mandie_rw | hey look, sewing

Let's hear it for easy dresses! I might actually finish this one before I get bored with it and wander away. I think I'm pretty settled on the striped cotton print for my Regency picnic dress - a morning dress, with long sleeves, a V-neck closing at center-front, and a drop-front. Easy peasy, and fairly subdued in style (apart from the print, which adds a bit of fun), which seems to be reflective of my mood these days.

I was feeling motivated on Thursday night, so tore the skirt panels and started sewing them together. Friday my student didn't show up to her last virtual English class (no, that's cool, finish your essay on your own time then), so I reread Persuasion to gear myself up for fitting bodice mockups. Not too painful, other than the usual stabbing with pins! First IG post with inspiration dress.

The Locals and I had planned for our first stitch'n'bitch in over a year (we're all vaccinated now!) on Saturday, so I wanted to get the bodice to a point where I could just sit and work on it without having to fuss with fitting, so I ended up working on it for probably about eight hours on Friday, which was absolutely lovely. I haven't done such a long hand-sewing stretch in ages! Got the bodice all sewn together (sans sleeves, they'll go on last) and the shoulders fitted - here.

And then yesterday was another long spate of sewing - although balanced with afternoon tea (delivered from a local tea shop), pizza, and the entire season of Bridgerton, as three-quarters of the parties present hadn't seen it yet. It's the perfect kind of trash tv for a sewing day - it's so absurdly dramatic that I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if I'd seriously sat down by myself to watch it. (Although the male Romantic Lead is verrrrrrrry nice to look at, if you like that sort of thing.) But viewed while half distracted by sewing, talking over it, and yelling at it when it got extra-ridiculous was the perfect viewing environment, IMO.

I probably don't need to add this, but I will: it was SO wonderful to see the girls again! We've only seen each other twice over the past year, both outdoors and socially distanced, so being able to have a stitch'n'bitch now that we're all vaccinated was really refreshing. I know we're not back to "normal" by a long stretch, but I think we all needed that. We don't usually keep the party going til 9pm, but we sure did yesterday!

And I got a decent amount of sewing done! Got the bottom bodice edge finished, and the ruffle at the neck gathered and sewn on, along with finishing up the skirt seams. And after everybody left and I cleaned up, I kept sewing and got half the skirt pleated up and sewn onto the bodice! Totally looks like a thing now!

And now I'm procrastinating over my lesson planning. Heh. Goal for next weekend's sewing is to sew the rest of the skirt on, including the drop-front bit, and hem the thing. As always, if I can get anything done during the week, I will, but alas, no promises.

(I've been casually applying to non-teaching jobs the past couple weeks. I'm not at the LET ME OUT OF HERE point, but I'm tired of being tired all the time, so we'll see what happens.)