Mockup #2 was a success, so I cut out all the bodice pieces tonight. (Though note to self - I still need to cut out the facings.) It took soooo long to cut them out because that linen is so temperamental. I had to starch the life out of each individual piece, line up the herringbone stripe with my ruler, lay it on my ironing board with the fabric pattern piece on top, pin the living daylights out of it, and then cut it very very carefully. So I really really hope this will work. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. I still need to cut out the seersucker bodice pieces for the overbodice/apron, but tomorrow is another day!

I drafted out the bodice for the candy bustle, based on Jean Hunnisett's late 1860s bodice (view E), with some shape and lots of size alterations. And I cut out the mockup. But that's all I got to today. I hope to get it sewn up and fitted tomorrow. I tried some new stuff with bust adjustments which I'm hoping (fingers crossed) will make it so I don't have to do most of the standard mockup alterations I tend to need. But I can't promise much sewing tomorrow, since I'll be working at the theatre from 11am-8pm. I'm working as the dresser/wigs help for As You Like It at Seattle Shakes. I sent my resume out to them and a couple other theatres for overhire work a few weeks ago, and it's really exciting that they responded, since they're one of the top theatres in Seattle. It's just minimum wage, and it's not a ton and a half of hours (and hopefully it won't conflict with Space Needle hours, which I have yet to receive a schedule for), but at least it's in my field! And it's certainly a great step in the door for my first(ish) foray into the Seattle theatre scene.

I finished the candy bustle skirt this evening! Now that it has all the ruffles on, it does appear to be hanging a little more evenly, so I'm definitely going to wait until I have the apron done before doing any minor adjustments. And to be honest, I think I'm feeling fairly pleased about it, too. This thing is going to weigh a ton, though!

Anyway, here's a quick picture.


I probably won't get to do much sewing work until the weekend now, since I was asked this evening if I could be a dresser for a show (starting tomorrow morning!). Assuming I can prove I know enough about wigs, I'll let you all know more info about it later.

Inspired by llyrafantasyfae, I'm going to attempt to update daily, since I know I've spent the last several months being very remiss in that. So as a quick post before I head off to bed, today, I turned into a ruffle factory, and ruffled my app. 23yrds of flounces. And I attached the top two tiers of ruffles to the skirt. They're definitely not perfect, but I'm waiting until all three are on (and possibly until the apron-type thing is finished) before I make any adjustments. I estimate that I probably have about an hour's worth of work left to do on, other than any adjustments I might make. Hopefully, I'll finish that tomorrow, but tomorrow is also my first day of orientation for work.

And I present you with two pictures - first, the finished petticoat, and second, the in progress skirt, with strange lighting. (The base fabric is white, not pink.) The bottom ruffle will be the same fabric as the top ruffle, which is the pink stripe I found in the fabric district during CosCol, and the middle is the pink seersucker, which will also be used for the apron.

As I mentioned a couple days ago, the original idea of making one Victorian bathing suit for this year's pool party at CosCol has morphed into two separate suits. I realized while searching for inspiration images that I really didn't want the standard sailor-suit-inspired get up that seems to be so common, especially considering I made a sailor suit romper last year. These three images were my biggest inspiration pieces, since they're all a bit different than what seems to be the norm: *Edit: none of my image uploaders are working with the crappy internet in my apartment, and I can't find where I found my 1890s inspiration pic online, so you don't get to see that one*

Both of these are the inspiration for my teens-era suit. In the first pic, it's the one on the left.


And these are my sketches for the suits I'm going to make. The first one I believe is app. 1916. It will be made out of a salmon pink gingham print cotton flannel, with navy brushed herringbone wool trimmings and shorts. I'm basically just making it a tunic shape, which will look a bit more fitted once it's belted. The second one is dated app 1892. It will be made out of a light blue herringbone wool, again with the navy wool trimmings. I'm actually basing it on a modern Butterick dress pattern (sorry, I can't remember the # right now), which had very similar stylings.



I'll probably be making the teens-era one quite soon, especially since I'm very frustrated with my candy bustle skirt right now.

This herringbone striped linen for the skirt is seriously being so frustrating that I'm on the verge of scrapping a day's work and probably around $40-something worth of fabric and starting over with fabric that doesn't go all over the place, even if it means sacrificing the white-on-white stripe I wanted.

Has anyone ever had these sort of problems with linen before? It's a fairly heavy weight, but I swear, it's acting like chiffon - hems practically curling up into scallops, weirdness in how it's hanging, (apparently) moving when it was cut so that rectangles are now parallellograms. I'm honestly not sure what to do. HELP!

I got my limited classes in the mail today. Unfortunately, I was wait-listed for the one limited I really really wanted (the regency corded corset class), but I got the pearl-stringing class, the felted flowers class, and the fabric district tour. I'm really hoping someone decides they don't want the regency one, but I'm trying to keep my hopes down, since I know it probably won't happen.

And... umm... I lied to you all yesterday. No pics yet of bathing suit sketches or petticoats or anything. Sorry. I will try my hardest to do it tomorrow. But I was so busy sewing today that I didn't get a chance to take pictures before it was dark out. On the sewing side, though, I cut out and serged nearly 23 yards of ruffles, finished putting together/hemming/etc the body of the skirt (everything except the three tiers of ruffles). And I hemmed one tier of ruffles, and hope to possibly hem the other two tiers before I go to bed tonight. I'm really hoping to finish the skirt tomorrow, or at least by Monday, since I start my new job on Tues.

With my sewing room all set up (minus that still-missing box), I actually got to sew starting yesterday. I have completely finished the petticoat for the candy early bustle, and I started sewing the skirt together today. The fabric is a nightmare! It's a white linen with a herringbone striped pattern in it, which looks lovely, but apparently was sliding all over the place as I cut it. But unlike chiffon, where I can tell the fabric slides, I had no idea until I started putting the pieces together. So this may work out or it may not. I hope it does.

And my fabric.com wool came. I'm sending one of them (a black wool poplin) back, since it's not at all what I was hoping for. But the navy brushed herringbone, and the light blue herringbone both are very nice. I'm planning to do a full post on my bathing suit plans tomorrow (with pictures!) so you'll have to wait for that, but in short, my one Victorian bathing suit plan has turned into two bathing suits - one teens one, and one 1890s one. I'm excited!

Also I washed the navy wool today, and it's sooo soft and fuzzy now. Maybe a bit too much so, since it's kind of like a nice blanket, but I think it will be okay. Is that what people mean when wool gets felted in the washing machine? I'm hoping the light blue doesn't wind up quite so fuzzy. Anyone have any tips on that? I googled, but everyone said just steam it, which is clearly not an option for something that's meant to be worn in water...

I'm pretty much all settled in here in Seattle. Unfortunately, one of my shipping boxes seems to have been stolen by USPS, which I'm exceeding pissed about, since it contained years of my sheet music books and rep collections, my monologue rep, at least a couple dvds, and probably other stuff as well. I'm still praying that it will turn up, but I sent it with three other media mail boxes all at the same time, to be delivered to the same place, and while the other three made it to Seattle two days before the expected delivery, the last time this one was ever scanned was as it was being put on the truck to go from the Los Gatos post office to the San Jose sorting center. I'm also still waiting for three other boxes to arrive (including my serger), which were all shipped Tuesday. And I need to get to IKEA to buy a desk/sewing table, and I'm waiting for my new Queen size sheets to come in the mail.

But other than all that...

I did get a (very) part-time costuming job today! I will be the costuming assistant at Stone Soup Theatre for the summer, helping out two days/week on the costumes for all of their youth summer camps. And I think I might be getting a FT job at the Space Needle, but now I haven't heard from them for two days, so I'm starting to get a bit worried.

On the sewing front, the only things I've done recently was alter a king bedskirt to fit my queen bed (I found it at a thrift store - light blue with darker polka dots!), and make a pair of blue curtains out of some lovely (poly) twill suiting material from Joanns. The drape is so lovely! Speaking of which, I did break down and order some wool from the fabric.com sale, so I'm also waiting on that arrival. I really hope at least one of them will work for a late Victorian bathing suit! I have decided, though, that once I get my sewing center set up, I'm putting the teens gown aside and going back to the Candy Bustle. The pink is calling to me!