mandie_rw | Entries tagged with z:18thc:chemise gown

I went to a lovely little picnic at

blackcat452's house yesterday; it was just a small get-together, but she put together a nice spread with pretty decorations, and we all had a wonderful time! Good food, great company, pretty costumes...what else could you want!

I wore the chemise gown, and trod all over the hem as soon as humanly possible. Because of course.

(All these photo stolen from Judy and Robin...because I never take pictures of anything, if you hadn't noticed.)

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Current Mood: sleepy

Bad ones, at that. But I drove out to PA today for fabric-shopping and bodice-draping, so I didn't have enough time to go down to the park and leisurely take a million self-timer photos. It's a chemise gown...they all look the same, you know what it looks like!

First: it's a shoe! I managed to get one heel muddy already. Yay me! I also managed to step on the front hem, snag the hem thread, and put a dirt mark on it (on the inside, happily). All within a ten-minute wearing. I am thinking I am not made for white dresses...

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Current Mood: awake

Hooray for 200+ inch hems! But it's finished, and since Lil' Sis isn't available, if I can find a headstone that will pass for a decent tripod (umm...I often take finished-costume-photos in the Rev War-era cemetery down the street! I don't just have headstones lying about) I'll get pictures of it tomorrow.

And I got the bodice pieces of the linen turque cut out tonight, and may even start sewing them together before bed tonight. But let's not get carried away.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Doors; Love Me Two Times

Watched Daniel Deronda today for the first time in years, and my primary thought was: Lord Grantham! You are a very bad man in this movie! (Secondary ones involved Hugh Dancy's adorableness, and that maaaaybe I'd like to give early bustle dresses another chance.) Clearly it's been many years since I watched it...

Dragging myself back into the 18thc got the sleeves of the chemise gown hemmed and fiddly little lace attached to the cuffs, because it needed just a wee bit of frou-frou. I also marked & trimmed the hem, and sewed about four inches before I let myself get distracted by LJ! I foresee a post about a finished chemise gown sometime in the next couple days...

And since I couldn't make Dress U and the Tiaras & Jampagne party, I sewed and drank in my newest tiara tonight! It was bought a while back when I was planning an early 1800s French court dress for the Court Dinner at Dress U, actually! Fear not, I'll make an Empress Josephine dress someday...in the very distant future...when I have time to hand-embroider and be-sequin the entire robe. Crazy or bust! :P
Snapshot_20130602

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Kinks; Mister Pleasant

I've been all atwitter over our newly-planned Gettysburg trip the past couple days, so of course all I can think of right now is 1860s. I'd really like a new dress...should I use my plaid wool or my plaid silk or a plain wool and trim it in black ribbon or...? Need to properly trim that red bonnet! Got to buy that pattern for the wrapper! Should I buy another pair of stockings? Look at all the five million ways I could trim the paletot I obviously need to make!

...but there are a few other things that probably ought to get done first. Like the chemise gown and the blue linen turque, since I need that outfit in two weeks.

Oh, right. To that end, I sewed up the brocade sash (except now I'm pretty sure it needs fringe to be properly finished) and fixed the sleeves on the chemise gown tonight. Not the most exciting things ever, but I'm trying to be good!

(And now I'm going to go look at Farmhouse Fabric's trims and plot paletot trim layouts...)

Current Mood: mischievous
Current Music: Beethoven; Symphony No. 9

Late-night posting again, yeesh. I was really trying to stop doing that...

Got the sleeves sewn together and attached to the gown, with a minimum of finagling - they aren't the best sleeves ever, but I've made worse. (There's a little fitting issue that I could probably fit with a minimum of work...but I'm not sure I care enough to do it. Ugh, I probably do. Tomorrow!)

Robin pointed me toward this portrait, which I hadn't seen before...it's got the cutaway "zone" front with a loose-fitting chemise-gown-kind of thing underneath. Woo!

And I really like that sash! I may have to make a new, extra-long one, so I can wrap it like that. I've even got a yard of (absurdly expensive) blue and gold silk brocade languishing in the stash that would give a similar (shiiiiny!) effect...

Yesterday I gathered the back of the dress and sewed the binding, and today I sewed the drawstring channels at the front neckline and put in the drawstrings. And then sewed on the shoulder straps. Which of course are too big, because I never learn. Will pick them off at the back and resew them tomorrow.

Where we are right now: world's most devotedly-hand sewn Weeping Angel costume?

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Current Mood: indecisive

Trying to work on the chemise gown...

Gosh, life is so difficult sometimes! :)

(And yes, orange cat means I'm still at my parents' house! Thank God, because there's air conditioning here...)

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Pink Floyd; Wish You Were Here

Sewed the other two seams on the chemise gown today, so now I have an enormously wide tube of white voile. Good thing it's not 95+ degrees so that even a lapful of voile makes me sweat!

No, it totally is. Ugh.

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Rolling Stones; Jigsaw Puzzle

Had my team of drunk monkeys sew the panels for the front and the back of the chemise gown together today...seriously, when it comes to long, ostensibly straight seams, I couldn't sew a straight line if you paid me!

Thank goodness the voile's 58" wide already, so there are a minimum of seams - I really shouldn't complain about them! It's made of a whopping total of four panels, so I guess I'll shut up now. xD

Current Mood: dull
Current Music: Small Faces; Red Balloon

Since I don't feel like attaching the lining of the stays at the moment (lazy, much?), I managed to summon up enough motivation to at least start on the chemise gown today. Ripped the panels and ironed them, cut the shoulder straps out of the voile and scraps of white linen, and basted them together.

And that's all I'm doing today!

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Led Zeppelin; Bring It On Home

Oh, and the fabric I ended up getting for the chemise gown...ordered it yesterday, because it really did take me all weekend to decide whether to get striped voile or not! Finally decided against it, because not everything has to be striped.

...And then promptly went and got a yard of this silk for a sash. Because, yeah, everything does have to be striped!

And some light blue silk for the hat. I also ordered some silk ribbon to lace the stays and use for drawstrings in the gown, which means I should be pretty well set, don't think I have anything else to buy. Except maybe shoes, because it would just bother me to wear my heavy black Fuggerwuggers with a chemise gown... (but that's why I have ebay and glue!)

Oh, and now I remember why I haven't ordered from Renaissance Fabrics in ages - their shipping! Good lord. I love everything I've bought from them, but I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the shipping cost for 8 yards of voile and 2 yards of taffeta. If I hadn't decided I was very attached to that particular shade of blue in a striped fabric, I'd have gone somewhere else.

Current Music: Rolling Stones; Hand of Fate

There are simply scads of tweaks on the chemise a la reine (or chemise gown, as I am steadfastly calling it. Give me English words all the way - even if I don't like the shape of their paniers. And even if chemise doesn't come from English. Anyway), so I've been mulling them all over in my tiny brains for the past few days, as this is the Next Project.

If you hadn't guessed.

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