Miss Philomena

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?

Redrafting the pattern for my 1872 Watteau polonaise has been put on hold due to a lack of space. If I were inclined to move my very large and heavy kitchen table, I'd have enough room there to draft up the long parts, but that requires moving a large and heavy table. I think I'll just wait until Wednesday evening, when my neighborhood civic society has the monthly meeting in the local church basement. Plenty of space there. I'm also 75% decided on fabric for that. Since only the polonaise is cut out of the print, and all of the ruffles and skirt are made from the solid, I should be fine with 7 yards. It'll just depend on how wide the side back and center back pieces end up.

Because I can't work on just one project at once, I've got the bodice for an 1874 evening gown cut out, and need to work on that some. Not much else to say at this point, other than I need to scan in the plate I'm using as inspiration for that.

Only two projects at once? Are you kidding? I can't leave well enough alone, and have started on an 18th century project as well. I've pulled out fabric and traced off the pattern, and at some point soon I'll start on a set of stays. This set caught my eye, mainly because of the decorative lacing up the front, and what appears to be wavy cording. I can't consider the lacing functional, anyway, because it doesn't lace all the way down, and it doesn't look like it meant to be opened there either. "Fitting and Proper" also features a set of stays that has that bit of lacing at the front, and the angled boning. The McCord Museum's stays simply seem a more elaborate version of those. Anyway, I plan to use some hunter green cotton satteen I dug out as the face fabric, and will have to keep an eye out for a nice ivory cotton or linen tape for the binding before class next week. If I take an earlier train I should have more than enough time to run over to M&J first.