green_martha

Everything is covered in the white fluffy stuff outside, I'm started to think if the weather keeps up, we might actually get a white Christmas. For the first time in my entire life. I'm not 100% thrilled with it though, because snow means bad roads, and I need reasonably good roads to drive up to Lady Darkstone for Yule celebration. I have lots of thoughts rambling in my head right now, just not enough TIIIIME. Dammit, why do days only have 24 hours ? Can't I get another 12 hours ? Possibly while the kids are napping ? :)
Okay, so, sewing.
I'm almost done with my Warm(tm) pants for Friday. At first I was going with just polar fleece. Then oh ! I could add a lining - great use of the mystery poly-maybe-silk blend I bought ages ago for wedding decoration and we never used. Then oh ! And I still have batting leftover from the quilted outfit, let's add another layer for warmth ! So now they're extra warm, if a little bulky. The zipper is in, I need to finish the waist drawstring and hem them. In the meantime I have proven yet again that I am insane and have done some pretty wool sashiko-like embroidery on them. Cause that's what I do when I need a pair of warm pants in a hurry. Oh yeah, and I completely drafted the pattern from scratch (with the help of The Costumer's handbook, may demode be blessed for ever bringing that book to my attention). Pants in a hurry, I tell you...
Pictures ? Yes, that's right, I should take pictures. :)

Yeah, I've been bad at updating lately. I know, I know... The kids are keeping me kinda busy, particularly last week when the home geek was abroad (because people at his job can't plan work properly and had to send him to England to fix things he said would need to be fixed weeks before, gaaaaah !).

I'm still behind on the rococo event pictures, but I can alredy show you the finished Directoire outfit.

Yup, it's comfy. So comfy in fact that I have plans to duplicate the bodiced skirt as a woollen jumper dress for the winter. I ended up wearing it over my chemise and regular rococo petticoat. More pictures by clicking the images, here and at Heileen's.

I'm not inspired by the justaucorps. It's not playing along nicely, there are some semi-wrinkly places that I don't know how to fix so I'm just ignoring it right now.

I have finished a plain boring t-shirt for my Mom, nothing really fancy, but that means one commission out of the way - I know she wants some more stuff, we'll see to that when I visit my parents in two weeks, I hope I'll be able to fund some fabric with that.

I don't have any specific historical projects in mind yet - I do have some longterm goals but I give myself some time to think about it, plan them and all that jazz. Right now I'm focusing on modern sewing as 1) I need to make some sample stuff to put in my portfolio on my site and 2) I started the Great Winter Wardrobe Overhaul. Starting with remaking the green cape I made like ten years ago. You don't even want to know how I made that, eeeek !

Muuuuch better now. I hacked off the center font edges and the top part, put lots of darts at the top to make it fit over my shoulders, redid the hand slits (still need to resew those closed). I want to shorten and reham it, put in a new collar band and make the hood smaller. I'll probably quilt some of the front part as weel, just for fun.

I haven't done much sewing these days, just some rows of basting interlining to the justeaucorps front, and cutting out a new pregnancy skirt - because I spent the week-end with horrible rashes that led me to the conclusion tha tI need less pants and more skirts, and skirts long enough so that I can wear them with overknees or socks, because I can't tolerate tights.
All I've done for the quilted ensemble is buy the batting and take the fabric out of the dressing room. I need to put a lot of fabric back there, BTW. The living-room is starting to look like a fabric store.
I did get some pictures of the red pregnancy bustle dress (and underwear) worn by my non-pregnant sister yesterday. They're not that great. I was super tired (still am, dammit, this Paris trip has been killing me for days !) ad I don't work well when I'm tired.

Well, some things I'm apparently good at even when I'm tired, like creating wicked story for LARP characters. I'm back into plotting mode, and it's super-mega-fun ! I need to do a lot of research and to cross-proof and correlate the stories I have already, but I'm fairly happy ! I had forgotten how much fun I had writing this specific LARP. We have about 13 characters by now, but I need to add at least 5 more, 8 would be great but maybe a little much. So far, I have a lot of twisted stories and personal faults and a whole PILE of bloody corpses. Yay !

(Errr... not real corpses, you know, those would... smell. Litterary ones)

Oh, and I need a name for the LARP. "Teacups" doesn't work. Something involving chocolate and fairies and blood ?

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately - I suspect I was really, really tired and needed the vacation. Now I have regained some energy and I give you the obligatory "yearly costume review" post.

Back in January 2010, I tried to push myself to finish one project a month for a year. It worked quite well for the first half of the year, then as I went back to work my productivity went downward and I stoped keeping track. Most of all, this year has been bad for pictures - I forgot to snap some of half of the things I made, and I still haven't gone through the Vaux one. Boooo ! I'll try to catch up now that I'm home, but first, what did I make ?( click )

That'd be 10 or 11 projects in a year. Not quite 12-12, but considering I had a baby on my hands and how exhausted I spent the last months of the year, that's really not bad.
Oh wait ! I made a 12th thing ! I made a maternity t-shirt with th serger, it was so quick I forgot it ! *ticks the last box off*

Now for the coming year, what do I want to make ?
- finish the 1887 red maternity bustle dress
- make an 18th century quilted maternity ensemble
- make an adorable baby
- work on the super sekrit eyebrow project with heileen
Nothing else is set yet, but I suspect this will change after we have the programm of the Ministère des Modes in January...

Now for the mundane stuff ( click )

Not that I'm much of a pattern-using person myself, I tend to stick to period diagrams and draping a lot. But right now, I'm making a knock-off of my cushion slipcover pregnancy blouse (have to come up with a better name for it... although the one I'm making now ? Out of an old bedspread and matching slipcovers) for a pregnant friend and I had a little angel ask for the pattern as well. So while I'm making the blouse's second version, I'm taking note so as to make a proper pattern with instructions. And discovering that takes alot more time than just flying by the seat of my pants like I usually do. I have a whole tank of newly gained respect for all people that make patterns, it's not as simple as it sounds. Not really hard for this particular garment, but there are a lot of steps and you have to write it all down. But the process is quite interesting. And the blouse will look cute.

I kinda mentioned I was sewing some pregnancy stuff, right ? Well, here it is, two new skirts for the summer - and also for after th epregnancy if I did my stuff right. Which I think I did. Drawstring waist FTW, baby !

I can't remember whether or not I mentioned this awesome fabric earlier... ? It's some kind of poly stuff that hasn't been designed to ever see an iron, with an underlayer that feels slightly more like light cotton, and a shiny top layer, both being woven together in some spots which form the flower design. There's a 20cm part that's tightly gathered with elastic. I just had to buy two repeats of the design, cut them apart, sew them up the sides, hem, and add a drawstring. Plus some minor adjusting up the sides. Lazy and effective, and much appropriate to hold a growing belly ! The drawstring should make me able to gather them tighter after pregnancy as well.
Up first, the short pink and purple skirt. I have a matching bright pink jersy to make a matching top.
The frightening part here is I noticed this is my definition of a short skirt. I don't really feel at ease in anything shorter, unless I can wear opaque thighs under it. I'm kind aold-fashioned, right?


And the long cream one. I made it a little less full at the bottom, more tibe-shaped.
On both skirt you see a close-up of the drawstring and how the elastic part goes over into the non-gathered part. I just love it !

Otherwise I'd just admit to be swamped by working full time*, betablockers, pregnancy and trying to get my birds in a row to sell my artwork. Not mentionning trying to have a normal social life and taking care of my marriage and household.
But I decided I'd finish assembling the blouse today, and I did it ! *throws confetti* It's not done, it has no hems, I nedd to shorten the sleeves, face the neckline yoke, add bits and bobs of trimming, maybe tack down the pleats in the back... Still, I think it looks cute. It's light and comfy to wear, seems rather flattering on me and should comfortably hold a baby bump. And still be wearable afterwards. In the end I ruled out smocking, I think bows will look cuter.

* I should add that a storm hit one of my colleagues (and good friend of my manager), who's now having a quite gorey divorce** and is completely at a loss at the moment. Overtime and moral support here I come !

**I should also add that I've rarely been so grateful for my exceptionnal HG. Some men are just evil, unreliable, manipulative bastards. Geez !

I set the alamr clock this morning as if I started working at eleven. Then shortly before ten I had a panick attack, thinking maybe I started at ten. Ran down the stairs, checked in my agenda... I start at noon *facepalm*
More time for sewign I guess, right ?
I'm as far as I can get on one of my brother's pirate shirts without the measurements (hint hint hint....), I have started cutting out another one but will grant me some pregnancy sewing first. I have started turning a pillow cover into a loose blouse - I have to be careful as I need the blouse to be very full and have a limited yardage. And for those who know my everyday wardrobe, you have every reason to be afraid of the pattern and colors of the fabric. Green, fuschia, brown with a hint of gold. Mwuahahah ! Pictorial evidence will follow when I have somethint more substantial to show - I'm trying to get more consistent at updating here but haven't gone so far as visually documenting eveyr step. Yet.

I am *very* masochistic. We went pants shopping with my mom and I agreed to hem two pants she bought that were waaaaaaaaaay too long. Yeah, masochistic, cause we all know only curtains are more boring than hemming pants.
I thought I'd do that before starting on the skirt mock-up for her suit. I marked the hem, trimmed the excess length off, pinned it in place, pressed it, took the sewing machine out of storage and... dang ! it's stuck. It moves one millimeter in each direction, no more. That's a symptom I've never had with a sewing machien before, and a brief inspection of the nasty ivol thing showed no plausible reason for it being stuck. *sigh*
I've hemmed the first pant by hand (which was, of course, shorter than the whole putting the machine up, trying to make it work, puttign it back into torage until someone can bring it to the repairshop...), I'd have done so for the second one as well anyway (I would not have trusted the 50 years old Singer with heavy jeans), but I'm not fond of assembling the mock-up by hand...
Maybe I'll jsut use my new/old Sphynx singer. That's the good news : as far as I can tell, it's working, making pretty neat and regular stitches. Saddly, the pedal is lost, but it somehow works as a handcrank-machine-without-handle. Not perfect, but could be doable.
Ooops, I jsut noticed I left the fabric for said toile outside... Well, it can't harm if it gets a little damp overnight, it'll be easier to iron. I was pretty lucky with said fabric. The fabric shop here is pretty crappy (although it's the same brand as my favorite in Grenoble), but I was lucky to find a 2 euros/meter poly-cotton satin in a color which made my mom squee. I think we'll go back in the next few day to get more of it. No real splurging danger there anyway, as the fabrics they have are mostly yucky pucky poly prints in mismatched colors and leopard patterns, and the store is so messy a cat mom wouldn't find her kittens in there.

ETA : and hurray for LJ being back !

Yes Ma'am, and with pictures !

I just finished a mundane skirt, ans since I promised pictures from the fabrics I bought over the last weeks, well, here's the fabric made up into a garment. I only have some scraps left. And you get to see the skirt with one of the tops I bought to go with it. The other one is the same color, with short sleeves and some kind of 70's inspired blue and brown design on the front.



Thanks again to lady_darkstone for her very perfect idea on how to finish it !