MLS Designs

Today was MUCH better than yesterday!
I had a lie in, washed my hair, then went into Leicester to look for fabric. I was looking for thick wool for another Regency cloak, and found some lovely camel brown meton. I was looking for brown wool for a new 1860s outer garment, either a jacket type, for an extra layer under a paletot, or a sack or paletot. I found one and a half metres of dark brown melton, so enough for a sack or maybe a paletot. I also wanted ribbons for some pale pink ballet pumps for Regency frocks, and found some really cute flowery brocade type ribbon. While getting the ribbon I found huge ostrich feathers in the perfect shade of brown for Mummy's headdress. So a very good shopping trip all round :D
When I got home there was a package waiting for me on the stairs, with the bone casing, busk, boning and lace I needed for Mummy's corset! I didn't expect it so soon! So now Mummy has a new corset that fits her sooo much better than the old one. She had the same problem as me, with all the dancing we do we now have much more upright postures, so the bust gussets were too low and her breasts were in completely the wrong place! They're not anymore, and under this cut(  is a picture of the new corset, the beginnings of the ball gown and the makings of a headdress. )
All in all, a much happier day! And tomorrow is still the weekend! I'm going to bake, and if I don't manage to sew much, I won't worry! I never seem to do well at the weekend, and it always gets me down that I don't meet my expectations, so I've decided not to expect myself to sew at the weekends. That way if I do, it's a bonus ;)

Mummy had a lovely Birthday, lots of friends came for her Bithday tea, including a couple that used to come to dancing who we haven't see in months, they brought their 8 month old King Charles Spaniel and he and Emmy had a wonderful time! The party was supposed to only go on till 6:30, but our dancing friends only went at about 10:30! We got to chatting, and I showed Bryony ( one of the girls) how to do 18thC hair and did some machined button holes on a waistcoat Mel is making for another member of the dance group for the ball on Saturday. So it was a long and tiring day, but lots of fun!
We gave Mummy her presents in the morning, and she was so pleased with her new caps! I did her hair just now to take some photos, they are ( under here ) if you want to see :)
Tomorrow I have to make the wig ( for the same chap for whom Mel's making the waistcoat) then I can get on with my dress, I think I'm going to carry on with pinning the fan things onto the skirt, and hopefully I'll get to stitching them down. I will be working on Monday, but hopefully only the morning, so I can get some sewing in in the afternoon, but Gemma is coming for supper and to watch Glee, so I won't be able to sew in the evening, but I will have all of Tuesday to make up for it! I'm so beyond glad the play is over!!!!!

*Boy this got long winded! Sorry!!

I just realised I've now done 2 of the 4 stupidly long days! Yay!! The dress rehearsal went really very well, just the 2 performances, which I'm sure they will do fine, then strike the set on Friday and it's the weekend!! Next week I'll only go in for one or two mornings, and then it's the Easter holidays :D Of course, the holidays start with the ball in Bath, and my dress is very far from being done, but I have all next week, EEK!!
Clare's new hat went together really well this morning, it has a ruched brim lining made from a bit of cream leftover rayon moire ribbon (used as bonnet ties on my green drawn silk bonnet) some cotton net as a hat band, a couple of sprigs of cream paper roses and a cream ostrich feather 'pouf' made from the vanes of the waste bit after shortening a feather for another bonnet, (following Lynn McMasters' brilliant instructions for turban accessories). I'm going to try to remember to take my camera tomorrow to take a photo of the dress I made, and there will hopefully be hat pictures too.
I had to go into work after lunch, but didn't 'clock on' till quarter past five so spent the time sewing the ribbon net together. It took HOURS!!! I decided to use some little pearls in the end, they look very pretty, but took soooo much longer than gluing would have done! I was running very very short on ribbon, and so it ended up rather small, and I had to wait till I got home to try to sort it out. I managed to fix it though by using a strip of buckram about an inch wide as a headband and sewing the net to the back instead of just threading wire through the loops over the top of the head the way I did before. I covered the band to make it blend in, and Clare suggested I use some of the upholstery velvet I have left over from when I made miniature teddy bears. I had a piece that is the PERFECT colour, and being velvet it grips the hair and stays on really well without any pins! (Mummy's scalp is getting more sensitive as she gets older, and hairgrips that don't bother me or Clare really give her grief, so she'll be very happy if she can get away without having to use them!)
I then played around with decoration. I tried loops of some strips of striped silk (that will be my new ballgown) but it looked too poofy and silly, then I had a desperate hunt through my ribbon stash in the hope there might be something I'd over looked. I found some leftover brown striped ribbon from the ties of my brown velvet bonnet, and the pale stripes are the same colour as the net! I don't know why I didn't think of it before, probably because it's 3" wide, which I would never have thought of using if I didn't have an inch of buckram to hide! I'm adding in some ruches of lace, and maybe lace lappets, and I think it's going to look very smart! hopefully by then end of tomorrow it'll be done, so I can move onto the other cap I want to make for her (an easier one I hope!)
Now I just need to calm down so I can go to bed!

I didn't get home today till 6:30 in the end, when I went straight to bed for a nap, only to be woken half an hour later by my sister coming home with some friends from dancing, they'd been to a roller disco, (I was supposed to go, but even if I'd not been working still I'd have been way too tired) so I came down to chat to them in my PJs! Mummy cooked supper today to give me a rest, but I've not managed to do any sewing all day, and it makes me sad :'(
It's mothering Sunday tomorrow, I want to bake, and it's dancing in the evening, but I WILL fit some sewing in if it kills me! Next week I'm in work till 9 or 10 or so every day till Friday, but with any luck I'll be able to work on the sleeves and stomacher while I'm at work, and maybe I could take ruffles to pink as well, I need easily portable things, don't want to try to take the big dress in!! Also I want to make Mummy a cap or decorated hair net for her birthday (next Saturday) so that's something else I can do at work.