A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Or; Gee, I Really Don't Like Taking Pictures, Do I.

Robin's doing slightly more detailed posts so I'm taking that to mean I don't have to!

I drove out to Robin's Friday night, even though I live close enough to the city that doing so meant I was about three times further away from the rink and restaurant than if I'd stayed home. But any excuse to hang out with Katherine, you know.

We had lunch at City Tavern that the Coccagna-mobile was horribly late for, as it got stuck behind Mike Pence's motorcade. F you, Mike Pence and the motorcade you rode in on! *scowl* NOBODY HERE LIKES YOU.

NOBODY.

( Read more... )  through the magic of technology, as she couldn't make it down for the weekend and was missed! And then I drove home and left my hatpin jar and teapot warmer at Robin's house, because of course I did.

I don't really have enough pictures of my outfit for a proper blogger post (and basically none of the shirtwaist sans cape) so I want to go out and get them either Thursday or Friday, depending on what we get in the way of snow on Thursday. I'm not going out to get them tomorrow as we're set to tie or break the record of 63 degrees. O_o. Snow sounds like a better environment for a plaid cape...

I really really wanted to get the shirtwaist done today, but I don't think I can quite manage it. I need to do buttons & buttonholes (hooks and bars on the collar, which I need to make probably a good inch tighter, but will do that lazily by just folding the edges under), and finish and put lace on the cuffs. At least I did remember to pick out all the basting...?

Probably would have finished it if I hadn't had a couple costume crises, but, well, they took time to deal with. First, random sticky stuff appeared overnight on the FRONT of my shirtwaist. UM EXCUSE YOU. So I had a small bitch fit over that, at which time we also realized that there's going to be a refugee-related protest around City Hall on Saturday. Which, don't get me wrong, is awesome (and I do feel slightly guilty that I'm still determined to play dress up and celebrate my birthday instead), but that's where the skating rink is. Having just gone to a protest on Thursday with less than half the amount of people that are probably showing up Saturday...getting there on foot will be difficult, and by car, basically impossible.

After throwing a slightly larger bitch fit over that, I resigned myself to the rather-less-Victorian rink down by the river, and City Tavern for lunch (Victorian, 18thc, it's all basically the same, right??), and Robin suggested cornstarch on the random sticky stuff. Which allowed me to scrape off enough of it to not declare the thing a total loss. Whew, back on track!

(Also, I can feel a cold coming on AGAIN in my sinuses. Assholes. *grump*)

Buuut here's a couple of in-progress shirtwaist shots!

It's a sleeve!

I ended up making the sleeve head from the pattern juuuust a bit bigger after a mockup, so next time I want a late1890s sleeve it'll be ready to go!

Initially I took 4" out of the width, and 1" or so off the top - after sewing the lower puff down I realized they were still waaaaaay too puffy for the style I was looking for, and hacked 2.5-3" more off the top! And that's what happens when you don't make a mockup...

Idiot sleeve wings! I was amused.

Definite hack job putting the sleeves in...I'd cut off the gathering stitches from the puff, obviously, so I didn't bother regathering, just pinned it haphazardly to the long sleeve and said, "eh, whatever."

And I must be conservative in my taste in (Victorian) underwear, because I like wearing chemise and drawers better! Heh. Well, now I know?

They don't quite fit on Mabel, so you only get boring hanger-pictures. Not that there's really any way to make pictures of combinations exciting. Well, and be work-safe, I guess. LOL.

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I also put the waistband on the skirt today - accomplishment! Mostly machine topstitched...except the pleats at the very back wouldn't fit under the machine so that got hand sewn, hahaha. I need to trim the back of the skirt, as it currently has a bit of a sweep (no), but I'm going to wait on that and the hem to see what petticoat I end up wearing with it/if I have time to make the proper late-1890s petti. I know I'll trim it too short if I do it now! That's just my life.

So, as the shirtwaist pattern hasn't arrived yet, I guess it's on to the hat tomorrow? I made a paper mockup today to make sure the crown and brim did fit together (they didn't; I bullied them into playing nicely!). Unless I have a brilliant idea in the next few days, I'm probably going to use the rest of the navy/hunter shot taffeta I bought for my New Castle bonnet...I wanted to splurge on some nice velvet but couldn't decide on a color! So I decided to stick with the stash. (This is me being good. Ish.)

Seriously, this flannel.

I was hoping to get the waistband put on today, or at least pinned on, but nope. I wanted to put the pocket in the side back seam, but turns out it's too far forward on the hip, and so would be way too obvious. FINE I'LL MAKE IT AN ASS POCKET grrr. So the tacked-down edges had to be unpicked and resewn, and I had to figure out an appropriate shape for a butt-pocket, and then I was out of time for sewing. We'll see what  can get done tomorrow...

Oh, and I've decided to be hideously lazy, and use the companion shirtwaist pattern to my Butterick skirt pattern. I don't currently have it, but tracked it down with very little trouble for $4 on etsy, so I will have it soon! I know, I know,a shirtwaist is really not that difficult...but any time I don't have to figure out a standing collar on my own, I am a happy little seamstress. Plus it's even got the wee sleeve puffs that you only see in the last couple years of the century, which are just what I wanted! Of course I haven't seen the pattern pieces yet, but so far I am tickled that Butterick managed to (accidentally?) put out a couple of very decent historical patterns! Sleeves and collar alone are worth the $4 IMO.

If correlation and causation are the same, then I can state for a fact that a severe cold can be improved mightily by a long bitching session with one's friends on FB chat about how sick one is feeling! ;) Felt rather better yesterday (but still managed to snag a snow day, since the store called me with an "if you're still feeling sick we don't really need you on tonight" ten minutes before I was going to call in to say they hadn't yet plowed my street!), and vastly better today, though I'm still a little snuffly and have a charming post-nasal drip. And, snow! I think my area ended up getting between 5-6" yesterday...the perfect amount to really enjoy, but not quite enough to make shoveling horrible, or really foul up the roads. Helped that it wasn't during the workweek...

A few of us went out to sewloud 's local tea house for a little 12th Night(...ish)/Holiday Regency tea this afternoon; same place we went for our (pompously named) Farewell to Summer tea, which is really nice for a low-key event with a few people. I must be feeling better, as yesterday afternoon I realized my green silk pelisse from last year was very nearly wearable... So I got that into a wearable if not finished state, and once I can snag pics from Robin I'll post them.

I've also officially revised my plans for ice skating. I still want to make the Very Smart plum wool suit, but I can't kid myself anymore that I'll have time for it! Losing almost a week of sewing time just won't allow it - I know how fast I can sew, and it's not that fast! So! Plan...what are we up to? C? D? Heh.

So I brainstormed a bit, and went down the "well, what would actual me in 1898 or so have worn?" (Not that Actual Me would be exactly the same in 1898 as 2017 Me, but you get the gist.) Not a fashion plate, like the plum suit! I like pretty things, but don't have an unlimited budget to spend on clothes or places to wear high-fashion things, and I strongly prefer separates over dresses. Well...that can work for 1898 Me, too! And that should work for 2017 Me's time constraints, too. :P

Almost definitely still going to make a jacket out of the plum wool - partly because it's really very nice wool, partly because if I want to trim it up later and make the plum wool suit I can, and partly because my new winter coat this year in Real Life is a very similar shade of plummy burgundy, so it amuses me. I haven't actually dragged out the fabrics for the waist and skirt yet, but mentally a skirt of navy wool-cotton flannel and waist of tiny burgundy and cream check silk look nice and neat together! Reserve the right to change that if they don't look nice when I put them next to each other in real time and space though. ;)

And a new hat if I possibly have the time! Heh.