The Making of a Gown

I had planned many activities for our Conversations with Jane study this year.  Some of them worked out very well, some certainly didn't turn out like I had envisioned.  The grand finale, the mother of all activities, is  attending a Regency ball.  What greater way, other than traveling to England itself and touring all the Jane Austen locales which would be absolutely AMAZING (but unfortunately not feasible), to end our year-long study of Jane.  Of course if one is attending a Regency ball, one must be dressed appropriately.  I am sure that Mrs. Allen of Northanger Abbey would know just the thing, probably a nice muslin, to outfit them with.  Our "Mrs. Allen" is Beverly.  Last year in co-op Beverly taught the girls how to sew.  This year she had planned on them sewing a formal gown.  Since she is incredibly amazing (and patient to work with all those girls), she agreed that the formal gown could be their Regency ball gown.  The girls have been diligently working on their gowns since September.  They were originally working toward an August date for the ball, but due to some misinformation on my part, they will need to wait till next spring.   The gowns are nearing various stages of completion and I thought that now would be a good time to update their progress and show off what they have accomplished thus far.  

Tori giving me a smile, that means all is going well...for now.

Elizabeth, the first to have her dress sewn together.

Calleigh concentrating on her work.

An oops!  Calleigh made some progress on her sleeves only to find out that one sleeve was sewed on the wrong way.  She was not the first to have something like this happen!  Just the only "lucky" one to get it caught on camera :) 

Tori has a skirt!  

Working on Elizabeth's hem  

Tori's skirt before it was gathered and sewed.  It fit them both!

Skyeler's dress, pinned and ready to be hemmed.

Skyeler and Elizabeth modeling their dresses before hemming.

Tori has a dress!

We are so thankful that Beverly has had the time to continue teaching them at co-op.  This is such a big accomplishment and we are so very proud of them all!  

~Angel

Movie Day

When I was first planning our Jane Austen study, I envisioned reading the novel, discussing it, doing a project, and watching the related movie.  The study has gone so well with the girls having so much to talk about with each novel that we haven't had time to watch any of the movies during a Conversations with Jane meeting. Mid-year the girls decided we needed to plan a day to take in some of the movies.  Many of them are quite lengthy so we could not watch all of them in one day.  A vote was taken and it was settled we would watch the 2009 Emma, the 2007 Northanger Abbey, and the 1995 Persuasion.  Emma was a huge hit!  Many of us had not seen this version and we found it very well done.  I, personally, loved it, though my favorite Miss Bates is in the 1996 Emma.  After watching this version of Persuasion, I realized that I have yet to see a Persuasion that I liked.  I have one more to try and hopefully the third try will be the charm.  

We all got comfy and had a great day.  I was glad that my mom was able to join us for the day as she is very fond of Jane Austen movies.  It was decided that we would need to have one more movie day after our Conversations with Jane year is over.  I can't wait!
  

My Pride and Prejudice and Zombie's Book Review

A review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Calleigh W.

                When I first started reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I found it rather funny, then as I progressed I was highly disappointed.  The random battle scenes, and mentions of temples, were alright enough, but then I was shocked by how graphic some of the scenes became.

                All in all, I thought the book was stupid, not to mention it completely ruined Jane Austen’s masterpiece.   It was gross, not to mention crude, to the point where, when Mrs. Angel said we didn’t have to finish it, I readily took her up on her offer. I would not ever recommend this book to anyone, not necessarily because the content is so bad that it should not be read, but because it is a complete waste of time.

~ Calleigh

Skyeler's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies book review

My review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is, unfortunately, rather short. Upon starting this book I found it rather amusing that the author had taken Jane Austen's words and altered them to fit his plot, and then later extended entire scenes in order to include the killing, crushing, marriage, maiming, squishing, stabbing, burning, bruising, plunders, and the plagues of the zombies. The writing did not continue with the same well known (to us, anyway) style of Austen's writing. In short, this is something Jane would never have done. I found it rather ridiculous to find that people actually bought this book, and more still enjoyed it as its own story, not as a mere amusement to those Janeites who were laughing and scoffing at the execution of someone who obviously new nothing of the beauty of Pride and Prejudice in its original form. Granted, the idea was an interesting one, but for a serious reading? I was absolutely mystified that it would be an honest enjoyment as a book of its own.

After my beginning amusement and curiosity was over, I found the book very gross. In the end, I did not finish the book, finding it far to disturbing to continue through. When Elizabeth Bennet ripped the heart out of Lady Catherine's ninja I was cringing, and my stomach was churning as she actually took a bite out of it. Needless to say, I was rather queasy through a few scenes and, to put all eloquence aside, will say that it Freaked Me Out.

So yes...this book is not recommended for those of you with sensitive stomaches.

Skyeler

Elizabeth's Pride and Prejudice and Zombie's Book Review

Surprise and amusement were my first two emotions when Mrs. Angel told us we were going to be reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Throughout the book, my emotions varied from being totally disgusted, excessively diverted, and surprised at some of the crudeness that Seth Grahame-Smith decided to include. Overall, I had a fun time reading this book. Some in our group were disgusted, and others were enraged at the changes of their adored characters. I did not feel such deep feelings; I tried to think of it like a teenage guy would. Recently I read one of my guy friend’s favorite quotes on Facebook it was “any of the world's problems can be solved with the proper application of high explosives.” That idea is what I thought of when reading this, guys are extremely different from girls, and that includes their writing style and subject matter. Grahame-Smith is not a great reader of Jane Austen, I believe he simply wanted to write a book that would horrify and peak the curiosity of Austen fans, and one that the zombie lovers would read just to see the Bennett sisters in the pentagon of death. I believe it was written to be a fun, comical, non-serious read, that that is just how I read it.

Elizabeth