Sewing! A thing I do!

[mandie_rw]

I know I'll be moaning about how long it takes once I get to actually sewing the fur on, but I'm very pleased with how quickly the pelisse is coming together! Regency (sans embellishment) is very satisfying. Especially when it's a coat and you don't have to fit it. ;)

I even thought about sleeves tonight! I didn't do them, since it's PBS-tv-night tonight, but I thought about them! (Related: I just a few days ago discovered that they did make a season 2 of The Hot Vicar Show, and that's on once Downton is done. Which, yesssssss.)

Gawd, I love this silk. It doesn't look like much in the dim light, but I promise you it's really delightful!

Haven't decided whether I want an overlap in the front (and thus only put one line of fur down the front edge) or have the edges meet. I promise to actually try it on over a dress before deciding that, haha.

It looks sort of unreasonably long-waisted on Mabel; doesn't seem quite so bad on me! Yes I did put it on briefly. It's quite a look over sweatpants.

I decided to do something different - 90% of my Regency dresses have the back skirt either gathered or knife pleated along the side-back/back pieces - so I thought a box pleat in the CB might be fun. Well, several stacked pleats, to be exact. But I thought I'd take advantage of the thin taffeta! A bunch of stacked pleats in the wool I was considering would not have been a happy thing.

And the skirt-in-progress laid out, in case you had a burning desire to see what that looked like. Hadn't yet put the back lining yet, obviously, and is folded in half, hopefully also obviously.

I decided to gore the front pieces because, I dunno, sounded like fun? Think that worked pretty well for the stacked box pleat I ended up doing, anyway.

So, everything that should be basted together is currently basted together, and tomorrow I may actually think about sleeves. Horrors!

In other news, miss_philomena's set a date for her birthday outing, and as I've been hankering to do some pre-Raphaelite only since forever, I've started plotting that in earnest. Well, I would have probably waited another year so I could grow my hair a bit longer (my har grows slowly and it's just at that length where it's sort of dumb to buy a wig to wear once that's only 4-6" longer than my own hair...I don't need mermaid hair or anything!), but I guess I can make do with what I've currently got. ;) I can just do another photoshoot next year, haha.

Wasn't sure whether I'd copy a costume in a painting or just make something up, but I did find a Waterhouse that I kept coming back to as I trolled Google images, so I think I've decided on it. Even ordered swatches of silk for the under-dress! More on that later.

Comments

[miss-philomena.livejournal.com]

Clip in extensions fix everything. And are much more reasonably priced on eBay than in Sally's or stuff.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Genius! I seriously didn't even think of extensions - and I even have a set I've never worn!

...of course, digging them out and clipping a piece in, they're only about 1.5" longer than my hair. Terribly helpful. But ebay looks promising!

[madamekat.livejournal.com]

I think your pelisse is looking really gorgeous. Love the stacked pleats at the center back...it's sleek and sophisticated (which is hard in Regency).

I have to ask Adrienne if Artistic Reform is ok for her party. I want to try out the Patterns of History 1881 dress, and I think that counts as Artistic Reform.

The hair place in the shopping center next to Jomar on Whitaker Ave has a really big selection of hair. We could do a shopping trip if you don't feel safe going there yourself.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I thought the pleat treatment was something fun and a little different.

Oooh, I like the look of that dress - I'm sure Adrienne wouldn't mind. Anything you're happy to swan around a castle in, hee hee.

I may take you up on that! I ordered a stupidly cheap curly piece from China but if that looks like crap I'll definitely want to shop locally.