the good and the bad of packet mixes

I needed to make another cake to take to work .... if I want to join in the morning tea then I need to make it myself!

first the bad - a cup cake packet mix.  It looked like it would be good, but it turned out to be so hideously sweet that I could only eat 2 mouthfulls and then chucked the cupcake away.  Hideously, sickly diabetic coma inducing sweet. (even for a non diabetic)

Never to be tried again. Ever.

















the other mix I tried was the buttery sponge from the range I've successfully used the chocolate cake mix

Now this was a success!  Even using nutlex instead of butter it was delicious.  I ended up not going to work the next day as I had a migraine, so I took it with me to Ironfest and fed it to my re-enactment group who happily declared it tasty and you'd never guess it was special for silly innards.

I've already bought another packet for the pantry just in case I need it again

getting ready for JAFA (Jane Austen Festival Australi)

At the beginning of the year, I cut out 3 chemises, a coutil cheat version of my long stays (so I can dress myself) and the 1790s jumps in cotton canvas lined with cotton twill.  Despite being under the weather for most of the year, I've almost finished the chemises and have at least looked at the stays & jumps. Not sewn, but the jumps are so easy that I'm not too worried.  I took the pattern with me to buy some flat steels for the jumps, hmm, I better check that the pattern still fits, as I've lost a little weight.

On Saturday I went to my sewing guild meeting and spent far more time than I'd like hand sewing the binding around the edge of the replacement (ie longer) shoulder straps and whip stitching the straps to the stays.  By the end I wasn't able to focus well enough to thread the needle so I didn't get the hand eyelets stitched for the the straps & where the tie to the front. Only 4 eyelets and it's altered to fit properly.  I also want to devise fan-lacing for it. 

One reason I want the jumps done next is so that I can make & fit this 1798 fashion plate.  I can use the past patterns round gown to make the dress, though perhaps with less fullness in the back to save my brain with all those triangles at the hem.   3 metres of triangle trim will perhaps make my brain go all explodey.



at last, bread I can eat

It's very expensive, at least I think it is at $6.20 for a smallish sliced loaf. But it's made interstate & shipped here, so that accounts for some of it. Plus to make it without wheat/gluten/soy/potato/dairy/yeast and it still be tasty, well how can I complain, even if I can't afford it every week.

sewing slowdown ... a bit broken

I'm way behind on my austerity corse and I'm going to cut out the mock up this Sunday.  Sadly I've had some health issues that have impacted my my awake time.  That is I've been getting plenty of extra sleep at the time of day when I'm usually sewing. 

So I'm remember the turtle can win the race, and I'm defining win as finishing the corset and my regency clothing plans.

sooking over shoes

I've noticed a sudden increase in posts about the Astoria shoes .... and I'm a bit down in the mouth about them.  Not cos of the price, sheesh I'm used to paying way more than that for shoes.

I'm having a minor pity party cos my mutantly wide feet mean I'll never fit them. My body is an example of extreme ends of the bell curve, my huge tracts of land are way beyond the norm, even for huge tracts (I dress carefully to not enhance them), my bone structure is shetland pony stocky. Lady watches wouldn't go around my wrists even when I was the right weight.  Large hats are the only size that fit and I have shoes that are boxy flippers not elegant for displaying shoes.

Hmm reminds me I need to see about ordering some wide fit georgian shoes.

fun with scissors and sticky tape

Tonight I went to the library after work.  They've got a great long bench that I've used for cutting out fabric in the past. 

I sat down with my paper scissors and sticky tape and put together the A4 sheets of paper that the pattern was printed on.  Then I measured the waistline.  11 & 5/8" per each half.  then I worked out how much difference I'd need, and typing this I realised that I forgot to allow a gap in the back of the finished corset. {foreheaddesk}.  So I'm going to have to remove 1" from these 5 pattern pieces.

I didn't divide the total difference by 5, as there are 3 pieces in the front half, and only 2 in the back.  So I split the increase into 2 - equal amounts into the front and the back.  So the front pieces were increased by 1/3 of the quarter body difference, and the back 2 pieces increased by 1/2 of the quarter body difference.  I hope that makes sense to you!

This is what they looked like when I'd done.  I'm also going to extend the upper edge by 4 or 5cm, so that the Huge Tracts of Land are supported by this corset.

tick: enlarge pattern to original size of garment

Today I stayed a bit late at work and scanned & enlarged the pattern using Paint.

What I do is scan and save it as a jpeg.  Then I open the file using Paint.  Print it out once to work out the proportion I need to enlarge it and change that in Print Setup, as well as reduce the margins to as small as possible. Today I had to fine tune cos it was slightly too small - it came to 197.49%, and I went with 197 when 198 worked just fine.

I measure the scale over several inches (at least 3) just to make sure it's as close to accurately scaled as possible.

Came home & stared sewing the 1st regency chemise. Got about 1/3rd of the way and felt my energy plummet. So I stopped sewing before I made a silly mistake.

Tomorrow night I'll take the pattern pieces together & measure the waist & hip to see what they are.

the probable fabric for my Austerity corset

I located the cotton I bought 4m of around 2 years ago.  It's a tightly woven cotton, with the stripes about 1.5cm or 5/8th inch wide.  There's plenty and I thought it would be useful for 20th century underpinnings. 

I also have pale putty green canvas that I got for an edwardian corset - might use it for the denim 1890-1910 corset in Salen's book.  I've scaled that pattern up already, but don't think it's suitable for this sew along.