Always learning
Today was an off Friday, so I was able to sleep in a little bit. The morning and a little bit of the afternoon I did the monthly bills; not the most fun thing to do, but necessary and instructive as always.
Then I got to work on the petticoat. My late-night post may not have been clear; while I did not finish it, I did complete all of the skirt seams. So I did the hem and put in tucks with the handy-dandy antique Singer attachment. After a false start (getting the spacing wrong for the second tuck), I got in all five tucks pretty rapidly. For future reference, angled seams do make tucks a little tricky. More importantly, though, as the series continues, it gets harder for the tucker to mark the fold of the next tuck because of the thickness of the previous tucks folded under. Also, sometimes the edge of a previous tuck gets hung up on the fold line marker, which throws off the fold line. It would probably be less of an issue on something lighter than Pimatex. Otherwise, working tucks from the top down, or sewing from the underside, would be the better choice.
The ruffler also gave some difficulty. It's hard to gather to a specified length; and it didn't help for the needle to loosen itself and jam in the works in the middle of it! But it got gathered up okay. There was more drama, when the waistband ended up way too big, but I pleated it in a couple places and managed to get the straps a good length and placement. It's a great petticoat!
Then, with the dress on over it, I realized two things: (1) Lawn is not the best material for 1810s-onward gowns. It's SO soft and rather clingy. So especially in front, it doesn't hang just terribly well over the petticoat. I do believe that a couple of flounces would help, by weighing it down a bit. (2) The front panel was too narrow, and I had further messed it up by cutting and hemming slits instead of letting it open further to the side. It scarcely overlapped at all, and hung open.
Fortunately, this wasn't a terribly hard fix. I just cut the bib off it and replaced the front panel. The new one is wider by 4-5", and has no slits in it; just a simple apron-style opening. I did a casing for the top edge that has a ribbon through it.
All that's left is the little bit of hem at the front, and fixing a drawstring in the back neckline that pulled loose. Plus a button or two on the petticoat waistband. I also need to get fabric glue tomorrow for the ribbon on the boots; though now I'm wondering. I'm not sure I want to disguise that lovely seam line. :) I did make bows out of white silk ribbon to go on the toes.
So once I get those little things done, I can get back to setting up the beading. Yay!
I almost forgot - my order from tayloropolis's Etsy store arrived today! Super fast work; I ordered on Sunday, and she had to custom-make it. I got a sapphire stone cross pendant with matching earrings, which are the double-drop style seen here. I got silver metal this time, too, since my red set is in gold. They're so pretty! I'm excited to wear them to the concert picnic on Sunday.