Gown Update and Brainlessness

The bodice is pretty much finished. Depending on how much time and patience I have once the thing is mostly done, I might hand-sew a string of pearls along the top edge, but we'll just see.



I just laid out the fabric how it will look when it's done, so nothing but the bodice is sewn in this picture. I know the lighting is horrible! The true color of everything's just a little darker than this, since this is with the flash. The rest of the photos are without flash, so they look really horrid! But just pretend I didn't take these at 11 pm with only the overhead light on.

Sleeves will be added out of the same grey fabric as the overskirt. I'm going to try and have them split down the top so little poofs of my chemise can show through, but like the embellishment, we'll see how much time and patience I have when I get there. The underskirt is very light, shiny satin, and I'm going to sew a bit of leftover bodice fabric along the bottom both to weigh it down a little, and to add some visual interest.



I can't count (but we already knew that). There are THREE pieces of "boning" i.e. zip ties, in each back piece, making the total TWENTY pieces of boning, not 22. D'oh. But the zip ties seem to be working quite nicely, and I don't think any of them will poke out through the fabric. At least, I hope not. Four channels have very tiny zip ties, maybe 1/8", and the rest have thicker, heavier ties, maybe 1/4" or a bit more. The packages didn't say their width, just their length. Weird.


Front


Back

I really really really hate doing grommets, so I might do small (machine-made; thank goodness for my buttonhole foot!) buttonholes along the back to lace it up. I'm not sure how historical that is, but I don't really care about that one thing. I'm going to try and do spiral lacing, though, which is historical. People didn't lace anything the way we do now (like shoes, back and forth) until the 18th/19th century. Actually, I won't be able to lace myself up, so I'm going to try and get Matt to do spiral lacing. Should be interesting.

And now for something completely different: I got up a little later than I meant to this morning because Matt was so nice and snuggly! So I cut my walk a little short, just going down and up the main street, and not around the loop. At the end of that section is a small grocery store, so I thought I'd pop in for some eggs and orange juice and make breakfast when I got home. Well, I hadn't wanted to carry my regular purse on my walk, but I did want to take a few things: my cell phone, keys, lip gloss, and to have a place to put the empty cup when I was done snacking on the granola I brought. So I threw all that into a different purse with a long strap that goes across my chest, which is comfier for walks.

Well, it didn't click in my head until I was at the checkout that I'd failed to bring my wallet. D'oh! I told the cashier, "I'm so sorry, I walked all the way down here without any money!" She told me, "Well, it's a lovely day, I guess you can walk back and get it!" very cheery-like. I laughed and said I'd be right back. And.... I didn't go back. I kind of feel bad, but Matt was already up and eating when I got home, and I didn't feel like walking back to the store, having walked more than enough in the shoes I'm trying to break in (ow, my blistered heels). Nor did I want to drive. So I feel a little badly about it, but I'm sure they just put the stuff back where it goes after a bit. Oh well.