Still ballgown!

But I was very good and worked on it pretty much all day, so I'm very nearly just a day behind schedule. Which, considering my hand-wringing and woefullness from a couple days ago, is not too bad, LOL.

Things we have achieved today: bertha, which I neglected to take a picture of. (Related: I think berthas are stupid. Why not just sew trim on the neckline if you wanted trim on the neckline? Ok, I guess it lends to the droopy round-shouldered 1860s effect. But I still think they're stupid.) Most of sleeves; I decided to wait to put the cuffs on til I suit up in the whole thing to see exactly how tight I want them to be. Have to suit up anyway to mark for bertha fastening and hooks to hold skirt to bodice.


The sleeve overlay is the matching insertion and edging joined together. And I really need to take the basting stitches out of the bodice darts before I forget completely and wear it to the ball like that.


And I finished the sort-of-dumb-looking bow, that I am 100% sure will not lay nicely while being worn, but OH WELL. Will try to remember to fix it for photos, anyway...It would look much nicer if  hadn't bollocksed up the lace at the corners, but I used the rest of that lace up on the sleeve overlay, so it is what it is!

The bertha is tacked onto the bodice, too, and tonight's goal is to sew one last line of lace to the skirt...so tomorrow all I actually have to do is cuffs and fiddly little finishings. Dare I say it, I might finish tomorrow? We shall see!

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Ok, not quite finished the ballgown. I finished the sleeves all fine and dandy, and put the hooks and eyes on the skirt and bodice...and then decided I really don't trust them, and that I do want to in fact sew them together. And felt disinclined to do so today. Technically I need to put it all on yet again for bertha fastenings...but since trying to get in and out of that thing by myself makes me want to murder something, I think I'm going to just sew them on, hope, and remember there are always pins. ;)

And still need the bars on the bodice back for the butt-bow. I've kind of reached saturation point with this dress though. Obvious by the way I'm dragging my feet! So I think I'm going to put ballgown things off for one more day and do other stuff tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually get hooks put on the paletot?? OOOOO.

In other G'burg news, my last oil lamp was delivered today (an antique, with a bit of oil and a wick in, and tonight I couldn't resist and lit it up, and lord help us it smells terrible), I'm going to be repairing my quilt at Gettysburg as some of the squares have reached that point of no return, my ballgown chemise is waaaaay too tight round the shoulders, my wrapper has no belt or fastenings, and I cut the throat too high on my satin dancing slippers and they look dumb. So, you know, that's where we are right now. :D