progress on my short gown

Whee, almost all the hand sewing is done, other than the rolled hem on the bodice skirting.  I've already machine sewn the hem of the full length skirt. Not yet cut out the skirt bodice, but I've got plans to do that tomorrow night.

Having a hint of tennis elbow returning on my right arm, sooo I'm only hand sewing for 5 mins at a time, max.  Hopefully that stops a full on flare up. But gives me time to get through the rolled hem over the next couple of weeks.  Yay for making everything else by machine!



The fabric design is definitely one way only, and the shoulder straps will match the back but be upside down on the front. But they didn't care about that so much as effective use of fabric.

Soon I'll be inserting the sleeves ... easier now than when the skirt is attached. Depending on how long the sleeves are I'll be doing this, a double ruffle at the end of fashionably long sleeves ... (2012-08-25 Kent State - English printed cotton day dress, circa 1810)


Or a ruffle-cuff-ruffle as per a short gown in Costume in Detail and what could be on this dress in France (Les Arts Decoratifs, item Inv. 49-32 17.A.B ; c1818-20 cotton dress)


Fortunately having used this pattern before (though with the original length sleeves) I've already fixed any fit issues (unless it's too tight around the bodice!!)

Lots of cutting out over the past weekend

I had a long weekend away, looking after friend's dogs while my friends were out of town. I started with the discovery that I had brought both pairs of computer distance specs with me, and not 1 of them and my reading/sewing distance specs. That meant it would limit my ability to sew for much - eyestrain = headache = not working on anything.

So, I figured that I could start on my UFO bib-front regency day dress. the back shoulder strap should have been tapered just a little rather than straight, so I needed to unpick it, and cut a new one. Second packing fail: I didn't have any of the cotton fabric I'm using as lining for both that replacement piece and for lining the short-gown set.

Rather than drive home I went to the nearest fabric shop (The Remnant Warehouse) and got a lightweight cotton, with a small self pattern woven into it. It's nice and tight-woven so I might even get a smidge more for my lazy-lacing stays. I also grabbed a small sample of a red linen-cotton to use as lining my red wool cloak. I'm not going to use silk, for the hood lining. Just cos. My plan was to pre-shrink the fabric as soon as I got home, but I ended up crashing out on the sofa for 3 hours and woke up with 2 dogs snuggled up with me. If I'd pre-shrunk that dang fabric then it would ahve been dry already for me to start cutting out.

I had definitely been tempted to drive to Marrickville and look at my fave fabric shop there, but (1) it would not have helped my down-stashing target for the year and (2) I knew I needed a nap and extra driving was not smart.

Instead I made a head-sash thingy to go with my Wonder Woman inspired dress, but it looked ridiculous on me and I couldn't be bothered trying to experiment with length & width. I suspect a longer wider one would have been better, but not sure enough to cut another one out. If I'd been at home I'd have raided my mock up fabrics and just cut a strip out & tried it. Next time gadget!

Saturday I started cutting out my 2 piece short gown. I guestimated how long the skirt section should be on the bodice, and hope it's a flattering length. I also cut wrist length sleeves, and hope they're ok. Of not I can always shorten them.

Third packing fail: my mock up of the Daffodown Dilly wrap stays - that I'm going to do as parasseuse
. From my dipping in & out of The Lady's Strategem a ribbed dimity was one of the recommended fabric. The cotton I got isn't ribbed, but it's light & tightly woven. I'll see how it goes.

MAGAM - my plan for the March theme

For March I'm declaring an assault on the clothes I need for a Jane Austen festival. For starters I'm making a 2piece skirt & top using this dress pattern from Past Patterns #031 and some fabric from my stash.

I have plenty of other garments that I need to make for the 3 day event, so there's more to come than this 2-piece morning dress.

short gown finished, only minor updates needed

eed to make a couple of tweaks to it, but yay finished and from stash.

The sleeves are too tight as my alteration wasn't too scientific. Thankfully the wool has enough inherent ease in the weave to get them on. I've also got enough fabric scraps to add a gusset, and I suspect it will be approx the same amount as the bodice needed.  So not too awful, just annoying.  Also I couldn't find my quarter inch tape to use as the under bust drawstring so I used knitting cotton which doesn't have enough guts to risk tying tightly.  So I'll unpick the basting stitches for the cord, and replace it with cotton tape.  I'll then whipstitch the seam allowance to the upper bodice so it sits properly


I'm also thinking of being naughty and order 2.5 yards of lightweight wool in yellow from FFC. It's away from my face and a fashionable colour for the time.

the shortgown glitches overcome

Very late last night I realised that I had cut the bodice lining wrong (ie too narrow) and not the wool outer layer wrong (I sewed a tuck it it to make it fit the lining).

This is what happens when you fold up and don't pin or tape in place adjustments to the pattern pieces.  Tonight I'm going to unpick the waist seam and the underarm tuck to let that out, and whipstitch a piece of lining fabric into place. Moar hand sewing {shudder}.  There's a couple of pleats at the side of the skirt section, one of which can be let out so the skirt to fit the correct bodice width.


If I don't do it, the front will cut into my arms pretty badly

Trying to be too quick and not taking necessary steps then is result in needing more time to fix it than doing it right in the first place.  I ignored my inner voice and am re-learning the lesson.

I'm so not getting my green skirt done this time so am being lent a skirt - it helps to be short!  A taller person's waist skirt will be long enough if I put it at underbust level.  I'm taking the square of cotton plaid to hem if I need anything to do tomorrow.


The first thing I did sewing related when I got home was slash the lining and unpick the bodice tuck and the pleated skirt for an inch or so.


And then I whip stitched a strip over the top of the gap. The wool is lightly caught in most of the stitches, but that's ok, this is working close and piecing is period.  This is what it looked like before I trimmed the strip to length


I got the sleeves inserted neatly and tidily ... which was a warning sign. Sleevil lurks everywhere. They're a bit snug - proof that I should have mocked up my alterations, but meh. Working class, sleeves can be a bit tight so long as they go on. The wool is very malleable so it's ok.

I've got under half the hem to whip stitch down, and a tiny corner of the sleeve (where it's almost a corner).

Tonight I made regency lemonade, and some pork and leek pasties for my lunch tomorrow. I used 4 sheets of rice paper roll wrappers as my gluten free pastry wasn't good after more than a year in my freezer.  Yikes, that's $20 of pastry I couldn't even try to use for half that year (dang gall bladder).  Oh well I'll get less next time!

bitching about hand stitching

I may hate hand sewing but I'll do my best if I have to do it.  Here's the bodice neck edges, the front of one side and the reverse of the other. One sleeve is hemmed too, so that leaves 1 sleeve hem and the skirt hem. I'm trying to have less of that to hem than 3m, but 2m is still more than I want to do.

Winterfest is coming

I've cut out and started stitching my blue wool shortgown, using the Past Patterns Lewis & Clark era bodice. I've made the pattern twice before, and am tweaking it a little as I've lost weight.  Hopefully I've guestimated it right, but as it's working class, not upper or middle it's less important to reach an ideal.
I literally cut the gown to fit the cloth. I laid out the bodice & sleeves as economically as possible and then cut what was left into 2 strips. 1 width wasn't going to be wide enough for the skirt section as I'm not slender. 2 widths may be too much, but it leaves a bit for patches or mending.

The part I'm not looking forward to is hemming it. shudder!  If I had some linen tape I'd face the hem with that to save my sanity, otherwise I may do a rolled hem and be done.  For my brain, any hand sewing is too much. All those who love it, my brain doesn't comprehend. Intellectually I get that there must be them just as there must be people who like waking up early, but I don't "feel" it.

Some pix of the short gown.  hand sewing = fashion layer neckline, skirt hem, 3 edges (whimpers).  If it wasn't for re-enacting I could just get away with blatting away on the wondrous mechanical beast.  I need to hem the neck edge before I can attach the shoulder strap (at front anyway). I just belted around the lining. Ain't nobody seeing that.


The diamond back is definitely there! and I kinda like that it's the first thing I stitch. Could do the handsewing of the neck edge hem, but pffft. Diamond!


And here's a shoulder strap pinned to the assembled front/back with linings.


I'm suspecting quite strongly that I won't get it done for Saturday, ie tomorrow. But I'll take it with me and hand sew as much as I need so it's fit to wear on Sunday. It's definitely winter here.  Winterfest is likely to be very soggy.

photo catchup - have them at last

ugh, the interwebs just ate my post as I went to post. Lets see what I can remember ...

Here's the blue fabric I'm going to make into a short gown for my 1806 female working class persona.  It's lightweight and the warp stripes are (by thread numbers): *2 white, 2 light blue, 1 dark blue, 2 light blue* repeat at about 8 per inch/2.5cm.  It's a greyer blue than this photo would suggest.


The hobbit bodice - it fitted reasonably well in the back, apart from the shoulder straps being 3.5-4cm too long (overall not just in the back shoulder strap). My torso is short between underarm and shoulder so I'm not all surprised by this. I was thinking of moving the shoulder seam towards the back as in historical clothing so marked a line on the toile, but decided against it as the screencaps of women's clothing don't have that.


With the front, the central panel seamline is drawn on the reverse so you can't see it in the mockup.  I'm going to see if taking half the underbust dart from that seamline and the other half from the side seam sits ok, but first I'm going to rotate the underarm dart to the underbust.



As I anticipate wearing this to the next couple of movies as well as this June's Supanova I want to do a reasonably good job of it.  I'll do a 2nd mockup to see if my changes work effectively, and I'll cut the back & side front pieces on the bias just to see how that works.

Oh and I nearly forgot that I got the dye for Catelyn tonight.  I guestimate that I'd need 2 bottles or 4 packets of RIT.  I'd checked my dye-stash on Sunday night and amongst them is a dark green and a grey but there wasn't a teal which I thought was in there.  So once I discovered the bottles would cost $38 for 2, well I balked at that.  So instead I got 1 bottle and a packet of dark blue - on the theory that dark blue+dark green+teal+grey would hopefully get me a dark teal