elizabeth_mn

Yesterday I finished F's dress and petticoat and they are the Cutest Thing EVER!  She still needs a shift, but the dress is done and it's perfect.

Today I hemmed the front skirt edges of L's gown, then I pleated the skirt (this only took 5 tries to make it right) and sewed it to the bodice.  

Pretty much everything is machine-sewn from here on out.  I had big plans to do lots of hand sewing on L's gown, but 12 yards of ribbon ain't gonna be quick unless I cheat.  I also changed the plan from hand sewn eyelets to some kind of internal lacing closure, not because of laziness or running short of time, but because the eyelets would interfere with the trim.

I tried to look up the Venetian lacing that jenthompson described in an article on her old website, but I cannot find it.  Jen, do you still have this online somewhere?

Last fitting of L’s petticoat bodies* before finishing.  She was quite excited!

The bodice is boned with 1/4" steel (I really need to give German plastic a try sometime, though).  It's interlined with good-quality muslin and the front is also lined with a layer of twill. The twill doesn't extend into the straps or the side seams, but is secured to the muslin. I plan to line it in plain cotton.

The bodice is just pinned together and the skirt is pinned on.  Aside from shortening the sleeve and of course the hem, I'm happy with how it's looking and I'm not making any more changes.

I fully lined the skirt in black cotton and tucked a 6” strip of cotton batting at the top to pad the pleats.  The silk and cotton stick to each other to no end, but I’m trying to think of this as a good thing; once I get them where I want them to be, they'll stay.

For the front skirt curve, I measured how deep the CF point is, then I measured how much of the skirt would be stitched to the curved portion of the bodice, then eyeballed the exact curve while I cut.

I want to machine-stitch the other sleeve (since the first was machined) then I plan to insert the lining by hand and do the eyelets by hand as well.  The skirt and bodice will be joined by hand, of course, since I have no idea how you could even try to machine stitch cartridge pleats.

I will probably cop out and machine blind-hem the skirt instead of hand-hemming, but who knows?  I might get inspired.

* terminology footnote: I am really not sure if I am using the right terms for this garment, since I am not an expert in this period.  It's a boned bodice, it's a petticoat, it has sleeves, it's meant to have a gown worn over it. . . it's a sleeved petticoat bodies and/or kirtle?

Progress: made 3 pairs of summer pants for The Girl, altered the pattern for L's kirtle and cut it out.

I decided there is no way around hand-sewing the eyelets for L's dress(es).  I briefly toyed with the idea of using some kind of ribbon loops for lacing, but who am I kidding?  It needs real eyelets.  Plus I ought to brush up on hand-sewn buttonholes for HB's doublet.

Now, I haven't hand-sewn an eyelet since about 2002 (I really had to think about this one).  I spent hours doing them and then the garment ended up not fitting at all, so I scrapped the whole thing and swore I'd never waste my time like that again.

That was a long time ago.  I feel better now.

Anyway, I grabbed a scrap yesterday and tried to see if I still remember how to do it.  I guess the answer is sort of?

( front and back )

It's oval, not round, but it would totally work and I think I could work the next ones rounder.  I might make the real ones over a metal ring, but I'm not sure.  I know I used rings last time, but I don't know how common that is/was and what difference it makes.  I do know that I'd use button rings (like for making thread buttons) instead of jump rings like I used last time, because the split in the jump rings made them keep poking out from under the stitches.

Edit:   I realize now that I made my buttonhole stitch go the other way round from what most people seem to do, so that the 'bar' part edges the opening.  Since that's how buttonholes are done, I just assumed, but now I wonder, who do people reverse that on eyelets?