Jenny La Fleur

Ack! 10 days before I leave for CC - I'm not panicking!!!!! *ahem*

Looks like the stupid cable has finally settled down and is working properly. No posting last week because our connection was only up in 15 minutes spurts. Just long enough to read my friends list (sometimes to do a reply or too) before it went down again. Just a bit frustrating. *grinds teeth*

Not much done on the sewing front. Good stuff though. I finally came to the realization that I needed to stop being anal about this 1800 bee dress. I started to get all whigged out about “oh my gosh I’m gong to meet all these amazing costumers, I have to put my best foot forward and do everything ‘right’!”. *sigh* Pride can be such an ugly thing. God has been gracious to me though and with a little slapping upside the head last week brought me to a point where I can say, you know what? This will be my best foot. It’s the best I can do right now and that is okay. Not that I don’t care what you guys think but I have to do this costuming thing for ME, not based on what others will say or do.

*sigh* Thought I’d learned that lesson a few years ago, guess I needed a refresher. :> So anyway, not much sewing but my attitude is much improved. I feel much lighter in heart too and totally ready to party, no matter how close to my original vision the Bee ends up looking like or not.

All that to say I ditched my attempts to make the gown I thought I wanted and am going to copy the old Greensleves dress as is instead. It’s not the “accurate & inventive” interpretation on the Regency that I was going for but the look is right and it will be quite pretty. The overdress is same as ever but I was never worried about that. I work much better (and faster thank goodness) with more structured and fitted garments.

I cut out the toile from the old Greensleeves pattern and fitted the lining. A few tweaks and it looked good. I also decided on the height of the bodice, the one thing I really hated about Greenie was that the bodice was too long.

At that point I had to pack up my sewing things for a few days (company coming) so I turned my attention to my regency stays. I ripped out the rest of the old binding, started on the new binding and generally tidied up from my re-construction of last month. The bottom binding is done (how I love stays without tabs!!) and the top binding is pinned on.

Today’s plan is to finish that up and then finish the Erte. Just need to cut off some tunic hem (made it too long originally), re-hem it and attach that bit of trim.

Ack! Stupid dress! It was going to so well too.

I got the tunic sewn on yesterday and tried it on. B and I decided following the line of the under dress didn’t work, it dips down too much under the arm. The tunic needed more of a straight line. Should have taken pics. Oh well.

I played around with the height of the tunic skirt, even putting on my shoes, jewelry and playing with my hat. Oh this outfit is going to be uber cute at CC! No pics, on purpose this time – you have to wait! *hee hee*

Anyway ripped out the stitching, took the tunic off and stitched it back on, higher this time (did I mention this was all by hand?). Collapsed unto bed. Then I started thinking. When I sewed up the back seam, all nicely with a hand hemmed opening for the zipper, going into a French seam, I totally forgot that I had to cut the tunic to make it shorter. My plan had been to cut it and make a seam right under the belt, the hide it and still give me a border at the top and bottom. *sigh* This is the real reason I hate French seams, once you do them (especially if you trim them) that’s it.

I’ve been agonizing over it most of the morning but I think rather than mess with my perfect back seams (hours and hours of fiddly work) or cut and create a seam right above the border (possibly ruining the flow of the tunic also enter hours of fiddly work) that I am just going to cut the bottom border off and hem it. It wasn’t my original design but then neither was using the border on the sleeves or using so much of the end border on the underskirt. It’s a different look with out the tunic border, simpler but perhaps simpler will be better after all. Usually is on me.

If I hate it can always sew the border back on (creating that iffy seam there) I guess.

Oh I just had a thought… I have tons of fabric left. I could just cut a new tunic and start from scratch on that, making it the right length and then finishing the seams. Oh dear, now I’m undecided again. I think I’ll work on the belt and ponder…

What do you think? (when looking at the pics, the pic with the lower tunic border is the correct length of the tunic)

[Poll #769590]

I hate life. I’ve been zipping along nicely on the Erte this weekend and was hoping to have it basically finished before bed. I was all ready to pop in the zipper (*shh* don’t tell the thread Nazis!) when I discovered all I had was a black invisible zipper in the house. Not good with ivory silk. Of course it’s Sunday so Hancocks closed hours ago. *cries* Not fair!! Couldn’t have realized it earlier or anything. I guess I can work on the under skirt bottom but after that I have to wait for the zipper. *moo*

I’m pleased with the Erte so far. I’m particularly proud of my dodgey little collar and it’s facing. Originally, I had cut and sewn in an ivory sari facing but decided I didn’t like it so I ripped it out and put in a black facing instead. Now the collar folds over to black which is much more striking I think.

I’m also super pleased with the sleeves. Because of the way I was able to cut them out I didn’t have to hem the sleeves. They also ended up perfectly matching along the border at the seam. On the first try too!! *happy butt wiggle*


That spray adhesive – brilliant stuff. demode_kvc you are my hero! It adds a bit more mess to my sewing space (drop cloth, extra craft board that ends up sticky at the end of the day) but it’s worth it. It’s of course easier to use with stiffer fabric but I figured out how to use it with even the 5mm china silk (underdress layer).

I was such a good girl yesterday! I didn't sit in front of the TV and eat ice cream all night like I wanted to but instead worked on the Erte dress. I have all but the cotton lining cut out. The disgusting part is I have tons of fabric left over. I guess I was successful in choosing a design that was an economical use of yardage. Now I have to figure out what to do with the leftovers. maybe an everyday skirt?

The silk was so slippery that I stiffened it a bit first with some light spray starch. It made it much easier to fold and iron on grain and then cut out the pieces. To ensure the over tunic piece was on grain I actually pulled threads to find my cutting line. It's not something I do on a regular basis (being such a hassle) but I thought it was worth the extra time for this. Interestingly enough the woven pattern was not lined up with the grain. Whatever!

Tonight B and I are off to a Pirates of the Caribbean party in Richmond. We are going to watch the 1st movie, have dinner and then see the midnight showing of PotC2 with some of B's college mates. Should be fun. We are still deciding if we want to dress-up or not. I'm not in the mood for full 18th century but something casually piratey like my long black skirt and my green stays would be fun... we'll see.

I made good progress today and here is proof! First two pics are of the first toile (after being fitted with pins) so you can get an idea of what the original pattern looked like, then the second toile and finally the third with the sari fabric pinned on for the effect.

All my guesses about what I would and would not like about this pattern (and how I would change it) were mostly right, so that was straightforward. I put the first toile together per the instructions, just to see what that was like. Definitely not the way I would have constructed the pattern. Lots of extra steps so that no seams show on the inside and the sleeves don’t have to be hemmed – whatever! So yeah, skipping all that on my frock. At least the extra steps were explained well, if that is the way you wanted to go about it.

The dress is a semi-fitted sack so the fitting was simple. In fact the easiest way to fit it (particularly at the waist) is to follow the Titanic Deck dress pleats. It’s the way the silk drapes naturally in this style. I love it when common sense is applied to fabric and costume design – it makes life easy.

I lowered the bust/waist line ¾” and lengthened the skirt 2”. I’ll lengthen it a bit more to account for the heels I’ll be wearing with this outfit. The sleeves are also shortened (so they fit without piecing – if you have the pattern you know what I am talking about). The two major changes were to split the back open for a zipper (not strictly period correct I know – sue me!) and adding the collar.

I’m not sure how I feel about the dodgy little collar at the moment. It’s okay but I’m not sure what I’d like better. I used my Rohan collar as the base and drafted it into the neckline of the last toile. I don’t know I may bring the “V” a little lower or something. I’m not used to higher necklines like that (just not my thing!) but this is a day dress so I can’t go too wild and let too much collarbone show. Mean Edwardians.


Oh yes and pics of the finished ruffled jacket. Don’t mind the wrinkles, it needs to be pressed from where I was working on it. Still haven’t gotten to the store for the ribbon for the skirt…

I got my S&S pattern yesterday. I ordered it when, Saturday? *hugs pattern* I adore good costumer service and prompt shipping! Very interesting construction, which I plan on altering up the ying-yang or course! Still an interesting pattern.

Watched the deck dress scenes on my Titanic DVD (muted so the crappy dialogue won’t make me feel ill!) last night for inspiration. Good stuff! Makes me want a fussy back though. Mine’s going to be very plain, especially as I think I will put a fastening zipper back there to make life easy. Oh well. Funny in stills that frock looks quite stiff but in person it moves so nicely! :>

I want to get started on this project today but that ain't going to happen. *moo* Real life - go away!!!

The plan for my really-should-not-but-I-can’t-help-it costume! I know most don't worry about the theme of CC but it’s been bugging me that I wouldn’t be wearing any ragtime costumes. It seems a shame, especially since it’s a favorite of mine. I was originally going to make the Butterfly as my token ragtime frock but as you know but gave up on that a few months ago. I can’t deal with two labor intensive frocks that are being complete butts. Particularly out of two periods and at the same time, which is exactly what the Bee and Butterfly are. One had to go and as I was more motivated about the Bee, that will be my show-piece of the year. *crossing fingers*

So what could I make that was ragtime but not a complicated, potentially sanity losing sort of project? A day dress for the tea seemed reasonable, especially as I have the most dreamy length of black & white sari fabric a dear friend was kind enough to give me last year. The theme for the CC Sunday Tea is 'Tea with Erté' so of course this project has been christened the Erté Dress.

Inspired by sewphisticate’s fabulous new outfit (dare we add a WWSD to the LJ lingo?) I hopped online and started trolling through the options. I came across the 1911 Kimono Dress from S&S, and thought ummm…


It struck me that one of the options looked a lot like the Deck Dress from Titanic. A bit of tweaking and it could look quite similar to the Deck in fact (more tweaking and it could be a perfect copy but I’m frankly not interesting in that much work at the moment even if I had the right fabric, which I don't :>).

So I took the plunge and ordered the pattern. The deciding factor was really that this design would be a great use of my sari fabric, allowing me to really show off the borders. Also if I run out of sari fabric I can make some parts either black or cream and it would look like that was I way it was supposed to be. Heck, I may just do it anyway!

I need to wait until it arrives to see exactly how I’ll be changing it but just wearing a period corset underneath will make it look more like the Deck. I may try to the change the neck to the Deck's lace trimmed "V" but I’m thinking a little turn down collar like my Rohan dress might be fun. I don’t know how period that is but I love that little collar, it’s great fun to wear and flattering to my face.

I want my pattern now!! Come to think of it I want my new sewing machine now too! I haven’t heard from G Street yet. *mreh*

Edit:
Just trolled through the S&S forum. Saw some examples of the Kimono dress made up and looks like it’s a sack/tent with a belt. Should be pretty easy to fit to a corseted figure, right? :> I'm even more curious to see how it's constructed with the second skirt layer now...