Two weeks off from school, and I shall do all the things!

(Or more probably, none of the things. But that's ok too.)

(I was going to make a concerted effort to do at least one Visible Home Improvement-y Thing over break, but now the paint I want isn't on sale any more, and the peel-and-stick wallpaper I want for the living room accent wall to cover the ridiculous giant yellow square from where we removed the mirror, is sold out til the end of January. Will order the wallpaper now anyway, but obviously won't be doing that over break!)

Time to think about all of the costuming for next year, right? Of course right!

As always, I reserve the right to do absolutely none of this, but it's damn entertaining to plan, so here it is.
( Planning is fun )

Well! On a personal level, the brou-ha-ha in the online community last weekend over The Williamsburg Incident (if you happen to not have heard anything, God bless) was perfectly timed to make me want to work on historical costume even less.

(I'm certainly not saying the historical costuming community doesn't need to self-reflect and make improvements...I'm just, personally, tired of the extremes. It might be easier to disengage with the community entirely, apart from here. Or at least leave the Facebook groups!)

Anyway. Probably needless to say, I sewed pretty much nothing since last time I posted! I poked the c1900 shirtwaist a bit and sewed...two more seams? Meh.

BUT I am feeling creative energy more in the "everyday" clothing direction. For me, that means vintage. And, extremely weirdly, that also apparently means 1930s.

BIZZARO WORLD, YO.

I have never been into the '30s before. I've seen plenty of people make very charming pieces, but (like 1920s) I've never felt an affinity for it personally. But there's a somewhat-tentative "vintage" lawn party being planned for late July, and I think I'd like to make something new for it. And somehow that "something" needs to be 1930s. I briefly even entertained the idea of beach pyjamas, because they are chic AF and seem like SUCH FUN to swan around in...but I'd also like something I can wear to work rather than just being a costume piece, and those aren't quite it! Plus they take a fair bit of fabric yardage.

So today I, cheerfully and extravagantly, bought two '30s Wearing History patterns. I couldn't decide which I wanted for the lawn party, but I'd like to add both to my wardrobe...so I bought both. The Gina dress and the Chic Ahoy slacks set, both of which I think are adorable. (I also have a "Retro" McCalls or whatever they branded their line 1933 sundress, but it remains to be seen whether that pattern has 7" of ease and is thus Too Annoying To Work With, so I wanted to have Options.)

We'll see if I still feel inspired when those come in (and whether I have to buy fabric for them - I might have something stashed that will work but will have to check yardages), but do expect to see more '30s around here some time in the near future!

(She says, filled with optimism.)

And I'll make a separate post for this, because the other post was getting a bit long, and this is really just for my own entertainment! A spring Regency picnic was suggested amongst the Local Peeps recently, and between that and trying on my new stays yesterday and being v. pleased, I'm very happily plotting enough outfits for a two-week getaway all spent in Regency!

(As we all know, I'll be lucky to actually finish one single solitary thing. But I don't care. It's a lovely snowy morning, and I'm thoroughly enjoying avoiding planning my lessons, drinking tea, and mentally costuming!)

( Read more... )

This is what happens when I'm teaching virtually and too many of my kids are working on independent assignments and I have time available to poke around the internet and decide to change my sewing plans for our Longwood winter stroll that probably won't happen anyway.

Funny part is, Miss Wacky Mismatched Separates has been on my 1898-1901 Pinterest board for months, but she didn't really catch my attention until today. (I was looking at hat shapes and colors, actually.) Like...okay, we've got a red jacket with a black and white striped facing and collar, also with randomly slashed (??) bits on the top of the shoulder; we've got a green skirt with loopy squiggly trim that doesn't really echo the geometric angles of the jacket facing; we've got a red hat (coordinating!) with a pinky-red monster bow thing (less coordinating!); finally, we've got what's either a dickey/cravat/guimpe/neckline filler, or full waist, that's *squints* orange?

Whaaaaat.



The only real down side of this outfit is that I'm not sure I can really reconcile a collared fur capelet to go OVER that, and I was rather looking forward to one! Might have to play Stack The Collars...

Poor plum wool. I'll use you eventually.

I have the red wool for the jacket and orange-red silk shantung for the guimpe/waist/thing, and I'm 90% sure the silk scrap bin has bits in the right colors for the hat. I might have supplies for the jacket facing and green wool for the skirt (although what I have is quite KELLY green and I'm still hording that for a Very Specific Dress, not sure if I want to sacrifice it for this skirt), will have to do some poking.

I should probably feel bad after getting my plans for the plum dress all settled and buying a couple of things for it, but...I don't! As time passes I'm less and less optimistic we'll actually get to go on this outing, and while the plum dress was okay, it didn't inspire me to start it for an event I think is going to be canceled. This wacky number totally does!

Also...you know I can't resist a snappy jacket. ;)

Sewed too much last weekend; had to balance it out by sewing almost nothing this weekend!

I didn't actually mean to be terribly flighty this weekend... but it was absolutely glorious fall weather so I had to spend at least one full afternoon outside, and it was a Tom weekend so I had to catch up on snuggling (45 degree nights are so much better for a damn radiator in bed with you than 80 degree nights!), so my only day to be remotely productive was Friday.

I did intend to be remotely productive; I got my impulse purchase of a yard of orange plaid wool in the mail this week, so thought maybe I could make a new skirt this weekend. I even posted something to IG with a pattern and a gleeful air. And then I actually opened the pattern envelope and discovered that Past Me had decided to try making the skirt at some time in the distant past, because it was not in fact in the envelope. Um...oops? So I spent a chunk of Friday afternoon digging through Piles of Random Crap piled around the sewing room. I did not find the pattern bits I was looking for (they have to be somewhere because I never throw anything out), but I did manage to sort and disappear some of the piles. And I finally just said OH FINE WHATEVER I'LL USE THIS ONE and cut the damn thing out. And sewed one seam. And that was it.

Better than nothing...I guess? I am officially recording my doubts right now that I'll finish anything for Poe, though! Maybe I should focus on making the bonnet before the dress, because then at least I'll have something new...

I'm kicking around a bunch of What To Maybe Sew Now That I Have Time?, and I enjoy making lists quite thoroughly, even if (when, ahem) I don't stick to them. So, to organize me own thoughts:

- Boy clothes. Like I think I've mentioned, I've put enough time into the Imaginary Boyfriend that I feel fairly confident it won't be a waste of time to sew stuff for him now and dress him up! (Not to say he's wildly enthusiastic, but he did volunteer himself, so.) The "Young Victoria" event is in April, and I want him to come to that. Boy clothes are a Brave New World for me, and I have no illusions they'll be up to my standards the first two or ten things I make, but hey. I've been sewing for more of my life than I have not been sewing at this point, so I can't completely f it up, right? Heh.
So, boy clothes, circa 1840. I'm still trying to decide the combination of Things That Will Work For Day And Evening But Not Be Wrong Enough For Me To Be Embarrassed, but first things first, first things being the shirt. I got to the very impressive point of having taped and cut the pattern pieces, cut the shirt pieces, and sewed the tucks in the shirt front pieces over the past 1.5 months. So that will need to be a thing that happens soon...

- 1838-40 day dress. This will probably not actually happen (see: boy clothes), but I have a want for a new day dress for our Young Victoria event, and lord knows I have at least two fabrics earmarked for a day dress of that period in the Stash. One linen print, one wool, and they've both been in the Stash for that purpose for a disturbing amount of years. Also, bonnet to go with this. My late 1830s bonnet is v. wintery. Plaid ribbon, etc.

- New 1770s stays. This is not quite a need yet, but it's getting there...I made these cane-boned stays as an experiment to see if I liked the boning material (wouldn't do it again, I'm too prone to rolling stays up and shoving them into a bag in the trunk of my car, but they are very comfortable if you don't count the occasional prod of a broken cane, and honestly that's more of a user error...), started breaking the canes almost immediately, and decided not to bother binding them. Three years later...I've finally broken enough of the canes that I'm getting poked in the hip more than I'd like!
The Usual Suspects are kind of Done with the 18thc, but I still volunteer at the Indian King Tavern, and should probably spend the time to make a new pair of stays to wear there before these completely die. Machine sewn and hand finished, because I have more than one pair of unfinished hand-sewn stays that will be lovely if they ever get finished. As it is... machine sew the guts and hand sew the visible bits is a better approach for me if I want them done!

- Take pictures of the black/ivory striped natural form dinner dress. Okay, that isn't sewing, but still. I need to see if I can get the, ehm, wine stain out of the skirt first...

- Work appropriate vintage dresses/skirts. I have a truly scary amount of UFOs that fall under this heading at this point, but I'm super sick of 90% of my work wardrobe, and at this point I can't afford to throw all my money at Muxxn dresses from Amazon, so. ;) (And those have to be altered anyway...especially with pencil-skirt-types, as my butt is two sizes ahead of my boobs, which is annoying but hey, good thing I don't have to pay anybody to fix 'em?)

- Gettysburg. Not for another 11 months, but I'm fairly tired of all my 1860s, and at minimum I would like to have another ballgown that doesn't weigh 30lbs, thanks. I hate that satin f'er. So...brainstorm this one and shop the Stash.

Other than that...I'm weirdly coming to terms with the fact that I need very little in my costume wardrobe these days. While I was schooling, my local peeps have moved on as well, so there seems to be far less interest in events since I've stopped being able to go. Not to say any of us have completely dropped it, but I think it's going to be pretty rare that we do an event in a period that I've nothing for.

It seems I have simply legions of fans (lol), so I suppose I'll keep truckin' through my current slump in journaling and try to stay active for the time being. I do appreciate all your nice comments. :)

The next big event is Jenny-Rose's Big Hat Party; I'm kicking around ideas but I don't feel the need to start actually working on anything yet. Plus I'm waaaaaay overdue on making Taylor's painted petticoat (uh, I did start it??) and I got an order for another one this weekend, so my next couple of weeks will pretty much consist of a lot of painting!

Fairly certain I want to attempt a 1780s portrait hat a la the Duchess of Devonshire (although I don't think I want it quite that large...); I know it's your "standard" 18thc Big Hat, but dammit I think they're rather fabulous. The accompanying outfit is currently doubtful. At the moment I'm inclined to finally finish off that russet and blue silk stripe revamp, since the poor thing's been in the UFO bin for YEARS at this point. But I could also fix up my orange and blue gown (that I made in 2011 and would probably HORRIFY me if I looked at the construction/fit now...so that might be more work than I'm willing to do!), wear the chintz Dress In A Day, or wear the painted petticoat/green stripe jacket. I don't think I'll want to start a new dress from scratch when I have a hat to engineer too...but you never know when inspiration will strike! ;)

I looked at the pinned sleeve sitting on my ironing board, thought about it, and decided I'd much rather spend the day mentally costuming everything else in the world instead.

In my defense, I was very productive on that front; I primarily made a mid-1790s dress to go under an also-theoretical open robe, but I also mentally made several things for the shop, and started an early 1890s sporting wardrobe, too.

Soooo productive. xD

Back in one piece from the Pumpkin Tea, which I have a few pictures from, but writing a post to put them in seems like work. Maybe tomorrow.

Tonight I'm back to scheming about 1860s for Gettysburg! Much less effort required to do that. Yes, Gettysburg as in Remembrance Day 2015. We're starting to plan well in advance this time!

To that end, I managed to win 12 pounds of ribbon for $25 on ebay this weekend. (I was searching for green ribbon to trim the candy stripe plaid dress, and tripped over this. The lot does have a green I think will work, so...the rest of the ribbon was just a bonus!) With free shipping.

I sewed the rest of channel 1 and all of channel 2 on the farthingale today, and last night I sewed the busk into the kirtle. I think it may be ever-so-slightly crooked. I blame the drunken monkey sewing team...

First twinge of CADD since I've started this project - which for me is really, really impressive, especially considering how long I was chewing it over before I even started! Now I'm thinking about what's on the list after Katherine's finished...originally it was going to be the 1828-30 dress and pelerine for the Costume Roulette project, but now I'm not sure any more. There have been some ideas kicking around...for one thing, we never did get our carriage rides in Old City. ;) And I now may possibly be more inclined to do my other option for Costume Roulette - 1890s. Hmmmmm.