A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

No more sewing this weekend, although I did unpack both bags of crap from sewing day yesterday, so that is definitely still an accomplishment.

Also cleaned the house for visiting in-law relations (should have people over more so I'm inspired to be less of a slob lol). Not a deep clean by any means but at least all the stray cat hair tumbleweeds were vacuumed up! Cats fled from the noise of the kids - they're Tom's cousin's kids and they're well-behaved but not especially quiet, and the cats just aren't used to that decibel level hahaha. The five year old really wanted to be Orange Tuna's friend. Orange Tuna hid under the entertainment center and watched him suspiciously. Lili and Ferd fled to the recesses of the basement and under the bed, respectively. Poor kid just wanted to pet the kitty LOL.

After laying the spotted net out on the green fabric and against the brocade, I think that the white is too white, annoyingly. I think it may be too HEY LOOK AT ME bright white. I'm going to leave it sitting out on the ironing board for the week slash wait for the beaded net to show up so I can see how that coordinates with everything to decide. It's nylon net so I'll have to get acid dye for it...I'll stop by Joanns to see what they have once I decide. I don't particularly want to make an order from Dharma Trading for one TINY container of dye, but I infinitely prefer Dharma's product quality, plus the Joanns color selection of dye is fairly limited, so...we'll see.

I suppose technically I didn't quite make my sewing goals for the week as I wanted to at least start putting the flounce on the underskirt, but I did all the rest of it (prep for sewing day, get the seam allowances tacked down, bind hem) so I still feel fairly accomplished!

Goal for this week is modest; it's Tom's birthday this upcoming weekend, and although we don't have any big plans we'll probably do something! (Which will take away from my precious sewing time haha. So rude!) Also I'm scheduled for some dental work on Thursday (ew) so that may affect sewing inclination too!

- Dinner dress underskirt: pleat up and baste to waistband OR attach hem flounce. (Both would be even better, but, again, being modest.)

- Add back lacing to lining of old cream sack jacket to embiggen. I've settled on wearing my red quilted petticoat and cream silk 1760s sack jacket to the 18thc costumed tea in February, and the jumps that go with it if they're remotely wearable. Hooray for historical comfy clothing! The jacket sleeves still fit, thankfully, and although I made it with a fitted back lining it's the easiest thing in the world to slash the center back and put some eyelets or ties in. I don't think there's too much else to get this outfit wearable, but I should start adding bits and pieces to the weekly sewing list so February doesn't sneak up on me!

Today was a nice easy day; very little last-minute sewing (unless I decide to try and bang out a cap tonight after I get off here)! So, re-wearing a dress is not all bad. :) Just cut out the ties for the jumps and made a pleated band & bow to go round my neck out of the same red silk, for the breakfast outfit.

So, I will see you all tomorrow afternoon/evening! PARTY PARTY.

The jacket's all finished, and the waistcoat just needs eyelets at the front for the ribbons. Which I should be able to finish tonight while the Oscars are on.

(I just put it on, and was confused for a second...I thought I was watching the Tonys. So! Many! Musical! Numbers! Nice and all, but...why?)

Jacket: Trim is a little more than half pinked now.

Waistcoat: Coming along. All the pieces are sewn together, now I'm in the process of turning under all the edges and stitching the lining down over them, mainly because I didn't want to make binding and sew that on.

None of this is picture-worthy, unfortunately.

Sleeves and binding attached - this leaves just the hem to make it wearable. And then of course the trim...
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I suspect I'm going to have to take a break in the middle of pinking the trim, but this outfit's my #1 priority for the Francaise dinner weekend. Of course I want to finish the Expensive Sack Gown (the Turkish outfit is, yet again, probably going to be put on the back burner, because I'm bad with Time Management), but I'd rather rewear the I Want Candy sack gown and have a breakfast outfit, than a new gown for dinner and nothing to wear at breakfast!

I only sewed the sleeves together today, as I remembered that Pennsbury's sewing day is this Saturday, and I need to finish the hood I brought home. So I worked on that for a good part of my Sewing Time. Boring!

The Pinking of The Trim (and Flounces) is up next though, mostly because I can't avoid it any more!

The sack jacket looks much the same as it did in the last post, so I won't bother putting up a picture! Though it does have considerably fewer pins.

The robings and side seams are sewn, and I have high hopes of getting the skirt pleats sewn down tonight as well, if I don't get too distracted by the internet or Lovecraft. (It's a thousand-page book; it's taking me a while to work through.)

Have I mentioned before that I love having an 18thc gown pattern that fits? It makes it So Much Easier not to have to do any of that "mocking up" and "fitting" nonsense!

Yet again, I'm using the pattern for the lining of the cranberry wool gown, and since it didn't need any modifications, went right to the cutting out of the lining. And then brought out the cream silk taffeta and draped the back pleats, which doesn't make for a super-exciting photo, but Downton Abbey took up a good chunk of my evening. Not that I'm complaining. *grin*

The quilted petticoat is this close to being done...but I wanted to take an LJ break. If the weather's decent tomorrow I'll take shots of the petticoat on, since the snow should be picturesque with the colour, or something.

My 1760s "lounging" outfit for the post-Francaise dinner breakfast, that is! I'm probably going to be bouncing around Francaise-dinner-weekend outfits for the next couple weeks, but I really wanted to start this, just so I could have the fabric on my lap. It's warm!

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