Stayed up late sewing last night. What? On a weekday? Snowballs en l’enfer? Yeah. Added some freshwater pearls to the points in the cutout cross shape of the over-sleeves on my pink Florentine gown, plus at the corners of the collar. On Sunday, I’d sewn narrow gold trim along the collar & the cuffs of
Since I was stuck home taking care of the sick boy cat Toulouse, I figured I might as well get some crap done around the house (other than just wallow in misery about not getting to go to 12th nite). Then I decided to sew. Tulls was spending the weekend sitting pathetically on the window
I’m *this close* to being done with the new outfit. I cartridge-pleated up the black wool skirt and attached the waistband (note: I really do a lot of hand-sewing for someone who hates hand-sewing). Let it hang on Sunday so I can hem it tonight or tomorrow. Hemming will be by hand (see note). I’d
My fingertips and my back are keeeeeeeeling me. Hand-sewing all day (you may all laugh now, or check for snowballs in Hades since that means TWO full days of hand-sewing for moi). However, it looks like a dress now… Front picture shows where I always screw up the very front edges on a curved or
Good sewing progress, thanks to the fabulous influence (and cheezburgers) of Kendra and Sarah. I got the skirt of the Valois gown hemmed and cartridge-pleated, both by hand, as one does. Now I’m ready to attach it to the bodice, though I still need to prep the bodice edge. And I think I’d like to
Doesn’t look like much, but I’ve been at it all day, off and on, between errands and chores around the house and, of course, screwing around on the computer. Cut the skirt panels, shaped the waistband and hem (the front comes to a point and there’s a small train in the back), finished the top
It is begun! I cut the pink taffeta, spray-basted it to some white twill for body, and sewed all the side seams of the bodice. Then I started hand-sewing on the trim. Have to start with trim over the seam lines, you see, then work out in 1.5″ spacing. I’m not actually doing the exact
Ran out of thread! Sewed all but three eyelets on this bodice (while sitting around at Grandmom’s house in the days after my paternal grandfather’s funeral in Pensacola, Florida). Mom showed me how to do a proper buttonhole stitch instead of the basic overcast binding thing I learned from the RenTailor site. But my hand-sewn
Made great progress on the Carnivale gown today, although these photos will not seem like much. However, I’ve now sewn all the bits that Kendra draped and pinned on me. The only things left on the black francaise portion are to bind the back neck edge, draft sleeves, and hem the skirt. The only semi-hard
Right now, I’m avoiding going back to working on the black francaise. I got the back seams done earlier, and I could totally see why sewing them by hand would have made sense. But I did it on the machine because it was a smidge faster (well, a lot faster by me) and a lot
Started working on my ruff for 12th Night. A quarter of the way through applying the lace by hand (ew, but necessary).
There’s no point even considering hand-sewing something when the pattern you’re using (Jacobean Jacket by Dawn Anderson Designs) isn’t terribly accurate to begin with. It’s not horribly inaccurate — I can see exactly why the designer chose to put a seam there and that *is* accurate for doublet bodices in the era, even though it’s
I feel kinda like a rockstar because last night I finished all those bloody hand-bound eyelets (though they were not actually bloody, thank the gods) *and* I am this close to being finished with the CC26 program book. The later looks a whole lot better than the former, but still. I’m doing it. Go me.
Bleh, hand-sewing. Hand-bound eyelets blow chunks. I’ve done one half of the bodice tho. Think it took about 4 hours (I called in sick to work today — was headachey in the a.m.). My fingers are sore. Not in an RSI way (yet) but in a ‘wish I could work with a thimble’ way. At
Period sewing techniques suck! So insanely slow and looks much more crappy than modern tricks — specifically, only flat-lining instead of flat-lining for strength and bag-lining for tidiness. Gah, the inside of this gown looks like hell and took all day to “finish,” such as it is. This masquerade costume is full of stuff I’m