A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

The weather on Saturday ended up being not bad at all! I wore my old standby, the block-print gown (which I like, but need to finish something else ON TIME, because I'm getting tired of it!) with a brown linen petticoat. I was glad to have a last-minute cloak though, as it did get chilly! Mitts would have been ideal. Or, you know, remembering to bring my gloves.

I got, literally, six pictures, because I'm the kind of person that forgets she's got a camera in her pocket ten minutes into the event! I fully intend to steal any and all pictures by my partners-in-crime, blackcat452, madamekat, and dragoneyes19!

( Germantown 2011: the long version! )

(I don't know about any of you, but I'm always astounded when I actually manage to post pictoral content...)
So without further ado...pictures!

The sleeves are sewn to the gown, with only one instance of sewing things into places they shouldn't be, and that was quickly remedied, happily. (And Help! was watched last night, and much fun was had by all. That is to say, me.) Now I'm working on sewing the trim to the sleeves, which is just about as much fun as making the sleeves themselves. That is to say; not fun at all. However, if I'm not completely distracted by the totally unrelated project of sewing beads to trim (which is a distinct possibility, and is for something I'll post about when I feel like it, which is not now), I don't think it'll tske me too much more time to...dare I say...finish this outfit.

We'll see, though. For some reason, sewing beads to trim has a really strong lure right now...Very inexplicable.

And I take wonderfully awful pictures of that sewing to prove it! (I always seem to remember that I want pictures about half an hour after it's gotten too dark outside to bother lugging Mabel out to photograph things.)


I still need to decide exactly how I want to polonaise the skirt and add ties...and oh, yes, sleeves. I haaaaaaaaate sleeves. Which is why I've left futzing with them as late as I can. I just keep putting it off...but I can't really put it off any longer, can I? Eww...well, be prepared to see (well, hopefully see) sleeve progress in the next few days.

Taken, with much amusement, from realm_of_venus

Dear ladyneferankh

I don't really know how to tell you this, but our romance is over. I think I realized it last year with George Bush and his wife and I saw you sit on my avocado plant. I'm sure you're scarred enough to understand the middle east. I'm returning the pictures from LA to you, but I'll keep your photo as a memory. You should also know that I never will forget a passionate interest for mice.

Good luck on your short-term leave from jail,
Amanda

Oh, and I actually did some sewing over the weekend, as I was home to see a show.

I sewed all day today, as spring break starts after my one class tomorrow, and there's hardly any work due for that class...so I let myself go. ;) I pleated (hence the finger-stabbity-ness) and sewed a row of trim on each side of the front of the gown, which doesn't sound like all that much, but took forever. I even took a couple pictures for proof, but the computer ate them. Seriously, I cannot find them anywhere...they uploaded to the computer from the camera, and then proceeded to vanish, as they aren't in the folder they normally go to, and I checked everywhere else too. Whatever. You'll just have to take my word for it!

ETA: Never mind. They appeared. Swear to God they weren't there before. It's messing with my mind, trying to make me think I'm crazy! Oh, wait, I already know I am. Take that, computer! Your evil plots have been thwarted!

Ahem. Anyway...

I just sewed two sides of a big rectangle of fabric. (Which will be the skirt of the polonaise.)

How exciting is that?!

Did lots of sewing on the polonaise bodice today after class- four hours of handsewing is nice sometimes. :) I just have to finish one of the front pieces and sew it to the rest of the bodice, then it's as done as it's going to get here. I didn't think I'd be able to sew this quickly, so I don't have anything else to do after I finish this. Ah well, next time I go home I'll get more stuff to sew. 

Just a quicky-quick update before I go to sleep, since I haven't been on for the past few days, and I should be taking advantage of my last few days of free time.

A. never came over to try on her stays (raz@234fgyhGcG!!!!)...so I suppose the completion of those will have to wait until spring break (hopefully not summer break...). Saw Sweeney Todd earlier this week and decided I NEED a Mrs. Lovett costume (I will elaborate, hopefully, more later)...I dunnno, these things just happen sometimes... :) So I started making a pair of mitts...I made one, it sucked, made the other, it was much better, found I couldn't take the first one apart without ripping it to shreds, got fed up, and the got totally distracted by making another pair of mitts for me to wear around the house (out of froggy flannel I found in the scrap bin) because my hands and wrists are always cold. Then I got distracted from the original mitts again because I got some DVDs from Amazon, and just had to watch A Clockwork Orange right then...but I felt guilty not doing any sewing...so I finished doing the eyelets on my stays that I started recovering last summer and only just finished yesterday.

So since my stays were finally done, I started toiling the bodice for the block print polonaise today, which actually went remarkably smoothly, so I got up to cutting out and pinning together all the layers of all the pieces before my family and I left to see RAIN: The Beatles Experience, which, for the record, I thought was fabulous (though I'm no hardcore fan to notice and whine about how "but that wasn't RIGHT WAHHH!" ).

So, really, moral of the story is that instead of finishing things, I just started more projects and left them half-finished too, as per usual. (And I bought more fabric at Joann's...but it's okay, they have a definite, to be-used-soon-in-the-future purpose...and I had a gift card, so I technically  only spent $5.)

I did finish the froggy mitts though. :) And I luvz them.

Well, here I am, back at school. Break, as always, wasn't long enough. :P Not enough time to get any real sewing done, though I did re-do a brown linen *coughblendcough* 18thc petticoat, re-hemming by hand and putting proper ties on the waist.

Speaking of the 18thc, I was very very bad over break, and bought some of from ebay, from heritagetrading. I watched Marie Antoinette one night over break, and it just set me off..."I NEED a sack back gown NOW!!!" Preferably in a happy cotton print. Of course, it's going to take two weeks to ship, and I have to wait until after the semester's over, so I actually have time  to sew, so it's not exactly now. 

As if I didn't have fabric for at least two, maybe three other possible 18thc gowns lurking in the fabric stash. Ah well, what can I say? I've promised myself that I won't make any more major fabric purchases this year. And when I say this year, I mean winter break and summer break too, at least until after Bastille Day in July, which is what I'm planning on wearing this gown to. Bastille Day...now, that involves many wicked plans that I shall not bore you with...yet.