... that I am in SUCH an 18th century mood right now!! Can't wait to get home and do a bit of work on the birthday dress! Although I wish I could make up my 1780s jacket, for which I have fabric *sigh*. And I think I'm going to turn my Frilly Friday fabric (what's left from birthday dress trim) into an 18th century petticoat. Because it'll be super cute with my pink polonaise!

Hmm... I think I could do all 18th century for Costume College!

*pink polonaise
*1780s jacket
*birthday dress

I made a boo-boo with my cotton print dress. I don't want to talk about it. Suffice to say, one sleeve has a rip in it. *cries*

So sometime before Costume College, I'll need another 18th century dress. Maybe something lower class? That has the potential to be fun!

 Because these past two weeks were completely abominable, I came home to some really wonderful surprises. Like lots of fabric!

Linen for a new late Regency dress:

 

I want to make this dress, without the skirt ruffles. I have yellow silk to bind the ruffles with too! <3

 

Then, the long lost striped 1780s jacket silk came!! 

I decided to just stick with Alice for Halloween. I attached the skirt to the bodice. Still need to put two tucks in the skirt and hem it, but for now I'm done. I hate being "over" a project before it's even finished!




 

 I used my debit card instead of my credit card so that I didn't have to worry about making the payment later. Will it still work?

I'm so new to money matters... >.<

I did a sketch of my 1780s jacket ensemble and decided I need to make a new cream silk petticoat. I don't like my current one. It's of really cheap silk and it's not very full. Sounds like I need to buy more fabric! But it's not an immediate need by any means; I just need it before October for MTH when I want to go in 18th century dress.

Because I don't have a scanner:

I have a 1780s jacket, from this silk, to wear with my cream silk petticoat:


That is all. :]

Finally got more pics of the print anglaise!! Don't worry, I'll put up more Athenaeum pics at some point too!

Wow... I don't even know where to begin! What an amazing week! It was just the vacation I needed! Not that it was all play and no work; we did two incredible shows prefaced by long rehearsals. But never was a single second not fun. I was surrounded by wonderful, loving, happy, talented people who truly made the week as enjoyable as it was.

First off, I have never been in such a rural are! Salem is tiny! But I absolutely loved being so secluded. And... OH MY LORD. THE HOUSES. THE HISTORY. It was pure heaven.... I picked out about 20 different houses I wanted to buy, with dreams of living in period dress and being self-sufficient. *sigh* Some day...

Not to mention our 24 hour jaunt to New York City. Got to see "Hair" which was beautiful and brilliant and dance onstage with the actors, then run around Time Square and chill in a dingy karaoke bar. Unfortunately the exhaustion was getting to me, and I went back early with a sore throat. The next day I had a fever which lasted through the end of the week, but didn't get me down too much.

I just loved getting to spend such time with wonderful friends. I couldn't have picked a better group of people to go with. It's such a shame it was our last hurrah, but we surely went out with a bang!

             

But at least I leave for New York in two days. I got lots of work done on the print anglaise today, during a very lovely afternoon with Niamh. Unfortunately I heard a song which brought everything roaring back. Apparently I can never, ever allow myself to hear an Irish drinking song ever again. Unless it's being sung by a true Irishman in Ireland who is so devilishly handsome, he'll make me forget every other man I've ever seen in my entire, albeit short, life. One can only hope.

I also pinpointed the root of what I'm now willing to admit is an eating disorder. So I'm goint to try and fix that. Meh... I need to get my validation from somewhere else.

Oh yeah, I graduated yesterday! I didn't do anything too spectacular to celebrate, but it was nice. And all the graduation money I'm getting is almost certain to go towards a new, entirely vintage inspired wardrobe. I've already got this coming in the mail:


Alright. I have t-minus one hour to begin the ruffles of doom on the print anglaise. Then I have to go to work. :[

Yay... I found the shoulder strap and sleeves. Skirt should go together easily enough; it's the ruffles that are bumming me out. I can't find my pinking shears!

I can't wait until I finish my new silk stays. I'm so sick of my Franken-stays!

 

Because I feel very bad for my whiny teenage angst...

Did I mention I finished my new wool dress and it's amazing? It actually looks really horrible in the pictures because it's lying on the ground, but I swear to you it looks great in real life. The wool is AMAZING. It's SO incredibly lightweight. I adore it! Definitely light enough to be an Athenaeum dress! *squee*
 

Despite the fact that I said I'm taking an 18th century hiatus, I actually want to finish the print anglaise and bring it to New York with me! Maybe my silk polonaise too! Gotta see how much room there is in my luggage... The bodice is almost done; needs another shoulder strap and then sleeves. Skirt will have a ruffle, I'm determined!


Thank you dear readers and friends for sticking with me. 18 is an interesting age to be in...

To reeds. :]

Niamh got me thinking last night... I should use truly accurate boning in my stays, since I'm putting so much effort into them. So today I went to Michael's and bought the biggest bunch of reeds they had, and they are really a splendid material! Nice and stiff, and biodegradable! I took out all the cable ties and began putting in the reeds. I'm actually almost done with the channels and boning! Yay! New stays are on their way. Then it will be time for my new anglaise! :]

I am in my happy (18th century) place!

 
Note: this is me just holding the stays on, since I haven't put the eyelets in yet. I love how nice and flat they make me! (Hmmm that sounded stranger than I intended... You know what I mean!!). And yes, here they're too low under my arms. I was holding them and trying to take a picture, and they were slipping.... *sigh* I need a tripod! It won't look like that when I'm done.

Got a good chunk of the bodice done yesterday. Started on sleeves today, and then got distracted by my 18th century stays. :] Oh... CADD is awful!

 

The back is a regular 3 piece back. "Adult" versions of yoked bodices have this type of back. Not sure why though!

I put all the pieces of my stays together... and it was huge. I have really bad luck with corsets. They're always too big on me! So I stared at them for about 30 minutes, and then figured out where to take them in. I wanted to just take them in at the back pieces, but then it looked extremely funky and not close to any period stays I've seen. Then I went and attacked one of the side seams, and everything is better now! Three more panels to put channels in, then binding and eyelets.

Bad because, well, I'm not in the dresses, they're just laying on my living room floor. Well, I just got home from work and I am SO tired (it's exhausting being a prole, isn't it, Matt?). And frankly, it takes a lot of energy to get into everything...

Yesterday I spoiled myself... Granted, the fabric was on sale, but I really don't need another 18th century dress. Or maybe I do? I only have my pink silk polonaise-that's-not-polonaised-yet, and I guess I need something a little more "everyday"?

So I bought 6 yards of this pretty print!!


I've decided I'm going to try and do an en fourreau back again. My first attempt turned out decently but, ah, I've learned a lot since then! :] And I have a decent pair of stays to fit it over, and my new silk ones that I need to finish really badly...


Here's the bodice of my white Athenaeum ball gown. Again, NEVER use silk gauze. It's pretty ridiculous. But it looks pretty and feels like what you'd think a cloud feels like! I promise it looks nicer in real life...


I'm considering putting pink silk bows on both sleeves, and a pink sash around the waist, but... I rather like it all white! So I don't know... Opinions?

And now, my beloved mourning dress! As I was telling Niamh, I just love the way I look in this dress, and I don't mean that in the conceited way! There's just something about all black with white collar and undersleeves that just looks so period and so prim! Like, perfectly upper middle class. I'm so very excited for next weekend! I've just got to make bigger undersleeves for it. The ones in the pictures are my slim undersleeves, for going with my coat sleeved dresses. But this dress needs something poofier. :]

The postillion back looks a lot nicer when it's not flat on the ground. I swear I'll try and take better pictures this week, and I'll have pictures from the even next weekend soon too.

...may very well kill me. But they're worth it!

Hand-sewing about a million boning channels is something I never thought I'd do! It's actually quite enjoyable and soothing, until you realize you are NOT sewing a straight line :]

The color of the silk is actually much lighter, but it was easier to see the channels without the flash.

I can't wait for them to be DONE!

Boned with the most amazing synthetic boning ever: cable ties :]
In case you don't believe me:
www.modehistorique.com/elizabethan/homedepot.html
www.modehistorique.com/elizabethan/boningtypes.htm

 

I want an quilted petticoat.
I want a project to work on during the 14 hour flight to London.

So I'm going to make a quilted petticoat on the flight to and from London! 28 hours of solid sewing time. With maybe some sleeping in between... :]

But it sounds like a good plan to me!

Now... to think of a design, and colors...

I'm not sure if new 18th century stays can wait anymore... :]

1960s dresses for London CAN wait, since I'm not going until April. Sure, I can buy a couple patterns tomorrow, but I think I'm going to get some silk and things for new stays. Oh yes.

And a new Home Depot just opened down the street from me, and could probably use my patronage. I'm thinking a few packs of cable ties....

Almost.. It's still not polonaise'd heh... And actually, I rather like it not polonaise'd.  We'll see... And erm... there's still about7 inches of trim missing on each side of the skirt. :] Like I said: almost done.

So the solution was: add a strip of silk to either edge and cover with trim. I had to sacrifice the zonal trim that I want but... Oh well. I'd rather be able to wear my dress without passing out, thankyou very much!

I really hate that petticoat though. It was made in a hurry, with minimal fabric. I think I'm going to go ahead and get some new cream silk from Renaissance Fabrics, where I got the pink silk from. Mmmhmm... And I'd also like some new stays! But... that won't be for a while, I'm sure.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with it. I have conquered the robe a l'anglaise. And it's about time! This is my third one! The only one I'm proud to wear, too. I know what to do differently with my fourth anglaise, too. But for now, I'm very pleased to wear this one.

Just... where do I wear it?? My silk gown needs to be shown off!

       

I think I'm just going to add another panel to the front and cover it with trim. I'm not too crazy about ruining the zone-front look, but it's  more appetizing than taking apart the whole dress... :[

I know... I'm lazy... :[

But there's similar trim on this dress from MA. I know, I know, don't take movie costumes at face value!!!!

Don't worry, you get rewarded with a ton of pics, but first some problems:

I bought pinking shears to do the trim, but the fabric is still fraying!! Especially on the bodice where it is most obvious. I'll probably have enough fabric left over to redo the bodice trim, but that's such a pain! :[ When I danced en pointe, we would burn the edges of our ribbons to keep them from fraying... so should I set fire to yards and yards of trim? lol It's just really bothering me...

The most pressing problem is that of fit. It's still too small. I added a panel like Nicole on devArt said to do, and it worked brilliantly until i tried the dress on over my stays AND chemise instead of stays and modern cami (because I was feeling lazy at the time) and discovered that it STILL won't fit! Ack! Or, I have to lace my stays unbearably tight and have a sliver of the "modesty panel" showing. Nicole said piecing in bodices is common, but I'm an aesthete and the lack of perfection is killing me! That and the fact that my stays are crushing my kidneys... greeeeat...

On the bright side, I made my own cap from the instructions here:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/sfelshin/BRY2K/making-caps.html#short

It's adorable. In the pictures it looks funny in the back because of my modern messy bun.


         

The pleating was surprisingly easy... too easy... :-P

The bodice is a tad small and my stays are laced so tight I feel like I'm going to be sick! Going to have to fix that...

BTW, these were taken without hip roll because I was so anxious to put them up. But I do have the necessary undergarments; I was just feeling lazy...

 

Not sure why... but I had incredible difficulty getting the lining and silk to match up as I backstitched them together... It was incredibly frustrating! Much fiddling involved... But! It fits and looks pretty. It now has sleeves, but I don't feel like taking more pictures (it's bothersome lacing oneself into back-lacing stays...).

Here ya go! Again, not the true color...


hehe yes that's me in my sweatpants with stays on top of a cami... :-P