The Circle of Life

It's April and the Titanic Tea is this month.  I can officially begin to panic.  Now that I've finished my full set of Edwardian undergarments, I've spent the last few weeks working on muslins for the dress itself.   (For those of you who have been following this blog, you will note that I have purchased a dress form, which has been indispensable.)

Jim keeps wondering why I sit and stare at the dress on the form for long periods of time - it's because I'm still pondering what needs to be done, how to do it and in what order.  These are not inconsequential decisions for the finished product, and so I have created a project plan which I update regularly.  As mentioned previously, I am altering almost every piece of the pattern I have to create the look that I chose.  This choice means making the muslins is a particularly critical part of this project.  To get the bodice right I've had to make two muslins, but needed only one of the skirt.  Woo-hoo!

As my design has evolved, my newly acquired reference library has proved invaluable in helping me decide all of those 'what needs to be done and how' questions.  The closure of this dress would seem to be a simple example.  Though zippers existed, they were not considered appropriately modest for use in women's clothing, and so they made the very most out of hooks & eyes and snaps.   Those crafty Edwardians made an entire art out of how to close their dresses, and understanding how these closures work is like solving a Chinese puzzle box.

Today I made a giant leap forward: I hand basted the dress bodice muslin and dress skirt muslin to my foundation bodice and tried it on.  It fits and there are very few issues that need to be addressed!  My petticoat needs to be made a few inches longer, so I'll put a panel with tucks and embroidery in.  Also, that center part in the bodice - called the modesty shield don't you know - is going to be fiddly and will probably need some more prototyping.  And though I thought I knew how to make the cuff and undersleeve, when I got down to cutting a muslin I realized I had to do more research to figure out those designs, but now I've sewn and refined the muslins for them too.

As I've been pondering this serendipitous project of mine, I've experienced a 'circle of life' moment.  My mother and my grandmother taught me how to sew when I was 10, and I have vivid memories of the three of us working in my mother's bedroom altering and cutting patterns.  I can't honestly say those are fond memories because I didn't really enjoy sewing and so it was almost never what I wanted to do, but I've truly enjoyed finding that all of the sewing techniques they passed on to me have been safely stored in my brain.  Over the past few days it's occurred to me that since my grandmother was born in 1894 it is entirely possible that at least some of the techniques she taught me, and that I am using for this project, are actually period correct!