A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

The other day, I asked on Facebook whether to go to a Victorian picnic or a 1920s lawn party event next Saturday, because I couldn't decide (the point being to drag The Imaginary along with me). The general population voted 1920s, I was leaning towards Victorian because I'm apparently just that contrary...and then I was mindlessly scrolling this afternoon and saw a post about a concert in a cemetery, with an ensemble that included a theremin. Well that sounds cool. Oh, it's Laurel Hill in Philly? And it's this Saturday. So, easy decision - I won't do either original option, and will go to the Laurel Hill concert instead! (I mean, there's no scheduling conflict, but I'm trying to keep an eye on the Fun Budget and the cost of the concert is exactly the cost of the picnic, which was the cheaper of the two.)

Ahh, decisions.

Speaking of decisions...I decided to buy myself a Late Victorian Redthreaded corset. (Talk about blowing your Fun Budget...) But I really need a new corset for the Virginia trip, unless I want to be stuck wearing the uncomfortable old 1860s corset again (as that's what I've been doing for 1890s up to this point), and I really don't want to make it. I've been waffling about it pretty much since the trip was planned, because I like being able to customize my corsets, and I can make a decent-if-not-outstanding corset...but you know what, I have a Big Girl Job, and what the hell am I working for if not to be able to throw my money at my silly middle-class hobbies every so often?

Plus I'm supporting a small, woman-owned business! Always a good thing, right?

It's not the specific style I was originally planning (I wanted a specific late-1890s style, which comes in right before the S-curve and has some characteristics that distinguish it from the 80s and earlier 90s styles)...but I can learn to live with a slightly more generic/less fashionable style if I didn't have to go to the trouble of making it! :D

Still giving the old sewing finger a break, so I did a bit more etsy-work - took off the exceptionally terrible waistband on my old 1840s flounced petticoat and put in a drawstring. Less correct but presumably more sell-able. I haven't done 1840s in years (my one dress is now defunct), and if I ever do it again I'll make less shitty petticoats! So that is hopefully going bye-bye. Which would be good because it takes up a damn lot of room.

I decided to try and get the short hoop out of the way as much as possible (since, hey, that's not hand sewing, right?). Got the last casing sewn on, sewed on the waistband, and boned all but one channel. I was really hoping the cutters I bought once upon a time for hoop boning would work, but no dice. Hoop steel was heavier but white steel is wider, so these aren't cutting it (hurr hurr hurr). I'm just about out of plastic whalebone anyway, so it appears a corsetmaking.com order is...in order.

Somewhat related to sewing: I decided ages ago (like when I got the tickets) that I wanted, nay, needed a new dress for the Dita von Teese show, found some fun embroidered net on ebay, and cheerfully bought it. I'm off this weekend, so I figured it's high time to crank that dress out...and then last night I went on Unique Vintage and found the exact dress I was going to make, on clearance, for $35. So I bought it. xD Alright, it isn't the exact dress, but it's pretty darn close! The embroidery on the net's a little finer, and the black skirt's a little shorter, but those are the exact sleeves I was going to do...and $35 is well worth a cute dress! (And I won't mind having two dresses of similar fabric, when I get around to using my fabric...mom and I have tickets to the Pennsylvania Ballet season this year, so I need fancy dresses. ;) )

Ok, didn't quite get the painted petti hemmed yet...I had a couple of things I needed to shop for (or "needed" to shop for, like my ice skates for my birthday party), and then somehow I ended up spending 45 minutes on Sock Dreams' website picking out Christmas presents! Well, 'tis the season to start thinking about those, so I don't really consider it wasting time...heh.

AND I got my Dames a la Mode sparklies in the mail today! I literally tripped up my steps after getting the mail I was so excited, haha. No pics til I wear them with the ballgown I still haven't started, eek. The ball is two weeks from Friday... (Also still owe Taylor a petticoat for those. Um. Sew like the wind!) Well, Robin's got her bonnet safely so at least there's that!

Still nice weather today (the 90-degree weather is coming!!), so I sat on our front lawn, under the giant sycamore, and sewed this afternoon. I really should have been doing this all along when the weather allows; not least because it keeps me off the computer and all the things that distract me on the internet!

Started attaching the skirt to the bodice; the flat front's done, and one half of the back is gathered and mostly sewn on.

And I bought a bunch of trims at work today, for stashing. Well, clearance was half off, what can I say? Red marabou, brown marabou, black and white striped cording, and some flat gold braid that might not be too cheesy to use (at the J? shocking I know)...it was 40 cents a yard so if I decide it's awful, not much money wasted! And I was quite good; the only clearance fabric I bought was two bolts of cheap ugly prints for mockup fabric. (I can't even bring myself to buy the cheap Joann muslin on sale at this point; it's so, so awful!)

So...I went to my local fabric store in search of lace to use on the neckline of the chemise gown.

No luck, but I somehow ended up with lace anyway. A LOT of lace. Unnecessary amounts of lace. Lace totally unrelated to chemise gowns in general. 5 1/2" wide black lace, about 80 yards of it. Or so the guy at the counter told me, and I see no reason to disbelieve him (nobody actually measured it, he just guessed at how much he'd sold of the roll. One of those places, and I love it).

It was just calling out to be used on a bustle gown. All black, of silk and cotton velvet (because I have them) - see, I knew that black jewelry presented itself for a reason!

Anyway, I would not be averse to selling some of it off - I do plan to use it pretty liberally on this newly-planned bustle gown, but I don't think I need 80 yards of it! If anybody's interested, let me know! It's poly, but a decent poly, with a medium-stiff hand. $1.25/yd.

And even if nobody's interested, that's fine, I'm still showing it off, because I'm always pleased when I find good lace that doesn't have those wretched enormous cabbage roses on it!!

( Read more... )

Well, I did say there would be "LOOK WHAT I BOUGHT!!" posts...

Okay, I haven't bought any yet, but Vintage Vogue patterns are on sale for $5.99 on the site (and the clearance ones are $5 - don't know for how long), and, well...temptation. "I still need that one...and that one and that one..." I know it's not as good as Jo-ann's pattern sales, but my local Jo-ann's pattern selection has been getting crappier and crappier. I'm pretty sure they just don't bother to restock some of them, so lots of patterns are just not there or only in size very large, which is not so much helpful for yours truly. :P So...I'm not going to wait around for a Jo-ann's pattern sale!

Mwahahaha.

That's it; "helpin teh economee" is officially getting its own tag. God knows I use it enough.

I went to the Guitar Center nearest me on the way home from work (home by way of Barnes & Noble, unfortunately for my bank account), tromped in, and cheerfully asked for "that Fender acoustic that's $99." Much hunting among the guitars and puzzlement ensued among the employees. "Maybe it was a Black Friday special?" one of them, very helpfully suggested. "Maybe," I agreed, mostly because I had started thinking I was the batshit crazy one.

(No, I wasn't. Their website can bugger off, if they're going to make up sales and keep them listed when they AREN'T REAL. Going to the tiny local music shop next time. SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS, harr. Not that that's the employees' fault, they were very nice to the rambling idiot who kept knocking over cardboard boxes and tripping over things.)

Having walked into the store determined to leave with that guitar, though, I left with that guitar! For more than $99, yes. But it is PRETTY and SHINY and I can tell is going to be waaaay easier to play than the crap one (in terms of the action, not me being a shitty player still.)

( Ramble on... )

Stupid fabric.com, sending me coupons and stuff. All I was going to do was check my email before I went to bed. "Ooo, coupon on clearance stuff! Well, it couldn't hurt to look..."

No, it could. It really could. I definitely just spent a decent chunk of my first paycheck from this job (that I get on Friday) on fabric. As per usual. But I definitely got almost $25 off from that coupon, so there! (That resolution not to buy fabric? We're going to pretend it never happened. I have a job. It's all good.)

White linen (I really do always need that!), a striped ivory linen/cotton blend, and a checked dupioni silk. Depending on if the stupid people at one of the local historical houses ever get back to me, I may be using one or both of them for that. They do "19th century" stuff; whether that means Regency or Civil War or what, I don't know yet (IF THAT LADY WOULD EMAIL ME BACK IT MIGHT HELP). Either way, I don't yet have much of anything 19thc, but I'd be more than happy to make some! Of course.

Where I think I'm going to PUT any of this, I don't know. The Stash Bin is full. Over-full. This is going to call for some serious re-organization...

So, remember that resolution of mine not to buy more fabric?

I think we all know where this is going.

Well, TECHNICALLY I didn't buy it, so it's okay, right? I just...acquired it. I went out with my aunt for the day in Philly; she's into crafts and things and knows how I have this thing for fabric, so she took me to some fun places she thought I'd like. Which I did -- in reverse order, an amazing jewelry store in Old City, a cool vintage/costume shop in Germantown, and a fabric store, also in Germantown, Gaffney Fabrics.

Really, really impressive selection of Stuff at Gaffney's! If I were predominantly a theatrical costumer, I'd have thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Not to say I didn't have an excellent time there, but the historical costumer in me (which squelches the theatrical, if you couldn't tell) was like, "There's an incredible amount of fabric here...but why is it all polyester?" The bargain basement was full of fabric (and it smelled like the cellar of the built-in-the-1890s house I used to live in. That cellar creeped me the hell out when I was very small, by the way...there were all these weird sections with no lightbulbs in them...anyway!), and besides the cotton quilt fabrics, there was not one single natural fiber down there!

Oh, that's right, except for the one remnant I dug out. I'm good. (Usually the fabric-finding mojo works; occasionally it doesn't, but I'll never stop being proud of myself for digging out that $2/yd dupioni silk at Jo-ann's that one time...) It's 3/4 yd of beige-ish dupioni. Beige sounds like such a terrible color, but it's pretty fabric! No really, I'm not just in fabric-hoarding withdrawal. Maybe. $3. Not bad.

And then we went upstairs to the store proper, and there was even more polyester fabric! There were a few bolts of silk fabric, but it was all that limp stuff, nothing I was interested in; plus there was definitely some abuse of the word "silk." "Linen" was also shamelessly abused; really, quotation marks would have helped those signs out! However, among the eight or ten bolts of "linen," I did find two bolts of actual linen. One in a medium weight natural/oatmeal color, and one in white with brown and black thin woven stripes.

...Got three yards of the oatmeal, and one of the striped. It was $3.99/yd OKAY... If I ever need plainer, working-class stuff for 18thc (which I am thinking of needing, so there), I'll use the plain for an under-petticoat and the striped for an apron or some such. Partly because it's got a couple marks anyway. I was going to pay for it myself, but my aunt's an enabler, so she insisted on paying for it. And, well, I haven't got all that much money, so I wasn't going to argue too much.



So...you know, it's all okay because I didn't buy it. Me, personally. We'll disregard the unfortunate fact that it will NOT fit in my fabric bin, which is crammed as full as it will go. Nor will it fit in the other bin, which is half Crap, half Fabric. Or in the bag of fabric sitting next to my drawers of sewing/crafty supplies. Or under my sewing desk, because that's been taken over by bags of half-finished projects.

PLZ SEND HALP NAO. Ahem. So...I'll have to break my resolution not to sew any more costume pieces at the moment, because I don't have room for them either? If only I wasn't ashamed to sell off some of my old costumes...but they're too crappy.

Hmm, I want dinner. Panzarottis! A strange, apparently local thing that nobody else knows what it is. Well, my friend from the other side of the state thinks it's hilarious that we call water ice, water ice..."It's ITALIAN ICE!" "Whatever, man, it's water ice here." And...now I'm babbling.

I like how fabric.com is good for nearly instant gratification; got my package from them today. Pretties!



The plaid on the left is actually more berry than red, and it's fairly smooth for dupioni. Am very pleased with it, and intend to make an early 1960s-style dress out of it for graduation -- unless the weather forecast is for hot weather for May 14 (because I'm not going to make this dress until after the semester's over -- no time!), then I might make a dress from the cotton voile (center) instead. Plans for that are a 1950-something Vintage Vogue pattern. And the plaid on the right wants to be a 1960 skirt.

We'll see how this all works out! Good use of my money, right? *grin*