Mistress of Disguise

I pushed to get as much sewing done this weekend as I could. I am so far behind because last week ended up being a flurry of wedding stuff with my sister - I helped her shop for some wedding-appropriate shapewear, her bridal pictures were on Thursday, and Friday was her bachelorette party. All of that stuff took up any free time I had after work last week, so I lost four days of sewing time (M doesn't pick me up until 9 on Tuesdays, so it was a wash, too) and it really set me back.

I managed to get accomplished what I set out to do over the weekend, which was finish the trim on the gown skirts. I was really hoping to get further along than that, like getting the back pleats tacked down, but that was an optimistic stretch goal, and it didn't happen. Adding the blue edging trim really took a lot longer than I expected. It's an elastic trim, so I didn't want to use the machine to stitch it on in fear of it stretching and making things wonky, so I had to hand-sew all of it on, which took forever. But, I do love how the blue makes the gown pop, and I'm glad I got to stick with my original color scheme.

I need to pick up the fabric for the skirt facings so I can get that sewn in, and then I can finally attach the skirt to the bodice. I still need to cut out sleeves, flounces, stomacher, and robings, but I'm in the home stretch now. I am debating on whether or not to add a flounce to the petticoat, above the serpentine trimmings, but I'll only do that if I have time once the gown is finished. I'll have some late nights finishing everything up before the event, either way.


I have M's waistcoat with me to embroider today, and I'm hoping to finish all the decorative work on it by Wednesday so I can assemble it on Thursday. No new coat for him, though, so I'm going to try and make him a new pair of breeches to go with his burgundy coat. ~sigh~ At least he'll have a new shirt and waistcoat.

After this, I'll have to make my bridesmaids dress, then I want to finish the Great Pumpkin for the Georgian Picnic. I draped a new bodice for it while I was draping the lining for this sacque dress, so the hard part is over. My stays need some adjustment under the arms, though, as they cut a little high into my armpits. Not comfy. No time to fix that before Casanova, though, so it'll have to wait until after my sister's wedding. So much to do!

Since I had to wait until 9pm yesterday for M to pick me up, I had plenty of time to finish the second pocket flap.



I'm taking a break from the embroidery today, since I didn't have time last night to mount the waistcoat fronts onto muslin, but I brought a skirt panel with me to work so I can hem it in my down time, and M's shirt so I can finally attach that other sleeve.

I'm mildly freaking out about the trim for the gown now. Nothing I currently have will work, but anything I order may not come in in time. As soon as my paycheck drops on Friday, I'm going to order another batch of trim and hope for the best. Until the trim comes in, all I can do is keep working on the dress and get it to as close to 100% as I can. There are only a couple of things I can't do until the trim gets here, but the dress can be pretty much totally assembled in the mean time. (And I may go on Saturday and pick up some trim in the design district to have as backup.) Maybe I should have stuck with the taffeta dress, after all. At least I had all the supplies on hand!

Semi-productive weekend was had. The damage on the car seems to be mostly cosmetic, so we taped it up with duct tape as best as we could until we can get the thing to the body shop next weekend. M will be driving back out to El Paso to get his teeth worked on (it's $1000 in Mexico to get all his dental work done, vs. $17,000 here, and no that's not a typo) and he's going to try and find a cheap car while he's out there, since cars are also waaaaay cheaper out there. (2015 models for $2500, so yeah.)

We were going to take a road trip over my birthday weekend, but now that's not happening. I am way more bummed than I expected to be. It's starting to feel like every time I make plans to do something, something happens to completely dismantle them. I know the accident wasn't M's fault, but dammit, I'm really sick of this happening all the time.

~sigh~ Anyway, since the car is still drivable, I packed up some of the fabric bins in the garage and took them to the storage unit on Saturday, then cleaned out a bit more of the sewing room and stored it, too. It's about 1/3 emptied now, but there's still a long way to go. Mom actually asked me what I planned to do with the room after I had emptied it out. Um...nothing??? You're kicking me out of it, remember? Otherwise why would I be putting all my sewing stuff in bloody storage?! O.o Ugh.

I also managed a little bit of sewing work this weekend. I cut out M's waistcoat and mounted the pocket flaps onto muslin so I can start embroidering them. I brought them with me to work today to work on in my down time. I didn't get much work done on the ivory/turquoise sacque. I'm kind of in limbo while I wait for the trim to arrive, which it should have already done. I haven't received a shipping confirmation from the seller yet, and I have no way of contacting her since etsy isn't letting me sign in for some reason, so I'm just stuck waiting. If it isn't here by Wednesday, I'm going to find an alternative, because I only have a couple of weeks left to get this thing done.

I did manage to drape a new pattern for the bodice, though, so after I find something in the Stash to use as lining, I can at least work on that. I need to start work on the eyelets tomorrow night so I can have the lining fitted and ready to go by the weekend, and I can start draping the gown itself.

Also worked on shoes. I adjusted one of the Ferragamos for fit in the toe, but they otherwise fit surprisingly well for such a narrow shoe. The Vanderbilts have been adjusted for fit, reglued, and I patterned out and attached the new tongue onto the left shoe. I'll probably do more on them tonight, since they're a fun, small project I can work on without having to drag out the dress forms or sewing machine. The brocade I bought was suuuper shiny and I felt somewhat dubious about using it, but I actually like it much better now that it's on the shoe. Still not 100% sold on the binding I've chosen, but if I hate it once it's applied, I can always replace it.

Feeling productive, despite all the roadblocks!

So, I didn't get anything done on the champagne francaise again. I had planned to cut out the petticoat and get it started last night, but I just didn't. I think I have a mental block against this fabric. It's fine in small quantities, but I don't think I love it for a full gown.

So, I'm abandoning the champagne francaise for now, and I'm going to use the ivory/blue indienne damask that I picked up in Dallas on Saturday. Here's a dark cell phone pic of the fabric. You can sort of see the new stays, too!



M doesn't get out of class until 9 tonight, which means I'm stuck in town until he can pick me up. I meant to have his waistcoat fronts ready to embroider, but that didn't happen last night, either. It was just sewing prep fail all around.

I am excited about this fabric, though. And I have enough to make the dress really froufy and over the top with the furbelows and stuff. I'm trying to find a trim that will compliment it. I want to do a blue trim, since there are some really striking paintings with ladies wearing ivory gowns with turquoise blue trim. It's hard to shop for something, though, without being able to put it up next to the fabric. White or gold trims are so much easier to buy online than colored ones. :-/