Finally!


Late Saturday night I looked at my watch when I finally had put the last stitch in the dress and had pressed all five undergarments, and I noted that the time was 2:44 am.  I don't know it had taken four hours to sew all the buttons on and put the hem in, but clearly it had.  After an incalculable number of hours, I was finished and with no time to spare.  I needed to leave my house in a few short hours to join Vicki at 10:30 to get dressed for the tea.

When I last blogged, I had completed the muslin of the dress and was ready to cut my silk, and honestly, I thought it would all be pretty straightforward from there.  Boy was I wrong.  This project has been the ultimate '2 steps forward 1 3/4 steps backwards' experience.  My seam ripper has been such a constant companion that I have almost stopped cussing each time it becomes apparent that I use it again.  So much of the construction was totally fiddly.

The crazy Chinese puzzle of the closure system took quite a lot of fiddling, and about 25 snaps.  I think this dress alone has doubled my the cumulative numbers of snaps and hooks and eyes I've sewn in over my entire life!  The white net modesty shield took an awful lot of fiddling, and I still am not entirely satisfied with it.  I made that whole assembly at least twice.  Basically, everything took two to three times longer than I expected, and sometimes even longer.  Those cute little net undersleeves peeking out from the bottom of the sleeves took a good eight hours and several prototypes to get right.  This sort of time suck can really wreak havoc with your schedule when you thought you could punch them out in a morning!

Away from my sewing machine there has still been lots to do.  I visited as many thrift shops as I could find looking for a better straw hat than that one I had.  Finally I found one that would be perfect, for $4.  Excellent.  Then I had to decide how to decorate it.  More images to study!   After collecting multiple favorite period hat looks, silk flowers and velvet flowers, tulle and of course the purple ostrich feathers, I kept piling it all up on the hat and auditioning different arrangements on my cutting table until one seemed to click.  I really like it and think it's got the Edwardian vibe but cannot vouch for it's complete authenticity.


Another task facing me was to figure out how to get the big hair required to anchor that hat.  I will freely admit to being quite intimidated by this task as I am the world's most inept hair do-er.  Fortunately, I happen to know that YouTube has multiple videos showing how to do about anything, including 1910's hair styles.  I spent a few evenings watching them, then procured the necessary accoutrements to make big hair.  I had never done a dry run, so the morning of I was a bit panicked (and sleep deprived).  Surprisingly all went smoothly given that I had several bun forms, lots of bobbi pins and high power hair spray.

As I packed up to meet Vicki at her house to get dressed, I worried about leaving something critical home.  Like a shoe or my gloves.  I worried about not having had time to put all five undergarments and the dress on all together.  But despite all my worries, everything worked fine!

It was quite a journey, and I had a great time at the tea today - but I have to say I'm glad I don't have to spend the whole evening sewing tonight.





Comments

  1. Kozy KittyApril 14, 2019 at 7:59 PM

    It really turned out wonderfully! I'm so impressed at all the research you did. So many first timers don't bother. Everything looked great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Silly MillieApril 15, 2019 at 5:48 PM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Silly MillieApril 15, 2019 at 5:52 PM

      Only because you were so willing to share your knowledge and experience. Thank you, it was a fun journey!

      Delete

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