A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Annnd -- I'm finished with the blue and orange 1780s gown. (Wait, what? Actually having something finished feels weird.)

I wandered around and did nothing for a good chunk of the day, but made and attached sleeve ruffle No. 2, hemmed the skirt, and finished the top edge of the bodice. Then I tried it all on, and decided it's Good Enough to just pin the bodice closed. I probably wouldn't if the blue silk were taffeta, as I'd be afraid of millions of pin holes, but the blue is shantung, so pins don't really mark it up.

Plus, sewing hooks and eyes is not fun, and should be avoided whenever possible!

I'm not 100% thrilled with the way the front of the bodice wrinkles, but I really think it's mostly because the shantung is so floppy, not because the fit is that crappy. (Note to self: shantung = interlining. For future reference.) I could put a cable tie in each of the front edges, but 1/ then I wouldn't be able to pin through them, and 2/ I still don't have any more cable ties.

Pictures (on Mabel) Monday, if not tomorrow!

And now, a post that's actually about sewing! OMGZ! *falls over* I was off work today, and actually sat myself down and made me work on ONE thing, so there's a chance something might actually get FINISHED for Costume Con!

(And I'm basing it on this dress...just so anybody who wasn't around for the original post over a year ago doesn't think I'm completely bonkers for making a blue and orange dress and thinking a pink hat would look TOTALLY AWESOME with that!)

( Wrinklies and strange hairdos... )

Ehh, let's do the bad first. My suspicion that the bodice of the anglaise was too small was absolutely correct. I've got no idea how that happened, but oh well. Shit happens! Definitely salvageable - I'll make another piece to put in the side-back on each side, and that should fix the unfortunate armscye-tightness as well. If I didn't want to have had it finished for Sunday I'd go ahead and take it apart and fix it right now (well, not right now, it's 1.30am), because this hardly irks me at all. I'm feeling very placid about it actually. Odd. But I know there's no way to finish the hat and fix all this in the next 24 hours without driving myself completely over the edge. Plus it's supposed to be about a thousand degrees this weekend, so wearing my cotton polonaise might not be a bad thing!

So...I honestly don't know when I'll get back to fixing this and finishing it! I do think it's going to look great (orange and blue! SO AWESOME), but I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to finish it now. And I've got a yen to sew some modern-ish clothes for myself; I've got enough fabric for four (wow)1950s/60s dresses, and I should really get going on that before it's cold and I can't wear them! (Cold. Imagine that.)

The Bad, in (bad) pictorial form:

Gap! Uncool.

And the Good: Now I know I'll have time to finish the Pink Hat; I've got all day tomorrow! The Even Better: Got my wig today. And it is very, very awesome. Eeeeee! I got the Alonge wig from voguewigs.com, teased it and hair-sprayed it a little, and it's perfect. Waaay over the top (I am going to get some odd looks on the train to Philly!) and ridiculous in the extreme, but perfect with the Hat. Which doesn't slide down any more, needless to say. =)

Hat is nearly sewn together, and hey, it looks like a hat now:


And I'm 99% sure I'm going to wear the block-print polonaise, not the gaulle, because 1/ the polonaise is cotton and the gaulle is silk (which is not what one might expect, come to think of it), and 2/ it actually will match the fabric of the dress. It's like I meant to do that.

(First, I need to note that my 14-year-old sister does not know what band Mick Jagger is in. Clearly I have been failing in my attempt to influence her to listen to music made by people who do not use Auto-Tune.)

I've got one-and-a-half more seams to sew on the bodice - I can finish them tonight no problem if I don't get distracted by the guitar. And LiveJournal. Plus my fingers needed a little break from sewing...it's only silk taffeta, but it's tightly woven, and the layers of that, the layer of shantung for the zone, and the lining do add up! (Or I've got wimpy fingers, suddenly.)

Edit: Ahh, I can't believe I forgot to order the wig for our Old City tour for, um, next Sunday, until now. Derp derp. Well, it's ordered now, and will hopefully get here in time! My own hair is really just not sufficient for proper Big 1780s Hair.

Well, first of all, I got my fabric.com order. I love them, they ship so quickly! I was a little afraid the two blues might not go together, but, oh, they do. And I can't wait til I get the linen so I can make the bodiced petticoat and get going on this frock! I loooooove the silk. It's shiny and changeable blue/green (I've got a thing for changeable silks, I know) and pretty and SQUEE! The weave's pretty slubby, which is the only thing I don't love about it, but it's gorgeous otherwise, so whatever. The flash makes it look a little greener than it is.

Oh yeah, the voile's nice too.



And we got out of class early today, since we had a test and could leave when it was done. I was determined to get out of there quickly so I could get home and drape the bodice for the blue and orange anglaise, which I really need to get my butt in gear on if I'm going to wear it on the 25th. (Not to mention the hat.)

So I actually did drape the bodice tonight, amazingly. And the sleeves, too. (I know.) I'll try to get the pieces cut out tonight as well, but I wanted to go on here first and show off the pretty silk.

Finished the blue silk shantung petticoat today, yay. How's that for an update?

EXCITING!

No pictures, because it's a flippin' petticoat.

Because TCNJ is closed today, I thought I'd spend some time on here mumbling about my latest costuming thoughts. (Closed for snow! Again! We were closed yesterday too! Woo! I like winter!)

I've been thinking to myself, that when rose_bertin is in the area this summer, I will have nothing to wear. This is not actually true. I've got three perfectly decent 18th century outfits to wear -- the block-print polonaise, sack-back jacket (would need to fix the wonkyful hem), and the extremely boring blue polonaise. Decent, yes. Fabulous, no. I need to make use of some of the silk in the Stash for fabulousness!

Was not originally inspired by the thought of anything in the Stash, so I went through my collection of images, and I found this...



Hey, I have that "dark coral" silk taffeta from the fabric.com sale that can work for the gown...and I have some blue silk shantung (also from a fabric.com sale...I give those people too much of my money!) that I'm pretty sure will work for the petticoat and zone front. Not sure yet about the hat, but I might have some pink shantung that will work for it.

Yay for actually planning to make a dress that 1) uses mostly fabric from The Stash, and 2) I already have all the underwear for.

Oh, wait, actually, I might make a new pair of stays (the 1780s ones from Corsets and Crinolines)...so, I lied. Hee. It's about time for some new stays, so I may as well make ones that correspond with the dress. And I like making corsets for some reason, so there we go. Sadly I have to wait about three months before I can get started on any of this... Stupid school and wedding gifts and things!