A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Some sewing progress was made over the weekend! We'd planned to go to Longwood Gardens on Saturday night with my mom to see the Christmas lights (final weekend for the lights), but there was some Unpleasant Weather (about two hours of light snow starting around noon, then rain rain rain) so we all decided to nix that. So I got most of a day to have sewing time in pajamas, which was nice!

Goal for this weekend was to get as much done on the 1880s petticoat as possible, along with stitching the hook onto the corset to hold the bustle waistband in place. The latter was accomplished first, of course, with much more fussing than I wanted (oh, you have to cut the waistband smaller, because now with the hook instead of tucking the ties under the corset edge it's too long, etc etc), but the bustle/corset interaction is now 99.9% done, I just want to coat the ends of the twill tape ties so they stop fraying.

(They don't deserve to be hand stitched, so they'll get either a thin coat of glue, or clear nail polish, whichever I find first!)

Decided to use a length of I Can't Resist This Good Deal silk from a previous Silk Guru order, because 1/ I want a swishy petticoat to wear with the dinner dress, and 2/ it's ugly enough that I'd neverrrrr use this fabric for anything but underwear or lining - a really unappealing warm gold and bronze irregular stripe. (Okay, it might be fine on the right person, but on my skin tone and to my tastes it's just ugly.) But I still buy ugly silk that's a very good deal...because I like it for linings on outerwear, etc.! Plus if it's ugly then I won't be tempted to save it for a "real" project LOL.

I didn't get quite as far as I was hoping (story of my life), but am still satisfied with my progress, considering I'm not doing a completely crappy job and have been flat-felling all the seams, since it's a moderately-shreddy home-dec-shantung-type. I wouldn't look too closely at the actual stitching, but.

Used the front and side panels from TV261 - cut my own backs because my butt is too big for the pattern as-is! And this is why we measure before cutting, haha. Petticoat was as much a trial run for the dinner dress foundation skirt as anything else...happily I seem to have competently measured, and made it even all around.

Got as far as sewing all the panels together, gathering up the back panel, fitting the darts (sure, they're fine, whatever), pinning the whole thing to the waistband, checking the fit to make sure I hadn't completely screwed anything up (didn't. yay!), and then doing the ugliest machine-stitched hem ever.

I intend to make a flounce as well, but that will have to happen either in sewing time after work this week (ambitious) or next weekend (more realistic).

Next weekend's sewing goals are:
- Finish ugly bustle petticoat if not done during the week
- Take pictures of bustle and ugly petticoat (on me) for social media
- Post the above
- Choose & prep whatever hand sewing I want to bring to Robin's for stitch'n'bitch day on Saturday the 20th. Not that I can't bring a machine, of course, but I tend to prefer getting comfortable and curling up with a cup of tea to getting up and down to machine sew and iron and all that!

As mentioned, Saturday I cut out a new chemise to work on for sewing day yesterday, to have something easy to abandon if misspeachum wanted help with her sewing (first sewing day at Amanda's, where the teapot is never big enough, the volume of conversation is never appropriate, and the jokes are always filthy! I think she'll come back...). As it was, Tessa was perfectly competent without much input from the old people (us), so I got a good bit of it done yesterday despite continuous yakking, and finished it today. Well, finished sans silk ribbon I'm going to thread through the neckline lace, for decoration and for keeping the thing on. Had to order 2mm ribbon, as the lace is cheapo joann's-on-a-spool, with teensy holes that aren't really meant to have a ribbon threaded through. I will fight you, lace. You're getting ribboned!

(Technically I didn't really need another chemise as I could have worn the late-18thc-shift, which is good Wear With Everything underwear. But I'm not often in the mood to make chemises so I figured I'd take advantage while I was!)

So! As a slight change of pace today (blue flannel skirts are in fact kinda boring) I decided to finish off those combinations. Which I did! No pics though, as one of the bulbs in the sewing room lights burnt out and I was too lazy to get up on a chair tonight to switch it out. So, pics tomorrow. It's amusing how they feel slightly scandalous in both historic and modern mindsets...modernly because they're open crotch, and historically because they're slim-fitting, bifurcated underwear! Slim-fitting compared to, you know, an 1860s chemise, anyway... ;)

After the combinations, I decided to tack the crinoline into the hem of the skirt rather than put the waistband on, as tacking a band of crin required basically no brainpower, and a waistband required a bit more. Impressive how much more the skirt stands out already! Buckram would be even more impressive, but I wasn't sure buckram wouldn't be overdoing it for 1898 rather than mid-90s, so I bought crinoline instead, as it's a little lighter.  I could probably have gotten away with buckram in this skirt (crappy Joann's, not actual substantial buckram) but I'm happy enough with the crin.

Despite spending entirely too much time chatting online with my local friends while we watched and discussed the mummers on tv today (yes, it's a Philly thing, and yes, it's weird), I did work on my combinations for an hour or two. I'm using the TV pattern, and I did read the instructions...but I think they put the facings on and sew it all together in a weird order, so I'm ignoring the directions. As usual. ;) I basically can't follow directions at all when it comes to patterns...

I've finished a good chunk of the corset cover today - put my pattern pieces that I'd made for the too-small bodice to good use and chopped them up to get a pattern for a corset cover! Seems to have worked reasonably well so far; I trimmed off the tails and ignored the darts and took off the high neckline and called it Good Enough.

I made it of linen, mainly because I had 11 yards of linen on top of a pile whereas I couldn't find the couple of yards of nice joann's muslin that I'm still pretty sure I have left. Somewhere... Whatever, I like linen better anyway.

I did consider sleeves - those tiny little sleeves you often see on corset covers and chemises that are more like sleeveless chemises got snobby about things - but that sounded like work, so I decided, not. Plain old sleeveless corset cover. "Plain" being a relative term, because apparently plain underwear in late Victorian times was just about a felony offense. So I put somewhat-crappy-joann's eyelet round the neckline and am in the process of putting it around the armscyes too. I think I can finish that tonight, then tomorrow I just have to put the neck drawstring in and do the buttons/buttonholes. Not Bad.

Realized I only had to attach the flounce to the petticoat and it would be finished (stop meebling and just sew!), so I managed to do that before work today. Woo, it's done!

And then I realized that, like 90% of the other petticoats I've made, it was too long. Just above my ankle, which will inevitably hang out the bottom of my skirt. Which is not classy. And as I am nothing if not classy, I took a rather derpy-looking tuck above the lace insertion, which looks, well, derpy, but was a very easy fix!




Annnd back to working on the corset, sigh...

Since I promised dragoneyes19 I'd take pictures today...

I mean, they're underwear, and probably the doofiest underwear I've ever made - but I promise, that's what they look like in the book! (I based them on a pair of 1870s-80s combinations on pg. 250 in Nancy Bradfield's Costume in Detail.) Not my sexy undies, let me tell you.

( But at least they're finished! )

Now on to the petticoat! I think I can get that cut out this afternoon before work...

I was no good at all yesterday during my limited sewing time - it's a case of too many things to work on at once! So I just sort of flapped around uselessly, going, "Oh! I need to buy more grommets for the corset, so there's no use in getting that half-started! So...I could start on the petticoat. Wait, did I want to buy nicer fabric for that? Oh, I could save the TV125 (the one with the detachable train) and the nicer fabric for when I make the Autumn Dress, and go with TV170 and plain muslin for now. Wait, I need to wash the fabric. Oh! I could work on the combinations!"

And so on and so forth. I did finally make the decision to finish the combinations I started IN JUNE before anything else, and then make the petticoat, before going any further on the corset. I can't get much further anyway without a busk, which I can't order til after payday.

So, those combinations. I dug them out of the UFO bin, trying to recall what the heck I was doing with them two months ago. Embroidery, right. Well, clever me figured it would be a good idea to trace the design in disappearing ink (which would have been fine if I'd finished it then), which of course had long since disappeared, with about two inches of a motif embroidered in the middle! Clever. So I drew it on again (wonkily, and with a pencil this time, because I don't have time for this crap), and sitting on the porch a good part of the day, got the front finished.

I lifted the design pretty much completely from a cheapo embroidery book I have - it's not Victorian, but I think it looks Victorian-ish. Enough. The back's just going to be a border of the same stitch around the edge - so I might even be able to get that done tonight. Possibly.

I am not an embroiderer. It's really, really bad. I guess not, like, six-year-old bad, but still. It's old DMC floss on cotton muslin, on underwear - so I don't care.

In unrelated news, for anyone not living on the mid-Atlantic seaboard - be jealous of our fall weather today! It was beautiful! Besides sitting around and enjoying the breezes while I embroidered, I also walked to the local farmers market with the family. It's tiny, but we got some nice produce, and the Best Wine Ever - a cranberry wine from a winery in Mays Landing. Delicious! And the vendor looked at me suspiciously when mum and I were getting samples of the wine, and asked if I was 21. Thank you, my good sir!

Because what's the fun if I'm not sewing something the night before the event?!

After being defeated (temporarily!) by the skirt of the new pink and black bustle dress, it occurred to me that I'm not reallyhappy with the silhouette my bustle gives. I want the skirt to have the round shape of the early 1870s, not the mid 70s shape that's flattened out at the front.

And the bustle I've currently got is the Corsets and Crinolines 1876 bustle. Hmm, big mystery there!

So I started making the C&C 1872 crinolette today. Well, that's sort of a lie; I worked out the measurements a week and a half ago, and cut the pieces earlier this week - but didn't start putting it together til today, because I didn't have the matching thread. I'm using plain blue cotton from the skirt of my First Ever (rather bad) 18th century gown, which I think was worn twice (and I wouldn't be caught dead in it now, so may as well use the fabric for something!)...I realized plain cotton or cotton prints are not something I have in the Stash in abundance!

Wool, on the other hand...

And I thought I had more hoop steel and casing than I do, so I had to pilfer the same from the Big Red Crinoline of Shame - I do want to fix it someday, but I need the boning for the crinolette now. Hopefully I will have enough hoop steel for all the channels...well, we shall see tomorrow!

Would be nice if I didn't have work tomorrow, but I think I can get it done - the casings are all sewn on, and the back bustle piece is sewn on as much as it can be before I put in the steels!

Oh, and I am quite aware my stripey bustle might not actually fit over this crinolette. That is, I know it's got enough fabric in the skirt, but it might hang funky. Which is okay! Then I'll just use the '76 bustle. But worth a try!

I finished stuff; yay! Namely the Foy corset. I'm pretty pleased with it; there is definitely some wonkiness in the front where the hip gores are sewn in that I'm irritated about, but it's not a huge deal. Plus I'm cutting myself some slack here as it's my first 19thc corset...my 16thc effigy corset and the 18thc stays I've made are constructed much more simply!

( Pikshurs )