MLS Designs

I've not done anything to my 1820s dress, but my cloak is nearly finished ;) I just need to finish sewing the hood on and add a hook and eye and maybe some black silk satin ribbons to tie. I tried it on when I pinned the hood on, and can't believe how warm it is!! I'm a bit cross that I didn't think to measure how long it would turn out if I just recreated the original, so it's a bit shorter than I wanted, but oh well, never mind.
I'm working tomorrow morning, so when I get back I have a cake to bake and vegetable pie (from Jane Austen's cook book!) to prepare for the ball on Saturday, then I'll get on to finishing the cloak so I can wear it to go to the ball!!

better than none? This evening after work (which is so boring at the moment!) I finalised my pattern and cut out and made up the petticoat bodice. It took a little tweaking - altering the shoulder straps and the centre back, but I got there in the end, and I've altered my pattern so that I can cut straight into the silk when I get there.
I really need to alter the neck of the chemise though! I'm using one I made in college for one of my 3rd year projects, but it was made for a very small, slim and tiny girl! It fits really well, it's more fitted on me than her, (obviously!) But sometimes you just want a chemise that's not going to be so bulky under your corset, you know? Any way, because her frame was so much smaller than mine the neck opening is rather small, as well as being square not round, and it looks so silly under the wide low neck of the petticoat ;) After I've sorted the chemise out I'm going to put the petticoat bodice on a waistband and put in the buttons and button holes, it's so hard for poor Mummy to fit me when she has to try to pin a fitted garment together first.
For the skirt of the petticoat I think to make a full back and flat in front, with a wide hem, I'm need to make a gored skirt, to be very different from the straight regency skirts. Not HUGE just a different silhouette really. I want the hem to have lots of 'oomph' so I think I'm going to turn up a wide hem and cord it by sewing the cord between the 2 layers, then tuck for a few inches up the ankle, and probably sew a frill over the cording to make it pretty and soften any hard line form the corded hem. Sound like it might work? The dress skirt has a padded hem that and the rouleaux will help lots with the shape I think.
Talking of which, I want to try to make the dress skirt as narrow as possible while still looking right. Unfortunately I don't think I have enough of the green, I've only got 4 yards, so I might go with some lovely pale slate blue I got at the same time, (originally to line my brown silk velvet pelise, which turned into a spencer with brown spotted silk lining :D ) I have 5 yds of the blue, so hopefully enough, but the narrower the skirt the better, both because there'd be less fabric in the skirt itself, and I'd need less for the rouleaux! Eeek, the idea of those rouleaux is SCARY!!!!
Ugh, work again tomorrow :( but luckily our car is fixed, (and it wasn't as hideously expensive as we thought it might be, ) so I don't have to get a lift with my boss again which involved starting work at 8 instead of 9! It's amazing how one little hour can make such a huge difference!!!

I took my bodice fronts to work, but only had time to do 4 eyelets, which must mean that my work day wasn't as tedious as yesterday :) I would have liked to get more done, but in a way I'm glad I didn't, maybe the next few work days won't be so bad. Thursday I'm going in after lunch till about 10:30, and I only have a couple of hours of 'work' time, we're going to the theatre at 7, supper is at 6 so between 4:30 and 6 I can work on my eyelets! and the morning I could spend sewing, if I manage to pull my finger out!
When I got home I started making a mockup for Mummy's breeches, but supper and house work got in the way, so it wasn't ready for a fitting till about an hour ago, but it went really well :) I'm using a pattern I borrowed from a friend from dancing, just missing out the fall front. I meant to take a photo of the fitting, but forgot :( Surprisingly there weren't too many adjustments to make, I think because she has a bit of middle aged spread - her tummy is quite round- so her shape is more like a male shape than a woman's usually is. Unfortunately I don't think the same can be said about Clare! Her breeches will be an interesting exercise in fitting skills on my part! I think I'm going to have trouble with her waistcoat too, she is rather well endowed with a tiny ribcage and good hips, nothing, in short, like a man!! I'm trying to decide if I should hide her girlyness or dart her waistcoat to show it off, the coat she's wearing for this ball is darted, but I wasn't planning to make the next coat the same, I wanted a more correct look. But maybe I should just accept that she's a girl and go with it! The buttons for her waistcoat came, anyway, and they look really good, they're plastic, but they go really well with the fabric, and since I'll never find cut steel, something that looks a bit like cast pewter, or oxidised silver, will do just as well!!
I also got something else in the post which has got me all excited and thrown a spanner in the works! I may be adding something to my to-do list fro the end of february!!!

Such a bad girl! But to be fair, after work, (where I managed to sort out my queen costume almost completely, just need to sort out one hem) I went to my dancing friends' house to start work on an exhibition dance that we're going to learn - just the 3 of us so we're not doing it at normal dance practices on Sundays. Then when I got back, at about 7, I made some supper and watched a program I'd recorded last night. That brings us to about half an hour ago! So now I'm so sleepy I think if I start to sew I'll probably do it backwards or sew my fingers too and not even notice!
This week has been rather hellish, work has been stressful with my boss worrying about the inspection, and the snow has made getting to work such a pain in the but! To top it all off I'm finding it SO hard to get to sleep. I turn my light off after reading my book and suddenly all these ideas for costumes start shooting round and round my head! And even once I get to sleep there's no rest, I keep waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep :(
So I think I'm going to try to get an early night tonight, and work really hard tomorrow, I've decided to finish the other bodice front and if my boning still hasn't arrived I'm going to make my cloak, I found some lovely cardinal red wool a couple of weeks ago :) I only have the day though, I'm going to be learning some bollywood dancing in the evening :D

Work was a bit of a drag today, it's the junior dept Book Week casuals day on Friday, they all have to dress up as characters from history, so I had several come to me for costume bits. Next Saturday is the open morning, so I had teachers coming to me for bits for their students to dress up in - Roman robes for Latin and a Medieval man and an Air-raid Warden for History :) My job is never the same!
But I did get a big roll of fabric in the post today - my coutil for our corsets and mummy's stays. I guess this is a sign I should sew tomorrow?! Although, I need to order busks and laces before I go too far. Can't decide where to get them from! Somewhere in the UK I think, the US might be a bit cheaper, but the UK is quicker! Not sure what I'm going to make the mockups from though, no more heavy duty calico (muslin) left!
I really should work on my cousin's bear though, maybe I'll cut it out tomorrow and sew it another day. Not so arduous that way :) And I might alternate with my red wool, we'll see!