A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

It did not turn out to be as costume-filled a weekend as anticipated; the plans were to do Pennypacker Mills' Victorian Christmas on Saturday, and then Pottsgrove Manor's 18thc candlelight tour on Sunday, but it turned out no one but Robin wanted/was able to go to the latter, and it's rather a far drive for no especial reason. And I didn't want to have to pay PA prices for gas, which I'd've had to do if I drove out to Pottsgrove! Thanks but no thanks. And then Robin and I were going to go to the much closer 18thc farm, Peter Wentz...but then we were watching the version of A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart, lost track of time, and missed the few hours the site was open. Oops.

So today my most efficient use was for downing pots of tea and eating way too many gingerbread hearts. And sewing a very few eyelets on my wool 1770s stays. I hadn't planned to try and finish them for the colonial ball or anything, but they were the only handwork project I had ready to stuff in a bag and go...

But anyway, PPM was a lot of fun: it was an 18thc house that was added on to and remodeled in 1901(ish?), and they did a great job of decorating for the season. Everything was lit by oil lamps, and they had Santa, a bell choir, and a candymaking demonstration in the kitchen. And free hot cider after the tour! I'd like to go back sometime in warmer weather and walk around the grounds (good location for pics of our sooper seekrit plaid project, eh wot, partners in crime?).

As for pictures, we basically just made sure to get photos of my new dress and that was it. Most of the tour was too dark for my poor old camera so I didn't bother taking it out the whole night...at least til we got to Taco Bell afterward! That was well lit, haha.


( A few pictures, and then Words about Boots )
There will be sewing tomorrow! I almost promise!

Yesterday I did the hem, today I dyed my boots. Still left to do: polish boots, redo left cuff trim, make collar and cuffs.

Because when I finished the bodice of the candy stripe plaid, I didn't want to gear up in corset and hoop to do the hem...but it was still Sewing Time! I sewed on all the ribbon for the bodice trim, which is not quite even but lalala I can't hear you, and did the buttonholes and buttons.

I had a bit of hair-pulling with the buttons; I didn't take into account how fat the buttons I wanted to use were (hint: very fat), and so my (machined, never fear) buttonholes were juuust slightly too small. Commence hair-pulling and sifting through my button collection for other possibilities, but I was very attached to this option! They look like candy.

(Since I like to live dangerously, I was eating Christmas-colored peanut M&M's and sewing these buttons on at the same time! No, I did not eat a button.)

( Read more... )

I did all the little bits of bodice finishings today that needed to be done, apart from the buttons and buttonholes.

My box o'ribbon fun got here today, woop woop! It's all synthetic, as expected, but mostly decent synthetics. The green ribbon matches nicely, and I think isn't too offensively shiny. There's also some heavy white picot-edged ribbon, a spool of black ribbon so ancient it's turned a rather nice shade of aubergine, an enormous spool of nylon-y white floral ribbon, a spool of pinky-purple cheap-ish ribbon, and three spools of double-faced red-orange velvet. The velvet was the best deal, I think! All in all, not a bad haul, as I think I can use the majority of it for costuming (and as for the rest of it, everybody's going to get presents tied with pinky-purple or white bows for the next fifteen years).

So I guess that means I have no excuse to not continue working on this til I finish it? *shifty eyes*

Well, really, the only thing that's stopping me is that every single other thing I want to work on needs a mockup. Ew, mockups.

It looks very much like a skirt now. Waistband and pocket and all. No hem yet, though.

No word yet on the ribbon lot; I can only assume it's still buried under a mountain of snow. I admit I'm getting antsy already...which is silly, as I don't need this outfit for three weeks yet. Just in case, though, I find myself making alternate bodice plans. (I am Very Attached to my trim scheme on this particular bodice.) I made the skirt separate already, just in case I want a ballgown bodice to go with it as well; certainly have the fabric for it! So a third bodice would not be completely out of the realm of possibility. There was a lot of fabric on that roll, yes...

I've completely given up in digust on those Trenton colonial ball people. Are they EVER going to update their info so I can buy a ticket??? Not saying I won't go (I fully plan to, whenever they get around to selling tickets!), but I think they're not getting a new dress from me. I'm sure they would be very broken up to hear that. Unless I feel really super-motivated in between Pennypacker's Victorian Christmas and Actual Christmas, I'll make do with the old pink sacque.

Because there are other things I want to sew! I haven't forgotten about the Winterfell dress, for instance. It being Really Cold lately has reminded me that that was a thing I wanted to make. I have fabric for the under- and over-dress, still need wool for a cloak and linen(ish) for a shift. Think I'm going to get a wool blend suiting that's on sale currently from FFC (I have nice woolens in the Stash, but they may be, um, a little too nice for this project that has no real reason to exist other than I wanna) because it's stupid cheap right now.

I also bought a wool flannel blend for my Gettysburg Remembrance Day wrapper from FFC...somehow I got it into my head that my wrapper must be wool flannel (we're going to be in a cabin again, and those things are not terribly well-heated, as we have learned, so I think this is valid), so I had to buy it when I saw it. Light blue for the body, dark blue for the quilted contrast panel...and enough pink for a dress just in case it's nice enough for a dress?

Yes, Remembrance Day is fully a year away. Yes, I'm planning for it now.

I still want to make an ice skating outfit, too! 1860s is my backup, because I want to do late 1890s, and I've got to start from the absolute beginning with that. Got a corset pattern all picked out...

And there is a tiny project brewing with dragoneyes19 and hiraimi, also 1890s-related, and also thanks to FFC. That probably won't be done til summer, as it's summer-weight fabric, and there's no deadline for it...but I have promised to make the hats for it. :D

I don't think I mentioned I mocked up and cut out the sleeves for this dress on Friday? Either way, yeah, I mocked up and cut out the sleeves for this dress on Friday.

I used the coat sleeve from the Laughing Moon wrapper pattern; the length and the fit of the armscye were almost perfect, but I did take out at least 4" from the width! I know coat sleeves fit loosely, but I have scrawny chicken arms, so they looked completely ridiculous.

Today I sewed the sleeves together and tacked down the seam allowances:


I may or may not pipe the shoulder seams with bias plaid. It all depends on how well my green ribbon matches when it gets here. If it matches like I hope it will, the trim will be either on top or, or right next to, the shoulder seam, so a bias piping would look off. If the green ribbon doesn't match, I'll bias pipe the shoulder and wrist, and perhaps put a line of bias plaid on the skirt too. Either way, the bodice has to wait for the ribbon to get here.

So I've gone back to the skirt for now...dealing with the facing at the moment. Fun times. Of course, I haven't ordered the twill tape for the hem yet either (it should really be wool braid, but I can get cotton twill tape so much cheaper I'm going to use that instead), so I can only get so far on that.

Today I finished tacking down the seam allowances of the wacky plaid bodice. Which is dedication on my part; I don't usually bother with any finishing of bodice seams. Sleeves next, I guess?

I mocked up the bodice of my dress-I-totally don't-need today. It's from the pattern I made for my fluffy sheer 1860s bodice lining, and astoundingly it needed almost no adjustments. That never happens. What sorcery is this?

So I cut out the pieces of lining and plaid silk too. Matched the center fronts decently, did not match the curve on the back seams at all. Halfheartedly tried, but the vertical stripes aren't in a symmetrical pattern, and it was too annoying.

(And I just made myself feel better by looking up lots of extant 1860s dresses with equally-hilariously mismatched plaid!)

I didn't quite finish sewing the bodice together today, as sewing time was interrupted to wage war on the ever-increasing army of sycamore leaves piling up on our front lawn. If I get it sewn together tomorrow, I'll get a picture!