Because I can, I'm blaming the 4 year old niece for giving me her ear infection on Christmas. Do I know for certain that's what I actually had? No, but I'm sticking with my story. Nearly two weeks later I'm now at the post-nasal-drip stage of things, and feeling better enough mentally that I want to do more than just sit and watch stuff, but lacking the actual energy to do it. Plus the heavy coughing/sneezing/nose!faucet isn't conducive to most activity either. So I've just been meandering through some knitting and embroidery the past day or two, basically depending on what room I'm in and what project is at hand. Very organized, let me tell you.

Anyway, my 2017 round up. I didn't feel like I'd made all that much over the course of the year, until I wrote it all down and realized I did do a fair amount. So here we go!

( pictures galore! )

So the stays workshop in Williamsburg this past weekend was awesome. I had fun and I feel like I learned a lot. AND I've got the start of a lovely pair of 1780s stays, and I feel more confidant about drafting up some earlier stays as well. Knowing how they should fit and where they should be was always my biggest stumbling block, after all. I definitely intend to take more workshops with B&T in the future. I also plan to use the same pattern, once I finish the blue stays I started in the workshop, for the yellow silk stays I bought fabric for years ago.

Other news: Apparently the Met's website and Chrome don't get along? Or is that just me? I have no problem browsing the Met in Safari, but in Chrome I get the 'down for maintenance' thing all the time. But anyway. I've already picked out what I'd like to make for the Titanic exhibit at the Franklin Institute in January, though I probably won't start working on it until December. I still like having a plan, though, and this way I can keep an eye out for fabric. This adorable little dress is what I have in mind. I'm trying to decide if I want to keep it black or go with a different, but still dark, color. It'd probably be easiest to find black taffeta and chiffon/gauze that aren't too far off from each other, and I have tons of black velvet ribbon that I can do the edging with. I also have four or five yards of some amazingly gorgeous azure blue silk velvet that I'd like to make a cocoon coat with, and black won't clash with that. But I've got time to make final decisions on that as well~


Isn't it cute?

So excited with how my Titanic gown is looking! The sari I picked out for it is so gorgeous and absolutely perfect.



( and I did a hair test run too! )

Two awesome things happened today.

1) I got into the Burnley & Trowbridge stays class in September! \o/ I was first on the waitlist, and someone cancelled, so I'm in~

2) The (second) sari I ordered for my Titanic dinner gown arrived today. I've already got it cut apart and mostly draped, but I need to finish the underdress before I actually finish up the draping of it. It's a net sari, and I wasn't sure if I'd match the color for the underdress or go with black, but black won out, so it'll be made of the black silk charmeuse I've had in the stash for a few years now. I'm still trying to decide if I want to line the skirt or not, but I think, since I'm not doing a train on the silk, I'm going to skip lining. I think I'll just do a petticoat for it.

In the slightly less awesome realm of things, I'm almost finished with the green striped gown. I just need to sew the last few hooks and eyes into the bodice.

taking a short break from the green gown, I put some thought to what I want for the Gibson girl pool party, and I think I'm going to go with more of an early teens day gown, something like this dress though with a red and white color scheme instead. (and trim rather than embroidery, with time constraints) And I picked up a red hat earlier that with some basic alterations should work quite well~

I actually sewed today \o/ I've got most of a teens corset pieced, and I'll probably do the last bit of assembly tonight after a dinner break, and tomorrow I need to run out and pick up some tape to make boning casings with.

I'm using jenthompson's corset pattern, since it's not complicated, and it's not super tiny, which means I didn't need to practically double the waist measurements. Always a plus.

I didn't want to make it plain white, because that's boring, but I still needed to keep it a light color so I can make myself a white afternoon dress. I was originally digging through the stash hoping for something in a light pink, but then I discovered an old piece of lilac/silver cotton lamé. It's a fairly thin fabric so I fused it to some plain cotton to give it enough strength.

I'm hoping to get the corset finished tomorrow, so I can then start on a dress for the Titanic dinner at Dress U Tuesday, as I'll be away Wednesday to Sunday.