Miss Dashwood's Steamnun....

...is also finished!!

My to do list is currently progressing rather swimmingly.

Tonight: Miss Dashwood tried on her tunic and it needed taken in some in the bodice area. I took care of that, put in the facing, realized I'd put in the facing wrong, picked out all the stitching, re-did the facing, topstitched the arms and neckline, then hemmed the tunic. The skirt was amazingly simple -- I just doubled Miss Dashwood's waist measurement, made a casing for the elastic, slid the elastic in via a safety pin, had her try in on for size, let out the elastic just a pinch, and sewed the center back seam together. I left the skirt unhemmed because it was a good almost perfect length and the selvage was along the hemline so no more sewing was really necessary.

Then I pulled out my silk faille. Miss Dashwood insists that the fade lines are not that noticeable, and since my beau expressed a similar opinion the other evening, I decided just to go ahead and give it a whirl. After all, no matter how many times I dye it, the faded part is likely to always be lighter than the rest of it. So I went ahead and cut out the pocket facings for the vest. Now all I need to decide is what kind of skirt I'm going to make. I was going to use my trusty Simplicity 5457 to make a gored skirt, but I don't have enough fabric, even if I shortened it. Nor do I have any other skirt patterns that appeal to me that will work with the amount of fabric I have. Part of me wants a structured skirt to go with the structured, gored vest, but another part of me likes the gathered skirt look (which is what the pattern I'm using for the vest includes). As of this moment, I'm leaning towards the gathered waist skirt, perhaps one with a yoke, but that could change. It is definitely the easiest option.

So...one more item marked off my to do list and a little progress made on another project. Not bad for an evening's work. Now if only we could get started on these damned Confederate uniforms...

Bonne nuit! A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde