cats strolling about and a new sewing space.

My blogroll is gone, and I can only assume it is a casualty of cats strolling across the keyboard.

In more exciting news, we've moved, I have an enormous sewing room (with walk in closet and full bathroom -- it used to be an in-law suite) which I will have pictures of soon.

While I'm intensely annoyed by the loss of the blog list, I'm also kind of impressed that cat-strolling was able to accomplish it.  

I could remember the actual names of about half the blogs (some are tagged in my head as things like "that-French-lady-from-one-of-the-me-made-months" and I have no idea what the blogs are actually called -- so if for some reason, you happen to know what was there, please let me know.   Also, any particularly interesting people I should be following, but wasn't.   Thanks!

Continuing forward

The blog hasn't shown it, but I've actually been doing quite a bit of sewing.  (Also packing and cleaning, as we're getting ready to move, but that's another story).   I got pregnant fairly soon after our wedding, and started in on maternity sewing, but I wasn't ready to announce anything until I finished the first trimester.   Which didn't happen.   

For me, just acknowledging the miscarriage publicly has actually been really helpful.   So many people have told me about their losses and subsequent healthy babies, and its been comforting (perhaps not the right word, but you know what I mean) to hear just how common this is.  Also, I've always felt secrets screw people up, and I try not to have any.  For several months, this was the biggest thing happening in my life, and I hope it will be again sometime soon.   For the moment, I'd like to share the projects I've been working on.

The pants are the only fully finished garment -- I had a pair that had been languishing in the project pile because I was too lazy to put in the fly and waistband -- so I decided to turn them into maternity pants, sewed up the front and popped on a stretch band.  (yes, the color is wrong, but I was trying to work from the stash, and this will force me to wear a shirt long enough to actually cover it up properly)  

Next closest is the rainbow dress -- this is simplicity New Look 6122  -- not actually a maternity pattern, but I figured empire waist, gathers and knit would carry me a ways into the second trimester and it would be great for a summer wedding we're attending next week.    Its been put aside for the moment, but I plan to finish it sometime soon, as the fabric is gorgeous (I'm a sucker for bright colors) and wear it later this summer.

The blue shirt is a self drafted tunic top, with side panels for extra space (i.e. I cut it too small the first time)  -- it still needs hems and things.

The red dress is McCalls 6074 -- also not officially maternity, but once again, empire waist, gathers and stretch seemed like a good plan for the early sections.   I also plan to finish and wear this one later this summer.

The swing shirt, Simplicity 1113, is another non-maternity co-opted to my plans -- its kind of tent like - so I think its going to wait for a hazy future day when I'm huge and I'll deal with it then.

I have the same plan for the other periwinkle shirt, Megan Nielson - Cara , the only actual maternity pattern of the bunch.   The things that are for full later in pregnancy will wait until I have made it to the second trimester and am closer to needing them.

We'll be trying again, when its healthy, so I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to use all of these some time soon, and can be a happy beach-ball of a person.      (Random thought -- 'trying for a baby' is really the only time when its 100% socially acceptable to inform whomever that you're having a lot of sex and have everyone congratulate or encourage you.   Heck, some of of my professors from college know, and so does the local rep for IEEE Connecticut.   Manners are an odd thing.) 

Fancy Wedding Pictures!

Shocking no one, the professional pictures are far and away better than the ones taken on people's cell phones.

It was such a crazy day - and I still only remember it in snatches and bits

But I'm really happy with the pictures, and more importantly, beyond happy in my marriage.  (yes, yes, we're a month in.  But still.) 

Greg is pretty much the best.

and we are baked potatoes. or possibly burritos. 

..and we're married

All I have is cell phone pictures from friends and relatives -- but more when we get the fancy ones from the photographer.

This is one of the few that shows the sparkle --  I really dislike how most of the pictures have turned out - all those months of beading look like a lot of gray lines.  

The beading continues

Don't mind me, beading onto a single layer of chiffon.  Very, very, very slowly.

The chiffon-only beading is happening in the center bust, due to the nature of the overlay, and all around the transition from the opaque section to the overlay.   It is... delicate work.   But I'm chugging along.

The plan is to have the top beading line mirror the area around my hips - with slightly variegated end points.

even more beading

The blizzard was fabulous.   Canceling plans stinks, but soooo much beading.

**sparkle**

more beading

I've put together the upper bodice - so the next week or two are all about beading.

final muslin!

The center front is peach instead of white -- don't be confused, this is still the muslin.   (Yes, I started beading early, I got excited, but the place that still needed work was the bust not the midriff... mostly...) 

Not much to say as this point, but behold!   Especially behold the wonky bathroom lighting!

Behold more!

Goodness, gracious, yet more!

In the meantime, I'm practicing my rolled hems.

beading

bead, bead, bead.

I'm sewing them on in sets of three, anchoring the third with a sort of back stitch (I don't know proper beading terminology).  This will be the midriff - beading will continue up the sheer part of the bodice and down to around my hips.

Bodice muslin nearly complete!

sinus infection face didn't need to be on the internet

Granted, it will be all the same color, but this is more or less what my dress is going to look like.  (Also beads)  I'm thinking of putting a small crinoline underneath to make it more of an A-line instead of just falling right off my hips... but that can wait until everything else is done.

I want to do one more version with the chiffon overlay, to get the wrinkles, and that funny fold ober my bust out, but otherwise, its looking pretty good.

The bodice is a super hybrid franken-pattern.  The front of the underlay (highly modified) is New Look 6557, the back of the underlay is a cropped Vogue 8727, and the overlay is By Hand London's Anna Dress, also cropped.

I'm about 90% certain the pulls on the lower back are due to it continuing beyond my natural waist and not having room for my hips.   In the final, the skirt will be sewn on and the area beneath it trimmed. (Also, it will be reinforced and beaded, which will help)

Think happy thoughts, since I'm going to start on the beading tomorrow!

I have a skirt!

This doesn't do justice to all the pinning, gathering and hand basting that has been going on to connect the three layers of the skirt.   (Cotton batiste half-circle base, silk chiffon full-circle middle and silk chiffon 2.5 full circles for the top layer.)

I took over the living room for the evening.  (ha - let's be honest, I've taken over the living room for the month and will continue to work on it there, as the cats have been banned and cannot caress my lovely chiffon with their pointy little claws.) 

Don't I look absurdly tall?   The funny crease around "ankle height" is actually where the skirt hits the floor and flops horizontally for about 6 inches.  Chiffon *grows* -- especially on the bias.  

swords and things.

My fiance has taken to storing his swords in my stash.

but then, we have a drying rack just for armor. 

If you will be in the area, come see all the swords and things in action in January.   This is historically accurate recreations based on translations of 15th century texts.   Its a nifty bunch of people, and I'll be there as a scorekeeper / timekeeper.

bits of progress

I've started in on the bodice - this is the (first draft of the) plan for the underlayer

Downton Abbey, season four

The current plan is for a beaded chiffon overlay, somewhat similar to this.  I am going to use the Anna dress for the upper bodice, to get the cap sleeves and boat-neck, but there will be an under-bust seam and discrete midriff.    (Also, the tiara, headband, sparkle-hat she's wearing?   I have that too.)  (Its kind of too much, but its also kind of amazing.  I was trying to find something similar to what Mary wore in her wedding - a wreath like look, and found the actual vendor for the above headpiece.  In the description, it is listed as 'as seen on Downton Abbey, season four, so off to google I went, in a giddy frenzy.  It is stupid sparkly in person.)

Jenny Packham wedding dress

My plan for the beading is a little closer to this -- more twisty branches than geometric patterns.

I would say it looks a lot more exciting in person, except after getting one of the five skirt panels beaded (quite a bit more than this) I decided it was all getting hidden in the drape, undid it, and am planning to do the beading on top of the gathers around my hips, so it shows.   The beading will continue up to the neckline, but avoid the skirt, so the chiffon can still billow about.

Not really dress related - but fun - Greg is practicing calligraphy, and if he is happy with the result, will be doing our invitations.

holy bias-stretch, batman!

measure measure, cut cut

and then hanging until the bias stops growing.....

frankendressing

Silk shrinking worked out well, and the first three panels of the skirt are cut out (chiffon is kind of annoying, so I'm taking it slowly)... but I still haven't decided on what the bodice will look like.

current thought:

Charles James - 1945

Maybe something along the lines of ....

super photo shop skilzz

  

I'm already set on (and committed to) the flowy chiffon skirt -- but most of the bodices I've been thinking about don't really need chiffon -- in fact, they are better with something sturdy and structured.  But a gathered sort of a bodice, with an opaque something or other underneath, could look rather nice.

hrmm hrmm hrmm     I keep changing my mind every few days, which is why I started with the skirt.   The way I see it, this will be my most photographed dress ever, so it had better look good.   (Plus everyone, their brother and their second cousin twice removed has been asking me if I'm making my dress and then saying they are looking forward to seeing what I come up with.  So I need to collectively stun them.)

Shrinking Silk

free, with the breeze running through my fur....

The theme of my wedding is stress free and happy.   (Even if I have to kill everyone to make it happen)   This means my dress can't be so delicate I'm spending the entire day worried something will happen to it -- so I decided to investigate pre-shrinking all the silk chiffon I'd gotten so that the water that I *know* will get spilled on it when I get excited, forget I'm holding a glass, and start talking with my now-empty-because-I-dropped-the-glass-on-my-skirt hands doesn't ruin everything,

I popped a sample into the washer on hot, and then into the dryer on no-heat fluff.  Total shrinkage is at about 14% in each direction.

The process changes the texture and the opacity -- as everything has tightened up, its a bit thicker and not as smooth.   While I prefer the look of the untreated silk, the shrunken is still very nice and will be a lot more robust to whatever I throw at it over the course of the day.    (Although, realistically, I am 100% going to be wearing a full length bibbed apron during whatever part of dinner I get to sit down for)



So-- as its time to start the skirt, I figured out what I needed, added 14% to the length and popped it into the washer.  (This is sounding so much more carefree than it actually was.)

and now I wait as 15 yards of silk rumble around where I can't see them.....

so many yards.....

soon to be 12.9 yards.....

halloween!

We went as a black plague -- Greg was a doctor and I was the patient (victim / body / whatever) or.. more accurately, I got lazy and didn't feel like doing the 1400s giant horned hat, veil and gown I'd been planning and just made myself a shift instead and declared it a couples costume.

Greg's coat is a combination of a (highly modified) simplicity 2333 for the coat and simplicity 5840 for the hood.   In order to fit comfortably together, we removed the collar and lapels from the coat and changed it to have a center front opening.

He made his own mask -- it is composed of two layers of craft foam, a muslin backing and held together with rivets and waxed thread.   He used the lenses from welding goggles for the eyes and sneaky air holes on the bottom.

The pattern is his own design, based on a combination of tutorials online and images he's seen.   It was a fairly entertaining evening as he tried various ideas and wandered around with a giant cardboard beak.

My costume is actually a civil war era shift - simplicity 1139.   I'm aware its 400 years off - but, I had it (the pattern, not the shift) and I figured no one would actually notice.  (Besides -- how much did shifts really change?)  Anyhow, it is SUPER comfy... so I might see if I can dye it, wear it with a belt and work it into  my regular wardrobe.