Pictures - of another sort

I went to a little antique shop down the street from my office building today, and found some pictures I thought were interesting. At a couple of bucks a pop, I couldn't resist!

Front:


Front:


Back: "To Grandma Hunt from Bessie and Will McCormick"


Front: ("T.W. Wark/Main Street Studio/Lake Linden, Mich.")


Back: ("Art Studio of T.W. Wark/Portraits/Lake Linden Mich./The Negative of this Photograph is preserved and can be Enlarged or reduced to any desired size and finished in Oil, Crayon, Ink or Water Colors.")

The state of things...

I was SO worried that I had made the waist too small, but it actually turned out that the waist is a smidge too big, and the bust a smidge too tight! Nothing that I can't change with creative corset lacing, (besides, I'm making a new corset for this outfit, and the 'girls' can stand to be a mite more contained than they are in this corset)

The sleeves. *sigh* the sleeves! After all my careful pinning and marking, I still set the gathers too far forward!!! Argh! Sleeves! Why do you vex me so?! I'm not sure it's bad enough to go through the hassle of re-setting them, especially since I didn't find out until after I had clipped the allowances, but it will bug me.



Oh, I just noticed something....JUST NOW! My corset busk has always had the tendancy to to this wonky "/" thing..where the top pulls to the right, and the bottom pulls to the left. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the heck was going on! But seeing pictures without massive skirts in the way completely put the situation in a new light! I think I must have at some point put in one of my panels upside down or something....notice how in the second picture, my hips are wider on the left than on the right?

Oooh, I wonder! Hm. If the next corset doesn't do the same wonky pulling thing, I'll know my answer! :)

So, left to do:
-tack sleeve lining at cuff
-set bum pleats
-add inner standing collar
-tack ruffles down the front
-add bias ribbon between ruffles
-buttons/button holes
-random tidying of threads and handstitching

I can has sleeves! (and lining...)

I love this stripey fabric, but it curls like mad after it's been cut! *sigh*


Luckily, the lining silk behaves itself much better.


Lookin' fine on Bertha...


Pretenting I'm wearing a corset, and avoiding the mass of pins holding the sleeve on, but it looks OK!

Saturday is Elizabethan day

Ashe'el came over on Saturday afternoon to get a pair of bodies pattern drafted up. It took a relatively short time, and I ended up with a pretty good pattern, if I do say so myself:



The rest of the day we spent messing around with a pattern to make an Alcega-esque farthingale, and I make about 17 yards of bias for the boning channels. I forgot to snap any pictures, but it is going to turn out very nice.

Friday Night is Sleeves Night!

Sleeves honestly are the bane of my existance. I always have a hard time with sleeves, as is evidenced by the multitude of mockups:



Here's the final draft:



I need to find a coverable button that is half-way between the two sizes, although I like the smaller one better. (Holly, this is what the potstickers are going to grow up to be...)