I was able to put my fashion show dress and the two 1890s ones in a Space Bag, which flattened out in my large suitcase. That also included my cage crinoline. I put my petticoats and boots in a gym bag that got checked on the plane too. Not bad, and free this time, rather than pay $50 shipping each way. My friend in Seattle, Agnes, who is also the fashion show’s fabulous narrator, picked me up at SeaTac, and we drove over the Puget Sound to Port Townsend on Friday to our respective hotels.

Due to my favorite hotel in Port Townsend being totally booked this year for a huge wedding, I stayed at the historic Bishop Hotel, which was hard because of the steeply inclined staircase to the first floor. My knee and tendons were screaming at me after the first time going up and down it. And my Long Covid fatigue hit me like a brick wall. It was not a pretty sight. I also had to iron all my costumes on a small tabletop ironing board on the kitchen sink counter. That 1855 multi-tiered skirt was not easy, and fortunately it didn’t wrinkle too badly. The multi-tiered cotton voile petticoat was a crumpled mess, and only got its first lower tier ironed.

This year’s festival was run by Tracy Wirta, Scott Rovanpera, and Kathy Knoblock. Tracy and Scott had taken over in 2020 just as we all went in lock-down, so they spent that time working and planning on improving every facet of it. When I walked into the “Victorian Parlour” at the Cotton Building, I could tell right away a lot of detail had gone into it, from the decorations to the little parlour set up. We were off to a good start.

Every time I saw Tracy, she had changed into a different outfit.

The first people I ran into on the streets was Janet, and Marc (in his Constable Crabtree outfit from Murdock Mysteries) as he was “patrolling” the streets on his reproduction bike he created. The expected rain stopped early in the morning and it was a beautiful day, with big fluffy clouds.

And then walking into the American Legion Hall, where most of the presentations, the contra-dance, and our fashion show are held, it looked all bright and shiny, and a display was going up on the stage of antique dresses belonging to Julie & Terry Cheetham.

On Saturday, I attended a couple of the presentations in the Hall that the residents did on renovating their Victorian homes. One I recognized as the location where we were going to the fundraiser tea on Sunday so I was excited about that. Then I went back to my room to change for the fashion show. The little girls were going on first, all wearing the antique white cotton dresses that belonged to Tracy Wirta. I think they were the cutest addition we’ve ever had. As usual, I took a few photos backstage as we were all waiting to go on.

Agnes and I had also made some 1890s skirts for the girls who volunteered to work in the Victorian Parlour.

Then came the adults. *I noticed I’m missing a few people so if I come across their photos, I’ll add them.

These were two Girl Scouts who were able to fit in to the antique dresses that Tracy and I own. The 1899 raspberry silk twill dress is mine, and the greenish-gold seersucker(?) 1890s dress is Tracy’s.

Our narrator, Agnes, got to read her own description of her bicycle riding outfit, and this is the lady who is shocked when I show off my hoops and petticoats.

Marc (Constable Crabtree) rode in on his bicycle carrying his Murder Case and equipment as our show finale, and advised the audience to stay in their seats, as he had discovered a gruesome crime. No one ran away so the investigation continues. The “game was ‘a foot!”

We had our finale walk back out on stage and so far this is the only photo I've received.

We had a couple natty gentlemen who helped and walked the plank with some of the ladies.

A very nice photo of a couple of our models.

The sweetest thing that happened to me was our youngest model, little 5-year- old Mya, was staring at my dress and said “I like your dress”. I asked “Isn’t it pretty? Its like a princess dress, isn’t it? She nodded and said “yes”. I showed her my hoops underneath to see how it worked. A future costumer now, maybe?

Afterwards I went back to my room to try and recover from my exertions. Agnes joined me for dinner from the Thai restaurant, and she later stopped by the dance, while I rested up. On Sunday we drove up to the historic J.W. Griffiths house for the fundraiser (for the festival) afternoon tea put on by the two owners of the house, and a tour of their house they’d been renovating for 12 years(?). It was magnificent.

Even though I still don’t have my taste or smell back, I enjoyed the meal we were served, especially the savory of fig preserves with goat cheese on raisin bread. I was actually getting some flavor from it, and I decided to add it my next tea menu.

Afterwards Agnes drove us around the rest of Port Townsend into areas I’ve never been too, around farm lands and we stopped at a winery that was also holding a fundraiser wine tasting for the festival. LOL! I just donated the $15 but did try a Port, which I couldn’t taste. We ended the day sitting around their firepit outside with other attendees, and got to talk to one of the original planners of the Victorian Festival when it first started. She was amazed at all changes, and the quality of our costumes in the fashion show. It was a nice way to finish our visit.

We didn’t make our connections with our other friends here like we did in the past, where we would all go out to Fort Worden after having tea and take photos of each other. This felt like a very odd year and seemed we were out of step, or at least out of practice. But I think everyone at least enjoyed themselves and it sounds like they’re all ready to get back to going to costuming events. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I have to share this. This was Tracy Wirta, before as the festival started, and after it was all over. She worked very hard, and it showed.