Sewing Updates

Jannean finished up a 130" length of pleating for my Vic, so in return, I am going to make her a hat (kind of like mine, but more different other). Since I have a three-day weekend coming up, I am hoping for some epic sewing catchup!

Wish me luck......

Finally, some pics!

The hat: *squee!*



The skirt:

Because I got all tubby since last year, I've torn apart my skirt and re-did the waistband, integrating the bustled over skirt....just like in my antique victorian skirt! I'm a bit proud of myself, even though it's just a glorified wrap around skirt.

The bustled portion of the skirt is attached to the gold skirt waistband....



The right front/forward opening of the gold skirt is where the waistband starts. The striped bustle section is pleated into the gold skirt waistband...



Then continues on the same waistband for the striped apron front....


And then ends at the slit on the opposite (left) side of the skirt.


The bustling/ruching on the right side of the skirt is all thanks to a system of rings and strings......


And this is what it looks like! Yay! (The bow on the slit side is actually going to go on the peplum of the bodice.)


Also of note - because of the expansion that prompted the skirt re-do, I've had to make a new bodice as well. (GRRRRRR!!!!)
BUT. I think this one will turn out just as/even nicer.

Proof of Bodice:


To finish off this outfit, I just need to finish the neckline and hem of the bodice and figure out a hairpiece for the up-do. Recently there was talk in El-Jay land of a sale at an online wig shop....I might go see if that is still happening.

HOLY CRAP ONLY A MONTH LEFT!!!! Where did the time go?!

Random Bits

-I (barely) survived the past week at work. It was epic and awful. I'll spare you all the gory details, suffice it to say I'm at the end of my proverbial rope.

-I've been helping Sherece and Theresa over the last week or so with beefing up their wardrobe for Uprising. They both now have a full Roman to wear. I made a side-back laced kirtle for Theresa, and handed it over with only the hem and eyelets to go. Theresa made a Viking for Sherece while Sherece did the eyelets, so that all worked out nicely. Various other bits have been made and/or mended.

The kirtle looks a bit lumpy when laid flat - the bodice is graded over a curve so it's nice and smooooth. :)


Here's Mo and Meaty 'helping' me....


-I started a smocked apron for my Laurel, but it appears she may not be going to Uprising. I'll try to get it done in time anyhow.

-I need to gather up stuff for the Laurel Prize Tourney. I'm trying to display stuff that wasn't on display *last* year....So far, I've come up with:
*Hand sewn camp dress (I'm actually going to be wearing this)
*Black Italian (I need to clean and mend this - it's been through a lot in the last 8 months!!)
*Pulledwork caul (I can't remember if I displayed this or not last year. Hm. Need to get back from Val if I am going to display.)
*Hand sewn stays (+doc!!)
*Jaquelinne's elevation gown (I'm still a smidge nervous about this one, but I will take it out for display, then take it right back to the car)
I wish I had just a smidgeon more time so I could make up some rosewater, just so I have non-sewy stuff displayed. (no rly, I do other stuff too!!!)

-Feeling physically like crap. There was a scary moment over the weekend, but all is well now. Will be going to Dr. very, very soon.

-SISTER IS HOME! Well, she's been home for a while now, but I just can't stop saying it. The True Blood/Welcome Home party was very fun, and I got to hang out with a whole grundle of people I don't see very often, which was super nice. The weather cleared up just hours before the grilling was to begin, so we didn't even have to hide out in the garage for BBQing! I really need some patio furniture, and a pergola. Yesh, a nice pergola......

Here is the cake that was randomly at the bakery when I went to pick up something cake-y for the party......awesome!

Most seamstresses seem to have helper kitties.

I have a helper goggie!








Also notice that the enormous stack of fabric is gone from my chair! ;) Many thanks to both dragonfly_sidhe and bodice_goddess for helping me with my sewing room! ;)

Holy Macaroni....I love this place!

DeVere Yarns is the best, ever!! I seriously, seriously <3 them with my itty bitty heart. I barely had time to fondle my purchases last night (no pics, yet!) before I went to bed.

This is one of those places that has so much *stuff* that I want, but I don't have any good reference for the sizes/colors listed, (mostly because I need to educate myself of such things) so it's something that I would just about kill to have a brick 'n mortar version to browse through.

At any rate, if anyone has silk embroidery to do, I cannot recomment highly enough their silk embroidery thread. It is to *DIE FOR*....so lustrous and deep and verrah, verrah sexay.

Silk Embroidery Thread

So, I lied.....the 1200 is pretty much exactly the same as a regurlar skein of DMC.
Silk top, DMC bottom

It's not just the pictures, the floss really is that lustrous!!

Tea Pictures!

PPoD - The Saga Continues...

Over the weekend, I finished 1/2 of the PPoD



Time to reposition!!!



Then start on the skeery birdie, who has now morphed into a Quail. I know quail are not period for Europe, but I care not! I laugh in the face of snarkers! I'm hoping that somewhere I can dig up a period picture of a quail. That would be so rad.


(I obviously still need to fill in her itty bitty beak.

I think this is why people think Serafina is scary....

TaDa! Done!!!

I wore the caul too high on my head - which may be why I felt like a lunchlady the entire day. I should have double-checked the portrait when I got dressed! Overall, I'm pretty happy with the dress. If I were to make it again, I would move the sleeve slit further forward on the shoulder, and cord the bodice for extra stiffening. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the end product. It's very, very comfortable!

More different other shots:

Killing off the last mintues before I dash out the door.....

Hopes of working from home this afternoon were smashed to bits. Ah well. Also, didn't get anything done sewing wise this morning, since I was up at 6 am dealing with client stuff. Grrr. So much for the early morning sewing plans.

Last night was sorta productive - at least it's wearable now! The hem is done, and the fluffy guards fluffed. I like the way it looks in the picture better than in real life. Has anyone tried to to the fluffy guards that seem to be so popular in Italy the first half of the 16th century? This is the only method I've come up with so far, and I'm not quite sure it'll pass muster for other gowns. It's fine for this one, tho.

Anyway.



Here's the whole dress, minus sleeves. Still wiffling on the sleeve issue, and driving me craaaaazy.

(And check it....I got *more* gold brocade the other day. I need to stop this gold brocade madness. Because it *IS* madness, I tell you!)

I am coming to terms with the skirt pleating. After ironing and hemming and petticoats, I think it will be OK. I just need to remember how unhappy I am if I ever to pleated skirts again....I'm highly addicted to cartridge pleating skirts....I fall back on cartridge pleats for just about *everything*.

Linen Camp Dress, con't....

I didn't get nearly as much done last night as I was hoping to. Argh.....it always happens that way, doesn't it?! Something that you're absolutely sure will only take 20 minutes ends up taking hours and hours.

(Please note that since I'm forcing myself to work from my stash only, the colors are not what I would have picked out if I were starting this project from scratch. As it is, the shades are *close enough* for my purposes....)

So, here's my completed eyelets, complete with (nasty) ribbon lacing:


Last night I hand sewed the two skirt side-back seams. Yay me?


And I started on the guard along the top front edge of the bodice. After I have the two rows of backstitching complete, I'll fray and fluff out the edges. There are two layers of linen in the guard to give extra 'fluff'....


So, my goal for tonight is to finish the guard, and hem the skirt. That gives me two nights to figure out what the &*^$# I'm going to do about the sleeves, make a coif, try to find an appropriate camacia and petticoat/s (and make sure they're washed).


I want Friday off work. :(

Camp Dress Conundrum.

So, this is what I was originally going for with my "from my stash" theme I have going (this will be the fourth thing made almost completely from my stash...woohoo!)


I really, really wish I had done my pleats differently. I think I would be much happier if I had done organ pleats, or even padded out the skimpy knife pleats, or lined the skirts even. I'm hoping that most of my unhappiness will be set to rest after I beef out the skirts with a deep hem and some petticoats. (And give the skirts a good ironing. They're pretty beat to hell right now) I also think I would have gotten a better line on the bodice if I had corded the bodice instead of using rigid boning. The pleats bother me a lot more, though. This is not a terriby attractive waistline on me, but hey, the chick in the portrait is no stick figure, either!



Ok, now to gripe about the sleeves. The sleeves!!! I got way ahead of myself and didn't plan this dress out like I normally do when I start work on new gowns; leaving me with the huge problem of a side back lacing that goes into the armscye. How the muckin' hell do I deal with those boofy sleeves now?! I'm really frustrated at myself at the moment, and I have no idea what I'm going to do. Argh.

On the other hand, I had a spiral lacing inspiration! I'm sure I'm not the first person to try this, but I'm pretty stoked I came up with it on my own.....I'll let you all know how it works out!

So, this is what you do;

Tie the end of the lacing to a flat, shanked button. Use the button to anchor the end of your lacing. TA-DAAAA! No messy knots on the end eyelet, extra rings to stitch inside!




Tonight, I'm not going to waste valuable time mucking about with sleeves, rather, I'm going to figure out exactly what to do with the sash, make the cute coify thingy, see if I can make a frayed/layered guard across the bodice front play nice, and possibly see if I can whip up a camacia and/or partlet.

I'll keep agonizing over the sleeves in mah head.

Speaking of coify thingy, I have this fabric in my stash that I think will be pretty OK.


Sorry, I'm back on sleeves again now. Here's another portrait, within -/+ 5 years of my inspiration portrait, where the sleeves are tied on....which would totally solve my problems, but I'm still not quite convinced I *want* to tie my sleeves on. Hmmmm.

Quest....

Because the weather looks like this.....


.......I don't feel too bad that my 'camp dress' looks like this:


In all honesty, it's further along than this. The bodice is completely constructed and the skirt is attached. I'm 1/2 way through doing all the eyelets (Only 10 more to go), then I need to stitch the skirt panels together and get the skirt hemmed. That would bring it to a wearable state. I'd like to get the sleeves done (I"m still wiffling about how to construct them.....), and the guards on the top of the bodice.

So.....worst case scenario, I wear the black velvet *yet again*, since the weather could possibly warrant a warmer gown.

I'm very *meh* about the whole thing right now.

Betcha didn't know embroidery is a blood sport!

Procrastinating Seamstress is Procrastinating....

.....A lot.

I worked some more on the PPoD. (Pin Pillow of Doom.) I finished up the fourth slip...and I quite like it! I got scared of the bird, so I decided to move on to the background instead. Within the next few weeks, it will be time to reposition! YAY!!!!!

Greenery done (front)


Greenery done (back) I'm actually quite pleased at myself that the backside doesn't look like a complete disaster area! It could stand to be a smidge cleaner, but this is *BY FAR* the best backside I've ever accomplished.


Flowers done....


See the skeery birdie?! I'm thinking of re-drawing him. He looks kind of squished up in that little corner. I'll see how I feel when I get all the background for this slip filled in. I love the mindlessness of the background....I don't have to worry about where to place stitches to get the correct curvature or anything....just keep stitchin'!