Away for a bit

The In-laws are in town. I didn't get very far prepping my smocking for their arrival so I wont be productive at all while they are in town.

June should bring some good batches of crafting, unless potty training decides to take place. I plan to work on smocking a fair amount. Need to finish up through sacques. There is some light quilting both quilting and piecing to be done. Also I need to work on my dress form, make it more me shaped... also see if I have enough notes to make it me pregnant shaped as well. I have a early regency era project up my sleeve. I'm hoping it will be as much fun to make as I'm musing it will be.

Knowing when to move on

I had been very diligent in making the heirloom sacques, however I basically hit a wall. An inspiration wall that is. When I become uninspired in something I drag my feet and nothing gets done. What's worse is when I ignore that fact that I'm uninspired and become unproductive for some time.

That's what been going on that past two weeks is fighting "being good" with "uninspired." Had I given up on being good about staying focus on one task I would have at least accomplished something. The new rule is I can only work on works in progress projects, which in this case was perfectly fine. I wanted to work on one of my side projects.

Tonight I gave into the whim. I cut out the fabric for five stillborn gowns. I think I'm awake enough to iron what I cut. If I'm lucky I'll probably even mark the armholes. Tomorrow if all goes well I hope to serge, sew, and pleat.

Saturday my in-laws are coming. We tend to do a great deal of driving when we are around them, so I want to have some small hand projects to stay busy and productive on the drives. Smocking is the perfect distraction.

Sensibility.com relaunch plus a SALE!

Sensibility has relaunched their site and its gorgeous! I've been musing over what my fall project  would be and one of the contenders is to make an ensemble based on an 1798 outfit in Nancy Bradfield's Costume in Detail.

I've been eyeing the Elegant Lady's Closet. I'll need to check in storage to see if I have the undergarment pattern. I can't remember. I either have the Regency Gown pattern or the Undergarment pattern.

And did you see they're going to soon have a Georgian pattern? Can't wait to see what the ladies version looks like. 

So as part of their relaunch they are having a 15% off sale! How lovely!

Slow goings

Wow I churn out the first sacque really quickly. I feel like I'm dragging my feet on this one! My goal is to have not only this one, but one more done by this weekend. I'm not sure how well that's going to turn out! oh no!

I took some progress pictures of this one. However i realized a few days later that SqueekMoo had gotten a hold of the camera prior and had put smudges all over the lens. I was able to clean off the lens, but all the pictures I took didn't come out.

This time I starched not only the fabric, but the embroidery thread and entredeux. I've marked the outline on the main fabric. Attached the ribbon trim. Marked my embroidery designs. And I'm only half way through the embroidery. I'm going to try to get at the embroidery done tonight, but we shall see.

Pictures of the first saque

Sorry I'm not great at taking pictures. The fact that its white fabric is not making things any easier.

detail shot of the front

 

Back view

unproductive musing

I've got a bee in my bonnet. I've slacked off on my sacque sewing. I should be done with thing two, but its sitting in its frame feeling unloved.

Instead I've been musing about my next BIG sewing project. I have a good many things lined up before I can work on it, but at the same time I haven't a clue what I'm going to do.

At first I was musing about making the maternity corset I thought about making when I was pregnant with Matthew but didn't get around to. Past Pattern's pattern number 705 is a gestational corset pattern. Fig Lead Pattern c. 1857 would be a nice match to it. However after some research the gestational corset proves to be fiddly. The pattern itself is fine however fine tuning it can be time consuming. Also making pregnancy may prove unproductive since you'd have to guess you tummy.  Since I'd want something that supported the belly, I might hope off till after I'm pregnant... that or if I ever get around to interpreting the measurements I took when i was pregnant.

The other option is to go ahead with an 18th century ensemble. I could make some key garments and tweak them so I could wear them when I'm pregnant again. I do plan on becoming pregnant again, just coping with Matthew's death may delay it. But we planed on having as big of a family as we can afford and we miss Matthew greatly, but we aren't going to have his passing prevent a nice big family.

This afternoon when I was looking through all the reference books I had, (I spent all day yesterday looking for ideas on-line), I went a little further in one of my books than I planed. I ended up at the starts of the Regency period and came across an outfit that I thought looked lovely. I'm not sure about the entire ensemble, but the jacket would be fun. It's a thigh length half robe with nice long sleeves. Has lots of potential for a big belly. The reason why I'm reluctant to make the entire ensemble is if I do make it for maternity wear I'd need to accommodate the fact that the chest gets larger. In order to make the right changes the boned bodice would be nixed. Also I'm short: a long skirt and a long jacket would make me look shorter and flumpy.

So many ideas running rampant in my mind. I need to work on the sacque tomorrow and keep myself out of trouble. Or perhaps clean the house some that would be useful. Spending the afternoon on-line, not a good idea.

Picture Time

As of Saturday afternoon. The front edge embroidery is done

Same time frame, but a look at the entire garment

Back side hooped and ready to go

Back side done.