sewloud

Okay I have so much to say (okay photos to share) that I'm gonna break this into a AWESOME event post and a What I wore post. And really the AWESOME EVENT post is more interesting anyway right? Right! Glad we're on the same page.

Let me start by saying how crazy beautiful everyone looked! I'm running out of adjectives for how stunning and vibrant the company was!




( I had far too hard of a time picking out my favorite photos )


I had such an amazing time I have to heartily thank everyone who came and shared this special evening with me. I felt honored to share the company of such amazing, talented, beautiful, and FUNNY people. I laughed to the point of breaking the pin holding my stomacher on! I smiled till my face hurt! So thank you all for sharing such a wonderful experience with me!! 

The complete album of my photos can be found here

And things are starting to come together!

I am officially NOT Nekkid! Although I have a few things still to do.

1. Sew down the waist darts. I keep putting these off as EVERY time I try it on they move. bah.

2. take darts out of the CB 

3. Ruffle on the petticoat (I had a major case of the dumb when I made it and it's 5" too short *facepalm* 

4. shorten the sleeves

5. sleeve flounces

6. Trim Stomacher.

7. sew down the top few inches of the pleats in the CB so they stop spreading so much.

8. LOSE 10LBS! Holy Hell this thing is SO unflattering! I thought it was great till I looked at the picture Rob took, I'm a freaking COW! blech, doesn't help my self esteem much. 

I also think the hardest part of this whole dang thing is going to be trying to get the stomacher on remotely straight. proving harder than I thought it would be.

It's a mutual loathing...I'm working away at setting sleeves the 18th century way which involves sewing the bottom half of the armscye then fitting the top over the shoulder...or in my case on the dress form, take the dress off try it on, take it off move pins, try on again, lather, rinse, repeat. I've gotten them to the point where it looks perfect on the dress form, and it fits wonderfully if I stand with my arms slightly out in that  quintessential 18th century pose..but if my arms are straight down I have wrinkles!! And I'm starting to think that's just the nature of it. Looking at extant dresses the sleeves DO seem to stick out a bit and not hang straight down. 

At THIS angle they're perfect 

Same as this:



So I'm starting to think that's just the nature of the beast? Silk taffeta isn't stretchy enough to be perfectly smooth in every angle, so you have to pick one and this is their favorite? If I made it perfectly fitted with my arms down I wouldn't be able to life them at all, and while you'd never wear this dress for manual labor you still have to lift your arms to get a fork to your mouth! 

I hate sleeve. 

I had a really hard time getting myself going this morning, didn't feel great. Then I found out that kass_rants and Bob's awesome dog Sebastian passed. And you know, you wouldn't think  I'd be a sobbing mess over my ex boss' dog's dying, but dammit I spent a lot of quality time with those dogs! I can't say I was surprised to hear the time had come, he was an old man, but I certainly wasn't expecting to hear that today. Between that and an IBS flare I spent more of the afternoon watching TV than I probably should have.

But I did make some dress progress. I got the bodice side seams sewn, and I created a Frankenstein sleeve pattern. A Franken-sleeve. I started with the Simplicity 3637 sleeve which has the seam down the back, and looking at PoF and Costume Close-up the seam goes straight down the underarm so the pattern is almost symmetrical. So I traced off a copy of the Simplicity pattern cut it out and then cut off the extra from one side and taped it to the other. Then I compared it to the marquis.de sleeve pattern, which was actually a lot smaller than the simplicity one, but I have huge arms so I didn't scale down, I just borrowed the curves from it. 

I made a muslin and it appears like it's going to work...granted I need to do a fitting before I can really know that, and an IBS flare and a corset don't really go together. So I'm sitting watching hockey making another pair of baby booties for etsy.  I'll try to convince myself to try it all on tomorrow after class. 

I cut a long strip 10" off of the front edge. And folded down the robings...I think I've got it! and that makes think I'm doing something wrong...this was easy...and aren't these dresses NOT supposed to be easy? I know I know I haven't touched the evil sleeves, or any of the trim etc etc but so far...rather smooth sailing..so what am I doing wrong? I know damn well nothing I make ever goes this easily...

Pretty Please give me your input! 






I think my plan is going to be to get both sides to this point and then try it all on before I sew the dart or the side seams so I can tweak it to myself. Plus if I leave the lining whole and uncut for a last fitting I won't have to fuss with a stomacher stand in for the fitting. I think I'm most worried that I don't have the waist in the exact right point, but I went off of where I marked the waist on my lining which does NOT correspond at all to where Polly's waist hits...which only makes me more nervous. 

So I've been using koshka_the_cat's amazing tutorial to drape my new francaise gown. Tonight I did the back panel. I know it's not a ton but the goal is to keep chugging on this dress a little bit every night. I think the pleats actually look pretty good but I'm really worried that I have the side seams to far back. But all the diagrams I can find do appear to have more of a side-back seam, so perhaps it's okay that it's not directly under the arm? Thoughts?





Do you think my pleats come to far out to the outside?

So there's been a lot of radio silence out of this journal lately. Mostly because I don't want to whine about how much being broke and unemployed stinks. And the being broke and being anxious about it has put a serious peg in the wheel of my creativity BUT last night I went to an awesome party and spent most of the time talking to awesome costume people. That and the fact I was forced to make something for said party that turned out REALLY well got me in a far better place. (It was just a ruffly apron but sometimes a really simple project that turns out perfectly can be a major confidence booster). 

I need to complete a sack back gown by feb 4th (really I'm shooting for feb 1st so I have time to clean up the mess AFTER the sewing).  which on the one hand is EEEK but on the other I'm STILL unemployed so I STILL have more time than most. (Although I had an excellent job interview on Monday so please keep your fingers crossed for me)

Because I just can't bring myself to spend money on fabric when I'm not working I'm sucking it up and going back to the carnival gown I plotted last year and never made. I confess my attention and desire for it has wandered. So this is a bit of an exercise in self-discipline.

I finished the pocket hoops but that's pretty much as far as I got. I pulled it out to look at it again this morning and I got a bit panicked and overwhelmed, so I decided to just start at the beginning. Put one foot in front of the other and start with the parts I know.

Just two days ago my awesome upstairs neighbor handed me a giant pile of linen in varying weight. I fished out some nice heavy stuff to use for the lining, and started with the lining pattern I used for the evil teal anglaise. It's a good place to start as I've made it so I know where I need to change it.  Today I folded under the CB edges and sewed all the eyelets down each side so it can lace up the CB. Tomorrow we tweak the fit and move on to the silk!

And now for your entertainment I present a goofy photo I found while cleaning at Moms last week.



You see I have actually made a francaise gown before. Well sort of. In one of my Costume Construction classes we had to make half sized gowns over pocket hoops. And it turned out really well, or so I thought at the time, but that was 8 years ago and I completely forget how I did it!  This was also the dress where I learned a major cutting lesson, on one side of the dress the birdies fly UP on the other side the birdies fly DOWN. D'OH!  Hopefully this one turns out better.