A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

Lately I've been having a really hard time sewing anything, in part because I'm fairly busy (reading and researching, writing podcast episodes, writing answers for AskHistorians , just moderating   AskHistorians ) and in part because the project I was working on, a green cotton shirtwaist dress, was just not happening. It frustrated and discouraged me, and stood in my way until I put it aside and went, "I'm just not going to sew anything, then." This was a problem, because winter has rolled around again, and I'm left where I was this past April: for the cold season, I have two purchased retro dresses (each with its fit problems), two I've made, and a wool skirt I made very badly about six years ago and do not like to wear. I really want at least one, or maybe two new pieces to cycle in! But the recent failure made the thought of planning another big project really unappealing. Fortunately, another unsolved problem from last winter made for a very quic...

Today I spent about six hours taking the pattern of the sacque and petticoat that will be displayed in Great, Strange, and Rarely Seen - so I thought I might post the rough draft up here for comments, critiques, &c.  I'm going to redraw it in ink for the final version, move pieces around (rotate some), write directions in better handwriting, all that sort of thing, but is there anything that seems odd or confusing or messed up in some way?

I probably would have been at this point several days ago, but I went with the Theory "batiste" from my swatches , and it proved to be more like a tightly-woven percale, and I was having the hardest time getting pins and needles into it.  Let this be a lesson: always test a swatch by pleating it heavily and putting a pin into it.  Since it didn't work, I went to Joann's in Queensbury and got some rather cheap Sew Essentials muslin, which actually seems like a reasonably close approximation for period muslin, to me.  Maybe a little less transparent, but it's very light.  Anyway, I then went ahead with the petticoat of my own design.

After wearing my 18th century outfit for four or five hours yesterday, I think I've learned some things about fit, etc. that I can take into account the next time I make something. Shift: - the neckline should be much wider, like almost-falling-off-my-shoulders wider Stays: - the problem I'm having, shape-wise, seems to be stemming from the fact that the armscye is too large and there's nothing pushing my bust in from the sides, just up from the front.  This is a good thing to notice - I boned every channel with one reed, and am not having any problems with breakage - the reeds are starting to mold to my shape with body heat, which is really cool Petticoats: - my underpetticoat is just too long.  If I tie it under my stays, it shown beneath the top petticoat; if I tie it over, it interferes with the top one somehow - my top petticoat is too wide in the waist, so the it slips down below the waistband of the underpetticoat (when tied over stays) - the pocket sli...

This morning, as Mom and I drove to the Old Stone Fort Museum for their Stone Fort Days re-enactment, I was still finishing up the hem on my fichu and sewing on the twill tape ties for my hat.  But since it was more than an hour drive to get there, I had more than enough time to finish and get everything in place. In the parking lot, with everything in place.  Hands strategically in front of the worst spot on the jacket, arms in the only position the sleeves look right in.

It feels really, really good to see all of the finished pieces.  (Well - I think I need a kerchief, but that's quick.)

So, I still need to make a stomacher and a cap, but at last the jacket is finished enough that I can put it on with everything else and see how it fits.  I won't be wearing it this weekend at Fort Ticonderoga, but the Old Stone Fort Museum in Schoharie is having a re-enactment weekend, and they told me that I could sign in as a volunteer and even get in free!

Those promised pictures!  I would have taken a picture of the petticoat on me but it's dreadfully unflattering without stays, and I didn't feel like taking the time to really get dressed. The pleats from the inside.  I whipped them down to the twill tape with waxed linen thread.  Yes, the fabric has a strangely open weave - the things that happen when you order fabric online. This picture keeps uploading sideways.  Why?  I don't know.  But this is the pleating from the outside.

A while ago I bought some sky-blue linen with a slightly open weave to make a petticoat out of, for a planned jacket/petticoat outfit.  I partially made up the jacket too small and I'm going to be redoing that soon, but I figured that since the side seams of the petticoat were already done I'd get going on finishing that.  Yesterday I started pleating it onto a twill tape, and I just finished whipping the pleats down.  It's probably period to use normal-sized pleats, but for some reason I went as small as I could - I think I was considering cartridge pleats before I remembered that I thought they weren't period?  No pictures just yet: I have to go to work today!  But I'll try to take some of how it looks now, before I do the hem.  I'm going to use slipstitch, as per the hems on the shift I examined at FIT, although the hem is going to be deeper than it should - I ought to have done that first, then folded the top down enough to make the petticoat the righ...