battling green fuzz

Yesterday I started work on my Rohan gown. It took forever to machine baste the velvet pieces to the cotton lining pieces. All the stories I'd heard about velvet are true: sewing the stuff is slow, meticulous work involving tons of pins. Very tedious. Make that very, very tedious. I listened to the book-on-tape of "To the Scaffold" (bio of Marie Antoinette ) so that helped the tedium. I love books-on-tape!

Today I put the dress together, sans collar, sleeves and a finished hem. I started out by just trying to pin well but in the end I resorted to basting each seam by hand before machine sewing it. It was the only way I could control the fabric. Even by hand control was a bit of a challenge. My velvet has the unfortunate combination of a pile (like all velvets) and a rather thick upholstery backing. Pins just wouldn't do the job.

So I got out my needles, thread and beeswax and plopped in front of A&E’s Pride & Prejudice. It didn't turn out to be a great choice as I frequently found my eyes on the screen and my hands idle. I guess hadn’t watched it in a while. :> By the end of the day both the main dress and the movie were finished though.

(  the gown so far )

pillow on pause

Oh yes, and I have set aside the Rohan pillow for now. I wasn’t happy with any of the ideas and nothing was working out anyway. Rather than throw something together I ultimately wouldn't be happy with, I decided to just move on for now. I practiced working with the velvet by using scraps...