Diary of a Costumer

I was wrong when I posted last week about what I thought I had already accomplished on the Fairy Godmother bodices. I had only done the day bodice neckline and part of the hem, and nothing else. Whoops. But last night, I finished the day bodice hem and started on the evening bodice hem, and I'm hoping to finish all that handsewing today. I still haven't tested the evening sleeve mockup either. 

Honestly, I didn't wind up with much sewing time at all this weekend, because I had a lot of house and yardwork to do. The fascia on three corners of my house has started to rot (or two are rotten, one the paint has been peeling on), and I talked to a handyman on Saturday, and he suggested what I could do to protect/fix it, at least for now. So Saturday, I sanded down the fascia in those areas, got rid of the soft wood, and put Minwax wood hardener on them. I also took down all the Christmas lights, and cleaned my front gutter. And had the last performance of my show in the evening. Then yesterday, I put wood filler over all the areas that needed it on the fascia, and managed to clear out about half of a huge shrub that ran the entire length and width of the side of my house, and has been preventing me from doing any maintenance over there at all, including cleaning my gutter. I'm hoping that I can get the rest of it out before more rain comes and before spider season comes, but I filled up my yard waste bin for this week, so it will have to wait till there's more room. And then I went to Applebees and (finally) saw the new How to Train Your Dragon, which left very little time for sewing. 

What little sewing I did do this weekend was actually mostly spent on altering my 18th c court gown. I haven't worn it since CoCo 2014, because a) there's not much that calls for an 18th c court gown, and b) it's so large that I would have to get dressed at the venue. But luckily, there is going to be an Outlander-themed 18th c ball this Saturday at a country club with dressing rooms! And also luckily, I pulled it out a week ahead of time to make sure that it still fit. Because... it didn't. Although I was eventually able to lace my stays tightly enough to get it closed, it was so tight that I had a minor panic attack when I tried to get out of it (the hooks and eyes refused to unhook, and I wound up literally removing three of the hooks with my seam ripper to get out of it). It was much more comfortable when it opened up to about 2.5" or so at the bust (the waist still fits, oddly enough). Luckily, it's the 18th c, so I decided I would just add a stomacher to make it work, and also luckily, I pretty much had just enough fabric left to make one. So Friday and Saturday's little bit of sewing time was spent making a boned stomacher with four frilly bows, which will pin in to the bodice to close it. Success! Now all I'll have to do is press the whole gown, and figure out my hair (my wig is way too uncomfortable to wear again). 

Here's a link to my instagram to see pictures of the court gown alterations: www.instagram.com/p/BuhPRWfAXzZ/

Thankfully, my evenings this week are fairly open, so I think I should be able to both a) go to the gym multiple times, and b) knock out a bunch on the Fairy Godmother bodices. Though at this point, I don't think there's enough time left to squeeze in the Daniel Deronda riding habit before VicFest, too!

I decided to be stupid and stay up way too late to work on the wig. I haven't tried it on yet (and I seriously don't know how I'm going to get this monstrosity to stay on my head), but assuming it fits, all it needs now is powdering and copious amounts of hairspray.

Here's a pic:

I finished the engageantes yesterday, meaning the court gown is fully done. I would like to decorate a new pair of shoes for it, and I need to make a wig, but I count those as separate projects.

Here's a pic of the engageantes:


Now I'm going to see if I can throw together a new Regency dress. I'm going to attempt to make it out of a sari I got a few months ago, but it's so thin and flowy that I'm worried it won't work.

As far as other projects, I need to remember to make a hat for my seaside bustle. And if I finish the regency, then that will need a hat as well. And maybe a reticule. I also need to buy calico for my CosCol class.

I sewed literally all day today, from about 7:30am to about 10pm (with a 1 hr break and 2 hr nap thrown in there). But I got a lot done. I cut and sewed up all the trimmings for the petticoat and the remaining ones for the overskirt, pinned them all into place to see how they would look, and sewed the remaining trimmings on the overskirt. I also sewed all the bows on the bodice. That means that the overskirt and bodice are both complete! I also hemmed the petticoat. In total, I think I watched somewhere between 4 and 6 Game of Thrones episodes. I lost count.

At this point, I have to finish three layers for the engageantes (and put them together), plus sew all the trimmings on the petticoat. And I have to figure out how to do a wig. These wig bases are expensive! I might also paint my last pair of Kensingtons (or I might be lazy and leave them white).

Below is a pic from this morning, with all the trimmings loosely pinned into place:

This morning, I finished two more layers for the engageantes, meaning I'm halfway through with them! For the rest of the day, though, I worked on trimming. I trimmed the edges of my sleeves, which means that all the bodice needs are for the bows and engageantes to be tacked on. I also added a lot of trimming to the overskirt. I attached the same trim from the sleeves to the front edges of the overskirt, sewed on all six of my embroideries, and sewed the silver metallic lace around two of the embroideries so far. Besides the rest of the lace, I just need to snake the pink ruching (edged with more of the lace) through the embroideries. And maybe add some beads. And do the underskirt trimming. And hem everything. My goal is to have this whole costume done July 1st. Pictures of everything are below - please ignore the fact that Antoinette totally can't fit my bodices:




And thank goodness I had never gotten into Game of Thrones before now. Because watching all these episodes is providing plenty of costume drama time while sewing on this project. I'm now almost halfway into Season 3, and I started this project on episode 4 of season 1. 

So making embroidered engageantes is way harder than I thought. I'm doing a three-tiered ruffle for them. I managed to make one tier today, over the course of at least 2-3 hours. I did it with decorative stitches on my machine. It's very pretty, but I might have to put off finishing them until after I've finished everything else for this court gown. Anyway, here's a pic:

Despite my seemingly successful sleeve mockup, I am now facing a bad case of Sleevil. I have a giant pouf in the back of my arm when my arm is down, though when I reach my arm forward, it goes away, and I have an appropriate range of motion. So is that pouf supposed to be there? And if not, how do I correct it? Here are some pics:

Well, it looks like one other person will be joining me in a court gown for the gala, since all the other ton of people that were supposed to be making one have put it off till next year...

Maybe I can change your minds and spur you all on with some progress pictures?

I worked a bunch on the Court Gown skirts today. They are now done, save for hems and trimmings (which I have yet to really decide on). I wound up having enough of the pink silk to do the entire underskirt. I hope I don't regret that decision!

Here's a picture. The lighting makes the fabric look really weird...:


And this is a picture of my inspiration image, from one of the Tom Tierney coloring books: