I gave myself quite the challenge today by using taffeta as the outer layer of some 18th Century stays and then not having the instructions with me so I forgot one of the first steps! (I'll just say I meant to do it this way and make it work!)
The taffeta fought me every step of the way. It remains to be seen whether they will look okay once I put the boning in. Fingers crossed!
#lifeasacostumer #18thcenturystays
I spent the day priming things for paint and then I remembered to shoot a quick video. #SewingStudioBuild
I started cutting all the edges while Janet was away yesterday morning. When she got back after lunch, she pulled out a roller and started filling in. I'll put a pic below in the comments. #SewingStudioBuild
We broke for lunch and then came back with a portal ac unit plugged in to an extention cord from the house. Can't wait until they finished hooking up all the electrical and we have the mini split cooling the room for us - it was stupid humid today! #SewingStudioBuild
I’ve been sewing rather frantically for the last two weeks. Our homeschool community has an annual end of year project for the older elementary kids’ grammar/writing class where they write a report on a historic figure, then turn it into an oral presentation for a “wax museum” where the other students and family have to guess who they are. Which means costumes! We did ancient history this year, and my son picked Spartacus. He already had the pants and sandals, and all I needed to do for the tunic was slim down an unworn tee of my husband’s. The “armor” was the time-consuming part, because the trim he picked was one that would have been hard to machine-sew well. So I hand-stitched that at the same time that I hemmed all of the pieces. The fabric was a thrifted men’s hoodie, so I just took the sleeves, hood, and pockets off, removed the zipper and turned that into the Velcro back closure, and cut up the sleeves to make that pointy fringe bit. (I have no idea what that’s...
When you need more than a couple swing-tacks to hold the lining hem to a big skirt hem, you can use a cross-stitch between the two. I pinned a couple inches up and then folded back a little to stitch the layers together (while making sure I only went through the inside hem allowance).
She wants to be a jacket... and so that's what she will be!
Guess this is why we make wearable muslins 😄 I'm still so proud of this effort, guys. I made every pattern piece myself, my 'directions' were a tailoring book (and SewBrooke!), my experience was a few (three?) previous tailoring exploits over the years... and while she is not perfect, she's very good.
Due to stitches sinking into melton, I might go around the edges with a decorative chainstitch to camouflage - and since she's a jacket (not a blazer), that extra detail will be just fine.
Not sure why my collar is sticking up THIS much, I'll just assume that I used way too much haircanvas for melton and didn't beat it into submission enough (I've done other collars, this is a lot of volume for me). Again, as a jacket we're fine but not as a blazer.
It's warm, it's cozy, it goes with my tweed walking skirt (all of my wool walking skirts, for true), and I think it's happy with its destiny.
On to other adventures!
