a day off

[mandie_rw]

My cotton print 1880ish dress for Belvidere is up next, which I am looking forward to - but I happened to not be scheduled today to work, so I completely took the day off from everything. I'm not going to admit how much I watched the Olympics today while basically drooling on the couch. My cough is much more annoying today, too, so doing nothing seemed extra appealing! (And I very much like watching the swimmers...and the divers, especially. Heh.)

I was going to order bodice and overskirt patterns from TV last night for the 1880 dress, as I promised Robin. But then I re-read jenthompson's writeup on her mourning calico dress (which I love and am going to try not to copy too blantantly), and she mentioned Fashions of the Gilded Age, which is a book I happen to not yet have on my shelf. Hmm, okay, let's see what's in it and how much it is. Welllll, for the price of 2.5 patterns I can get a book full of patterns...

So I bought a book full of patterns instead. xD And got it this evening, because Amazon Prime is delightful. It'll be a bit more work than a nice, easy TV pattern, but...I am lazy, but I am also cheap, and cheap won out today. And it's a very worthwhile book to own - if I did more Victorian, I would buy all of Grimble's books right now. (Well, not right now...that would completely defeat the "cheap" aspect.)

Comments

[jenthompson.livejournal.com]

I love those books! They are definitely more work, but it's SO satisfying when you can make your own patterns and they actually fit! It feels like magic.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

I'm very impressed with this book! It's a great assortment of patterns, and the scaling system looked really hard til I actually comprehended it, and then - wow! Easy! I mean, still work, but it makes perfect sense!

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

I would love to just have all her books too! But same, I don't seem to end up sewing that period. Or the Edwardian, which is the period I do have her books for. I've only scaled up one pattern from her books, a set of combinations, and I never actually ended up finishing them.

(I don't love her habit of marketing directly to people through Facebook messages, but maybe she knows something I don't.)

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

I now have to resist the temptation of acquiring ALL her books, you know, Just In Case, heh. Because I do so much Victorian/Edwardian...?

And, LOL I forgot about that! That was so weird.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

By Frances Grimble? Hmmmm

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Indeedy! There's this weird system of scales to draw the patterns out to the correct size, but once I understood it, it's actually quite genius! Well, I shouldn't be so enthusiastic til I've actually scaled one up, heh.

[totchipanda.livejournal.com]

Lol we had very similar days yesterday (less couch and coughing for me, but divers, jen's dress and Fashions-reading, check!). Hope you feel better soon!

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Hah, an excellent use of your time, then! And thanks. :D