Diary of a Costumer

I managed to get pictures and some video of the 1790s dress yesterday, so that video is now fully edited and uploaded, and the project can be put away. Or at least, it can be put away when the hem is dry (or clean and dry, if I have to soak it in oxyclean or something). Because yes, my yard was still a little muddy, and naturally, I stepped on the back of my hem multiple times. I tried to wash it out just using woolite, so I'll have to see today if that actually worked. 

I also started on the teagown. I spent most of Tuesday's sewing time waffling about the differences between the TV pattern and my extant dress, and trying to decide if I wanted it to be an exact copy (other than fabric choice) or if a close visual copy would suffice. Finally, I said screw it, because having a teagown with that much weight coming from the back of the neck, which only opens down the front to hip level would just be a pain to put on and take off. So I'm going with the pattern's closure of buttoning all the way down the front. I also went with the pattern for seamlines, since my antique one has one front piece cut on the fold, two back pieces where the back and side-back bodice sections are cut and seamed together, but then connect all into one skirt panel (if that makes sense), and a gusset on either side. The pattern, on the other hand, has two front pieces, two side-back pieces, and one center back piece on the fold, which just made more sense. 

So anyway, I cut out a hip-length mockup, sewed it together, and yesterday afternoon, I fitted the mockup. The main issue was that the hip flare was super not enough. It also didn't quite have enough room in the back pleating to create four pleats like my extant. And it barely had enough extra in the CF to pin the seam allowances together, let alone overlap for buttons. Oh, and the shoulders were way too wide. But all of those are easy fixes, and things I feel confident doing just in the final pieces, without having to make another mockup. So now I've ripped apart the mockup pieces, and it's ready to be cut out in wool with a cotton lining. 

I'm really glad that I have a Wed afternoon zoom sewing group, since I did all the fitting yesterday with them, and it helped me be motivated. After our chat, I walked Lion, and somehow came back with a major headache (probably partially stemming from the fact I had been wearing a hairband all afternoon), and had no desire to get up from the recliner chair for the rest of the evening. I hope today's sewing goes better!

I finished the Peppermint Bustle project. I'm not entirely happy with the hat I wound up making, and I'm a little concerned that the velvet ribbon I used is bleeding onto the white portions of the bodice, but overall, I think it still looks pretty great. And on the first clear day after I finished it, Emily helped me take pictures and video of it, and in doing so, I discovered a gorgeous beach park nearby, which I will definitely be returning to in order to take lots more pictures in other costumes. The only issue was that it was a very muddy beach, so now I have to figure out how to clean up my hem. 

Instead of sewing in the last week, since I finished the peppermint project, I have been attempting to basically make all of my Feb videos. And as of yesterday, I have all but one Feb video filmed, edited, and uploaded, and the one left is a sewing vlog on my new/current project, which I hope to finish by the weekend. 

And that project is the American Duchess 1790s Simplicity pattern! I used the pattern for a video on how to size up commercial patterns, and as part of the video, I fitted the whole bodice mockup, so I figured that since I've already done the hard part, I would attempt to finish the whole dress this week. At this point, though, I just have all the bodice pieces cut out. I'm making it out of the sheerish white on white cotton stripe that Joanns had a few years ago, which I made my 1910's dress out of. I'm hoping that I can maybe get the skirts cut out today, but I'm not sure I'll have time. I also have to figure out what petticoats were worn in this era. I'm cheating, and making it to go over my Regency stays currently, since I don't have 1790s stays yet. Those will have to come later. 

In other youtube news, I passed 15k subscribers a couple days ago! It's insane how much my channel has grown in the past two months, and it's honestly really exciting. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I can make "career plans" or whatever, other than being stuck in my no-growth job. Which, I mean, I'm still happy in my admin job, but it's always been disappointing that there's no growth opportunities. So somehow doing youtube actually makes me feel like more of an adult with aspirations and all that.