1. Complete farthingale.
2. Make quick petticoat.
3. Take up dress shoulder straps to remove ugly wrinkles in bodice (and distribute weight better).
4. Remove skirt from bodice and reattach properly.
5. Add length to bottom of skirt.
6. Hum smugly to myself about productivity and plan fun accessory-making binge.
What I actually did this weekend:
1. Completed farthingale.
2. Made petticoat. Tried on petticoat. Discovered pleating at waist left unsettling u-shaped wrinkle under waist. Ripped off waistband. Repleated. Re-tried-on. Re-muttered-ugly-words. Ripped off waistband again. Left on chair to be dealt with later.
3. Took up dress shoulder straps. Realized I had no circulation in arms, due to armscythe now being too short (duh). Cut armscythes deeper. Decided to edge with ribbon. Decided ribbon was ugly. Set aside to deal with later.
4. Removed skirt from bodice. Cheerily reattached to bodice properly. Tried on over farthingale and (incomplete) petticoat. Discovered that center now dips alarmingly low at hem. Muttered additional dire threats at mirror. Removed skirt. Reattached to bodice, paying attention this time. Tried on again. Discovered ugly sag at waist (no clue how that happened). Additional mumbling under breath. (Hi Mom! I was mumbling about sunshine and rainbows....) Fixed the sag, and decided to go ahead and remove a trapezoid from the front center on each side so forepart would show more. That actually was probably a good idea.
5. Decided that before I could add length, must fix newly hacked front edges. Hesitated between 1/2 yard of black cotton flannel and 3 yards of black linen. Decided on flannel for ease of non-fraying-ness. Added to front edges and bottom.
6. Looked at black fabric bands next to black ribbons on skirt and decided that the ribbons looked terrible. Decided to replace ribbons with fabric bands. Looked upward, realized that there are more of them on the bodice. Looked across room and discovered more ribbons on newly-completed sleeves. Then looked at my flannel and realized I didn't have enough anyway, so would have to rip that off and use linen after all. Decided to have a bit of a lie-down.
What I learned this weekend:
1. It's not such a great idea to revamp an existing dress. It's at least as much work as making a new one.
2. All of the contrasting guards on the dress really ought to match. It seems obvious in retrospect, but I seriously thought that just a couple made of a completely different material in the same color would be perfectly fine. They're not.
3. Even though I want a flat front on the petticoat (to serve as a visible forepart), it's still necessary to put some pleats in the front half of the skirt. Maybe not in the very center, but definitely to either side of center. Otherwise, you get the dreaded u-wrinkle.
4. Farthingales are fantastic for shooing cats and dogs out of one's way.
Pictures I took this weekend: Only this one. Everything is in a state of partly done.
Seems like somebody needs to take a farthingale to this dog. Shoo! (Oh, and that's my petticoat material, by the way. See the cool little diamond pattern? No? All you see is a big orange mutt? Oh well.)
1 comment:
Some fodder to tease Dexter with--my friend was in my office when I looked at this post, and she asked if he was a corgi. A CORGI of all things. I guess its hard to tell scale from the pic. :)
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