Time to exhale
Sep. 16th, 2003 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rikibethoh, lordy, I'm tired.
When was the last time I wrote in this thing? What's happened since then?
Most of my time recently has been eaten by a Giant Sewing Project -- namely, an 18th century frock coat for Mark, and a new back-lacing child's gown for Charlotte, since the petticoat and jacket I made her last time were too adult, really.
I got it done. It took an all-nighter followed by a massive crying breakdown right before we went to the event because I lost the drawstring to my best petticoat inside the casing and had no time to fish it out, but I got it done.
The frock coat was a big nuisance, because I was using the Wrong Pattern. Everybody I asked for advice on the pattern said "throw it out and buy the J.P. Ryan pattern instead." Right, except I'd already cut the fabric.
Well, I discovered that the "46-48" pattern, if sewed with the indicated 5/8" seam allowances, was decidedly a 46. However, when I sewed them at 3/8", it was a good 48.
Furthermore, although the instructions didn't bother to TELL you this, the outer sleeve seam matches up with the shoulder seam, which seam is actually on the shoulder blade and not at the top of the shoulder, because that's how they did it then.
The instructions were also less than helpful when it came to dealing with the cuff. I had to get Mark to look at the coat itself and figure it out for me.
The coat also has 19 buttons. Since self-covered buttons were most typical for a civilian coat, and since I did NOT want to pay the highway robbery that is the price of Dritz self-covered buttons, that meant sewing fabric scraps over large washers. Blah.
Charlotte's gown was much easier, because I didn't USE a pattern. I just folded a piece of muslin, cut a hole for her head, drew the seams where I knew they were supposed to go, and I had a bodice pattern, and then I eyeballed the sleeve heads and just pleated the skirt to fit. Easy.
The event itself -- Revolutionary Windsor -- went very nicely. We were technically late, but the opening ceremonies had taken place much earlier than they told our dance director they were going to be, so everyone in the troupe missed THAT, so they just waited for us since we were going to run off schedule anyway. So we danced, and then we went to the Russell House, where Mark and Charlotte oversaw the children's games outside, and I stayed inside, ostensibly to help Becky with the hearth cooking, but she had it under control, so aside from making a pie crust, all I did was sit around in costume and stitch on my new stays, and occasionally explain stays to an interested visitor. The new ones are strapless -- workaday stays. The ones I was wearing at the time were the high-fashion sort with shoulder straps, AND Mark had laced them completely SHUTinstead of leaving a 1" gap at the back. I was able to sing, but I have a bruise -- well, really a sore spot, there's no bruising visible -- on the left side of my ribcage. Ouch.
That was Saturday. Got home from the event, slept twelve solid hours, and then mostly cleaned house on Sunday, because my parents were coming to take Charlotte (and us) out to dinner for her birthday. I DID get it clean. It helped that the front hall and living room were still reasonably decluttered from the Kirby demo. Yay!
That left the place clean enough for a music rehearsal last night. Double yay!
Today -- my day off -- I baked cupcakes for Charlotte's school party. That's done with.
Now all I have coming up is the smaller birthday party on Saturday, and ordinary life. Then I have to start on Charlotte's Halloween costume. Luckily, she doesn't want to be Voldemort any more. I still have to sew the same black robe, but I don't have to deal with uglifiying my little princess -- I just have to get a pink wig at iParty, because she wants to be Tonks.
Whew.
So what's up with everyone else?
When was the last time I wrote in this thing? What's happened since then?
Most of my time recently has been eaten by a Giant Sewing Project -- namely, an 18th century frock coat for Mark, and a new back-lacing child's gown for Charlotte, since the petticoat and jacket I made her last time were too adult, really.
I got it done. It took an all-nighter followed by a massive crying breakdown right before we went to the event because I lost the drawstring to my best petticoat inside the casing and had no time to fish it out, but I got it done.
The frock coat was a big nuisance, because I was using the Wrong Pattern. Everybody I asked for advice on the pattern said "throw it out and buy the J.P. Ryan pattern instead." Right, except I'd already cut the fabric.
Well, I discovered that the "46-48" pattern, if sewed with the indicated 5/8" seam allowances, was decidedly a 46. However, when I sewed them at 3/8", it was a good 48.
Furthermore, although the instructions didn't bother to TELL you this, the outer sleeve seam matches up with the shoulder seam, which seam is actually on the shoulder blade and not at the top of the shoulder, because that's how they did it then.
The instructions were also less than helpful when it came to dealing with the cuff. I had to get Mark to look at the coat itself and figure it out for me.
The coat also has 19 buttons. Since self-covered buttons were most typical for a civilian coat, and since I did NOT want to pay the highway robbery that is the price of Dritz self-covered buttons, that meant sewing fabric scraps over large washers. Blah.
Charlotte's gown was much easier, because I didn't USE a pattern. I just folded a piece of muslin, cut a hole for her head, drew the seams where I knew they were supposed to go, and I had a bodice pattern, and then I eyeballed the sleeve heads and just pleated the skirt to fit. Easy.
The event itself -- Revolutionary Windsor -- went very nicely. We were technically late, but the opening ceremonies had taken place much earlier than they told our dance director they were going to be, so everyone in the troupe missed THAT, so they just waited for us since we were going to run off schedule anyway. So we danced, and then we went to the Russell House, where Mark and Charlotte oversaw the children's games outside, and I stayed inside, ostensibly to help Becky with the hearth cooking, but she had it under control, so aside from making a pie crust, all I did was sit around in costume and stitch on my new stays, and occasionally explain stays to an interested visitor. The new ones are strapless -- workaday stays. The ones I was wearing at the time were the high-fashion sort with shoulder straps, AND Mark had laced them completely SHUTinstead of leaving a 1" gap at the back. I was able to sing, but I have a bruise -- well, really a sore spot, there's no bruising visible -- on the left side of my ribcage. Ouch.
That was Saturday. Got home from the event, slept twelve solid hours, and then mostly cleaned house on Sunday, because my parents were coming to take Charlotte (and us) out to dinner for her birthday. I DID get it clean. It helped that the front hall and living room were still reasonably decluttered from the Kirby demo. Yay!
That left the place clean enough for a music rehearsal last night. Double yay!
Today -- my day off -- I baked cupcakes for Charlotte's school party. That's done with.
Now all I have coming up is the smaller birthday party on Saturday, and ordinary life. Then I have to start on Charlotte's Halloween costume. Luckily, she doesn't want to be Voldemort any more. I still have to sew the same black robe, but I don't have to deal with uglifiying my little princess -- I just have to get a pink wig at iParty, because she wants to be Tonks.
Whew.
So what's up with everyone else?
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-17 02:23 am (UTC)Sith Children
Date: 2003-09-17 03:29 pm (UTC)I still can't believe she really wanted to be Voldemort. Pink-haired Tonks'll be cute. Oh, and did my birthday present arrive?
I've been working on the 50s dresses for myself and Natalie -- the skirts are done for both, and I'm attacking the bodices next. Oh, and Nancy's been teaching me tatting. It's exactly the tiny, fiddly kind of stuff I love.