Fabric Shipment Number Two and Thrift Store Finds!

More new fabric!  These are the last of my orders for a very long time.  I solemnly swear to not buy any more fabric until most of my projects are completed!

 First are the wool batting and wool flannel I am using for my paletot.  I practically stole the wool flannel--on clearance it was just $5 per yard for 60" wide fabric!  I almost died.  Perfect!  Also, I got the wool batting for the paletot for only $10 per yard for 92" wide!  I'll be able to use the extra wool batting in my winter hood, too.  I am going to be very warm at the Perryville reenactment this summer!

Sadly, now we say goodbye to the paletot fabric for a very, very long time.  No offense to you, lovely fabrics, but I have to work on my other things!  Farewell until the fall.

 I got these teacups at Goodwill for only 50 cents each!  They may not be perfect, but they are passable until I can go to an actual antique store and find some more accurate ones.  They also are lacking saucers, but again, they are passable without them (and also much more appropriate than my tin cup!)  One of these will probably go to Sarah.

I also got my Easter present in the mail today!  "Civil War Ladies: Fashions and Needle-Arts of the Early 1860's."  It is a beautiful book full of fashion plates, needlework projects, sewing patterns and much, much more!

 See?

 Wonderful!

 Beautiful! :)

 And the back of the book :)

I also picked up some movies from Goodwill.  No matter how inaccurate the Gone with the Wind costumes are, I still adore the movie!  I also got Gods and Generals and Little Women (both of which I've never seen before).

 Finally, a nice little basket I picked up at a different Goodwill a week ago.  We have plenty of baskets at my house, however most of them are too large and/or too shallow to be of any actual use.  This one is the perfect size and just deep enough to hold what I need.  However, it didn't even cross my mind that it wouldn't hold my plate!  Oh well.

Till next time!  Au revoir!

New Fabric and Sacque Muslin!

Don't you love receiving packages in the mail!  It's like getting gifts (only you paid for it!)  A sad existence, I know, but opening a package does give me a decent amount of joy.  Especially when fabric comes in them!  Check out my haul:

First is the 4 yards of polished cotton I snagged off of Ebay.  Only $15!  This will be used to line my paletot.  That thing just keeps getting more and more expensive... sigh.

Next is the fabric for my Regency dress.  I'm using the Sense and Sensibility drawstring day dress pattern from the Elegant Lady's Closet super pattern.  Short puff sleeves!  I'm excited for that one.  It shall be beautiful.

Finally, the lavender semi-sheer plaid fabric I'm making an 1860's sheer dress out of.  I need to get working on this dress as soon as possible or else I'll miss the summer season and have to stow it in my closet for a very long time!  It's on my agenda for the month of May, along with Sarah's dress, so hopefully Senior Project and school won't get in the way of my progress.  As for the design, I'm thinking one word: ruffles!

I also sewed together the muslin for my sacque today.  I love sewing together muslins.  Seams really don't matter and yet they look good in the end!  How lovely! And, it's an awesome crash course in using the pattern.  Always, always, always sew a muslin.  It is very important.  Anyway, the bodice of the sacque is just about right, however the sleeve needed to be taken in quite it a bit for it to fit in the armscye.  After I took it in, then it fit very lovely.  Check out the pictures:

 I especially love the back.  It's going to look so lovely over my hoop!  It is quite gratuitous width-wise, but I figure that it's always good to have more rather than less (at least with a sacque).  I can be assured it will fit over the necessary 4 layers of clothing I wear at reenactments at any given time.  Black polished cotton for the lining is on its way.  And, with any luck, I will be able to wear this to the Cincinnati Museum Center's Civil War days in the beginning of May and use it as a part of my Senior Project presentation.  Let's hope!

Finally, a picture of my lovely assistant, Judy.  She likes to sit underneath the sewing machine... while I am sewing.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Muslin Madness!

I have been a muslin-making machine!  In the past 2 days I have made 2 muslins, one for Sarah's Civil War bodice and one for my sacque.  Well, Sarah's muslin fitting didn't go too smoothly... let's just say that it was a tad too small and must be let out.  That's not too big of a hassle, though.  I haven't sewn together the muslin for my sacque yet, but holding it up to me, it looks just right.  Also, it kind of helps that a sacque is not fitted!  The pattern I'm using is from the Wisconsin Historical Society (Patterns of History #1865).  It is currently out of print but can be found for the lovely discounted rate of $5.00 at www.sewingcentral.com .  The pattern actually comes with directions for the sacque (deemed a paletot by the pattern, but it's a little too short to be a paletot), a bodice, skirt, AND a cage crinoline!  The last one was a pleasant surprise to me!  However, the dress style is a little late in the Civil War time period, so it can't be used as widely as other dresses.  Oh well!  The sacque will be made with the extra raspberry wool I have left over from my dress, lined with black polished cotton and trimmed with velvet ribbon.  I can't wait to get started!

--Mel

Finally, the pictures I promised!

 Above is the Easter skirt I made on a whim because I found this very pretty fabric.  Looks can be deceiving!  The skirt began to fall apart as soon as I put it on--the fabric began to pull apart from itself at the seams.  Not cool, fabric, not cool!  I wasted $25 on this skirt.  It's cute, but I can't wear it.  Sigh.

Here is the completed Muppets scrup top!  My sister loved it and the Elmo one and wore both of them to her job at the children's hospital.  I have to say, I really liked the Muppets one the best.  Not only do I love the Muppets more, but this scrub top also took me only 2.5 hours!  Another record time!

Now I'm back to 1860's and Regency for a long time.  Pretty, pretty fabrics are coming in the mail, so stay posted for pictures!

Bad me!

I haven't posted in a while, so here's a short update:

• finished the Muppets scrub top (pictures to follow) and my sister loved it
• set the sleeves on the red dress, sewed the decorative buttons and I'm in the process of putting on hooks and eyes
• did a bunch of work on my wrapper randomly one day, so now all it needs is sleeves, a collar, a drawstring and hemming!
• sewed a skirt for Easter that subsequently began to fall apart while I was wearing that (pictures and details to follow)

Sorry for the hiatus!  I can't motivate myself to blog unless I have the pictures to add to the posts, so that's why it's taken so long.  No worries!  I will be back to (actually) posting soon!

I am drooling.

So, in anticipation of my eventual application to the CCM Costume Design program, I decided to check out all of the Costuming Oscar-winning movies from the library.  My library and I have been in a 18-year, on-again-off-again relationship, but I love it always.

Anyway, I got three that have won in the past 10 years: Marie Antoinette, The Duchess and The Aviator (those were the ones my library had).  I just watched Marie Antoinette and I am drooling.  The costumes were excellent and gorgeous and I loved every bit of them.  I don't know much about Georgian fashions so I can't deem them period or not period correct, but I very much enjoyed them.  See?

Gorgeous.  Now, I must make a Georgian gown.  It is very far down on the list, though!

Another scrub top project...

I swear I'll eventually go back to 1860's! I just couldn't pass up this fabric for a scrub top for my sister. How cute!



The pattern is the same as the Elmo scrub top and this one is going to have a lime green contrast. I cut it all out and I can't wait to sew it!