elizabeth_mn

The wedding dress is coming along. Today I worked on the veil and the dress lining. Next up is hems. Then just the sash left.

The veil is the only finished thing though, so here's a peek!



Ignore the pin.



I sewed some hair clips to the underside to attach it.



The length is to the inside elbow, with wide rounded corners. It's the full width of the tulle (108" I think?) by about 23" length.

To make this I first made the lace assembly. I took three of my lace pieces and arranged them on a piece of buckram, then stitched them down (reattaching any loose beads as I went). Then I cut, shaped, and gathered the tulle and machined it to a piece of Peltex interfacing. I laid my lace piece over the tulle and hand stitched it down, then cut away any excess interfacing. Finally I added the clips.

If I were doing this again, I might skip the buckram step. I'm glad I did it because it gave me more time to play with the lace design before making it permanent, but the finished product doesn't really need it. And I might cover the underside with white felt before adding the clips, just to hide the stitches and make it prettier.

A few local folks organized a very informal Victorian tea outing for yesterday, just a meetup at a cozy local place for a snack and a chat. Of course, I needed something new to spiff up my brown wool.

I desperately wanted a nice wintery hat. I have a couple of cute little summer straw ones, but nothing even close for winter. I realized I could never make a whole new hat that quick, so first I tried to cover an old straw frame with velvet, which failed, because I was trying to do it the cheater's way, which, for me, always fails.

Then I remembered I had a tiny little round hat I made years ago for something 1560-ish; it had a small, narrow brim and a soft, pleated crown. I made it but never wore it because it didn't work out perfectly and came out a little small. So I thought I could trim it up to look Victorian.

First I bent the brim into a nice curve. This is basically the "before" shot.



Then I started adding trims. I had a very small piece of striped silk in a taupe-y grey with black stripes that I wound around and crunched up around the base of the crown. A small remnant of wide, chalky brown petersham became a bow, and I sewed several white feathers with a couple black ones and stuck them behind the bow. I had some wonderful picot-edged black velvet ribbon (that someone gave me) to make chin ties.

I forgot to take a picture of it on the styro hat head but here it is on me.





I had a little bit too much fun taking backyard tripod photos.

( More! )

I have realized that these tiny 1870s hats really don't look right unless you have the right mountain of hair to prop them up. Since I generally fail at hair, I wasn't optimistic but set aside an hour to try anyway. And I think I came up with something okay! Here's what I did:

( Hairdo details )

The "tea" turned out to be drinks, dessert, and champagne. My kind of tea! It was fun and I was glad to get out in costume. I am really enjoying doing more costume events but of course it does make me feel like I NEED MORE DRESSES NOW!

I finished the last couple and set up a little display at work to advertise my class.

I wanted to go simpler for this one, totally monochrome, everything self-fabric.  It's silk noil.



( One more, and the display I made of them at work )

I made some round ones.  I didn't get any shots of them being worn, so just imagine them at a jaunty tilt on a well-coiffed head.

Silk noil, pre-made bias trim from Anna Maria Horner, a feather tuft, and a metal button.




( Two more )


I've also made three more frames that are still uncovered.  I'm putting these away for a while, though, because I found out that my class isn't going to be scheduled until September, and I now have more urgent projects to do.

I trimmed the bonnet.



(I also finally bought a fake head! Woo!)

The crown is wrapped in a wide bias strip of self-fabric, edged with tea-dyed cotton lace, gathered and folded and lightly tacked down. I was going for a casually draped look, and this is the best I could do. The ties are also self-bias.

( More pix )

This trimming has basically nothing to do with the inspiration image; I just wanted to make it pretty and this worked for me.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to make this.

  

I plan to trim with ruched self-fabric, blonde lace and matching blonde petersham.  Surely I can figure out some way to whip up some petersham flowers?  I also plan to make the ties out of self-fabric, not so much because I am cheap as because I couldn't find a coordinating ribbon and I didn't want to get too many colors into the mix.

The shape is not perfect, but this is definitely the best job I have ever done on one of these buckram-and-wire affairs.

 

I finished this so quickly because I worked on it almost compulsively.  I don't know why. I just couldn't seem to put it down.  There's really something strangely addictive about plain knitting sometimes.  And I enjoyed watching the different colors in the Noro emerge.  It was a little sad that not all the colors in the skein ended up in the hat, but I will try to use the rest for something else.



My jogless jog is a little untidy, and I ended up with ladders in the decrease columns and in the color change column; with the color changes I guess I just didn't secure the yarns well enough when switching.  Who knows why my decreases get ladder-y.

My man is very pleased with it.  The only drawback is that he won't be able to wear it until autumn.

I got a little distracted from my sweater and started this hat for my HB.



The pattern is Turn a Square from Jared Flood/Brooklyn Tweed.  Really, a pattern this simple is inspiration more than anything else.  The yarn used is Noro Silk Garden, which has a pretty distinctive look.  (The designer really seems to like Noro!)  My photo does not do it justice.

I'm using the aforementioned Noro (and some yummy plain brown wool) which I got from Borealis Yarns.  I bought them with my full punch card and now I feel like I am no longer obligated to shop there.  It's a fine shop, but they rarely have what I need, and I often find myself going there anyway.

I've been longing to use Noro for years, but I've always found it too scratchy.  I don't know if it has changed or if I have, but this one didn't feel too scratchy to me.

I didn't want to take any chances with the random color patterns, so I unwound the skein of Noro onto my swift to check the way the colors flowed before I chose where to begin.

It's just plain knitting but I am really enjoying it!  I've got about 4 stripes done now - I think there are 10 or 11 in the hat.

I made F a little sun hat with the pattern I picked up the other day and two fat quarters from one of those fat quarter coordinate packs.  She was kind enough to model it for me.



The crown piece was about 1/2" too long, but I didn't realize that until after I had sewn it, ripped it, and re-sewed it, easing the crap out of it to make it fit the top.  I thought the piece had stretched the first time (because I skipped stay-stitching it) and it wasn't until I attached the brim that I noticed it was acutally a bit too large.

I also think I could have attached the lining a bit more neatly, but how finicky do I need to get over a baby hat?

I think I might add a ribbon to the crown/brim join to make it look a little more girly.

I guess this is the first picture I've shared of her here - I just haven't got around to it until now.  Too bad she looks a little startled.
 

I find it a bit dull to post about things I've been working on without photos, but I'm posting anyway because I like feeling like I'm making progress on something.

I've been working on my Big Montana Tunic.  I'm using Casacde 128, and yesterday I started on the 3rd ball of yarn (of 5).  I like the way the lace pattern is looking.  It's just complex enough to keep me interested but simple enough that I don't need to devote too much attention to it.  I re-wrote the side shaping to pull it in a bit more at the waist.  Not too much, since the look is pretty A-line, but since I have a pretty large difference between my waist and bust, I wanted to fit it a bit more so it didn't end up looking like a sack.

I also started (and almost finished, now) the Avaitrix hat for my little one.  She absolutely will not keep a hat on her head if she can help it, so I realized I needed to make something with a chin strap.  I was also worried about wool being too itchy for her until she gets a little older, so I used cotton.  I got some beautiful, irregular, soft, slubby cotton in bright lime green last saturday and now I'm almost done knitting the strap.  Then just another earflap and it is done.  It's a bit big for her, but I think I will sew a little tuck in it that I can pick out later.  Easier than ripping and re-knitting, and the hat will be more versatile.

I'm also making a little coat for her.  I got some really pretty quilted fabric at Treadle and I'm planning a simple bound edge and big snaps to close.  I used to have a way more uptight view of pre-quilted fabrics, but I've mellowed in vew of the practicality.  I could not find a coat small enough for a 1-month-old anywhere.  People probably assume that no one takes their 1-month-old baby out in cold weather.

Time still seems to be dragging on!  And I still feel a little bummed about not having much time for crafting.  But anything I can do while sitting down, with my little girl sleeping on my lap, has a chance of getting done, since that's how I spend so much of my time these days!  I have so, so many ideas for projects I want to do, but I am trying not to think too much about stuff I can't get to for a while.  It is a victory for me when I can get the household chores done, so knitting and sewing are icing on the cake.