I've been to England - part one

Since I wrote last time I have been to England for six days; I got home yesterday morning. The reason was a conference called "The Geography  of Luxury: East, West and Global directions" at the University of Warwick in Coventry.  I'm still a little overwhelmed by all the nice people I met and all the interesting presentations.  However, the conference didn't start until Wednesday morning, when I presented a paper on Swedish sumptuary laws in the early modern period. So Sunday night was spent at my friend billyoblivionx's place in Ladbroke Grove - drinking beer and listening to and talking about music with Billy and another friend called Turk. I was tired though and went to bed while they were still singing and playing.

On Monday, which was a bank holiday, Billy and I walked to Little Venice to see the "Canalway Cavalcade". A long walk for us with our broken bodies. I have been interested in the British canal system ever since I first read about the Industrial Revolution and Rickard and I have also walked along them when we've been to London, so this was of course great fun for me. The photos are, as you see, from the canal and the festival.



( Many more here )

And then we went to Billy's place again, with a short stop at the Moroccan garden in Meanwhile gardens.



After that I took the tube (and tram, and walked quite a while) to my friends Teddy (clothsprogs) and Tom who live in Wimbledon. I had a great time thee too and got to "play" with Teddy's dolls (he's a collector) and look at all the dolls' shoes and clothes. Aside from drinking tea and socializing, and  reading funny books. On Tuesday I went in to town for some shopping, but both what I bought then and Coventry will have to have their own post.

A two weeks old dress

My latest sewing (and painting) project before I went to England was this dress. As you can clearly see it  doesn't belong in any historical period, except for maybe the 1970s. One of the reasons for making it is that I have started to collect images with fantasy dress, LARP-costumes, historically inspired, but not correct, movie costumes etc, the result can be seen in this Pinterest album. So, one thing led to another: My friend Caroline and I talked about how cool it would be with full circle skirts with patterns painted on, and the next thing I bought lots of cotton broadcloth and textile paint and started painting. Then I realised that I would have enough fabric to make a bodice too and ended up with this dress.



( Another one )

The photos were taken on the 30th of April before I went out to celebrate Walpurgis Night by dancing with Reclaim the City. I haven't danced this much this millenium, it was great fun.