At Her Leisure

The DFWCG Sporting Sunday event was held on Sunday, and I wore my 1918 sateen dress again. This year instead of the 1920 tuxedo sweater, I wore the 1919 cape sweater with vest front over it. I didn't wear the cape sweater for long because it was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit out, but I got pictures and enjoyed wearing it while I did.





The wool is very nice, and it's fluffy and cushiony. I did find I need to tack the belt to the vest front because every time I lifted my arms, it pulled out from under the belt, and I'd have to tuck it back in.

Here's the Ravelry page: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/MCBurbage/1919-cape-sweater.

There were seven of us at the event, ranging from 1870's to 1970's. Two of us were in 1910's. One wore a 1920's bathing suit. We played horseshoes with complete disregard for the rules and a singular lack of competitive spirit and then played Bocce ball in a similar way. I took my croquet set but didn't end up setting it up.

I've been planning this dress for at least a year. While I ended up changing the fabric when I started to make it a few months ago, I'm pleased to have it finished in time for the centennial of Armistie Day.

I managed to get a couple of pictures from a very grudging photographer.





It's made of ivory and blue cotton sateen and based on this pattern from 1918.



It has a dog-leg closure and closes with a combination of hooks and eyes and snaps. The buttons on the bodice are purely decorative, but the buttons on the cuffs are functional. The sash is separate and fastens with hooks and eyes.

I finally got in the mood to work on my 1918 percale dress this weekend.

I had worked out what I thought I had to scale the pattern up to previously, but Friday afternoon I started scaling it up. My scale was wrong. I think what I came up with might have been long enough for my daughters... But if I tried to scale it up for length, it was going to have like 10+" of ease through the bust, which also didn't seem right. I pulled out the old Simplicity 8650 1910's dress to give me a starting point, traced off the bodice pieces, and then adjusted them until they looked like the pattern shapes from the 1918 pattern. That was enough for Friday - back to cross-stitching.

Saturday I cut out a mock-up, tried it on, and was pleased. I had to shorten it by about 2", but that was all. It looked very much like the original pattern sketch. I tore the skirt panels but didn't really feel like getting into cutting out the actual bodice - back to cross-stitching.

This morning I found a tag for the fabric. It's 50/50 cotton/polyester. I thought it was 100% cotton. Now I'm on the fence about whether I want to go forward with this fabric. If I still lived in Virginia, I'd not worry about the synthetic and go on, but I live in Arizona. Arizona is quite warm enough to be getting on with, and since I moved here, I've been avoiding synthetics in my sewing even more than I already was. Hmmm.

At least if I decide to abandon this fabric, I'll have a bodice pattern that fits. (I still need to work out the sleeves, but it's better than nothing!)

I've been working on my embroidered 1790's dress at something less than my usual rate because I've been doing a lot of reading lately. Now I've reached the point where I've realized that I don't have tons of time remaining before the end of July, and I thought I should actually make up a list of everything I want to have done by then.

1. Late 1790's embroidered voile dress: I've finished more than a third but less than half of the embroidery. The skirt seams are sewn, but that's it for construction. Based on the speed I've been embroidering, I estimate it will take another 40-45 days of embroidery. I should cut back on the nights of reading if I want it done as well as the other things on the list.
2. Petticoat for c. 1790 cutaway dress: The original one I made is too short for this dress so I need to make another one. Fortunately, 18th century petticoats are quick to make. I could make it in a day, if I actually had a day when I didn't need to do anything but sew.
3. Fichu for c. 1790 cutaway dress: It's hemmed, and I've sewn on almost half of the ribbon. Each ribbon takes about 45 minutes to sew on, and I have 6.25 left plus the corners that need to be woven together and sewn down. That should mean that I have fewer than ten hours of work left on this. (I couldn't do it all at once, though, because it's been a bit hard on the back due to the wiggliness of the gauze and ribbon.)
4. Mid-18th century stays: Replace front edge bones. One of them broke at the waist when I was buckling my shoes before the ball in March. I'm going to put plastic bones at the front edges to keep that from happening again.

I think that's everything I need to finish. I've also got a couple of things that I would like to make.

5. 1918 petticoat: I've got a 1918 dress I want for Armistice day this year as the centenary of the end of WWI, and I need a petticoat to go under it. I've got all the rest of the underwear. This should be a really quick project, again only a day if I could sew for the day.
6. 1918 percale dress: It would be nice to have this one for the end of July because I think it will be a reasonably cool dress that would be modern enough to wear in real life. I definitely want it by November, but I'd like to have it by July. Since I haven't done anything with it beyond identifying the look I want, it's highly questionable.

I am not one of the speedier seamstresses around so we'll see how it goes. I will admit that I tend to overestimate the time needed to complete something so maybe I'll get it all done. Or maybe I won't. Who knows?