MLS Designs

Finally the yr 12 play is over so I get a chance to post some photos for you all! I'm putting them ( under this cut, to save your F-lists! )
The ball was wonderful! I think it may be the best event we do all year! I'm really sad to post the photos though, because this is the only way my US buddies will get to see the dress, it was going to make up part of my CosCon or CosCol wardrobe if I'd been able to swing the trip :( But there's no chance I'll make a trip to the US this year, but maybe next year if I save really hard (no pretty satin 18thC shoes for me!)

After the ball a group of us went to a local National Trust place, Dyrham Park, in a mixture of mostly Regency with a few in 18thC. I have more photos to share, but will put them in another post, I have to upload them first ;)

So, we're all off to Keddlestone on Saturday, and next Sunday we're dancing at a Marie Anntoinette tea party, then April 2nd we're at the minuette ball in Bath. Mummy has been borrowing a coat from school and a modern shirt adapted to look 'right' with her own breeches and waistcoat I made last spring. The coat and shirt have had to go back to school because I need them for an upcoming play, so I'm making her her own.

Yesterday I started the shirt, because I figured I can't really fit a coat pattern very well if she isn't wearing a shirt! Mummy has been saying she'd really like girls clothes to wear for Georgian, but I don't have the time to make any for her, especially when she needs boy's clothes for the demos, so I want to make her boy's stuff really nice to make up for it. So I decided, instead of adapting a modern shirt for her I would make her a proper 18thC shirt, with the proper rectangular constuction.

Boy do I wish I hadn't decided that! Mummy has VERY sloping shoulders, and men usually have very square shoulders, so I have had soooo much trouble fitting the collar and neck gussets! I decided to make the shirt by machine, becase I have so much to do and the rest of her outfit is machined, and I worked out how to put it together looking at various different instructions. It went together fantastically, then I tried it on when it was all complete and the fit around the neck was awful! Absolutely dire!! By then it was time for bed, so I left it till today. We were out all day and had a few hours this evening before we went out for a meal with friends, so I took the collar off, took out the neck gussets and recut the slits lengthening them by 3 times as much I think? New huge gussets and several tries of the pinned on collar later and I have a finished, perfectly (almost!!) fitted shirt! As much as they can be when all they are is rectangles! It just needs ties at collar and cuffs and lace frills.

So, tomorrow it's onto coat patterning! I bought 2 lots of fabric last week, to go with what she has already. Her waistcoat is old gold, and her breeches are red floral damask. I found some bright, deep crimson chenilley velvet upholstery fabric, it's not right, but I think it will look nice, for a day coat for her, that I will make for Saturday, and she can wear for the Tea Party. I also got some old gold and brown fabric, it's sort of a taffeta, with lines of raised threads in a diamond pattern, with brown 'spots' at each conjunction, that I will use to make an evening coat and breeches for the ball.

She loves the fabrics and is very happy with the plan, except she would love an embroidered waistcoat like Clare! She was saying so so often that I had to tell her my plan for her birthday present, a waistcoat with ribbon embroidery! I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to it though, ( her birthday is March 20th) I have so much to do for the ball, so I've decided, as a surprise, to make her another waistcoat that she can wear to the Tea Party with the new red coat. I have 2 small scraps of brocade in a lovely narrow red, gold and cream floral 'regency stripe' that I think will be just enough for a waistcoat, hopefully she will like it :)

So that's what I'm up to at the moment! I also need to finish my dress for the Tea party, but my outfit for Saturday is all sorted, I'm wearing my Ikea duvet cover Anglaise, brown linen petticoat, the mits Clare knitted for me and my cardinal cloak. I'm going to see if I can wear the jumps under the dress as well, fo extra warmth. IF I have time (ha ha!) I want to make a muff, with a skin of cream taffeta with yellow taffeta and rococo ribbon trim.

And now, bed!

I haven't posted in ages! I've been sewing lots though, I took a picture to prove it to you, but I took the picture on Wednesday! And I'm only now getting round to posting it :(



The bodice now not only has the skirt attached, and the shoulder straps sewn in, but the skirt trim is nearly all sewn on as well! I should have posted this pic ages ago!

Cutting the strips for the pleated trimmings took aaaages. I stared at the original till I went cross-eyed, and decided they were plain cut scallops, about half an inch in diameter. So I made a template and drew hundreds of little scallops on what felt like hundreds of yards of fabric. Then I had to cut them out! My poor hand feels like it's never going to recover! All of Sence and Sensibility (the Thompson/Winslet version) and half of Emma (the Kate Beckinsale one) sheesh!

I just have to decide if i want the neckline trimmed as well as the edges of the skirt, and finish the centre fronts, and the gown is finished. Except I'm really not pleased with the sleeve heads. The way they pleat into the armscye is really not working, and after wilfing around look at all the Burnley and Trowbridge draping class pics I think my problem is I'm trying to put the pleats too far back, with my shoulders it just doesn't work, I think the pleats probably need to be almost on the top of my shoulders to work.

The petticoat flounce is also cut out (all those bloody scallops!!!) and I've started pinning in the pleats ready to sew it on tomorrow. I'm very glad the petticoat has a flounce, because I made it too short :( I think the gown is too short as well, but it's being polonaised so that's not such a problem.

I have lots of ideas for final trimming/finishing bits and bobs, such as what to use for polonaising, buttons or bows or what, and the neck trim, and I want advice, so I will actually pull my finger out and take some more photos tomorrow to show what I mean. If I don't, you have my permission to yell at me!

I am amazed at myself! I have finished my ballgown, and I don't need to wear it for 2 weeks! ( well, finished except fastenings, and I still haven't decided how I'm going to fasten it, so they can wait)

This poor dress has been through so many versions! It's nothing like any of my plans, but I like it anyway! ( See what you think, there are pictures under here )

Now I just have to decide how to do my hair!

I never do this, I'm always rushing at the last minute. I'm very glad though, because the next 2 projects are needed in pretty quick succession and are going to be pretty big jobs. First up is this dress:
http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/MWEBimages/c_t_mm/full/M57_24_8a-b.jpg
made from this fabric:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400135677609&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
to be worn for a dance demo we're doing at a charity Marie Anntoinette tea party at the beginning of March.

The next one is a cross bared silk sacque back, inspired by the dress in the Kyoto book and made from the pink, faun and green plaid my fabulous friends bought for me in thegarment district in LA last summer. It will be for the Bath ball at the beginning of April, the one I made my sunflower for last year.

In other news, I feel like I still haven't shifted this flu, and worse is I can't sleep, so I'm exhausted all day :(