A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Did a whole bunch of costume-related research today, that was basically totally irrelevant to anything else I have on my plate at the moment...but it was still very interesting! Thank you, internet...what would I do without you?

So all I got done on the pelisse was to baste the green silk and lining together at the top edge of the skirt. Um, yay?

(Slightly related: I haven't watched any of War & Peace, but I've been reading recaps, and the costumes are just so exhaustingly bad...it makes me tired. I did see the top of a furry pelisse on Lily James that didn't make me want to stick a fork in my eye? On the bright side, this series can provide abundant education as to why The Correct Bust Support in Early 19thc Costume is So Very Important! All the boobs look so sad and dumpy...and, like, a fair amount of these actresses have perky 20-something-boobs, so you really gotta try to make them look bad! Congrats, you've succeeded.)

Am on the last lap of my Stupid Alterations...should be able to finish them tomorrow, bar any really annoying things that are in the bag I haven't gone through yet.

Pinned the piece onto the hem of the LWD, and it doesn't look too stupid, so I've started sewing it on. The original hem wasn't quite the same distance from the lowest tuck, as the rest of the tucks are from each other, so it just looks like I maybe slightly mismeasured the (new) lowest tuck. Well, better that than an obvious "you made that too short, didn't you?"!

And Thursdays are now Hannibal nights again (I missed the first episode of the season airing last week because I forgot it started, whoops), so I'll never get anything done Thursdays after work because I'm too busy curling up into a ball and shrieking. I hardly watch any shows as they air, but this one? Yes please.

"I'm going to level the skirt and attach it on my day off." YEAH, OKAY.

Except that nothing is playing nice and I am DISGRUNTLED. (I've been using it all night. Such a great word, that is.)

First off, pro tip: don't store your reed farthingale on its side if you live in a remotely humid climate. It'll warp all out of shape and frustrate you to no end. I don't know who would be dumb enough to do that... *cough* (dragoneyes19 has suggested letting it get steamed during a hot shower, which sounds very effective to me...you know, in theory, if I had been that dumb. Ahem.)

I also made the waistband too big - made it to my normal waist measurement, which is apparently almost 3" larger than my kirtle-d measurement. O.o That makes the overlap way too big, which makes the whole farthingale hang weird.

Also, the whole thing is too short. It makes the kirtle skirt "kick back" under the hoop, which is such a farby thing to do. I know better than that!!!

In short, the farthingale needs some fixin's. I'm not in a place any more where I can just shrug and leave them, if I do know how to fix the problems. They're all very do-able (steam the whole thing, take off the waistband, add a piece to the top, and repleat to waistband), but not today. Today I just needed to take a step back from it!

So I proceeded to take it all off, sulk, sulk a bit more, and then finish sewing the pockets and keep spangling the foresleeves while marathoning Outlander, which made me feel quite a bit better about everything, because it's a fun story, because it's got costumes (plaid! yummy cozy wool!), and because that guy is hot. *nods* (I must give credit to hiraimi for continuing to nag me to watch it!)