mandie_rw | Entries tagged with winter stroll outfit

Posted to IG.

Hat is about half-silk-covered, which is Not Too Bad. Thanks, long weekend! So annoying that school is a thing that keeps me from sewing. Work is dumb.

I also took a break from the stabby-stabby-in-the-fingers to work a bit on the skirt. And totally press lines into this wool, because lordy does it want to be babied. I've pressed it in between two towels and it still shadows through a bit. Whatever, stupid plush wool. Fuckin' fight me. Towels are all you're getting. And it's got to be manhandled going through the machine because it's so plush and fat it will not feed evenly. (I realize a walking foot would probably help here. Don't have one. Still giving Joanns the stink-eye.)

All that, and it's still verrrrrry nice fabric to pet! With the panels in my lap I felt like I was wearing a very pleasant blanket. And also on the bright side, I don't think I'll need to overcast the seam allowances inside the skirt unless the lining silk starts fraying to hell - which to be fair it very well might.

Next weekend goal is to either finish the skirt or the hat - pretty sure I can do one or the other, pretty sure I can't do both. Either would be very acceptable, though!

Current Mood: good

I did a thing! (Pip helped.) Cut out the skirt pieces from the plum wool for the Longwood stroll dress.

It helps that this is such nice fabric to work with...it's a wool-cashmere melton. Not as soft as you'd think from the name (I think it's probably 85/15 tops), but nice and plush, and cuts like butter. Also is basically a lint roller. I'm going to be absolutely covered in cat hair when I wear this.

I managed to get all the wool and lining pieces basted together - finished up the last one tonight after lessons. I decided to line it in silk shantung rather than my usual go-to of premium muslin, mainly because I don't need to make this skirt any heavier than it's already going to be! I would have lined it in cotton lawn...but I'm out of the Dharma Trading stuff I usually like to keep on hand, and "free from stash" is cheaper than buying something, so silk it is. It's Joann's silk so thin, lightweight, and probably destined for linings anyway...

(The lining's pink, not that you'd ever know it from this picture lol)

Next step is to cut the interlining and facing (mainly so I can use the skirt pieces as templates and not have to deal with the damn tissue pieces); if I can get any of that out of the way during the school week it'll be a victory. Otherwise - next weekend!

Current Mood: sleepy

Mom and I got the tree yesterday and Pip helped put it up. After some initial climbing attempts and stabbing himself in the soft palate several times while chewing on twigs, he spent a good part of today sleeping under the tree and getting the felt skirt absolutely covered in hair. Hashtag MerryPipmas. Guess he and the tree are friends now.

Productive sewing: I finished up a boring blue flannel skirt yesterday - it started as the skirt of a 1933 Vogue pattern but was a horrible sister-wife length when I tried it on to check the hem, so I chopped enough off that it doesn't look markedly different from all my 1950s skirts! Boring but very necessary, because I don't currently fit in any of my really cold-weather winter skirts! I also worked on something from the "please finish me" pile - a red woolen skirt from Simplicity 8747 (again, see: need cold-weather skirts). At some point I want to make the top half to make it an actual suit, but...not right now. I probably won't finish that this weekend unless I'm incredibly efficient at lesson-planning tomorrow, but I sewed all but one seam, and hand-stitched twill tape over the raw seam allowances to make it look nice.

It would be nice if I did finish it, because we have some Weather forecast for this Wednesday - snow! Although it's an all-day event and I'll be super unexcited to be snowed in to work... (I know 5-8" is peanuts to quite a few people on my f-list, but we didn't get any snow at all last year, and that much snow at once is fairly unusual for the mid-Atlantic these days!) Oh, well, still plenty of time for the snow line to move north and then we'll just get two feet of rain.

That Damn Turn-of-the-Century Outfit: Watch the tag change back, like magic! I was really close to compromising with the skirt fabric, and getting silk, because I can get that shade of green in silk, and it's unlikely to be cold enough to really make a lined silk skirt impractical. But it's still an ambitious project, and the sewing mojo I had when I found that fashion plate is already receding. The deciding factor in tipping the scales back was actually opening the package of the cutter fur coat I'd bought - it does have a few tears but it was a very nice quality of Persian lamb in its day, and will be an absolute delight to wear something made of it.

(Even if the concept of "Persian lamb" is a little creepy, even to me, who isn't really bothered by fur. Don't look it up if fur bothers you!)

So I'm scaling back my plans to accommodate the current lack of turn-of-the-century mojo. Definitely not making a new corset (never was sent the promised pattern, and I don't think I have time anyway), for one! Will just have to suck it up (and in) and wear the 1860s again, it works well enough. I have to make a hat because I don't have a winter late-1890s anymore, and obviously I want to make that little capelet from the Persian lamb (along with a matching muff). The rest of it...would be nice but isn't entirely necessary? Although I KNOW the navy flannel skirt won't fit any more, as I made it a titch on the small side four years and three inches ago... but I do have the lavender check skirt and a light blue skirt, both of which are lightweight wools (not ideal, but possible with layering!), that *cough* hopefully still fit, with a bit of hook and bar moving... Same with the shirtwaist. The lavender check bolero is not ideal unless we have super warm weather, but I could definitely still wear the checked silk shirtwaist. Basically...I can make old stuff work.

If I have time and motivation...I'll make a new, plain skirt out of the plum wool. If I have even more time and motivation, I'll make a bodice out of the plum wool - something like Miss on the right of this photo, with a bit of the Persian lamb. And if I don't...it's okay!

(I'm still filing away the wacky red and green outfit as a Maybe Someday, because I love it! Just not this time.)

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: March of the Toys; Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops

Actually...just got a message from the seller that they just sold out of the fabric I ordered. Balls.

OKAY perhaps I won't be making this after all. I want wool, not silk, in a medium-to-heavy (but not HEAVY) weight, and I want something in the range of hunter or forest green, not Kelly green or olive...and that appears to not exist right now! (I should add, in a somewhat reasonable price range. I'm not going to pay $50/yd or anything...) Grumble grumble grump.

I'm going to sulk for a while and say that if I can't find this green wool I don't want to make a winter turn-of-the-century outfit at all, because there's no point in starting an outfit I'm not excited about. May change my mind later when I'm done sulking.

Current Mood: irate

Okay, I found and bought some green wool (rayon-blend, but let's not pick nits; green 100% wool is a rare animal these days) on ebay, so I suppose I better make this outfit, eh?

Current Mood: cheerful

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. ;)

Current Mood: naughty

I did not do much, reader.

This is entirely fine, as I Needed A Break! I'm...sort of...looking forward to going back to school, although I think it's probably because I can count down the three weeks to Christmas break pretty easily. ;)

But! I did sew a couple of things! Apparently I remained in a Regency sort of mood, as I did find those Redthreaded short stays pretty easily, and worked on them a bit. Not to completion or anything. I did sew all the main seams except the bust gussets - and in my defense, doing them by hand through a ton of layers of drill and sometimes cording is not particularly easy on the hands! I could do finish two seams a day (that's the initial seam, the stitching-the-seam-flat seam, and the covering-the-seam-allowances-with-twill-tape seams) without putting my hands and wrists totally out of commission, so that's what I did. Took pictures, am too lazy to upload and post them. Sad trombone.

(Sometime.)

Also made most of a Regency cap, because I still felt like hand sewing when I wasn't stay-making (just not like hand sewing through six layers of tightly woven fabric!), as I realized I don't actually have a Regency cap to go with this squiggle print dress, and it very much feels like a cap kind of dress. I used one of my Country Wives patterns (British Regency caps), one of the plainer versions. Fear not, it's still got a ruffle! Just have to finish the seams on that.

Also! Buying stuff! Because it's un-American not to shop on Black Friday, right? Online, I hasten to add. Not going out. American Duchess - couple of pairs of 1930s/40s shoes; Orchard Corset - two styles of waist trainers to wear for everyday/work (my posture is rapidly going downhill and it's harder to overeat in a corset!); Yankee Candle - because I like nicely smelly things and it actually knocks out all my second-tier Gifts I Need For People That I Have To Buy For But I Don't Know Intimately Enough To Get a Really Thoughtful Gift.

And (not really Black Friday-related; the date was incidental) I also finally broke down and bought the Persian lamb coat I've been eyeballing on ebay, to use for Furry Warm Things for our winter Edwardian stroll in January. It's a cutter with really awful pictures so I can't tell exactly how damaged it is, but provided it's not actively disintegrating I don't care! Hoping to get a little shoulder capelet and muff out of it, so it's getting hacked up anyway. At absolute worst I'll change up my dress design plans and use it for trim...

Current Mood: mellow

Definitely the next one up on the "mental costuming" docket! I should reallyreally finish up at least one of the smaller projects that's been hanging around pathetically for way too long (orange plaid wool skirt, I'm looking at you) before starting another Big Thing, but none of those UFOs are good mental occupation when I have the time and mental capacity to mentally sew but not actually sew!

(See: every day after school before dinner. I technically have an hour or so of down time before dinner that I could be using to sew...but I really can't use it to sew. Half the time I take a nap!)

So, I mentioned that the Usual Suspects and I were all inspired to maybe-hopefully plan for more outdoor events this winter.

robinsnest and I figured that a winter walk at Longwood Gardens in their post-busy-Christmas-season (I love their Christmas display but I'm going to forego it this year for...obvious reasons! I think they're being good about limiting people, but still, PEOPLE) might be just the ticket, as we both luuuurve costume outerwear.

Naturally this will automatically ensure it's 70 degrees on the day we pick, but oh well. I will swelter to be cute, thanks.

I posted something about it on IG for the Fall For Costume "Future" day so you can get An Idea...the plum-colored wool refuses to photograph anything like the color it actually is; it does have that redder tinge but about 5 shades darker than that photo. Also after having decided on a (probable) dress design I want a darker fur than the one I happened to pick up for a picture. (Pip the Ever Helpful found the box of scraps and pulled every single one of them out. Thanks dude. I gave him a piece to murder just so he'd leave the rest of it alone, with mixed success.) I do also have a wool blend twill in pale blue that I was considering, but the general consensus in the FB chat was that I should use the plum wool - mainly as it's a cashmere blend and Robin wants to pet me. (I warned her it's a very low percentage of cashmere...consensus was still plum.)

After a lot of wiffle-waffling, I finally decided to buy this pattern on etsy, as it saves me from having to figure out my own trim scheme, along with deciding the age-old question, Very Smart Jacket With High Collar, or Fur Capelet? (It's a dress with a high collar, so I can still make a capelet! With an even higher collar! Winning.) Adrienne's heard bad things about the seller, but all the recent reviews are decent apart from the "took forever to ship" aspect, and I ordered it about a week ago, so as long as it shows up before my Christmas break starts...I'm fine with that.

(Actually, if it turns out to be a decent purchase, I'll buy more of her patterns and make an entire damn turn-of-the-century wardrobe; there are a TON of 1898-1900 patterns in her shop that I would love to have dresses of!)

What else? Oh, I discovered to my mild annoyance that acetate taffeta is much more difficult to find than it was ten years ago. Fear not, I found an acceptable selection on ebay with a bit of digging, but I remember Back In The Day, we used to carry it in the costume fabrics section at Joann. No longer! And it's also nonexistent on my usual fabric websites, too. Guess everyone prefers to wear plastic these days. Why do I specifically want acetate? Well, first off, because fuck polyester, but also because cellulose acetate is almost period-correct, if you squint a bit? (1924 is the date I'm mostly seeing for that, and 1894 is the date for the earliest commercial production of rayon/artificial silk.) I want an internal dust ruffle inside the skirt, specifically one that will go swishy-swishy like I've seen in some extants (there's one in a PoF2 dress)...but I'm not quite willing to pay $25/yd for the pleasure of having something go swishy-swishy that will get covered in dirt. And that's why artificial silk is a thing! $4.25 a yard seemed more acceptable...

ALSO a new hat! Out of my bazillions of silk scraps I don't think I have anything I like to coordinate (or clash magnificently) with the plum wool, so I'm going to be extravagant and order a couple of yards from Silk Baron and use whichever one I end up liking better. An extra yard of silk never goes amiss around here...

Also-also - if I can manage it I'd really like an actual proper c1898-1900 corset. I've been wearing my 1860s corset for all my late 1890s stuff up til now, and while it's worked...over quarantine I've gotten fat in places I didn't have when I made the corset in 2014 so it's not wildly comfortable any more! Plus having made it in 2014, it's about time for an 1860s corset upgrade anyway! 1898-1900 is a little tricky for corset patterns, actually, as I want to be fashionable but not so fashion-forward as to get into the S-bend shape. I also am lazy and don't want to have to scale something up from a book if I don't have to! Currently browsing AetelierSylphe patterns on etsy, which seems the most promising option at the moment - some adjusting and mocking up, but not so much as it would be from a book.