A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Ah well. Most people decided the weather forecast's just too iffy to brave an all-day outdoor event tomorrow, and I can't say I blame them. I wouldn't want to drag my silk damask all round in the Faire mud even if I had finished it!

I admit I spent most of the day fixing the sleeves on the dodgy green 16thc jacket (which is now considerably less dodgy. I hope) with the intention of finishing it up tonight and wearing it tomorrow, but that really needed to be done anyway, so I don't mind. Will make an effort to actually finish it, sans trim, before I put it away again. Mostly because there are still a lot of pins in it, and I may need those...

At least, that's what we're calling it for now. It has sleeves and is wearable, so that's something,

Jacket Brigade, I'll fight all of you for the title of Worst Sleeves Ever! We can duel it out tomorrow.

I am sewing, I promise! I just couldn't bring myself to sew the jacket on the machine, when I brought the pieces out last night (had a nasty headache Monday night, & didn't sew anything). I mean, I was going to finish all the inside seams by hand anyway, so...it's really not adding much more construction time onto it!

Not bothering with construction pictures for this, because I am lazy and it is a jacket. Also because I'm sewing it The 18th Century Way, which is pretty much totally wrong, but I'm comfortable with that so it goes pretty quickly...so there. The gussets are sewn in both sides, and one front piece is attached to the back, and as soon as I get off here I'm going to go put the rest of it together. Sans sleeves.

Still not sure how close to actually finished this whole thing is going to be for Sunday, but as long as the jacket itself is done, I'm fine. I can fudge the coif with a tucked-under 18thc cap and I can fudge the smock with an 18thc shift if I have to. And I have Friday off, so I'm not worried about being at least presentable on Sunday!

And the jacket was going to be pinned shut anyway!

First things first...theladyrebeccagave me the Liebster Blog award!

I don't really know what it means other than someone likes to read my journal(No, I get it, thanks, I took German a decade ago), but that's good, so hooray for that! (And it's even some onewho's never met me so she doesn't even know how incredibly awesome I can be in person. *snort* Maybe that is why she nominated me, heh heh heh.) This award has strings attached, as most things do - The Rules:
2. Link to your nominator to say “thank you“
3. Nominate 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.

The first one would be a hell of a lot easier if LJ would actually cooperate with the uploading of pictures. I would send somebody nasty letters but I suspect it would be futile. On to Some Of the People Whose Journals I Like to Read (who don't need to feel obligated to pass it on. Just take it as an "I think you're cool. Also, your journal came up first in the alphabetical list on my profile that I totally did not consult while writing this").
bellamissella
blackcat452
dragoneyes19
frau_elsebeth
hiraimi

And now a brief report on sewing progress: Despite the toasted fingers, I did get the muslin for the green jacket draped and fitted last night. Well, sans sleeves, but I always wait to do the sleeves! I worked nine-and-a-half hours today so I don't expect to get a whole lot done after I get off here, but I would like to get the pieces cut out, at least. Mmm, yeah, we'll see.

It was absurdly easy to fit - what I draped on Mabel fit me just about exactly. Which I am always suspicious of. I'm not that good! SUSPICIOUS.

RE: the 16thc jacket...I've started to wonder whether it would not be smarter to make it out of wool? You know...October. Potential cold. That kind of thing. I'm pretty attached to the shade of green of my linen that I was going to use, but I wouldn't mind it out of some forest-green wool I've got either.

Only down side to using that green wool is that, well, it's already in a dress. My green medival dress, to be exact.

On the one hand, I do like this dress. It's comfy (yeah, ya think? IT'S NOT FITTED) and drapey and wicked fun to swan around in. That train! On the other hand, I'm not super-super attached to it, it's not a very exciting dress, and I made it four years ago and have worn it a grand total of twice. There's just no reason for me to do medieval!

There would be a few other options for jacket-fabric in the stash, except I really want the green & orange color scheme! So it's either sacrifice the medieval dress and have nice warm wool, or save the dress and have my ideal color scheme, but possibly (probably?) be cold.

HELP HELP I CAN'T MAKE DECISIONS.

I can apparently be sort of productive when I want to be. Never ceases to amaze me. Despite being sort of busy today, Igot the orange petticoat all cartridge-pleated and attached to the waistband. And hooks and eyes put on too, and marked the hem, so all I need to do is hem the thing.

Well, and iron it; that thing's wrinkly.

Extremely dubious shots of cartridge pleats:




And yeah, the black gathering thread shows, but I never bother matching gathering threads to the fabric, because I'd have far too many spools of buttonhole twist - especially when it doesn't show! (A gown, I'd consider matching thread...)

Apparently "progress" on the 16thc outfit means "deciding I don't like the almost-finished kirtle and picking it apart to turn it into a petticoat." Well, it laced up the back - annoying - and one of the eyelets pulled out. I forgot about that. Only hand-sewn eyelet I've ever done that's come out...I think the linen blend backing the taffeta didn't give enough support. Well, don't have to worry about that now! Bodice is trashed and back seam is (weirdly) sewn up, so it can fasten on the side and make me much happier.

Assessing the other pieces of my 16thc wardrobe - could be worse!
( Read more... )

So - seeing as I needed some little bits and pieces of fabric...went over my fabric websites to see what I could get.

Got cotton duck for stays interlining. (Even if I don't make new effigy stays, I can always use that stuff! Really.)
Got natural linen for linings in general, mainly 18th-early 19thc.
Got purple crushed velvet for my Titanic-era coat, and rayon to line it. (What? I've been doing some hard-core planning for my dress for our Titanic exhibit outing, and I'm going to need a coat in January!)
Got white linen so I can finish the shift.
And got two yards of burgundy silk to coordinate with my red wool to make a Titanic exhibit dress! I swear I didn't have anything that went with it in the stash. I've been looking for days!