This past March was the first annual Midwest Costume Academy. It was only a one day convention, which made me a bit sad, but man did the organizers make use of that one day! They had wonderful panels, and I learned a ton. The panels I went to were: Sewing with an Iron (there were two parts; the first one was on ironing tools and pressing techniques and the second one focused on fusible interfacing), Combining Commercial Patterns (presented by Andrea Schewe, one of the pattern designers for Simplicity who makes, among other things, some of their costume patterns), The History of Costume, Making Costumes That Can Be Moved in and Move Well, Basic Pattern Drafting, Wonderflex Techniques, and Historical Clothing CSI. The last one, which unfortunately was in the last time slot of the day, woefully did not get as many attendees because of the impending snow/ice/gross storm, but I wanted to go to the panel more than any of the others, and I was not going to miss out seeing extant garments from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. It was well worth it (and the weather wasn't even bad on the way home, so double win!) and you get to reap the benefits in the form of pictures! I'm keeping them in the large format that my camera took them in, so just view them in a new tab/window to see the pretty up close.
This panel will definitely be back next year on March 28, so if you happen to be in the St. Louis area, check it out.
I'll make a separate update on my progress of the Pisces dress and other stuff later.
