Wearing 1912 for the Titanic Artifact exhibit

Yesterday I pulled together all my accessories for my 1912 Pink Striped Day Dress, and wore it to the Titanic exhibit in Balboa Park, San Diego. After looking at antique photos, and photos collected from Downton Abbey for ideas, I wore my straw hat with pastel pink and blue flowers, a pearl necklace and drop pearl earrings, white crocheted gloves, white boots, and an antique Edwardian purse.  I like how it all came together.

The weather was beautiful that day and the museum’s white building stood out like a wedding cake.

As the other ladies started arriving we all took turns taking photos of each other.

The fun part was anticipating seeing three of us arriving in a dress made from the same pattern. Kate (of Madame Novice ), Liz, and I made them in different fabrics, did different collars, and placed our buttons in different spots. It took some people awhile to figure out it was the same pattern. And of course we were asked what pattern we had all used.

Suddenly it was time to go in at our appointed hour to the exhibit and I missed taking photos of all the other ladies. This photo was taken by Debbie B. and shows how pretty everyone looked. We had a few antique gowns but most were handmade.

 The Balboa Park exhibit is of artifacts brought back from the sunken ship and a small cross-section of what was recovered. It was mostly things like electrical sockets from the wall, lots of metal parts, vases, glass lamp shades, and lots of pottery, which held up very well in the watery conditions of 100 years. I found the most interesting were the personal items of the travelers; post cards, a tooth powder case and toothbrush, a jar of moisturizer still intact (gives us hope that it will do the same for our faces), a narrow gold rope chain necklace about 16”, a man’s small stick pin with a sapphire surrounded by diamonds, and a man’s pin-striped suit coat. Some things that were inside leather sachels held up very well because the leather didn’t deteriorate and allow water in. We didn’t see anything really fancy, and that may just have been because of what they were given to exhibit. Re-creations of the different class levels of rooms were displayed, and many of us thought 2^nd class or even 3^rd class didn’t look too bad. The beds were made of mahogany, not like the metal ones would be today. The menus for each class were displayed, and the simple food served to third class appealed to me more than the fancier first class. Ok, my lineage comes from Norwegian and German farmers.  And then there’s the wall of ice that you can reach out and touch, to try and get the feel of what it was like out there in the cold water and ice field where the Titanic went down. Other attendees had left hand prints and finger prints on it while trying to keep touching as long as they could before it became unbearable.

We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the exhibit so we had to wait until we came out the exit and were able to take more. This first group photo was taken by Debbie B. In the next photo, Glenda on the left is wearing an antique gown. Mary on the right in a gown she made.

 These next two from Cindy P.

This is my favorite shot of the day; digging for my cellphone that I had tucked into the top of my corset and it had fallen down into my bodice. With only having a small purse and no side pocket, I have no where to put my camera & cellphone. I need to come up with a better solution for that. I tried putting my cellphone into the outside pocket of my purse but the poor antique threads were rotted and broke. So I need to stitch that back together.

Later we split up into groups and went to various places for lunch. Ten of us went to the Museum Café by the Old Globe theatre for lunch, and afterwards took a group photo of us in the garden.

**Some final thoughts on this dress and my corset. I wore my Victorian corset since I don’t have the long lined Edwardian one made yet. As many of us know the Victorian one pushes all the fluff up and down out of the waist, and it has to go somewhere. When wearing Victorian gowns, the skirt is full so none of that is a problem. However with the closer fitting straight dresses of the late Edwardians and early ‘teens, that fluff will show.  My other 1903 one wouldn’t have worked since it has the same effect. So now I’m determined to make one of the long lined Edwardian ones, and have already printed out the pattern posted by Festive Attyre.  http://festiveattyre.blogspot.com/2011/12/1910s-corset-pattern-and-instructions.html With the help of a friend enlarging it and fitting me, I hope to have my new one in time to wear it next time with this dress.