Monday night sewing plan

Tonight's sewing plan went as follows

tonight (Monday)~ assemble bodice front & back (including neck binding if I have bias tape in my stash)
~ seam skirt & press hem, front facings
~ pleat skirt waist
~ cut out oval mop cap & press hem.
~ cut out new toile of sleeves

I still need to stitch down the bias tape to provide a casing for a cord to draw up the bodice if needed - that neckline is stupendously low!  Vast Acreage of Boobage displayed under fichu.  And I want to do that in the flat, so I'll sew the side seams after that.  I've bagged the rest, but want to do the side seams as adjustable.  dunno why, but meh, impulse is a funny thing and my gut may be telling me for a reason that will later become obvious,

I'll pleat the skirt waist tomorrow. My friend can't make it out on Wednesday night so I do have all the nights free this week.  Phew.

This week's sewing plan

so far I'm not behind in my sewing plans, possibly cos I have a realistic expectation of what I can achieve and still keep my sanity.  the only thing I haven't done is allow for gatherin the ribbon trim. I expect that I'll be hand basting it in place, rather than machine stitching it. Mainly cos I may change it at a later date and all that unpicking would put me off. 

I managed to comfortably get the tartan dress out of 3m of 150cm, which means that I have 5m of fabric left over. So now I have the pressure of what else I could make in the future. 

Anyways, my sewing plan is

tonight (Monday)~ assemble bodice front & back (including neck binding if I have bias tape in my stash)
~ seam skirt & press hem, front facings
~ pleat skirt waist
~ cut out oval mop cap & press hem.
~ cut out new toile of sleeves

Tuesday night~  go home via the goth shop in Enmore to collect the white foundation & ordered & paid for on Friday.
~ stitch cap
~  edge stitch bodice onto skirt (the pattern has it hand sewn but that ain't happening!)
~  sleevil.  I can tell the sleeves will be evil, not just cos my arms are beefy but i think the sleeve head is too shallow.  I'll see what happens with the toile. I've allowed an entire evening for the sleeves. (the cap should take 10 minutes if I'l being lazy & the skirt the same.

Wednesday night
~ am seeing a movie with a friend, but it's looking like she wont be able to. If so I'll bring Thursday night's plans forward.
~ measure ribbon lengths ready to gather
~ find navy dress in towering tubs in the Grotto
~ locate the grey shoes for Miggsy in the Grotto

Thursday night~ gather & attach ribbon trim to dress & cap.
~ pack

hmm, I need to get a cheapo suitcase from Paddy's market on Thursday  AND write a packing list before then or I'll forget something essential (like pins to pin the bodice closed!)

how much rump is enough?

Last night I got the linen skirt pinned to the waist tapes and it's quite heavy, so I'm not sure if adding the ruffle will be a good idea - except I now have 5.4m of ruffle ready to be ruffley on something.

The extra voile for the voile overpetticoat is preshrunk but not yet stitched.  I forgot to hang it out to dryt til it was bed-time. {foreheaddesk}  

The false rump is quite frankly giganti-normous.  It's almost toooo big. But I was reassured me by text message that it couldn't be too big! 



Anyhoo the bodice fits remarkably well, I can see that there will be sleevil cos of my hefty irish washerwoman arms.  And the sleeves are a couple of inches too long, when the bodice is the right length.  Go figure.

Once I had the stays, false rumpo, skirt and toile on I was relieved that it's all going to work out.   thankfully I remembered the draw the line for the zone front onto it while it was on.

I can also see how cutting the front on the bias really makes a difference to how it fits (ie betterer) cos mine is cut on the straight of grain, and while it could be better but I'm not going to fuss over it.  What I might do is cut the lining & white section of the zone on the bias & only have the tartan on the straight - Miggsy's has the tartan that way.

So tonight I'm
~ stitching the linen waist tapes (pinned only at this point)
~ join up & sew gathering stitches of the voile skirt ruffle
~ pinning (& sew if time) waist of the voile skirt
~ pin the voile ruffle in place
~ cut out the cap
~ cutting out tartan bodice (not yet the sleeves) and skirt.






Oh, and Lincraft only had 6.5m of the gingham ribbon.  It ended up being free cos the young guy was messing up the till & tried to charge me $56 for 1.5m of 7.99 voile, 1x packet cotton tape at $6 and 6.5m of $2 ribbon.  He had to get help to figure out what he'd done wrong and this morning I noticed that in fixing the overcharge problem he hadn't charged me for the ribbon.

unsure if a chemise will need to be sewn

Last night I realised that I couldn't put my hands on my chemise, so I might have to make a new one.  At least I have some stash that will work for that - it doesn't match the top petticoat voile so I couldn't use it for the last bit of ruffle.

I also decided that I'll add the ruffle to the linen skirt last, as I'm doing that ruffle only cos I want to use it for historical wear, not cos the Miggins needs one. The voile skirt needs a ruffle for sure.

tonight I need to finish pinning the skirts to the waist tapes, lace myself into my stays and see that their hem is level.  I'll also pin fit the mock up of the bodice, it looked good over my victorian corset - which I had to put on cos I was getting a muscle spasm in my back from sewing.

Tonight:

~ buy more voile & preshrink it.  buy gingham ribbon to replace the checkered stuff I dislike.

~ finish pinning skirts to waist tapes

~ make sure they're level before stitching

~ pin fit bodice and cut out if still sane.

top-petticoat fabric shortage

Last night I discovered that I didn't quite have enough fabric for the ruffle on the voile skirt.  I had a 10cm piece (4") left when I needed a 30cm/12" to complete the hem ruffle.  Botheration.  I'm not sure if I should get it after work tonight or wait until tomorrow.

{thinks}

I'll wait until tomorrow.  I've got plenty to get on with tonight so it won't hold me back too much.

Miggins wears a zone front

I'm not going to lace the front but pin or hook & eye it. Don't want to sew eyelets!  I don't think the diagonal goes to the side, but a little to the front of it.   Not sure that I'll machine embroider on the fichu. 



I've also started working on the wig, the one I got from Queensland was too narrow around the skull - my shetland pony bone structure, and because the construction method of this wig means it wasn't going to be easy to make it wide enough to bring down to cover my hairline.   I'd hauled my Nikki Webster costume wig with me in case it would help.  It has been stored for 8 years just in case of a second outing, and it's getting one. It fits easily on my head despite based on a similar mesh style, the rows of weft are not only more generous (ie more of them) but also not tightly laid on it.  What i did was cut the ringlet section off  the poompfy wig and place it on the same spot on the Nikki wig.  The bottom rows of Nikki are underneath the ringlet row, but dont show through the ringlets and they bulk out the back of the hair and the shades of blonde aren't so different that it's blindingly obvious. 

Oh and I'm not doing the travelling mad Miggsy, so no need to find a sporran or trim a hat.  The basket would be useful, but not when it comes to packing for my flight down.

sewing bee progress

I got my false rump stuffed & finished off, and the measurements over it from waist to floor at centre back, side and centre front. My 2 pieces of stash white self stripe linen are perfect. The 2.5m is long enough for the front & back - I don't need a deep hem as there's going to be a 10" or 25cm ruffle at the hem.  The 1.5m is ideal to cut the ruffles with around half a metre left over for something.  Maybe line the bodice of a regency dress or spencer. 

I'm creating the linen under petticoat to use as a proper petticoat aka skirt for 1780s dresses.  So it's not a quick n dirty version that I'm making.

This screencap doesn't show clearly that the top layer is voile or sheerish, but it is.  It's got a ruffle too



I thread pulled the linen to make sure both lengths were straight and even.  The side seams are pinned and ready to machine.  I'd have cut out the voile top skirt except that I forgot to take the right fabric with me. I'd picked up another piece of white fabric that was near the voile. 

I'm going to have to buy lace for the sleeves online, as my local Spottie had nothing, and I'm sure Lincraft didn't either.  I didn't actually go to lincraft, but I should just suck it in & buy it through eBay seeing as there's more available in the type of lace I'm looking for

I also got a good approximation of the size I need for the cap, and need to remember to make it oval as it's much longer at the sides than front & back.

sewing bee progress

I got my false rump stuffed & finished off, and the measurements over it from waist to floor at centre back, side and centre front. My 2 pieces of stash white self stripe linen are perfect. The 2.5m is long enough for the front & back - I don't need a deep hem as there's going to be a 10" or 25cm ruffle at the hem.  The 1.5m is ideal to cut the ruffles with around half a metre left over for something.  Maybe line the bodice of a regency dress or spencer. 

I'm creating the linen under petticoat to use as a proper petticoat aka skirt for 1780s dresses.  So it's not a quick n dirty version that I'm making.

This screencap doesn't show clearly that the top layer is voile or sheerish, but it is.  It's got a ruffle too



I thread pulled the linen to make sure both lengths were straight and even.  The side seams are pinned and ready to machine.  I'd have cut out the voile top skirt except that I forgot to take the right fabric with me. I'd picked up another piece of white fabric that was near the voile. 

I'm going to have to buy lace for the sleeves online, as my local Spottie had nothing, and I'm sure Lincraft didn't either.  I didn't actually go to lincraft, but I should just suck it in & buy it through eBay seeing as there's more available in the type of lace I'm looking for

I also got a good approximation of the size I need for the cap, and need to remember to make it oval as it's much longer at the sides than front & back.