skirmish, stays, and SQUIRREL!

robinsnest  joined me for the annual "skirmish" at the Indian King Tavern on Saturday. She was a good sport to do so, as they ended up sticking us inside the tavern for the whole day, on the ground floor where the windows don't open and it was hot as ballz. And stuffy. Low-80s outside and breezy, but...yeah, inside. Every year before this I'd been able to sit outside on the porch til after the skirmish, which is when most people come through for a tour.

I didn't quite get my stays to an easy-to-transport-and-sew place by skirmish time, but since we were inside in dim light, it didn't matter, as I didn't do much sewing at all! Oh well. I got to spend the day with my wifey, that's overall better than sewing anyway. ;)

I made precisely zero new things for the skirmish, so I didn't get any pictures of me! I did make a new cap and a new apron in school over the past week or so (just to have something to do, not because I need more 18thc accessories, lordy), which Robin was happy to display. She, on the other hand, made a new linen stripey dress for the occasion, and is going to post about it soon (RIGHT??). Good thing we were both in linen...and were quite polite to people who kept asking us if we were hot in that, LOL.

(Not nearly as hot as you are in that polyester joann's brocade simplicity colonial dress, you poor teenager! It's nice you dressed up for the occasion, sincerely, but lordy you must be melting.)

Shenanigans were got up to:


...and we both agreed that we really need new stays.


And we ended up being basically negative images of each other (although with the same loud plaid kerchief), not really on purpose, which we found both hugely amusing and were offended that nobody else commented on it.


And there was much CADD! In between yesterday and today I've added two outfits to my to-sew list for the summer, now how did that happen?

( Nattering )

Are my new green stays going to be neglected horribly very shortly? Ummmmmm maaaaaaaybe? But, being mostly hand-sewing from this point, they can easily go to school with me, so they will still get done eventually. Also getting poked by a broken escaping reed all day on Saturday is a pretty good incentive...
 

Flemish outfit started

I'm on a roll! Well, sort of. More like here's a post to organize my thoughts, and read at your own discretion, haha.

I did in fact drape and fit the mockup for the kirtle bodice this afternoon. It's been awhile since I totally started from scratch with a bodice pattern, so that was fun. (Actually it kind of was!) Unsurprisingly, considering it's me, I made 2.5 mockups and called it a day. I'm making this as a completely unboned bodice, so it's definitely going to wrinkle a little bit somewhere, I'm not getting overly fussy with the cotton mockup.

Well, I might bone the lacing edges. We'll see how that goes.

Mockup process: Take approximate, vague measurements that the bodice might need to be. Draw on mockup fabric.
  Cut out mockup. Pin together. Realize it needs more boob room and seam allowance to pin the center front closed. Recut. Fuss with one side seam for about 40 minutes because you have to keep taking it off and putting it back on.

Call it Good Enough For Now Despite The Back Wrinkles.

( More blathering... )