green_martha

About the icon, after being insulted four or five times over the past three days in lieu of a reasonable discussion, this is the only appropriate answer I have. *shrugs*

First, having BOTH candidates for the second row of presidential elections try to appeal to the xenophobic, reactionary far right by saying "oh yes, actually we think along the same lines" is more than a little disturbing. What the frack ? I know the Leader Minimo and his pals totally ARE on the same page as the far right on a lot of topics*, but I thought better of the socialists. Or at least, of some of them.

*Just for the record, he's been re-actualizing things we haven't heard for the last 70 years and making constant references to our dear old Pétain - since years, but in full force since Sunday. Classy.

Then, I've been barfed onto three times today, I had to keep the kids quiet for two hours because we had an appointment with an ophthalmologist and the only time we could get one was during nap time, so we survived without nap in a very not kid-friendly zone. Add one hour in the car (where only the younger one slept, for, like, fifteen minutes). I'm one tired maman. But I won't let that put me down, because I have awesome friends, because the kids didn't explode in flight despite the lack of nap, and because I was really good today and finally took pictures of the maternity corset ! Which implies I almost have a working photography setting !!!!
I have the pictures, they're on my site, but have yet to be made accessible, and that involves working with galleries and editing, and I've already made one dumb mistake tonight, so I figure it's a Bad Idea(tm) to try that now. You'll have to wait a little longer !
This is something else entirely - wedding dress sample ! I've found a way to make it work, it's going to be awesome ! I have other lengths of sparkly embroidered net in different colors and patterns, I'm not sure I'll have the willpower to avoid turning one into an early teens evening gown.

I have a new charger for the DSLR !
So I was able to retake pictures of the Erris corset - the laces are still not good, I haven't found the time to go buy some pink ribbon.

The lace is actually a very pale pink, it goes better with the pink ribbon in reality than it does in the pictures. I also have a piece of coordinating silk ribbon I might use for these weird eyelets below the busk - I kept them from the original, not that they're any use, really.
Now this is how it looks with the petticoats over it. I'm able to close the bustle as I did pre-pregnancy, just a lot higher in front. But hey ! look at my icon ! I got a period silhouette at least !


I officially really started on the dress now. The skirt base (yellow cotton from Ikea, serged together, gasp !) is constructed and the HG (!) helped me cut it to the right length all around. I'm going to leave a little extra room in front for the tummy, more thant I normally would on a 1880s bustle skirt but I don't want it to get tight.
I'm constructing the skirt in one piece, with the various layers attached to it. first come the pleats. Loads and loads of little pleats that should be wayyy more precise than mine. I DID mark those before ironing them, though... I might have done a better job by just eyeballing them. *sad panda face*

After I started pleating those I realized I had only cut out one HALF of what I needed... Then it dawned on me my fabric piece was a little large anyway, so tomorrow or Tuesday I'm goign to just cut it in to, rehem one end end tidy up the pleats, et voilà ! Double length of pleats !

I'm also working sporadically on the hat - depending on what Heimlich lets me work on, really. Here is the mock-up on Madame Veto (who has a much smaller head than mine).

If only I knew for sure where to find buckram around here, I'd feel more confident about this piece... oh well, I can always make it out of fabric covered cardboard if everything else fails...

Today was hard on my hands. I had to pry my corset out of TheBitch's claws twice - the second time around I actually gave up and called the HG to the rescue after hitting the machine with the first thing I had at hand. That didn't convince her but I managed to slice my right pinky finger open, as said first thing was my pair of scissors. I know, dumb. But the HG did save the corset.
After that, I decided I was done with TheBitch ans switched over to my 1930s Singer, aka TheSphynx. I miraculously remembered how to thread it and wind a bobbin (though she's not so good at bobbin winding), and marveled at ther regularity and smoothness while applying bias binding and lace to the Erris corset. Binding included many pins that were very keen on stabbing my otherwise intact fingers. Ouch !
But the thing is, the top of the corset is bound, the bottom is partially done, and I think I'll be able to complete the corset (minus lacing cords I still have to buy) by the end of the week-end.
As for TheBitch, I'm debating between keeping her as a bobbin winder for the Sphynx (they use the same bobbins and bobbin case) and giving her back to the original owner, my Mom, so that I'm no longer tempted to ever, EVER sew anything with the cursed thing. A sewing machine that almost comes to a halt every time her path crosses a pin ? That doesn't know there's such a thing as "stitch length" ? (I mean, there supposedly is such a thing in the settings, she just does her own thing... one long stich, five short ones, let's make them longer again...) That gets stuck with the needle down repeatedly ? That basically messes up everything you do ? - until you try to stitch on a fabric scrap. everything's always fine on scraps. I'm not even sure she'd work as bobbin winder right now - although she repeatedly set herself on bobbin winding mode on her own today, the seems totally stuck now, and I very much don't want to shell out 80 to 150 euros to repair a thing I despise that much.
The good side of it is that I made friends with TheSphynx (I even hugged fer a few times today), I went back to the Singer website, found out she's from 1930 rather than 1933 like I thought, and even downloaded the manual - so that now I know what the mystery feet are ! large and adjustable hemming feet ! I'm thinking about hunting down a new basic foot for her, some bobbins (foot and bobbins are a bit rusty), and possibly a ruffler... I just adoooore her. The light is also exactly in the right position and exactly the right intensity - those who updated her to electricity did a really good job ! I worked a bit with the (electric) pedal, and a bit with the hand, and was able to get more precise stitching than I do with TheTank.
... so now I kind of want a hand-crank machine... oops !

The world needed something *really special* for me to be able to post corset pictures. Like snow in November !

A little blurry : Heimlich's first real snow day ! It didn't get much more white than that, although it snowed for a few hours. Right after we went out it started melting and then the sun came out. But now at least the mountains are all covered in pretty white stuff.
My boy wasn't thrilled with the white-wet-stuff-that-you-can't-really-hold-in-your-hands, and soon wanted to head back inside where All The Toyz (tm) are. But look ! He's standing all by himself in this picture ! *giggles from excitement*


Very ugly mock-up piccies... I made the slits higher - both in front and in the back-, and there's a sliding buckram reinforced piece under the front slits. I'm sticking my belly out a bit in those pictures, there isn't that much watermelon-smuggling going on yet !


And a teeny tiny fraction of the eyelets. they're not perfect - mine never are - but they do the job and I like the color contrast. It looks better in real life - my old digicam is kinda crappy and the lighting was that of a pre-snow day...

I feel like I have fallen over to the dark side, but I'm finding myself wanting a crinoline now...

I'm in love with the one on the left, the one in the middle, and I kind of want the mantle and the hem decoration of the one on the right as well ! I recieved the package with my 1867 and 1869 books this morning and haven't really had time to look inside them since, just a brief peak into the 1867 which stung right to my heart...
Keep looking at the bottom of the page for almost daily new scans ! I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping up the scanning work... I post some of the best to my FB page, too.

... because I had this dream last night where I went to Barcelona (although it was alternatively called Florence and Cecile *eyeroll*) with fellow costumers and we got lost in the subway, stumbled upon costume exhibitions and among the costumes there were those giant weird moving colored soap bubbles, and once you got one, you could see the future in it, and the future said something like "Bloodbath tomorrow, everyone's gonna die and be in multiple pieces". And it was going to start in Spain and then take over the world.
Does the fact that I found this dream funny or that I was more disturbed by the non-quality of the costume exhibits than by the bloodbath part make me a bad person ?

In more directly sewing-related news, the world still has something against my maternity corset. I tried to take a picture today, the picture turned out awful, and before I had time for another one the battery died. Boo ! And this digicam's charger is lost somewhere in the chaos that's our computer room as well... AND my gallery system on my site is broken. So in text only : the two halves of the corset are assembled and basted in place, the next step is going to stitch the boning channels in pale pink. It's going to look lovely over the green satin. I have cut all the metal bones (blergh, cutting spiral steel... blergh !), dipped them in something I hope will act as a viable protection for the pointy ends, and decided I'd use plastic boning for the back, as it doesn't get distorted sideways and I have lacings there.
I have also knitted one or two rows on the sweater - each row is taking fooooreeeever now that I have the sleeves and body assembled and That. Is. Boring. So I rapidly switched over to the embroidered tablecloth. I finished all four corner motives and am starting to add stuff to the center again.

The Erris corset saga goes on and on... I suspect there's something in the air, and the world is trying to prevent me from showing you pictures of my mock-up. Granted, it's fugly, but still ! I want to show you that I did sew ! But look at that :
- I lost the DSLR charger
- TheTank went on strike
- TheBith missed a foot
- my corsetry supplies went into hiding
- after all this was resolved, I dutifully assembled the mock-up, put it on, took (crappy) pictures, only to discover I didn't have a software to upload them onto the computer anymore
- and after said software was installed, I no longer had the permissions to access the area where I store my sewing pictures.
I think the universe is trying to tell me something. DON'T SHOW YOUR CORSET PICTURES TO THE WORLD ! IT'S BAD !!!
Now all issues should be resolved but I'm somewhat afraid it's gonna start raining stones, fire and poisonous frogs if I try to post the piccies online... So for tonight, let it be said that I have a mock-up that fits (it's a mish-mash from my Doré and the Erris maternity corset from the Costume article on pregnancy and stays msmcknittington linked to), I only need to make the lacing slits on the sides a little higher. I'm not entirely sure it will work for the last trimester but I'll make sure to check, and anyway, I need it for January, there won't be much watermelon-smugglig by then.

Errr yes, there IS something going on *big grin*

After the sewing machine goign on strike, the new corset faces a new challenge : I lost all my busks, except for one which is too long. Awesome.

Edit : Hmmm wait, I've also lost my boning !