A Murder Mystery Weekend

A Murder Mystery Weekend

This past weekend Friday to Sunday, David and I attended a marvellous Joy Swift  murder mystery weekend in Surrey. We had never been to one before but were invited along by Helen’s father in law, Peter, who is an old hand. The timing was just before both Peter’s and Helen’s birthdays. So it was an extended family event - Helen and her husband, his brother and girlfriend, his parents and us.

The background story was that we were members of a travelling fair and there were two costumed/themed events. Night one had a ‘colourful’ theme and night two was the letter ‘F’ I decided early on to make costumes - Helen, who had also been to one of these weekends previously, told me the idea wasn’t to hire or buy a costume. I didn’t have as much time as I’d have liked but I started to make costumes.

My photos from the weekend are poor so I've tried to post some from this morning. Taken hurriedly. we both have colds and aren't feeling great - a lazy day.

Outfits

F

David quickly decided he wanted to go as William of Baskerville from Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) a sleuthing Franciscan monk. He stuck to this plan and we bought brown boiled wool, which can be reused later. He made his own robe, hood and bag without any help from me, using his own sewing machine, never previously used by him - a vintage Singer bought to use for leather work. He researched the rope for the waist and ended up using undyed rope - originally we thought it would need to be stained with tea or coffee. He finally made up his robe on the very last weekend before we went, while I was at a sewing weekend in Yorkshire. I think he did so well

David even made his own pouch/bag

Originally I considered going as Sister Fidelma, a sleuthing nun, but quickly gave that one up when I realised that she had left the sisterhood and now dressed in royal clothes - too elaborate.

I also considered Miss Fisher as she has some fabulous clothes but decided her figure is more suited to them than mine.

Eventually I decided on a Flower Child - or in this case a Silver Flower Woman! I’ve posted separately about my outfit. Regrettably, this wasn’t so successful as people didn’t immediately recognise what I was supposed to be. However, I do feel I can use this dress again. I’ve posted separately about the dress, a Paisley pattern on black. I wore it with a headband, flower, pink sandals and some bangles.

Taken at home this morning - lacking the accessories

Some of the other outfits were fabulous. A group of Flappers. A female Flasher. A fishtank. Helen’s brother in law went as Fruit, dressed as a banana. His girlfriend was Flash, Peter was a Fly Half , Anthony a Fencer and his mother a fairy.

Colourful

I suggested yellow jeans for David (already posted) and we ended up buying a kaleidoscope top. He wore these with a yellow hat and blue trainers, plus sunglasses. Alison thought the photos looked like Timmy Mallet!

Originally, I was going to go as Zandra Rhodes but then realised I just needed to be colourful.

I decided I wanted to buy colourful fabric and make a jump suit. I’ve posted details separately. I had a few fabrics to choose from but this was the most suitable for the pattern I used, though a pain to work with. I didn’t have time to make the jacket to go with it, so used a RTW waterfall cardi I already had, in the right shade of pink. I’m glad to say I felt comfortable all night and had no problems going to the loo.

Murder Mystery

I can’t give you any details of content as these are repeated on a number of occasions until the new one in January.

What I will say is that we thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend - everything about it. It initially seemed expensive but was well worth it. We had very late nights/early mornings on Friday night and Saturday night and chased a few red herrings before we finally came up with something pretty close to the solution with just a few minutes to spare before our solutions had to be submitted. The others, who had all attended last year, had succeeded in solving the problem so we had a lot to live up to. I’m glad to say that we did and successfully solved the crime.

Tiring but most enjoyable and we’d certailnly go back to another.

We had travelled by train via London and travelled back to London to meet with our other two daughters, son in law and grandchildren. We had a nice if fairly brief get together.

David and I stayed in London on Sunday night, though we really wished we had just arrnged to go home. Next day I re-visited the Balnciaga exhibition at the Vand A and took in Opera too.

A lovely weekend but we were glad to get home.