At Her Leisure

I'm quite in arrears on pictures. I've finished an 1800's drop-front dress, a 1930's bolero, and a 1950's sundress without taking any pictures of them on me. Saturday, pictures were finally taken of the Regency little white dress. Today I put on a 1930's dress for the sole purpose of finally getting pictures of my bolero. I have to wait for the sunburn I got Saturday to clear up before I take pictures of my 1950's dress. (Yes, I lost track of time on Saturday and am living with the consequences.) I'll write something about the picnic Saturday, but it won't be right now.

Anyway, at least I have bolero pictures.





I think it came out nicely, though I had to take a bit out of the sleeve caps so I didn't have the late 1930's linebacker shoulders, and I only pinned the ties on so that I wouldn't always have to have a little bow. Little bows just seem a bit peculiar in 2015.

Usually as I draw close to the end of a knitting project, I start looking around at patterns to find something for my next project. This time I totally failed at that. Last night I made up my 18th century pinball except for the ribbon because I'm not thrilled with the color choices in my possession, and I finished knitting the 1930's bolero. I still need to press the sleeves and steam the ties and make it up, but there's a good chance I'll have that finished tonight.

Then what? I've got yarn and a pattern for another 1930's/40's short-sleeved sweater, but I'm feeling singularly uninspired about that. After all, I'm just finishing a 1930's short-sleeved, fingering-weight sweater, albeit a different style. Since the costume group that's trying to start up in my area is planning to focus on Regency styles, it would probably be good to do something from that period. I've wanted one of those green silk knitted purses for a bit so maybe that's the direction I'll head. Of course, it requires buying green purse silk which doesn't exist as "purse silk" any more. I'll probably follow koshka_the_cat's lead and use beading cord. Her projects using it look similar to museum pieces. For a larger project, I'm debating about an 1892 pattern for a knit petticoat that looks pretty. It's made up in strips so I shouldn't end up with any great pile of wool in my lap, if I decide to do it. On the other hand, when am I going to wear it? Decisions, decisions.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of my almost-finished pinball.

It's been a little quiet on the needlework side around here. I keep looking at my Easter dress, which needs to be taken up in the shoulders, but not wanting to put in the work on it. I've nearly finished my bolero - just half of one side of the front edging and the ties left before I press it and sew it all up. Mostly I'm interested in my pinball right now. I've finished the pattern on the back and just have twenty-three plain rows to finish that half. Then I start over on the front.

I basted in the long sleeves of my little white dress last night so that dress is done unless I decide to shorten it a bit. I need to wander around in it for awhile to decide. I'm not going to bother taking pictures of it yet since I'm hoping someone will be willing at the archery event. But I do have a picture of it flat on the bed as proof that it exists.



And I took a closer shot of the bib front, which I think came out satisfactorily. I definitely see more tambour embroidery in my future.



Last night I also finished cutting out the lawn layers of my 1950's dress, and I made it with a few inches to spare and some pieces to cut bias binding from. So my ten yards (plus any generosity on the part of fabric.com) was enough for a set of 1880's combinations, a 1950's dress with two layers of skirt, and an 1800's bib-front dress with no piecing in any of it. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

I also picked up my sewing machine yesterday so now I can sew up my 1890's petticoat. That shouldn't take much time at all, other than the bit about flat-felled seams being a pain. It's just going to be plain, and I'll starch it. No fancy insertions or embroideries on it. I will also start work on an 1800's bonnet shortly so that I can get away without wearing a cap to the archery event. I'm not very fond of my cap...

As a final note, I'm nearly to the armscye on the second front of my 1930's bolero.

I finished my 1770's dress remake, though I have yet to put it on to take pictures. I'm going to try to get my husband to take them because it's so much faster having a photographer. I'm definitely not an expert with the timer.

Then I started a new dress. I was cutting out a 1950's dress that's going to be a blue-flowered silk/cotton voile flat-lined with lawn when I decided I needed a plain white drop-front Regency dress. So I started that. Now I've made up the bodice and cut the skirt panels and cut a muslin test sleeve. I intend the whole thing to be hand-sewn, and I'm hoping to have it finished within a couple of weeks. I'm debating trying to embroider the bodice front but thought I'd put the rest of the dress together first and see what I thought.

My 1930's bolero is coming along, though I haven't worked on it much the last couple of days. But the back is finished until the shoulder seams are done and the yoke can be knit, and I'm through the first two lace pattern repeats of the first front. Satisfactory.