Day Dress - Dry Run

Ok, ok. The dress looks as if it's done, but there are a few more finishing details that need to be done before I can say it's done. Those things are: hem facing, hemming, collar, and tacking the skirt to the bodice (it prevents the waistband from peaking through where it shouldn't).

Take a look at the gorgeous belgian lace that Anna sent me and tell me - do you think it works for the collar, or is it too nice for this outfit???
Everything is looking pretty good, isn't it?!! I'll be happy to wear this around Gettysburg next time we visit, and I can pick up a matching bonnet. Poor Dave...just what he wants...to load hoops into the trunk of the car, and then upon arrival, walk around with his century-confused wife, while he's in jeans and a t-shirt).

So, here's what I did on Sunday and Monday:
I sewed up the sleeves. The sleeve puffs are gathered pieces of fabric that had to be hand-sewn to the sleeve, and then the sleeve was sewn into the bodice. The sleeve puffs took forever!! I managed to almost finish the skirt (with all those pleats) and pull the bodice together in the time it took me to do those silly sleeves!! They don't look that complicated, do they?
Next up was finishing the boning on the interior of the bodice, using single bias tape to finish the edges (I found some pink colored bias tape, hidden away). Then, I sewed in the hook and eye tape. That process had to be repeated a couple of times before I got the placement just right.

Finally, last night I covered some buttons and sewed them to the bodice. It's almost impossible to see, but here they are:Now where are some kids I can borrow so that me and dress can have an outting together?

Day Dress update

Every time there's a long weekend, I just can't resist the urge to spend it sewing with my favorite costumed dramas on in the background. I made a lot of progress today. I whip stitched the pleats of the skirt into the waist band, and then added the hooks and eyes. Since I can't hem the gown by myself, I can't say the skirt is actually finished yet. It will still need to have the hem facing sewn in as well. Check out the litte knife pleats!
Next, I moved on to assembling the bodice. I sewed the lining and gown fabric together (this is called flat lining), added the darts on each side, and sewed in some of the boning. It got a bit late, so I'll finish the boning and sleeves tomorrow. I hadn't realized that I'd run out of bias tape, so I'm stuck on finishing the edges of the gown. I think I'm impatient enough that I'll try and make my own bias tape tomorrow instead of waiting the two weeks it would take to order it.
I'll say it again: I love this pattern. Look at how nice the fit is!

Day Dress, Take Two

Happiness is a pattern that fits properly, and comes with good instructions!

For those of you who may not remember where I we last left this project, you can read about my frustrations here. I am now using a new-release Simplicity pattern, and so far it's working very smoothly. I already fitted the bodice muslin, and so far I haven't had to make any alterations. I do think the shoulders will probably have to be altered: look at where the edge of the bodice hits my arm. Although civil war shoulder seams were much wider then the actual shoulders, I think half way down the arm is pushing it. Believe it or not, I think the other evil pattern had a better cut at the shoulders. Oh well. The only perfect pattern is the one you draft for yourself, and since I don't know how to do that, the Simplicty pattern will have to work.

Instead of making up the bodice first (which is what I normally do), I decided to make the skirt so that I could fit the bodice over the hoops, petticoat, and skirt, to be extra sure of the fit.


I'm using a very simple cotton print fabric. The color shows up very nicely in this picture, where I was trying to show the knife pleats that I've been working on at the waist band of the skirt. I'm currently in the process of whip-stiching the pleats to the waist band. I'm using tiny stitches, so it might take a few movie sittings.

An Act of Desperation...

Thanks to the meeting of the European Council of Ministers, I haven't received mail in over a week. Having my 18th century gown fitted and ready to go, but not having my fabric, is driving me nuts!!!

So....since I had the fabric for my civil war day gown lying around collecting dust, I decided to start on it today. Everything was going alone very well. You can see by the picture above that the muslin was fitting fairly well after just a nip and tuck here or there. But then, these little nasty surprises started cropping up, courtesy of the pattern!

1. The pattern pieces overlap each other on the paper, meaning you can't just cut them out and use them!!! You actually have to go through and trace new peices for the darn thing!

2. The sleeves are just awful! The pattern says 'ease' the sleeves into the armhole, but they should really say "drastically gather the sleeves." My first attempt at this created a horrible poof, and since 1850-1860 dresses arm holes are actually well off the shoulders, it was making me look line a line backer.

3. There are supposed to be CUFFS??? This is mentioned in passing, but I have no pattern peices, and no directions for sewing them. Are the cuffs supposed to be lined, unlined, make of two identical peices sewn together?? How are they sewn in? How should I know.

4. The instructions are pure evil. They arrived, complete with pretty colored illustrations, lulling me into a false sense of confidence. But when you read through them, you realize that they are general directions for ALL of her dresses, frequently offering multiple options for how to proceed on every step. Over 15 pages of very generalized directions that were written in random order with nothing specific about the dress/pattern I'm making (except for confusing illustrations of the finished product...showing cuffs when I have no pattern peice!!!).

...Needless to say this is not turning out to the be the therapeutical solution I thought it might be while I wait for my silk to arrive.

Grr!!! Pattern Aggravation!!!

Allright...no, I have not completely dropped off the face of the earth! I would LOVE to be sewing, but the stupid pattern has STILL not arrived from Harriets. I sent an email to them, which bounced right back with fatal errors, so now I've left them a phone message. It's not as if Harriet's is a completely unknown website...I would have expected much better than this. It doesn't take a month to ship a pattern, especially after paying with Pay Pal.

I have a feeling that my move is going to begin before I'm actually able to get started on this project. I would have liked to at least had it cut out...but oh well. If you want to check on how my move is going, check out my brand new blog: www.daveandmelissa.blogspot.com. My husband and I will be putting up pictures so everyone can feel a bit more in touch with us once we're in Poland.

Be patient over the next couple of months: I promise I'll be sewing again as soon as fabric, patterns, and sewing machine show up in Poland!

New Project: Civil War day dress

Here we go again!! It's been a while since I've started a project...and to be honest, I'm getting ready to move, so we probably won't see too much progress on this one for a while.

I bought a great cotton print on sale during those great after Thanksgiving sales. The picture above isn't exactly like my fabric, but it's a good representation of the colors and type of print. Sort of a reddish/brown. I'm scraping the Simplicity pattern (even though it was the inspiration that led to my learning to sew). The yardages on it are just ridiculous. No one wants to wear 18

I really wanted a dress with pagoda sleeves, but the pattern I wanted didn't come in my size, and as much as I love a good challenge, I don't think I'm ready to alter a pattern so drastically. So, I've compromised, and got this pattern from Harriet's patterns. I've heard mixed reviews about her patterns: many people say that the dresses have lousy directions. I'll hope that won't be the case, because I've searched high and low, and this was about the only one I was semi-happy with. Wish me luck!