A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

HAI HAI I SEWED SOMETHING

WOW

I KNOW

I also have received a year of paid LJ time, which is super-awesome (now I get to play with more userpics, woo!) and now I am doubly resolved to someday drive south (a car of any sort would be helpful in doing this, but I'm working on it!) and meet all you East Coast costumers that I am in awe of but someday will go to SOME EVENT with you all! (Ummm....when I started out, that was a coherent sentence. Promise. It's attempting to thank the person who gave me the paid time. Heh. I can't string words together today, apparently.)

Back to the I Sewed thang. Okay, so it's not really exciting...it's an apron. But it's something! And it's something that needed to be finished, because it's part of my friend A's wedding shower gift. Which is next weekend. Oy. And I swear an apron isn't a stupid gift, for her. (It would be a stupid gift for me, because I am not at home in the kitchen. But this apron's pretty cute, so I kind of want one anyway. Hey, I make cookies. Sometimes.)

Yes, the print is kinda obnoxious, but it's very A...she loves rainbow things. I used a McCall's pattern...which one? Ummm...*goes and looks it up* M5825. (For future reference...in case I ever lose it? I don't know.) Easy to put together, and I was even smart and practiced making the buttonhole on a scrap before I put it on the real straps. *slow clap*

At our little gift exchange last night, I pulled my gift out of the bag, and it was this book. I was very impressed, I must say. Very big and lots of pretty pictures. Also many stripey things in the 18thc section. *glee*

(I did end up getting M. The Duchess on DVD, and she seemed pleased. I also wickedly bought it for myself while I was on Amazon buying my books.)

It was very nice for a few days, but it's back to LJ the world now...these dresses won't sew themselves, you know! Actually, I have been sewing for the past couple days. For the cruise, which the mater, sister and I leave for on Jan. 9. Because I love dresses and I must have more of them. Yes. Anyhow.

Went to evil Jo-ann's and got fabric for 4 dresses (and a couple patterns, because they were on sale, and I'm totally in love with 50s dresses right now) two days ago, because both my mother and sister got a couple new dresses for the formal dinners on the ship (because who are we kidding, I never miss an opportunity to play dress-up), and I am too much of a snob an individual to buy a formal in a store. So my mom was lovely enough to pay for the fabric for said couple of dresses. Well, yes, four is more than a couple. Shhh.

So I got fabric for two Nice Dresses for Formal Dinners on Cruises or Whatever (that 1935 Vintage Vogue pattern I mentioned before will be one of them), and two more casual dresses. I'll take pictures as I finish them. (no, really. Really.) Meant to sew on one of them today, but I was out most of the day today, so zero sewing progress so far.

Other Winter Break Sewing: For the gift exchange with my TCNJ peeps, I was lucky enough to get the one who told me that as soon as she has money from Christmas, I can start helping her get into 18th-century costuming. However, little does she know, since we took measurements for stays for her about a month ago, she's going to get a pair of stays as a gift. And because I, oddly, really really like to make stays, this works out well for everyone.

Other than cruise-dress-sewing and cutting out the pieces for M.'s stays, I haven't been doing much, just kind of puttering around to various projects, sewing a little, then wandeing off to something else.

Oh, I know, though, I did come home and pet my taffeta and it is lovely and makes me far happier than any totally sane person would be about the appearence of fabric. I also got a yard of silk/cotton voile in the order, because I have vague plans for 18thc kerchiefs/caps/what-have-you, but it is so very nice that it is putting evil, evil plans in my head. These will be discussed at a later date, because my eyes are tired of looking at the computer screen (it took a while to catch up on 3+ days of not reading my f-list!).

When I went home on Friday (just for the weekend; it's not break time yet- poo), I found a package for me sitting on the doorstep. Sure enough, it was my lovely block-printed fabric. Yaay! I like prompt delivery!

It's a little bit lighter weight than I thought it would be, but that's no biggie; I'll line it if I need to (oh good, more money to spend). And it had the weirdest smell when I took it out of the package, I can't even begin to describe it. But it went away when I washed it, so whatever. Besides the weight and the smell, I absolutely love this fabric. So pretty! I just want the semester to be OVER so I can go home and SEW!!!

Also, now that it's December, I need to start thinking about Christmas presents...oy. Well, okay, there aren't too many people I need to worry about, as up at college, we're doing a Secret Santa at somebody's house after the 25th, so I don't have to worry about that yet. However, I have practically zero cash as of now, so I have to be creative. I've already decided to only do gifts for my two closest friends at home, and my family. For one of my friends, the one I've so lately corrupted to The Dark Side (aka 18thc costuming), I'm thinking about making a set of 18thc undergarments. I know she'd appreciate it, as she's not really into hand sewing (hi! stays! hand sewing!), and she works two jobs and goes to school, so she hasn't got much time anyway. I've got plenty of muslin for a shift and petticoat (yes, I like muslin. it's cheap and dyes well), and I have a scrap bin THIS BIG so I don't foresee any difficulties in getting fabric for the stays (actually I already picked it out).

Only problem might be TIME, as Christmas is, um, a week after I get back from TCNJ...but I've made all this kind of stuff before, I'm planning on machining a reasonable amount of this (no, not the stays, except for the side seams, but I made my effigy corset this past summer in three days, so I'm not too worried), and I'm not too hung up on having this done for exactly the DAY OF Christmas. 

Must be off to class now!