green_martha

First, thank you all for your kind words on this project. Working on it has been insane but it's been an incredible confidence boost to have it DONE ! I'm still feeling kinda high from it... :)
I kidnapped Lady Darkstone to take some (*cough* 150 *cough*) pictures of the quilted outfit worn before I'm no longer pregnant.

The complete outfit, including the waistcoat :


Better view of the waistcoat :

We're in a bit of sag-land as far as breasts are concerned, and I'm frankly not a big fan of wearing both the waistcoat and the caraco. I felt somewhat... trapped in my clothes. It wasn't too hot today, but definitely still too warm for such an outfit. I suppose one could wear the waistcoat and petticoat only, with some kind of house robe or bedgown over it for staying inside the house, though.

Without the waistcoat, but with fichu and apron to fill the gap in front of the caraco (and optional little pirate photobombing):


I am, to be honest, incredibly proud to have completed this, including most accessories (I still want to make a pinball stuffed with all the thread ends I collected), and to have it done in time. It's good to realize you've made progress in your sewing :)
(No, I'm not taking off my glasses, Jas Townsend sells the exact same ones as 18th century replicas :p )

... by which I mean yet another needle. So far I've broken four machine needles and three hand needles on the quilted outfit. The hand needles kinda baffle me, but then I've switched to newer, thinner and longer needles lately, they tend to bend after a few days, and snap after some more hard work. Tonight I decided the needle breaking plus me being unable to rethread the machine in less than three seconds meants I needed a break from sewing and some sleep.
You see, I'm trying my hardest to get this finished before the birth. And to get pictures, of course. Pictures need to happen before the In-Laws come, and besides, the Home Geek is truly and utterly incapable of taking good pictures. If I tell him to point and shoot at THIS detail he might get it. But managing something visually pleasing... no way. So I need to have this done when the Darkstones come, on Wednesday. I'm kinda crushed for time.
The back is quilted and sewn together, I have about one third of the eyelets done. One of the front pieces is quilted, the other I'm about halfway through. I have prepared two strips of fabric for fringe I need to make. I think it's doable, if Heimlich lets me. He's been a little bit jealous when I try to sit at the machine lately. Handsewing on the couch is mostly okay, though, and noise doesn't bother him during his nap. I think I can maybe possibly tentatively get it done on time.

I can haz a quilted petticoat !
Mwahahah !
I haz it !
*does a little victory dance*

Tried it on over the baby bum. It's cute ! (but then, maybe it's just in my head that baby bum + rococo petticoat = cute, this has happened before...)

I'm happy !
I have a petticoat !
A quilted petticoat !
A FINISHED quilted petticoat ! (oh wait, I still need to cut of four threads...)

Well I'm glad I have this space !
I neglected posting pictures of my sewing progress for some days, so here they are now. Yup, it's quite a bunch.


Assembling the second side of the quilted petticoat was... adventurous.


Then I hand-hemmed the petticoat. Why is it so often easier to do so much by hand ?

For the peplum, I was afraid the battign I have would add too much bulk, so I divided in two layers.

And then I used the thinner layer for the top half of the peplum, and the thicker one for the bottom half. Because I just happend to have a strip of batting laying around and I'm all about economy of materials.


The quilting design was traced directly onto one half of the peplum lining, and then transfered to the other half. You can see how far I came today with the quilting : vines and flowers are done, diamonds are started.


The self-fabric trim. I cut a strip of fabric, folded it in half lenghtwise, and pulled the warp threads of one half of it. One by one, mostly. Then the trim was pleated to the neckline, sewn to the inside of the quilted shell with long, rough stitches, and the lining is getting handsewn over it. As I said, it's often way easier to handsew everything... and prettier.

My parents are gone. I do adore them, but with them getting old it's a little more work every time they come. I sewed squat during their time here - but I did get some fabrics. Fabrics for skirts my Mom commissionned me to make her, and as a payment I got a dark blue printed cotton for my Regency project, some modern stuff, and 12 meters of various white fabrics - light ones with varying degrees of sheerness. One I have earmarked for a new fichu, another for a 1920 combination.
I think I'm all set on making a 1920 outfit for the Ajecta/train ride event in September. I have a fabric I love which seems to be pretty period. I have, if I deem it necessary to achieve the line, the right bra-thing. It'd be quicl to make and I have at least two dresses in mind that I could make AND have the pattern for. Not couting the suits. A suit would be more appropriate as travelling garb, but also more work, and I'd have about one month and a small baby to make this. I still get to make a pretty silly hat, and I have shoes that would work.


Now here's my latest trim idea for the quilted caraco. What do you think ? Pretty, Y/N ?
It's just a test strip, pinned on the neckline edge for a rough idea. I honestly can't decide. It'd be more work, but I like it. But then, I also like it without.

It's all quiet here, there's a an apple cake baking in the oven, the kid is asleep and I'm going to work on setting those sleeves in. I have way too much sleeve fabric for the armhole, and pleating it gives too much poof with such a stiff material...

Okay, you can skip the baby pics if you want, I'll just post this one :

The rest is on my FlickR. The little pirate is starting to really strike a pose for the camera, it's kinda scary...

Did I say I started the caraco ? Oh yes, I probably did ! Here's the back as of tonight, quilted (small pieces are so fast to make !) and sewn together :


And this was the front before I finished the piece on the right :

Both pieces are now done. I've also cut out the lining pieces. I'm going with Janet Arnold for the construction - it makes senses, and it'll give me a nice finish without having to fight with the quilting too much. I'll sew the lining pieces to the center back seam, then assemble the whole lining, and put the outer pieces over that. I probably won't line the sleeves to reduce bulk, same goes for the peplum. I have to take a diabetes test tomorrow morning, which means Ineed to keep myself busy for two hours. I think handsewing will work.

I'll spare you the babble about all the projects I have going on in my head right now. I clearly have too much ambition for the time and energy I have at hand. But at least, making yoghurt isn't that time-consuming, and we all love it. I'll just have to stae, once mor,e that heileen, Lady Darkstone and my Mum all have a bad influence on me :p

I know, I should've updated... Rough days, I'm not really gonna go into that.
I have finished quilting the second petticoat panel ! No pictures yet, hopefully tomorrow. I won't assemble them right away. I want to prepare the pieces for the caraco and waistcoat first. Assembling is something I can do by hand while laying in bed, if I get sick again/have to get a lot more rest than now/whatever my body thinks is funny...
I also cut out the justeaucorps sleeves for my brother's outfit and have basted half the interlining to the fabric pieces. Just a little more handsewing to do, then basting it all together.... and waiting till we can arrange a fitting.
My plan for tomorrow's make-do sewing day - it got partially cancelled in the end - is to take the pattern of from my pierrot and start preparing the quilted caraco pieces. Work on the justeaucorps sleeves if I get to tired. And bake some cake.


I managed to put up some pictures of my latest prints, though. I'm starting to enjoy working with linoleum - I have given SpeedyCut a try but in the end I think I'll stick with lino, I strangely feel more at ease with it although it's clearly a lot harder to carve... I'm weird I guess, but the shipping rates for SpeedyCut really play in favor of lino as well. Anyway, those are linocut, and have been put up for grabs. I have quite a lot other projects on the back-burner, but right now I mostly need some rest. Stupid stomach bug hit me again :(

My new tools arrived ! I think I could give linoleum another try without ruining my hands with this set, as they're *really* sharp. I'm glad I ordered a new set, my old one definitely wasn't up to par. My books also arrived, and now I keep wanting to make a front-pleated tea-gown as maternity wear... or just to lounge in at the hospital ^^ (please slap me before I start that !)
BTW, I'm doing the 365 thing again, and trying to keep up with that. All pictures are on the appropriate FlickR folder.


And of course, you're all *dying* to see the progress on my quilted petticoat ! The first panel is as done as I can get it without connecting the two halves, and the second one has been started. As you can see, the pattern will continue from one pattern into another - if I don't screw things up, that is.

Now the bad news ( is under the cut, as it's mostly booo, pregnancy sucks !-whining )

This is how it looks right now, after I finishe dthe second bobbin of thread. I'm about halfway through the first spool, I'd guess.
Moar picturz ( under ze cut )
It could clearly be better, especially if I had the time and energy and dedication to work per hand on a big hoop. But lacking said predispositions, I haven't found a way to manoeuver such a large device under the foot of my machine, so I try to keep the fabrics flat with my hands and many, many safety pins. This thing, I have to tell you, is killing me. I can't work much more than a few hours on it at a time because handling the fabric layers makes my arms ache.

i finished the flowers and vines on the first panel of the skirt. I still have to cut the thread ends, and then figure out how dense I want the diamond pattern above them to be.
I was browsing the web for some quilted petticoat references, and was happily surprised to come accross this. You see, the intercrossing wave pattern I have chosen for the bottom of the petticoat I got from a mid-19th century quilted petticoat, so seeing a similar pattern on an 18th century one ? Awesome !

A few notes as I go :
- I'm working with one layer cotton lining, one layer polyester lining( not that there's much else available around here *rolls eyes*), one layer cotton-something satiny mix
- I pinned everything in place together using a LOT of quilting safety pins (I suppose they're called this way because you can buy them in bigger boxes than regular safety pins ? didn' tnotive any other difference)
- before pinning together, I transfered the desing to the lining by putting the lining fabric over the printed and drawn design and going over the lines in pencil. It doesn't rub off faster than I work, and it's barely visible once it's sewn. Plus, it's inside anyway.
- I'll make the skirt in two 1m40 wide panels. I'm working on each panel separately and plan to connect the design repats at the joint after the seaming is done. Should be fun. Especially since I tweaked the design so that it worked on my 1m50-wide lining only to discover afterwards my fashion fabric was only 1m40 wide.

Holy cow, working on this is taxing ! In some ways, it would be easier to do this by hand, but I don't have the time right now. Someday though, I *will* make myself a proper, handquilted one. I'd like to, at least. I'm struggling to yank the fabric layers back and forth under the presser foot. I can't use an embroidery hoop as it wouldn't feet under the machine foot, and the fabric wants to bunch up and make pleats over itself. My back and arms are sore from today's work !
And to top it off, I'm incredibly stressed aobut the outcome. Which is stupid, but this thing IS stressing me out. Damn you, perfectionnism !
If anyone is reading some french *and* is interested, I'm also rambling over there on my french blog. Pretty layout is still optional.