1860s Christmas Ball

The Christmas ball was made all the more exciting by the addition of my brother and his girlfriend, Amy, and her friend, Becca. We were charged with dressing the trio - who had never reenacted before - for the event. Fortunately, only a few alterations were needed to fit the two ladies in our dresses. And we had more than enough extra accessories to complete their looks!

Above, Becca poses with LuAnn to show how dresses made from identical silk fabric can look so completely different. Both of the dresses were stunning. Other ball-goers didn't realize that the two dresses were made of the same silk until the end of the evening when they posed together. I love the sleeve treatment on LuAnn's dress. The sleeve is edged with pleated black velvet ribbon. She also wore a black belt with large gold buckle and other accessories that sadly had been removed by this point in the evening because she was helping to clean up after the ball.

Becca wore my mother's red silk ballgown. The ballgown has attachable pagoda sleeve and a bertha so that it can be worn in the daytime as well.

I styled Becca's own curly strawberry blonde hair by sausage curling it, and pinning it in place, mixing in some fake hair. The two hair colors matched so perfectly that close up it was impossible to tell the real hair from the fake.