Veil Making for Idiots, Part 2

The Veil Making Saga continues.

I bought about thirty-nine dollars worth of materials ... twenty-nine of those dollars going towards this veil.
I bought a veil kit thingie at Michael's, and promptly took the veil off the hair comb. I then started to pin the veil to the headband.

The next step involved sewing the veil *to* the headband. This was a lot harder than it sounds. My fingernails ripped, the needle and my thumb became a little too well acquainted ... and then I grabbed my great-grandma's thimble. Oh thank heavens for that thimble. Made the sewing much easier.

After that, I tried on the veil (because, um, that's what you do. Yeaaah). See how it's almost reaching my butt? I wasn't too thrilled with that.

So I decided to make it poofy. Trust me, it was horrifying in person.The veil is almost finished, so part three should be posted in the next few days!

Guys & Dolls

So the chemise isn't done. Despite being off from work, I've been conking out every day around 5 o'clock. Normally, I would have sewn this evening, except I saw my 14 year old cousin perform in Guys and Dolls (you rock Sky!).

I'm almost done with Besotted, but now I need to find another knitting project, and fast. Where did I put my Monkey sock?

Chemise for me!

The chemise is almost done! Since I'm taking my sweet time, it should be done tomorrow.

Currently, the dining room table is covered in the chemise, a puzzle, and the modern portable sewing machine, which does not do scalloped edges. So mine won't be as fancy as View A (the picture towards the bottom on the webpage), but it will fit and all will be well.

Discoveries

Still have a fever (100 degrees), but feeling better than the past few days.

Anyway, today there were some bizarre pattern discoveries. Mom insisted that I transport some fabric and patterns into a plastic bin, mainly so we could have the guest room back.

Guess what I found?

The following Past Patterns ...

#702 1850s-1863 Dart Fitted Bodices
#703 1863 Dayton's Skirt Supporting Corset (finding that was an utter shocker)
#707 Two Chemises 1850-1870 (important since I need a proper chemise for the ballgown)
and #709 1850s-Late 1860s Garibaldi Shirt.

Oh! Back to the Olympics! Michael Phelps and Dara Torres should be on soon.

Defeat

I am now on Day 5 or 6 of fevers, and all the fun that goes with that. My doctor (and other doctors) have decided I must have a viral infection, and all my time lately seems to be spent sleeping (and now I can't fall asleep. Damn crickets). By Friday the earliest my parents and I will know what I have: mono, CMV, or Epstein-Barr. Thankfully, I do not have Ebola, and I am definitely not pregnant with an alien baby that will burst out of my chest, a la Alien.

Being this sick means I've been barely knitting and not sewing at all for Dances of Vice. I just realized that for my 1860s ballgown, I need a new chemise, and I definitely need an over-petticoat. However, since the moiré fabric is so thick, I can get away with not making the over-petticoat. Not sure what to do about the lack of a chemise though. The 1909 one does not have the right neckline.

So, with the ball just 16 days away, with no fabric cut out, sicker than sick, and not trusting myself near heavy machinery, I think I'm going to wind up ransacking my closet and try to make something steampunkish. (sigh) I was looking forward to making that 1909 gown, and wearing it!

(groan)

Taken by Goodrob13, found through Creative Commons

Being sick has majorly screwed up my plans for today.

Tonight I was going with my friend Katie to see Hair with the yummy Jonathan Groff (who I last saw as Melchior in Spring Awakening). Interestingly enough, when I first saw Spring Awakening, Matt Doyle was playing Groff's part, as Groff was acting in the 40th Anniversary Tribute to Hair that night.

Additionally, my mother (who I suspect was getting tired of me taking over the guest room with both sewing projects and sewing anxiety over Dances of Vice), was going to help me pick out fabric today, and help me get sewing.

My mother's sewing talent is extraordinary. When I was fifteen, with a limited amount of time, Mom constructed an 1860s ballgown. She can do things with pleats that I still can't figure out. Here are some terrible pictures I just took --- the lighting is awful and I have a fever, so you must forgive me.
Oh. And I'm totally wearing this ballgown on August 24th at Dances of Vice. I promise to have my (incredibly talented at photography) Time Lord take pictures :)

Countdown aka I'm Stumped

With only 24 days until Dances of Vice, you would think by now that the corset and combination would be done, and I would be swimming in yards pink silk, ready to finish stitching up the pieces.

Yeah right.

This week has been a week where I think inanimate objects are smarter than me.

Examples:
Monday - outsmarted by a hole puncher. Seriously.
Tuesday - let's not get into Tuesday.
Today?

Outsmarted by Past Patterns. Saundra Ros Altman, I think I might be a bit of an idiot. Can you please host a sewing workshop on the East Coast please? I actually have a headache, and my mantra, "You're in grad school" is not working.

On the plus side ... despite a slight panic in my stomach because Dances of Vice is 24 DAYS AWAY ... I realized that I do have quite a bit of fabric cut out for the dress. The long-sleeved dress. The dress I was going to make at the tender age of 15, in a midnight blue.

Guess what I'm going with now? I'll be making the sleeves shorter, that's for sure. And I'll be wearing the green feathered headband.

Will my gold eyeliner still go with these colours?

Placket of doom

Despite lack of lace trim, I'm forging ahead with the Edwardian combination. I started sewing the petticoat tonight.

I was doing well until the placket business. Blech! I'm blaming it on my brain shutting off after two weeks of intensive summer courses (two weeks = 6 credits).

Today is July 11th...

...though I thought today was July 10th. Oops.
My package from Fabric.com came today! Tomorrow will be washing and ironing the fabric... and by tomorrow night? Hopefully cutting out my Edwardian combination.

Taking a (corsetted) plunge

That's my grandmother's 1940 electrical Singer sewing machine. She's a gorgeous machine, and I love working on her a lot more than my twenty-first century traveling sewing machine. I focused on the right? side of the corset, sewing the seams together. I am still incredibly shaky with the lap-seams (aka French seams).

After the seams of doom, I need to sew on interfacing ... then I can start sewing the other side of the corset. I held the corset against my body, and it goes down my hip, which I love. My 1860s corset, bought from Abraham's Lady several years ago, is of course forty years earlier, style-wise. It ends at the waist. Edwardian women wore different clothes than their mid-Victorian sisters, so of course the undergarments are different.

The beautiful Millicent Evans, from turn of the century,
under Creative Commons attribution license.

Edwardian Update

After spending the past few days away from home, I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed (and sleeping. Woke up at 5:30 this morning and drove four hours across the state to get to work ... after sleeping fitfully for five hours) ... and working on my undergarments.

I inter-library loaned a number of books on dressmaking. I'm still having a devil of a time trying to figure out lap seams. This is the only reason I haven't done any work on the corset since Monday. Since the books won't arrive until Monday, at the earliest, I'll start cutting out the pattern pieces for my Edwardian petticoat combination.

Now to find a store that sells nainsook, cambric, or lawn...

Update: DenverFabrics.com has the most delightful selection of 100% cotton lawn.

Lap or flat-felled seams?

Still puzzling over the lap seams, I decided to visit Koshka's site this morning. I know she's constructed Edwardian corsets in the past, and figured she might know something about lap seams.

Her Edwardian and 1910s corsets don't use lap seams, she used flat-felled seams instead.

About.com and this site give very easy instructions on flat-felled and French seams.

Tonight I'll be ripping out stitches *and* repinning. Ugh. Good thing Dances of Vice isn't until late August.

Lap seams

Can anyone explain LAP SEAMS to me? (And no, this isn't some bizarre title for a future Russell T. Davies show).

I have all the pieces for the 1909 corset cut and laid out on my dining room table. I have pinned pieces 1, 2, and 3. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to create lap seams though. I just can't. I've read the Past Patterns explanation. I've looked online.

I. Cannot. Figure. This. Out.

This is one of those things where I have to learn by someone literally guiding my hands. Oy.

Sewing like it's 1909

The Past Patterns #106 1901-1909 Corset Kit arrived today ... complete with everything I need for my Edwardian corset (sans thread). Despite some confusion over lap seams (thank you VintageSewing.info) I was able to cut out one half of the corset, and sew it together. There's me "trying" on half of the muslin mock-up.

Finally!

VICTORY!

I found the pattern ...The skirt I wore when I was a tour guide at Deepwells ...
Patterns for my 1860s clothes...What was *once* a wearable 1860s dress...
and what I believe is vintage silk.

Dress hunting

I'm on the hunt.

Now, when I was fifteen, right before I got into reenacting, I ordered the Laughing Moon Mercantile 1909-1913 Evening/Day Dress pattern.

Eight years later, I'm tearing apart my house looking for it.

Where the heck is it?! I'm wondering if I should a) order the pattern, b) use a different pattern (mainly the CanCan costume from Laughing Moon), or c) rely on the great Janet Arnold and what little is left of my wits when it comes to enlarging one of her patterns.

Oh great Pattern God, please let me find this beast so I can begin my project.