I'm still plugging away on my green moire petticoat, and just finished the waistband. The hem is the only thing left to do, and I'm reasonably certain I'm going to reinforce it with something pretty stiff. I ended up not interlining with the cotton batting, mainly because I was lazy but also because I am running low on it. I'm afraid it does need something, though, because it doesn't have as much volume as I'd hoped.

I also made a little false rump out of some red silk dupioni, and it is adorable, but I'm still debating as to whether or not I want to use it under the gaulle or stick with the standard bumroll. Gah. I can't really judge which is the better silhouette on the dress form, because the form is somewhat lacking in hips and bum. It'll have to be one of those things where I have to put it on to see whether or not I like the false rump or the bumroll.

And speaking of the gaulle, I was really not happy with the sleeves, so I had my mother carefully pick out the top of the armscye seam and piece in an extension so that the sleeve would hang properly and wouldn't pull the shoulders of the bodice awkwardly. It definitely looks interesting, but not in the "WTF did you do there?" kind of way. More in a "that's an interesting style line" kind of way. And now the sleeves are the right length and don't pull weird! Yay!

In other news, check out the silk explosion on my bed:



You know you wanna roll around in it!

I updated the Gaulle Diary with pictures of the nearly finished product. My next project is to get a petticoat and false rump put together so I can hem the gaulle.

I pulled out the fabric for the petticoat last night and decided on a whim to see if I could dye it from a pale cream color to something a bit more interesting (and hides dirt). A search of my Rit stash yielded a bottle of dark green, a mostly-unused packet of navy blue and a full packet of yellow, so I threw all three in the washing machine and tossed the fabric in. I've never had much success with dyeing things, so I wasn't really holding my breath as far as the results were concerned. I figured if it tinted the fabric a bit, I'd be happy.

Ten minutes in the dye bath and I pulled out a deep forest green fabric, which was, to say the least, unexpected. If I'd known the fabric would take the dye that well, I would have tried for a more interesting color! At any rate, the petticoat will now be forest green, which should do a great job of hiding dirty hems.

Because its done. Well, ok, not all the way done, but wearable (disregarding the huge basting stitches in the temporary hem). I can't do anything else until I get some undergarments sewn up, and then it's just a matter of hemming the skirt to the right length.

Moving on to the next project... The 1790s wrap-front bodice! Coming soon to a historical costuming website near you!

The danged sleeves are too danged short! ARGH! And this was after I purposefully extended them an inch longer than the initial draft, and again a half an inch just to be on the safe side. ARGH x 2! So, they currently end about a 1/2" above my wrist bone and that's unhemmed... Hemming them will take it a full inch above my wrist bone, and that is unacceptable.

I don't have enough fabric to cut a new pair, so I have two options:

1) Piece an extension onto the wrist. Fiddly, but I get to keep the long sleeves.

2) Make them 3/4 sleeves. Easy solution, but I don't get to have long sleeves.

Sigh.

As much as I really wanted long sleeves, I know I'm probably going to settle for cutting them short because I am sick of working with this fabric. It frays when you look at it, and the idea of doing teeny little piecing with it is driving me crazy just thinking about it. Bleh.

A quick update on the gaulle diary and that's about all... Things are looking good so far!

ETA: Questions answered! Yay!

Updated the 1790s gathered front gown diary with pictures of the toile and more musing on how the heck this gown was constructed. Advice cheerfully accepted.