Projects
Hello from the graveyard that is my office on this last official day of summer.
Apparently I have a need for fussy projects in my life. The week after last Crown I started planning the outfit for Fall Crown. The planning document is three pages and includes embedded Excel and CADD files. The house has taken way more of my time and energy than I ever thought so I really don't expect to get it done at this point, but that won't stop me from blathering about it here. I am making a Spanish ensemble from ~1590. One of the ones that have the floor length big open sleeves. It started when Ivetta bought me 6 yars of bubble gum pink silk. Now I realize that BG pink isn't the most appropriate color for this outfit, that is what the fabric said it was supposed to be. It also said it needed more silk so I obliged. I had the perfect weight linen for lining in my stash as well as a gorgeous forest green really light weight wool for sleeve linings. I also had a great white silk satin for the undersleeves and black silk for their lining already. I decided to couch black cord on them since I couldn't find a gold cord I liked at all. I found the lace for the ruffs on clearance at Hancock and made my own spangles. I found a gorgeous almost translucent linen for the shift and bought matching pink silk floss for the embroidery. Then other things got in the way and I stopped.
Last week I finally got started again. I'm copying a shift from PoF 4. Each of the pieces are finished individually using a decorative stitch around the edges and then interlaced together. I started w/ an underarm gusset first. It took me 2 hours! This is when I realized that I probably wouldn't get this outfit done for Crown. Well, not surprisingly, my speed improved w/ repetition and I now have both sleeves, both underarm gussets and the front body panel w/ attached gores finished. I hope to finish the second one and the neck gussets by the end of the weekend. Then I have to embroider the neckband cuffs and placket w/ pinks and peapods. That just leaves the attaching, which is really fast since it's really just lacing. It's really turning out well. I also think I'm somewhat crazy since you will not actually anything except for a glimpse of the cuffs and maybe the neck embroidery only if my collar isn't closed.
I ran to Michaels over lunch and looked at their Christmas ribbon on a whim. I found 10 yd. spools of a reasonable 2.5 wide gold lace for $10. To get that look I was going to place (by hand) four rows of narrower lace trim on the Spanish. I bought one and am taking it home to see if I can make it behave around corners. If s,o one more roll will be all I need. Plus I got a 40% off coupon for next week. This means I might actually get my Spanish done for Crown and spend $80 buck less. Yay! I have decided to not stress about it. If I don't get it done I'll wear the one outfit that isn't in storage and call it good.
Apparently I have a need for fussy projects in my life. The week after last Crown I started planning the outfit for Fall Crown. The planning document is three pages and includes embedded Excel and CADD files. The house has taken way more of my time and energy than I ever thought so I really don't expect to get it done at this point, but that won't stop me from blathering about it here. I am making a Spanish ensemble from ~1590. One of the ones that have the floor length big open sleeves. It started when Ivetta bought me 6 yars of bubble gum pink silk. Now I realize that BG pink isn't the most appropriate color for this outfit, that is what the fabric said it was supposed to be. It also said it needed more silk so I obliged. I had the perfect weight linen for lining in my stash as well as a gorgeous forest green really light weight wool for sleeve linings. I also had a great white silk satin for the undersleeves and black silk for their lining already. I decided to couch black cord on them since I couldn't find a gold cord I liked at all. I found the lace for the ruffs on clearance at Hancock and made my own spangles. I found a gorgeous almost translucent linen for the shift and bought matching pink silk floss for the embroidery. Then other things got in the way and I stopped.
Last week I finally got started again. I'm copying a shift from PoF 4. Each of the pieces are finished individually using a decorative stitch around the edges and then interlaced together. I started w/ an underarm gusset first. It took me 2 hours! This is when I realized that I probably wouldn't get this outfit done for Crown. Well, not surprisingly, my speed improved w/ repetition and I now have both sleeves, both underarm gussets and the front body panel w/ attached gores finished. I hope to finish the second one and the neck gussets by the end of the weekend. Then I have to embroider the neckband cuffs and placket w/ pinks and peapods. That just leaves the attaching, which is really fast since it's really just lacing. It's really turning out well. I also think I'm somewhat crazy since you will not actually anything except for a glimpse of the cuffs and maybe the neck embroidery only if my collar isn't closed.
I ran to Michaels over lunch and looked at their Christmas ribbon on a whim. I found 10 yd. spools of a reasonable 2.5 wide gold lace for $10. To get that look I was going to place (by hand) four rows of narrower lace trim on the Spanish. I bought one and am taking it home to see if I can make it behave around corners. If s,o one more roll will be all I need. Plus I got a 40% off coupon for next week. This means I might actually get my Spanish done for Crown and spend $80 buck less. Yay! I have decided to not stress about it. If I don't get it done I'll wear the one outfit that isn't in storage and call it good.