Sesquicentennial Ball

Last night, of course, was the long-awaited Warrensburg Sesquicentennial Ball. To commemorate the founding of a little town southeast of Kansas City in 1855 by Martin Warren, the local Chamber of Commerce threw an antebellum-themed ball, complete with musicians from Missouri Town. As always, click on any photo for a larger version.

If you've been following my "to hoop or not to hoop" saga, you'll remember that we decided against crinolines and opted instead for layers. This, of course, means starch and ironing. I have determined that the life of an ironing-woman back then must have been hell. And I even had the advantage of a modern electric iron with an on-off switch, I can't imagine what it would have been like in the days of stove-heated irons.

Two down, two to go. Eventually all the petticoats were starched and pressed, waiting to be worn.

Late afternoon, we grabbed all our stuff and went over to Miriam & Cliff's to get dressed. The resulting chaos was amusing, but we all managed to get our gowns on somehow. Traditionally, one of the layers is a petticoat of red flannel, even though it doesn't match the dress. Miriam is putting my hair back with gel here -- the only way women really wore their hair in this period was parted in the middle, usually drawn into a bun at the nape of the neck. I covered my short, modern hair with a snood, which looked reasonably period.

Ali, having longer hair, was able to do more with it. She endured having her hair in curlers all day so she would have pretty ringlets. I swept her hair up at the sides & let the curls fall in a cascade in the back, which was really quite flattering.

Miriam & I both used the same bodice pattern from Past Patterns, but we chose different sleeve views. We've been joking that we have accidentally made one another's gowns for the ball -- Miriam usually wears jewel tones where I usually opt for earth tones -- but I generally prefer a simpler line (view A's bell sleeve) where Miriam likes more elaborate garb (view B's puffed sleeve). Anyway, here we are in our pattern-envelope pose.

Lacking a horse and carriage, we all piled into the minivan (and let me tell you, trying to get three grown or mostly-grown women in ballgowns, plus two men in frock coats, plus one girl in a taffeta party dress into the van is actually more of a challenge than getting seven football players with gear into it. Fortunately, the minivan, despite being the uncoolest vehicle on the planet, was able to rise to this occasion as well as it did for that football game.) We arrived at the ball, which was well-attended but not huge -- there were maybe between 80 to 100 folks there, most wearing some kind of attempt at a costume. Some of the costumes were a bit cheesy, but there were several absolutely beautiful gowns. The men were equally handsome in their frock coats and vests -- doesn't Mike look dashing?

Miriam was even more accesorized than I; she had a lovely fan (which she unfortunately lost during the Grande Promenade), a period bonnet, a pretty reticule that I made for her from scraps on Friday night while she was still trimming her bodice, and some beautiful pearls. Cliff was turned out in a smart grey frock coat and a cravat that matched the trim on Miriam's gown.

The girls looked equally lovely. Ali's gown was one of the most gorgeous there (I am speaking completely without bias, of course.) She borrowed a pair of long gloves from Miriam. Ellen, being two years younger than Ali, isn't quite ready to wear a full-blown gown yet; she was dressed in a really pretty child's party frock made of a pink moire taffeta, and looked charming.

For the first two hours of the ball, a dance band from Missouri Town played period tunes, and a dance instructor taught & called the dances. Here, Mike leads a reel with his beautiful daughter (I can't remember the name of the reel, darn it!) (Of course, Mike saved all the waltzes for his wife.) The woman in the pink dress with her back to the camera is the dance instructor from Missouri Town; she is going over the figures before the dance starts. Miriam & Cliff are the third couple in this set.

It wouldn't have been a proper antebellum ball without that best-loved dance, of course -- the Virginia Reel. Miriam & Cliff lead it here. Of course, my camera batteries chose this moment to go belly-up, so I couldn't get a picture of the sashay! Darn the luck.

Luckily, a photographer was kind enough to loan us a couple of spare AA batteries. For the second half of the dancing, the CMSU Alumni Swing Band jumped us forward to the big-band era. They got a little silly with a few sets -- here they are playing the Bunny Hop! Not an easy dance to do in ballgowns.

Everybody swore it was the most fun than we'd had in years! I wish we could do this about once a fortnight or so.