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

Weekend To Do List Progress

Fabric shopping was a success. Miss Von Stoup has our uniform fabric to prewash and I bought pretty much everything on my list. However I could not find coral fabric for my Persian vest. I'll keep a lookout, maybe something will show up. Or I could use another color, but since the buttons are already coral I feel that the trim should match.

I worked on Rachel's corset a little bit, sewed the shoulders of the white / denim together and started sewing the inside and the outside together. While working on sewing the inside and outside together, my machine died. With the corset stuck under the needle. Looks like I'll be making a trip to the "doctor's" office on Monday after work. EDIT - Got the corset unstuck and used Miss Dashwood's machine to finish putting it together. All that's left is a little hand sewing and the eyelets.

Steamnun: I picked up thread, the top pattern and elastic. I cut out the tunic and put it together. I just basted the shoulder seams because it has a facing that goes in before you sew those seams. Now all she needs to do is try it on to see how it fits! I also put the facing together and finished the bottom edge. I put together the drape (out of the red shade of cotton) - cut the two yards in half along the fold, sewed the two pieces together along the short edge, hemmed both ends and one side since the other side already has a finished selvage edge. All that's left is to finish the tunic and put the skirt together.

Persian Steampunk: The lining is put together and taken in along the necessary seams, so that's done. I attempted to dye my silk faille, but it didn't take very well -- the fade lines still show. Sigh. I'll probably give it another try before giving up, maybe I'll put the skirt together first and then see how it looks before trying to dye it again. I may also try the stove top method instead of using the washing machine on the second try. Even though I can't do much on the vest since I don't have the silk for the pocket facings yet, I did some stay stitching and put the back together.

The Captain's hooded vest is repaired. It was a bit tricky and I'm not sure how long it'll hold as the fabric is fraying but I did my best and used some Fray Check so hopefully it'll stay for a little while at least. So half of the Captain's alterations are finished!

I also worked on my Ottoman bustle, using my beau's mother's dress form to drape it. However, I can't stitch it together yet because I lack the appropriate color thread.

And tomorrow after work, I drop off my beloved Fern at the sewing machine repair shop.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

Weekend To Do List - MARCon Preparations

Marcon begins six weeks from today (cue panicked screams). And you know what that means - lots of to do lists and updates!

This weekend I would like to:

• First of all, I'm going fabric shopping tonight and purchasing the fabric for our confederate uniforms. I have sincere doubts that they'll be finished by Marcon, but we'll see. I'll probably hand it off to Miss Von Stoup to pre-wash and get back to me asap. I'll also be getting her pattern, as well as a variety of other things. We're planning spending an evening next week working on our skirts, which will be the easiest part of the project. Then I get to make jackets!
• Repair the Captain's hooded vest. (Time estimate: around an hour)
  
• Finish Rachel's corset. She's okay with it just having lace along the bottom, so that issue is taken care of. So all I need to do is sew the lining to the outside and put in the eyelets. (Time estimate: two to three hours, depending on how much hand sewing I end up doing)
  
• Miss Dashwood's Steamnun - Part of my purchase today is for this: thread, a pattern for the top and elastic for the skirt. It should be a simple project, just an elastic waisted skirt, a loose blouse and a drape. The colors she choose are fabulous - a dark red and a deep orange. (Time estimate for total completion: 1-2 hours for the top, 1-2 hours for the skirt, 1 hour for the drape)
  
• My Persian Steampunk - I'm also planning on purchasing one or two things for this costume, including a little coral satin to use as trim. Hopefully I can match the coral I used on my buttons. I'd like to get the lining put together and the fabric dyed this weekend. (Time estimate for this weekend: under an hour to put the lining together since I already started it, 1-2 hours for the dyeing)
• Maybe work on my Ottoman vest embroidery a little. This is another project that I'm starting to doubt finishing.
  

Looking ahead, I have the following to complete before Marcon, roughly in order of what needs completed first and projects that I doubt completion of are towards the bottom:

• Finishing Rachel's corset. (two to three hours)
  
• Finishing the Captain's alterations. (three hours, one hour per item)
  
• Miss Dashwood's Steamnun. (three to six hours)
  
• Steampunk Confederate Vivanidiere uniforms. (two to three hours for the skirts, probably four to six hours for each jacket, so a total of eleven to fifteen hours for basic construction. Embellishment will add to that time considerably.)
  
• Steampunk Persian costume (I haven't worked on this enough to say how long it'll take to finish)
  
• Finishing the embroidered border on my Lady of the Ottoman Empire vest (a lot of hours, I'd guess at least around 20 hours to finish the border)
  
• Fixing my Ottoman bustle. (two to three hours, if that)
  
• Adding lace to Miss Dashwood's bustle if she purchases lace soon enough. (one to two hours)
  

In short, I have a lot to do over the next six weeks. Wish me luck.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde
Stressed-stress

PS My Shopping list:

1. Thread - red and orange for the Steamnun, coral for the Persian, gray for the uniforms, and white, black and cream for my stash.
2. Patterns - McCalls 4097 for the Steamnun top, Burda 7458 for Miss Von Stoup's uniform, and I may pick up a couple McCalls as well since they are on sale.
3. Fabric - 9 to 10 yards of gray stretch sateen for our uniforms and some coral satin for the Persian. I'm also going to check the discount table because its on sale.
4. Notions - elastic for the Steamnun skirt, elastic for my stash, and machine needles. I will probably also pick up hook closures, hooks and eyes and some snaps. I might buy some covered buttons and or bobbins as well.
   
5. Gray quilt binding for the uniforms.
6. Batting for my beau's Star Wars quilt.