A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Obviously I had an amazing time, as the White House is pretty much incapable of throwing a lackluster party! And all attendees really brought their A-game, too; every single person looked smashing, in my opinion. Well done, ladies!

(You know this is the kind of party that ten years ago I'd have been reading about online, and wishing I was cool enough to know all these cool people and their cool parties! Koshka-the-cat, Jenny laFleur...I still kind of think I was invited accidentally as I'm not actually cool, but shhh, nobody blow my cover. ;) )

I mean, LOOK AT THIS AWESOMENESS.


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(Photobucket album, some of my own pictures, more of ones I've pilfered)

Can't afford to get complacent with my sewing, as there's stuff coming up quick...but I'm taking a couple days off to read books, and plot. Plotting is always fun.

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I'm actually doing pretty well, though I think it'll be another late night. Then I can pack in the morning before my mid-shift at work, and then it's down to VA with Adrienne! We plan to have an epic Disney/showtunes sing-a-long. xD We'll see if I'm 100% trimmed by then!

Last night I discovered that the tucker I made for the neckline is about 3" too short. Apparently an epic mismeasurement. Ooops? Oh well, tuckers aren't entirely necessary! Good thing.

I am blissfully unconcerned about nothing really being finished! It's all quite finished enough to wear, and I guess I must be fine with that! Especially as I spent my free time today puttering about in the garden (I think my new tiny tree is currently being flattened by the rain, oops) and scheming for a new, totally random project that I don't even sort of need. Ordered linen swatches though! Yes, it's a secret for now. ;) Mostly as I haven't decided whether I should try and squeeze it in this year or not. But I'm sure by next year I'll have lost all motivation for it, so, hmmm.

Things that are done: gauze trim on the petticoat, gauze trim on the gown's sleeve cuffs and neckline, and hemming of the crown of the cap and half the band. Not done: gauze trim on the gown skirt, twisted silk trim on top of all the gauze trim, the rest of the cap, the bows on the gown, tacking in the tucker and sleeve ruffles, and the mitts I was going to make. Ah well! If I get the gauze trim on the gown skirt, tack in the tucker/ruffles, and tack on the bows I'll look quite put together enough!

Also, a Very Important Question: should I bring the blue or the pink hair powder?? (I wasn't going to use the colors for risk of staining the cap and/or hat, but...oh, well, let's live dangerously. Especially as I shan't have a cap, haha!

Trim is boring boring boring! I mean, it's very nice when it's sewn on, but the actual sewing-it-on is verrrrry tedious. Petticoat flounce is on - I did that first as it's the longest and therefore the boring-est strip to gather up. Have the neckline and sleeve cuff trim strips cut. This afternoon I decided to do some cap-pattern-tweaking, just to get away from the endless gathering! Got the cap patterned out (nothing very complicated, just a slight adaptation of my middling-class voile cap pattern) and cut the organza for it. I have sincere doubts I'll have time to finish it, but I didn't want to run any more gathering stitches at the moment.

Finished the petticoat hem tonight finally - too lazy to put it all on tonight so maybe I'll do that tomorrow to mark the gown hem. Or maybe not. ;)

Today I got my white striped organza in the mail, yay! Except it's definitely ivory, not white. It's even a bit darker than it shows in the photo. Oops! Ahh, PureSilks, you never fail. :P

To be fair, it's still pretty, and if I didn't have such a white dress I would probably try to pass it off as a "natural white" without much compunction! It's too obviously not-white when in proximity to the chintz print, though. I want a white cap! I never did settle on whether to buy the gold striped organza for my hat or not, so I'm quite happy to use this on the hat instead, and I'll just buy some solid organza from one of the sellers I know who will not be so free with their color names, ahem. So maybe I'll be more inspired to hat-trim tomorrow. We'll see!

Just the hem to go, though! Which I won't mark until I make the petticoat, just in case it adds more fluff than anticipated or something.

Despite having a snow day from work, going to the Philly flower show (Holland theme this year; SO many tulips! fabulous) instead...because they closed the store as the roads were bad but we can easily walk to the train station from home, no cars needed...and then doing a fair amount of shoveling, I did make a bit of time for sewing! Sewed on the shoulder pieces of chintz, and did the neckline. It's a very low neckline...

Tomorrow I can probably knock out a good chunk of petticoat sewing; get it pleated, at least. We'll see.

You will, I am sure, pardon the sweatpants, fuzzy socks, and cropping of my head. It was not a good day to have my face on camera, LOL. Actually put it on over the intended under-petti this time - taffeta instead of linen. Makes a difference!

Today I stitched down the lining edges as far as I could without having yet done the shoulders/sleeves yet...I wanted to double check the fit before messing with sleeves. Getting there! I did decide that I want to add about 4" to the skirt, though. When I tried it on with shoes (it's in flat feet/fuzzy socks here) it's at that awkward is-your-skirt-slightly-too-long-or-did-you-mean-to-have-a-sweep? length, and I'd rather commit to a sweep, since this isn't a remotely practical outfit! I'll probably wear the skirt looped up most of the time, but I'd like to have the option.

This will, of course, mean a slightly awkward pieced-in strip of fabric at the bottom, with the print going crossways, as I only have long strips left with the print going vertically! Whatever, it won't be very noticeable, and that's so 18th-century. *is unfazed*

I have, however, changed my mind a bit about trim. I really want a flounce of some sort on the petticoat, and with self-trim that's not an option (unless we're talking a flounce that's 1" wide, which, no, we're not). Gauze trimming, however, is incredibly popular in the 70s, if you ask the fashion plates, and I have about 4 yards of Dharma organza left in the stash - the stuff that's perfectly fine on the straight, but I flat out refuse to try hand-rolling curves on it anymore. Goes all widgey and isn't worth the trouble! Ugh. (It seems to behave itself pretty well when ripped cross-ways, so I'm going to live dangerously and rip all my trim rather than hemming, because I don't have time to hem a million miles of organza.) I did at first question if gauze was too fancy a trim for a cotton print, but I did find a 1778 Galerie des Modes plate of a gauze-trimmed polonaise of indienne, so I'm calling it good enough. Plus, that's me thinking of cotton prints in 21st century-terms ("that's a bedsheet") rather than 18thc (expensive imported fabric)! Quite fancy enough for gauze, I think.

Yesterday I did a first fitting on the bodice. Not bad - I had to trim down the back of the armscye about an inch for whatever reason, trim up the curve of the front point (expected, as I drew it in longer randomly), and fit the shoulders, but all little fixes.

Before I did the little trimmin's, but not bad!

Again pre-trim - there are some slight wrinklies on the back that annoy me, but they might get less terrible when I bone the back seams.

And then today I did the little fixes, and started pleating up the skirt. Woo! Always feels more like a dress when it's got a skirt. ;)

I put on my stays (small victories) today and got the mockup fitted; I futzed with the seamlines of my 1770s base pattern to get that little flare-in-and-out on the center back pieces, so I wanted to make sure nothing funny had happened. Took a little bit out of the side back seam so a mockup wasn't a complete waste of time!

And I cut the mockup from my lining linen, because I'm smart like that. ;)

So I got the bodice pieces all cut out and pinned together...I didn't try to line up the patterns at all, partly as it's a very wind-y, vine-y design, partly because they wouldn't have bothered in period, and partly because I'm cutting the bodice and sleeves from pillowcases, so as to leave the rest of the fabric for gown skirt and petticoat! So I'm being very stingy with fabric. I do in fact have enough for said petticoat, as last time I posted I'd forgotten that it's a king-sized set. Juuuuust enough! The giant pillowcases help, LOL. I'll basically be working with scraps for trim, but if I can squeak out enough to go round the neck and sleeve cuffs I'll be perfectly happy.

I narrowly managed to avoid placing a flower right over a boob, which is something I generally try to avoid. I meant to add a tuck in the chintz to make it look like there was another seam on the side-back piece...but I forgot while merrily cutting away, so it is what it is!