A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

It looks very much like a skirt now. Waistband and pocket and all. No hem yet, though.

No word yet on the ribbon lot; I can only assume it's still buried under a mountain of snow. I admit I'm getting antsy already...which is silly, as I don't need this outfit for three weeks yet. Just in case, though, I find myself making alternate bodice plans. (I am Very Attached to my trim scheme on this particular bodice.) I made the skirt separate already, just in case I want a ballgown bodice to go with it as well; certainly have the fabric for it! So a third bodice would not be completely out of the realm of possibility. There was a lot of fabric on that roll, yes...

I've completely given up in digust on those Trenton colonial ball people. Are they EVER going to update their info so I can buy a ticket??? Not saying I won't go (I fully plan to, whenever they get around to selling tickets!), but I think they're not getting a new dress from me. I'm sure they would be very broken up to hear that. Unless I feel really super-motivated in between Pennypacker's Victorian Christmas and Actual Christmas, I'll make do with the old pink sacque.

Because there are other things I want to sew! I haven't forgotten about the Winterfell dress, for instance. It being Really Cold lately has reminded me that that was a thing I wanted to make. I have fabric for the under- and over-dress, still need wool for a cloak and linen(ish) for a shift. Think I'm going to get a wool blend suiting that's on sale currently from FFC (I have nice woolens in the Stash, but they may be, um, a little too nice for this project that has no real reason to exist other than I wanna) because it's stupid cheap right now.

I also bought a wool flannel blend for my Gettysburg Remembrance Day wrapper from FFC...somehow I got it into my head that my wrapper must be wool flannel (we're going to be in a cabin again, and those things are not terribly well-heated, as we have learned, so I think this is valid), so I had to buy it when I saw it. Light blue for the body, dark blue for the quilted contrast panel...and enough pink for a dress just in case it's nice enough for a dress?

Yes, Remembrance Day is fully a year away. Yes, I'm planning for it now.

I still want to make an ice skating outfit, too! 1860s is my backup, because I want to do late 1890s, and I've got to start from the absolute beginning with that. Got a corset pattern all picked out...

And there is a tiny project brewing with dragoneyes19 and hiraimi, also 1890s-related, and also thanks to FFC. That probably won't be done til summer, as it's summer-weight fabric, and there's no deadline for it...but I have promised to make the hats for it. :D

My gown fabric came in the mail today! Totally worth the money...I want to roll around in it and pet it. Silk damask! Work makes me feel fairly dirty so I won't...but I do have it on the table so I can keep looking it it. This is what I like to call "incentive to sew."

Both with and without flash. With flash looks a bit closer to the color now, but in daylight it looked more like the other. Subtle color but very shiiiiiiny.

I didn't have lots of sewing time today, so what I did have was dedicated to a few more inches of flannel sewn to the bonnet.

I did get my damask swatches and my bonnet silk in the mail today though! It was all maybe not as exciting as hoped. I think I'll use the yellow-gold silk for my bonnet; the violet-shot-gold doesn't look nearly as nice in person, more of a Victorian-ugly shade! (No insult to Victorian meant...but there are some shades that work better for some eras than others! This is one of them.) I'm sure I'll use it eventually but decidedly not on a Regency bonnet.

As for swatches...The brown damask is no good for a gown - it's quite coarse and relatively loosely-woven. The black and gold is as pretty as I expected, but still not the ideal color if I want to copy the NPG portrait.

BUT! I decided to go back to the website just now to double-check I hadn't missed anything...and I HAD. It somehow didn't come up in my search for damask (ok...), but it's in the silk section - another colorway of that black and gold damask.

O HAI THERE.

It's still not 100% perfect, but I suspect it may be the best compromise between color, fiber content, and price that I can find. I'm going to mull it over for a day or two, just to be sure, but think I'll end up getting it. Unless everyone comments and tells me that would be a Really Horrible Idea. :D

Yesterday I bought all the silk our store had on the red tag/clearance table. Oops. Well, red tag is half off this week, which is what I've been waiting for! It's eight yards of chocolate and *mumble* yards of a boring bronze-taupey sort of color. I had to get it on principle, you know. It's what they label a "shantung/dupioni" (okay...), it's quite lightweight, but with very few slubs so I don't feel bad using it for a gown. The chocolate and bronze go very well together so I might intend that for a Victorian dress of some sort. Then there's enough bronze left to use for Katherine Parr's kirtle and farthingale (and enough after that to donate enough for a kirtle for Robin as well!). See, all taken care of!

Also got almost four yards of the (discontinued) Expensive Velvet in forest green. It's poly but sooooo soft! It needed to go to a good home. It's cut in two pieces, annoyingly, but I'm thinking of using it for an 18thc fancy mantle so that won't matter much. (With the white ostrich-feather trim I got from the store closing in Brick? Mmmm)

And reine_de_coudre's selling off some of her Regency dresses...and one of them is now alllll miiiine. (Or will be, very shortly.)

I haven't been sewing, really (despite cutting out the pieces for Jessica's bonnet!)...working longer shifts than usual this week, and can't get my butt in gear early enough before I go in. And on my day off yesterday, I had to run around doing errands (like, uh, buying scads of silk) and then went to see Don Giovanni in Philly with the mater. Gorgeous music, a very good-looking man in the title role...and so very many dirty jokes in this opera! I love eighteenth-century sensibilities...A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

We're down to bolting the last of the fabric, and there was hardly anyone in the store (and those that were, complained about having to buy a WHOLE BOLT of this or that. We're liquidating. it's 75% off. The store's moving. Sorry. Then don't buy your nasty poly knit here?), so I was just terribly bored.

But I came home to a very good present on the door-step!


I think it wants to be an 1860s dress - or possibly an early bustle gown (because hello yardage!), but I do need other things first, so I'll probably be sitting on it til the fall.

Possibly literally, because I'm really enjoying sitting with it on my lap right now. Silk is just so wonderful! jenthompson, you rock!

Was crabby today for various reasons, but day was improved by buying a truly excessive amount of wool from Joann's today. It's 75% off since our store's closing, plus my employee discount...equals a LOT of wool. Hey, it's nice wool, and while it's not $30/yd worth of nice, it's definitely less-than-$7.50/yd worth of nice!

I may or may not have bought most of what was left in our store. (Our store is quite small so that's not as expensive as it sounds.) If it's still there after payday I'll probably buy the rest of it and see if I can sell it on to one of you at a huge markup. *grin* It very well might be...things only went 75% today, but I've been working there for weeks, eyeballing the wool, and no one has bought it. I seem to live in more of a polyester-and-quilting-cotton kind of community.

Late-night shopping decision - I'M MAKING THE EXPENSIVE SACK ANYWAY.

*click click click* Annnd the fabric for the petticoat's bought. Three yards of taffeta isn't that much in the grand scheme of things, right?

(And...some for the mantle too. Okay, I'm going to fabric-buying hell, aren't I? And right after I bought a bunch of feathers, too... But I held off on fabric for the breakfast outfit! That's...something.)

padawansguide was oh-so-conveniently de-stashing a bit at the Pumpkin Tea, so here's a big thanks to her for a couple new pieces of fabric I now have to squash into my bins! ;)

(I'm not ready to part with any of mine yet...I MIGHT USE IT SOMEDAY.)



The one on the right, I admit I have no immediate plans for. There's about 2 2/3 yards, so it would probably work best as a 1770s/80s jacket. But striped silk? I can just pet it, if nothing else.

It's the one on the left that's spoken to me - blue and copper fabulousness! I don't know the fiber content (burn test thinks it's probably natural fibres, anyway, so that's something), but I'd still have grabbed it if it were all dead dino, because it really wants to be a late 1790s open robe! Along the lines of this robe in the Met, but probably with spangles and/or all manner of shiny, because I want to wear it to the Regency card party in February (and then it can go to Dress U for the Court dinner too)!

There's so much of the fabric, actually, I almost feel like I should use it for something that requires almost 8 yards of fabric, but it's very decided on the fact that it wants to be an open robe! Perfect light weight, shiny, striped...

And there was a lot of talk about the Francaise dinner as well, so now everything I'm excited to work on...is not anything I need for Gettysburg. Which is, you know, a little closer. Like...this weekend, closer. Welp, if I get the bonnet actually trimmed I'll be happy enough. Definitely no new dress this year!

Things accomplished today: Room booked at Gettysburg for Remembrance Day weekend in November! Well, technically two miles southeast of Gettysburg. Whatever. That's what I get for waiting so long, I know! Me and dragoneyes19 are gonna have a party!

And by "party" I mean place to crash around 9pm on the Saturday after walking around all day.

Oh, and please discourage me from buying fabric! There's some that has really caught my eye, and I need help resisting.

And by "discourage" I mean "tell me I'm never going to find that fabric again and I should jump on it RIGHT NOW."

Too late. BOUGHT IT. So there will be a new dress for the 2013 Francaise Dinner after all (the Not-Plaid dress is still waiting for the perfect fabric)! If it's as nice as it looks in the picture, it's so worth the price. Hooray impulse buy!

Apparently "progress" on the 16thc outfit means "deciding I don't like the almost-finished kirtle and picking it apart to turn it into a petticoat." Well, it laced up the back - annoying - and one of the eyelets pulled out. I forgot about that. Only hand-sewn eyelet I've ever done that's come out...I think the linen blend backing the taffeta didn't give enough support. Well, don't have to worry about that now! Bodice is trashed and back seam is (weirdly) sewn up, so it can fasten on the side and make me much happier.

Assessing the other pieces of my 16thc wardrobe - could be worse!
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So - seeing as I needed some little bits and pieces of fabric...went over my fabric websites to see what I could get.

Got cotton duck for stays interlining. (Even if I don't make new effigy stays, I can always use that stuff! Really.)
Got natural linen for linings in general, mainly 18th-early 19thc.
Got purple crushed velvet for my Titanic-era coat, and rayon to line it. (What? I've been doing some hard-core planning for my dress for our Titanic exhibit outing, and I'm going to need a coat in January!)
Got white linen so I can finish the shift.
And got two yards of burgundy silk to coordinate with my red wool to make a Titanic exhibit dress! I swear I didn't have anything that went with it in the stash. I've been looking for days!