What a smashing, absolutely dashing spectacle

Another weekend, another opportunity to dress up — and inadvertently complete a Vintage Pledge make. I mean, it being a Vintage Pledge make was inadvertent; I only realized that the hat applied on my way home. Yay, planning. Handy, since it's #VPJuly and all. Scroll down if you're only here for the food clothes, because here be horses.

All I know about horse racing comes from Dick Francis mysteries and The Sting but I've always wanted to go to the racetrack, so I was happy to join in when a bunch of pals decided to go to the 157th running of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine on Sunday.


I lucked out by getting this handsome lad to go with me. First stop: the Hats and Horseshoes Party where all the food and beverages were tasty but seriously overpriced. Also? There was croquet. Just like the Gatsby Party, right?


While the dress code isn't quite as stringent as for the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, most people get into the spirit of the day.

The DC pointed out the couple in matching purple horse print (his waistcoat also matched) and said: "That us, next year."

(We're probably not coming back.)

My pals stepped up to the style plate^* as usual.


BTW, that blue cocktail is a Blue Diamond, the official of the overpriced beverages available. I, however, continued my lucky streak of the day by somehow managing to acquire two drinks for the price of one. Score!

But it's not just about the outfits and the pink carpet and the music^**. There are horses!


You can watch visit the saddling enclosure in the Paddock.


#6 was quite frisky. She kicked out quite close to me. Should have paid more attention to that warning on the doors!


They did calm her down; I hope she won her race after all that.


And the horses? Turns out the run around in circles ovals, so we wandered to the track to have a look.


It's very easy to see where the finish line is...


Fun as it was to briefly mingle with the hoi polloi, we had seats waiting for us in the stands.

Not that one; I think that's for the Queen. We were... a bit higher up. Like, at the top. Above that overhang. In the gods, as they say.



Nice view, though.

We brought our sports glasses so we could see across to the other side, which made me feel more like I was a part of the action.


Of course, our seats were good enough that we didn't really need them for the finish.

Watching the horses on the other side of the track, I found it remarkable how smooth the horses' gait looked when you couldn't see their legs. Almost as if they were on wheels. It's a bit eerie.

My camera battery was dying and I forgot my spare, so I don't have pictures of all the pageantry. Imagine a 12-or-so-horse colour guard flanking the Governor-General's landau. At least, I think it was her. She was wearing a big hat; it could have been anybody.


I had a good time just enjoying the experience, but some people weren't quite as enthralled...


I will say, the races are a lot more fun if you have something riding on the outcome. I get my betting advice from Helen Gurley Brown^**, of all places: bet the favourites to show. Amis Gizmo was the 3-1 favourite in the Queen's Plate, so I laid down $10.



The other piece of betting advice I know: is never bet more than you feel comfortable losing.

I should have bet a nominal amount on a long-shot just so I could have the fun of tearing up the ticket when I lost. Alas.

Before the race, we stood while they played "The Maple Leaf Forever" which was... weird. I mean, they did the national anthem earlier, so what was this about? It's not terribly popular these days. With good reason. The lyrics are not exactly inclusive and just a wee bit imperialistic. Anyway...

They're off!


Sadly, Amis Gizmo was edged out at the finish by Sir Dudley Digges who came in at 15-1. Doesn't matter; since my horse came in the top three, I won a whole $6.50! Wahoo! I'm going to spend my winnings on candy.

But enough of the trivialities; on to the clothes!


I started outfit planning with the gloves, naturally. I bought these at the V&A in 2012 and haven't had a chance to wear them. The dress is RTW from Damzels and is one of my favourites.



I wasn't actually planning to make anything for this event because I have a black hat and purse that would have suited, but I idly googled something along the lines of "how to make a hat" and came across this 1953 Lilly Daché Circle Hat pattern at what-i-found and thought the fateful words: I wonder how that would look in polkadots.



That's how. This is, apparently, the Ageless arrangement.



The "pattern" that you can download isn't to scale; you'd need to enlarge it, which was out for me. Neither did I want to do as suggested and copy the shape by eye and hand onto grid paper, so I just used a drawing program to create an 8x10" ellipse with a 2x2" circle in the centre. There are no seam guidelines given, so I sewed a 3/8" seam, clipped, turned, and pressed.



The two circles on the right are interfaced with heavy interfacing because they are made with thin cotton. The left-most fabric was fairly stiff, and anyway it was going on the top, so I didn't bother interfacing it. The shape is slightly too elliptical; the ends should be a bit wider, if you will. I resewed the ends of the black circle, but it didn't make enough of a difference to me to bother with the other two.

The cording provides additional structure. I think this stuff is probably too big for the purpose, but it's kind of hard to tell from the example pictures what kind of cording to use.


To assemble, I basted (big square) the bottom two layers together and then pick-stitched the grosgrain ribbon on. The whole thing was covered up by the top layer.


The pattern says to cut the headband out of velvet, but I don't have any. I do have grosgrain ribbon and thick elastic, so I used that instead. I used grosgrain ribbon next to the hat because I didn't want it to stretch and attached elastic to go under my head. It worked pretty well. It's not the prettiest thing ever, but it's mostly hidden by hair at the end of the day. My main concern was that it not shift around on my head. It didn't.


I attached the top circle by tacking the four "corners" only through the underlayer so no stitches showed on top. I probably should have interfaced it as well. I'd like to know what they used to bulk up that yellow version.

I had no clue how to finish the ends of the cording. It's not a big deal for the two bottom circles because the ends are tucked underneath the top circle, but the ends of the cords on the top are very obvious. Not only did I do a really bad job whipping the ends (I'm usually better at it, but I think I gave up at this point, and Fray Blok only did so much), but they stuck up into the air a bit when I put the hat on because the ends aren't actually joined; the ends merely butt up next to each other.


I just covered it with a spare piece of ribbon.



It's not hideously obvious, so we'll call it good.



There was enough fabric left over to make a matching Flamingo Toes End of Summer Wristlet. Note: She has taken the pdf down because there are issues with the pattern (which I'll discuss below), but I still have it so let me know if you'd like a copy.



I've made this pattern before, but I was sort of new to blogging my makes then and didn't mention all the problems I had because I was inclined to believe it was my fault instead of a error in the pattern. And because I didn't realize I'd want a record of any issues I had while making something. Which meant I forgot about the biggie this time. I did remember to place the back pattern piece wrong-side up before cutting the outside so it wasn't backwards — not that it mattered because I used black cotton for the back.

The big problem is that when you sew together the front, it's much too wide for the back. There are three ways to deal with this: one is just to trim it off at each end, which is what I did with the white one; a second is to trim the middle piece, which is what I did this time. The third is to deal with the problem at the root.

The real issue, I think, is that the AB, BC, CD, DE bands (here in white) are too big: about 1/2" too long and 1/8" or so too wide. I recommend trimming the band pattern piece down before cutting the fabric — you only need to cut one pattern piece for the band pieces and just cut two bands right-side up and two wrong-side up to get the alternating diagonals.



I probably should have interfaced the back since the cotton was so thin, and while I was at it, I should have reinforced the non-zipper seams with twill tape or something, but it held up quite nicely. I had a zipper long enough to go around the side, which is a nice touch, but I really recommend placing the zipper so the pull is next to the strap when closed so you don't have to open it all the way around every time. The wristlet wasn't big enough to hold my camera, sports glasses, and phone at the same time but you can't win them all. It's a good size otherwise and I'd like to make one in all black for clubbing.

All in all, a good time was had. I'd like to go back to Woodbine one day when it's less crowded (and less overpriced).



And yes, I screamed "Move yer bloomin' arse!" during one of the races. Great fun, highly recommend it.


^* Sorry, wrong sports metaphor there.

^**Fun gig: "By the way, you need to stop playing during each race. Kthnxbai!"

^***In the "Where to Meet Them" chapter of Sex and the Single Girl, Gurley Brown says something along the lines of "Bet the favourites to show and mingle with the winners at the wicket." Good strategy. For not losing at racing; not sure about the meeting men part.