Hints of upcoming projects - L

I have a couple new projects I'm starting to work on.  'Starting' as in 'thinking about and gathering materials'.  One is the promised Renaissance gown and the other is a new take on Steampunk.  I am sort of excited about my Steampunk thing.  Here is a small part of the fun:

And then, for our Renaissance stuff, Rob and I thought we would like to have 'flea furs' or zibellinos.  So I have taken upon myself to craft them.  I bought some very cheap kid's clay at Target (It dries without heat) and molded a ferret-face.  Now I let it dry, while I'm off exploring Portland Oregon.  It's a little bumpy but it says it can be carved and sanded after it dries.  I plan to paint it gold and add jewels and decorations.  Rob has some faux fur that will work well for the body and tail.  If the face works, I'll make another, and paws for both.

Next week my final shipment of parts should arrive and I can finish the polonaise.  We have a sewing day coming up and I will model it for proper photos.  May even wear my hat.  Oh crap, I totally forgot I have to decorate my hat.  Grrr. 
I love a hat, but struggle with decorating.  I need supervision.  I have a very strong urge to hot glue all sorts of neat stuff to it.  Random, inappropriate, often not very pretty, stuff.     I can't be the only person who likes gull feathers....and marine mammal vertebrae.

The Turtle Seamstress Progresses - R

After a lovely trip to the Denver area (where I could not sew and had no hand sewing I could bring with me), I came home to a jam-packed schedule for the next two weeks.  I'm going to be sneaking in bits and pieces of sewing where I can.  Last night I sewed the knobby part of the busk into the corset.  It always scares me to punch holes in perfectly good fabric hoping I've marked it properly.  This time, I marked, checked, checked again and finally punched the holes, inserted the knob busk and sewed it up.  It looks pretty good.

On a side note, I ordered some Victorian boots, had to send them back for a larger size, and just got the new ones today, and entire size larger than I normally wear. I'll be wearing them around the house to mold the leather to my feet for the next couple of months.  Cute, huh? They'll be hidden under the 1860's outfit but will look fabulous with Steampunk.

Where was I? - L

I never stop being surprised by the sheer number of little things...tiny little things...that need to be done on my projects.  And separately, how long they take (vs my expectations).  Yesterday I had set aside the morning to clear a number of little things I had left to do.  And found myself throwing in the towel at around 6pm.  Everything on my polonaise and skirt is done except adjusting the bustle tape, and attaching the front closure.  And I'm waiting for hook tape to do that. 

My daughter's project is coming along nicely.  She did, in fact, sew her sleeves unevenly and they need to be re-done.  The skirt is finished except for trim.  I pinned the first line of ivory ribbon around the hem.  I'm planning on three stripes.  The hem is mostly done on the front and ready for trim.  We need to cut and add the fake button closure (to hide the front zip), and finish and trim the neckline.  Finally we need to fix down the pleats on the apron and bustle and attach them.   It is difficult to see in the picture, but I added a D-ring vest-style adjustment in the back of the bodice in case she chooses to wear this with a corset or cincher. 
My knitted jacket is coming along.  I have half a sleeve and the right front left to do.  And sewing it all together.  The armholes are frighteningly large.  Should be interesting.  And everything else is on hold for supplies, or waiting to be cut.  I'm going to take a break here and catch up on mundane and tedious things like paying bills and laundry. 

(the list of 'done':  take apart and re-do a drawstring petticoat, shorten and add a waistband, remove bones, re-do darts, replace boning, sew in peplum, sew in D-ring vest closure, sew more darts, hem bodice, finish skirt waistband, pin trim...just a lot of little things, right?  ALL DAY)

A little progress - R

Working on the bonnet, here's what I have so far.  It seems as if this is going to be an all hand-sewn item.  I can hand stitch even when I'm tired, but I can't use a sewing machine when I'm tired - too many frustrating mistakes.








Here's the corset with the front "loop" portion of the bust pinned in.  I sewed it up.  Looks good. The knob portion is harder, so I'm waiting until next week to do that - too busy right now with other stuff. This is a slow slog into corset land.  By the time I get it finished, I'll be a different size!

Pictures! and a little frustration - L

Here's a proper-er picture courtesy of mom.  The bustle and bustle tapes need work.  And I need to re-sew a couple darts.  Other than that, I just need to close it in front.  To that end I started sewing robust skirt hooks down the front.  That does not work (bumps and gaps).  I have some small hooks and eyes that were part of a box of sewing notions my grandmother gave me in the '70s.  She had bought them ages ago.  Cool retro packaging.  Using them would be a huge amount of work.  So I hopped on the interwebs to find hook and eye tape.  Turns out it is harder to find than I expected.  I am now slightly delayed in completion while I wait for more stuff in the mail.

In the mean time, I've fitted the muslin for a vest and worked on my knitting.  Knitting patterns and modifying knitting patterns make me stabby.  That said, I am making progress.  I have a back and the left front.  I actually brought my knitting to work today because it's slow.  And I feel a little guilty.  I haven't even pulled it out yet. Well, I pulled it out to take a picture.  The color variation is less vibrant in person.  At least I hope it is....
Update on knitting - am unraveling entire sleeve.  Just wrong.  Grumble.....

And if all else fails, I have work to do on my daughter's dress.  She's doing most of it herself, but I'm helping in the places where I've either modified or made up the pattern.  Pictures of her dress soon!

Today is one of those days when I wish I could do this for a living.  For the record, I doubt it would awesome with real customers.

All sewn up and ready for a fit - R

The corset has been recut and is now basted together, waiting for a fit check tomorrow morning.  Now that it is somewhat together, I ordered the corset busk and the steel boning for the back.  I'll be using spiral boning for the rest, but the back needs to be stiff.  A website called dragontowncorsetsupply.com is where I ordered from, but I've also used www.corsetmaking.com for supplies before. Both have been reliable sources for corseting notions.

I didn't get as much done tonight as I'd hoped.  This seems to be a recurring theme with me,  Tomorrow I'll cut out my pagoda muslin and the frock coat muslin.  Lisa is stopping by for a quick fit on her polonaise and to pick up a petticoat that she's going to modify for Valerie.  It will be a long and busy day tomorrow, but for now, the corset must lie fallow.

The Feed Dogs Ate My Homework!

No pics on this travesty, but last night I started the machine embroidery on the corset.  I did the test swatch and it came out beautifully.  I decided I'd do it exactly the same, not changing thread colors, rather, all in white. After fiddling with the test design's placement, I traced the hoop outlines with tracing paper on to the corset, hooped it and started stitching.  Everything was going fine until I noticed the top thread was pulling the bobbin thread up about 1/2 inch - waaay too much and it just looked funky.  I stopped the machine, looked underneath the hoop and saw a huge wad of thread the size of my thumb jammed into the feed dogs.  I believe, now, that I forgot to lower them and created such a mess of the corset that I'll now have to cut out two additional front pieces.  In the interest of time, I'm now abandoning the idea of machine embroidering the corset and will make it plain. A decorated corset will have to wait. I was so sad that I couldn't save the corset fronts and that my original plan was a complete and utter failure, not to mention a big time-suck. I actually felt like crying, I'm so frustrated with the process. But tomorrow is another day and I have this evening scheduled for cutting, so let's see how that goes.