Tiresome Explanatory First Entry
New website Miss Meriwether's Steam Bustle has been up for a couple of weeks new & I think I finally have the layout like I want it. It's been lurking around in the back of my mind for about six months now and I've only just gotten around to dealing with getting a domain name & paying for hosting so I won't have all that crap advertising all over my site. Regular twice-weekly updates of the steampunk webcomic The Magic Lantern have been posted for about a month. Hopefully I won't run out of tacky little punch lines.
Default blog: The Omnigraphic Blogopticon. I might actually remember to post new entries there! Once I got out of the habit of posting it's been nearly impossible to get back there. Same for the Vintage Stitch-O-Rama site (link on the Omnigraph). I have a buttload of new (old) patterns to post and once I get the Steam Bustle a little further along I'll get back to regular updates. I might use this blog to post work-in-progress photos.
I've been devouring books as though they were Doritos, sometimes three a week, so it's no wonder I can't seem to post anything or finish my latest sewing projects. I've been toting around Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day for a couple weeks now and I've gotten as far as page 624 and there's still about 400-plus pages to go. Mason & Dixon was my previous favorite of his and I think Against the Day has kinda blown that one out of the water.
I just ordered Francis Grimble's Fashions of the Gilded Age, vol. 1: Undergarments, Bodices, skirts, Overskirts, Polonaises and Day Dresses, 1877-1882 and it should be here in about a week. I'm guessing this will keep me busy sewing for a good while. Yes! Amazon.com had a nice discount so I paid $35 rather than $50. I've had her Edwardian Modiste for a few years but the dresses are a bit too impractical for me (incredibly dressy and much too frilly for an airship pilot or mad scientist) and I prefer mid-Victorian to Edwardian anyhow. I believe she only had a couple of Edwardian books out at the time, otherwise I would have gotten something else. I'm looking more for separates--crap I can mix & match like blouses, simple skirts with fancy overskirts, a decent jacket. And a combination that isn't umbrella-drawered Edwardian. I could make crap up but I'm just all-fired picky about authenticity. If I want to go romping around in old-timey clothes they better be either the real thing or made from an undecipherable antique pattern. It's no wonder I never leave the damn house.
Things To Do:
Default blog: The Omnigraphic Blogopticon. I might actually remember to post new entries there! Once I got out of the habit of posting it's been nearly impossible to get back there. Same for the Vintage Stitch-O-Rama site (link on the Omnigraph). I have a buttload of new (old) patterns to post and once I get the Steam Bustle a little further along I'll get back to regular updates. I might use this blog to post work-in-progress photos.
I've been devouring books as though they were Doritos, sometimes three a week, so it's no wonder I can't seem to post anything or finish my latest sewing projects. I've been toting around Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day for a couple weeks now and I've gotten as far as page 624 and there's still about 400-plus pages to go. Mason & Dixon was my previous favorite of his and I think Against the Day has kinda blown that one out of the water.
I just ordered Francis Grimble's Fashions of the Gilded Age, vol. 1: Undergarments, Bodices, skirts, Overskirts, Polonaises and Day Dresses, 1877-1882 and it should be here in about a week. I'm guessing this will keep me busy sewing for a good while. Yes! Amazon.com had a nice discount so I paid $35 rather than $50. I've had her Edwardian Modiste for a few years but the dresses are a bit too impractical for me (incredibly dressy and much too frilly for an airship pilot or mad scientist) and I prefer mid-Victorian to Edwardian anyhow. I believe she only had a couple of Edwardian books out at the time, otherwise I would have gotten something else. I'm looking more for separates--crap I can mix & match like blouses, simple skirts with fancy overskirts, a decent jacket. And a combination that isn't umbrella-drawered Edwardian. I could make crap up but I'm just all-fired picky about authenticity. If I want to go romping around in old-timey clothes they better be either the real thing or made from an undecipherable antique pattern. It's no wonder I never leave the damn house.
Things To Do:
- Must draft men's 1860s double-breasted waistcoat.
- Knit stripy Victorian silk stockings from 1880s Weldon's Practical Stocking Knitter pamphlet.
- Knit ladies' mitts in black silk this time instead of nasty acrylic.
- New fancy corset with embroidery (I hate embroidering but I don't have fabric with the design I'm seeing in my head).
- Finish re-doing antique jet beaded trim with pin-backs rather than sewn on. I like options, dang it all. Beaded trim found on horribly dry-rotted 1890s silk blouse. It rained beads as the threads broke, so they all were taken loose and re-done with new thread. So if I want to be all jet and fringey I can. The ragged beaded thingy on the left is the one I used as a pattern since it was mostly holding itself together. Beaded thingy on the right is redone thingy. They were originally sewn on stiffened fabric rings which they don't make any more, so I sewed the beads onto a disk of black satin, since I would more than likely be wearing these on a black blouse, plus the fabric would hide the pin back. There will be long strands of jet beads festooning between three of the round thingies, plus the two on either end will have long dangles. Fairly close to the original blouse decorations.
- There's a very cool bustle skirt with a train in Rowan knitting magazine no. 38. No designer given so I'm assuming it's a vintage skirt. Must. Draft. Pattern. Like I have the seven acres of fabric it will take for all the pleats and ruffles. Gaaaah!
- See, I done got all fancy with bullets.
- Must sleep now.