Godey's Ladies Book: Temptation, or Just a Really Bad Influence?
I have done so much sewing in the last few weeks.
I made a massive petticoat for Vendetta back at the end of July. Serious petticoat. Knee length, about six layers of different tulles and netting, with a satin waistband and a monster collection of ribbony trims and little bows sewn on by hand. I, in all my infinite wisdom, made it from scratch without a pattern, and after the end I wiped by brow and gazed upon it.
"What glory I have wrought!" I thought to myself, "but fuck, I am never sewing something that involved without a pattern again."
Fast forward to the Bloodlust Ball...
Uh-oh...
They're really just drapey skirts and a corset right? Right??
How hard can that be?
Yeah, I'm screwed.
The plan: Basic ankle length skirt, a corset, maybe a bit of drapey stuff if I could be bothered. I figured how hard could it be? An A line skirt is three or four triangles, more or less. Piss easy! Hem that fucker, maybe a bit of lace, easy. Who needs a pattern for that?
Stop laughing, guys.
I'd like to say that I've 'shopped this for artistic reasons, but really it was to hide a cat sized hairball that was chillin' just in frame to the left.
I am responsible for everything but the corset and the gloves. Even I'm not bananas enough to try a corset without a pattern, and gloves are fiddly as all hell. It is, more or less, just an a line skirt (three panel) and a big rectangle that I ruffled the hell out of. I don't know what you'd call it really. Lots of darts. Lots. I hate darts. Did I mention I don't have a dress form? In order to pin it all properly I wound up strapping an assortment of pillows into the corset and propping the whole kit and caboodle up on a barstool so I could get a realistic idea of how it would all sit, and camped myself in front of a few episodes of Planet Earth and let Sir David keep me company in my madness. I also decided I had to decorate each dart with something shiny:
Tiny beads also mean I must use a wee adorable super fine needle. Even jabbier than regular needles!
Yeah, seed beads. Not that anyone can see them in a dark club, but fuck, I knew they were there. More redundant decoration was to be found on the lace around the hem: Many fucking sequins.
Hand sewn sequins. Also shown: delightful tassel.
Each sequin is held in place with another tiny seed bead and a wee bit of my blood, because those beads want the tiniest freaking needles in the world, and I was also watching a lot of random movies during this notably tedious part of the process. There are about two hundred sequins. I went through a whole packet. I had hoped to get some onto the neckline shoulder drapety thinger, but ran out of both the sequins and patience by that point. The hem on both the underskirt and the bustle are edged in this lace, and I'm glad I opted for a plainer lace for the detail on the front. I'm also glad I wound up skipping the ruffles at the front, much like the pink number in the final fashion plate above. I contemplated it, but as always I went through the whole project worrying that I was going to run out of fabric. This also happens every time I make a Thing, and for once I am glad that I let the neurosis get to me because it cut like a day's worth of work off it for me.
I also made the tiara and for the hell of it chucked some lace onto my shoes too, because I was kind of delirious by then and why the fuck not?
It's been raining for two days and in any case you'll be wandering around a pub all night. Delicate footwear makes all kinds of sense!
I had a splendid time. The corset is one of the most comfortable I own, and despite the fact it's also one of the few that has enough room up top I still spent a large chunk of the evening fishing people out of it. Curiously, short women kept falling in. It's a good thing I'm rather enjoy wee ladies hiding in my underwear or it would have been very distressing. I'm waiting for the good pictures to surface, so we'll chuck one up here when it does. I'm also not going to comment too much on the disaster that my hair became. Suffice it to say my hair is resistant to curling to the point where an hour in hot rollers and a gallon of spray did not produce anything long lasting.I had lovely sausage curls for about twenty minutes. Next time, gadget, next time.
Curiously, the usual desire to never sew anything again is absent. I even have the notion to make the underskirt again, only in black and with less lace. Maybe asymmetrical hem...I also have a deep desire to make some tiny hats. Tricorns, mostly. Oh! And I found a place in the Valley that sells tiny tophats too.
Oh, the possibilities!
I made a massive petticoat for Vendetta back at the end of July. Serious petticoat. Knee length, about six layers of different tulles and netting, with a satin waistband and a monster collection of ribbony trims and little bows sewn on by hand. I, in all my infinite wisdom, made it from scratch without a pattern, and after the end I wiped by brow and gazed upon it.
"What glory I have wrought!" I thought to myself, "but fuck, I am never sewing something that involved without a pattern again."
Fast forward to the Bloodlust Ball...
Uh-oh...
They're really just drapey skirts and a corset right? Right??
How hard can that be?
Yeah, I'm screwed.
The plan: Basic ankle length skirt, a corset, maybe a bit of drapey stuff if I could be bothered. I figured how hard could it be? An A line skirt is three or four triangles, more or less. Piss easy! Hem that fucker, maybe a bit of lace, easy. Who needs a pattern for that?
Stop laughing, guys.
I'd like to say that I've 'shopped this for artistic reasons, but really it was to hide a cat sized hairball that was chillin' just in frame to the left.
I am responsible for everything but the corset and the gloves. Even I'm not bananas enough to try a corset without a pattern, and gloves are fiddly as all hell. It is, more or less, just an a line skirt (three panel) and a big rectangle that I ruffled the hell out of. I don't know what you'd call it really. Lots of darts. Lots. I hate darts. Did I mention I don't have a dress form? In order to pin it all properly I wound up strapping an assortment of pillows into the corset and propping the whole kit and caboodle up on a barstool so I could get a realistic idea of how it would all sit, and camped myself in front of a few episodes of Planet Earth and let Sir David keep me company in my madness. I also decided I had to decorate each dart with something shiny:
Tiny beads also mean I must use a wee adorable super fine needle. Even jabbier than regular needles!
Yeah, seed beads. Not that anyone can see them in a dark club, but fuck, I knew they were there. More redundant decoration was to be found on the lace around the hem: Many fucking sequins.
Hand sewn sequins. Also shown: delightful tassel.
Each sequin is held in place with another tiny seed bead and a wee bit of my blood, because those beads want the tiniest freaking needles in the world, and I was also watching a lot of random movies during this notably tedious part of the process. There are about two hundred sequins. I went through a whole packet. I had hoped to get some onto the neckline shoulder drapety thinger, but ran out of both the sequins and patience by that point. The hem on both the underskirt and the bustle are edged in this lace, and I'm glad I opted for a plainer lace for the detail on the front. I'm also glad I wound up skipping the ruffles at the front, much like the pink number in the final fashion plate above. I contemplated it, but as always I went through the whole project worrying that I was going to run out of fabric. This also happens every time I make a Thing, and for once I am glad that I let the neurosis get to me because it cut like a day's worth of work off it for me.
I also made the tiara and for the hell of it chucked some lace onto my shoes too, because I was kind of delirious by then and why the fuck not?
It's been raining for two days and in any case you'll be wandering around a pub all night. Delicate footwear makes all kinds of sense!
I had a splendid time. The corset is one of the most comfortable I own, and despite the fact it's also one of the few that has enough room up top I still spent a large chunk of the evening fishing people out of it. Curiously, short women kept falling in. It's a good thing I'm rather enjoy wee ladies hiding in my underwear or it would have been very distressing. I'm waiting for the good pictures to surface, so we'll chuck one up here when it does. I'm also not going to comment too much on the disaster that my hair became. Suffice it to say my hair is resistant to curling to the point where an hour in hot rollers and a gallon of spray did not produce anything long lasting.I had lovely sausage curls for about twenty minutes. Next time, gadget, next time.
Curiously, the usual desire to never sew anything again is absent. I even have the notion to make the underskirt again, only in black and with less lace. Maybe asymmetrical hem...I also have a deep desire to make some tiny hats. Tricorns, mostly. Oh! And I found a place in the Valley that sells tiny tophats too.
Oh, the possibilities!