Trystan's Costume Closet

Last night, I hemmed 180″ or so inches of velveteen overskirt. By hand. And stabbed myself in the thumb about two feet from the end. Where’s my Purple Heart medal now? Guess there’s the blood to add to all the sweat and tears that have gone into this costume.

I also finally sewed skirt hooks on the over and under skirts, so I won’t be resorting to safety pins on Saturday. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. I still may be using safety pins on the cuffs of the sleeves, if I run out of time (or I don’t sew hooks and eyes in the car on Saturday afternoon).

Tonight, I sew the trim on the openings of the over-sleeves. This may prove tricky, at least getting it to look good around the corners. Let’s hope it’s not as bad as binding that blasted tabbed corset. Yes, I’m doing all by hand, there is no other way, it is absolutely impossible to fit this into the sewing machine.

Then Friday, while Thomas is off filming, I pearl more trim by hand (again, the only way), and sew this trim to the edges of the overskirt. I might possibly could do that on the machine, but I’ll probably do it by hand so it doesn’t show as much. And if I have time, I’ll sew the already-pearled trim to the bodice, which must be done by hand, there is no other way there.

Somewhere in the distance, I can hear Kendra cackling with glee, knowing that she’s right, it’s just better to do this crap by hand sometimes. Fine, you win. *blows raspberries, sticks out tongue, and is otherwise childish and petulant about being proved wrong*

Saturday morning, while Thomas is filming again, I hope to make an attifet. Yes, by hand. But that’s a hat, so it doesn’t count. I’ve always made hats by hand, partly because I don’t think my machine can handle it and partly because I consider hats “crafting” not “sewing” and I do enjoy crafting by hand. I can control sewing wire down by hand much better than zig-zaging wire down by machine anyway.

My carpool driver is on vacation this week. I got a ride to work from Thomas yesterday, but I had to take the bus to work today. I decided to make the best of it and sew during the hour-long trek. Even though I don’t have coffee until I get to the office. Quelle horror!

Wasn’t too bad tho, despite a crick in my neck from looking down into my lap (I usually sew at a table). Still, I managed to pearl almost all of the trim for the second over-sleeve (Mom had finished one sleeve’s worth already). Threading a needle on the bus proved to be the hardest part. Otherwise, just a little slower than usual.

I *think* I’m coming to an uneasy truce with hand-sewing. I will never enjoy it, but we’re getting to a kind of Israel-Palestine-like arrangement. We can live side by side in a tense peace for a few years, broken by occasional rashes of suicide bombings and bloody shows of force on the other side, and the whole thing is underlaid by a deep feeling of injustice and fear. But neither one of us is ever going to back down, so we really should just suck it up and deal with each other, for fuck’s sake. Hmm, does this make my fabric stash the Arab nations or the U.N.? Maybe I shouldn’t be going with this analogy.

Completed beaded sleeves

Ta-da! Mom beaded one sleeve, I beaded the other. We are certifiably nuts. She, even more so, because she’s also beading the forepart. And I married into nutjobs because my stepmom-in-law helped bead the forepart and called today to say she could come back this week and bead more. Wow. I am the luckiest (and craziest) gal alive :-).

To assemble the sleeves, I first spray-based the beaded and pearled silk onto white twill. Then I sewed that up, and sewed a bag-lining of white cotton. Sewed those together. Found some lace in The Stash, but it was a very bright white, so I dipped it in a quick tea bath to tone down the color so it better matched the ivory silk. Then I sewed that to the cuffs.

Now I need to put the ribbon ties on both sets of sleeves, plus sew some hooks on the sleeve cuffs so they close neatly. When Mom finishes pearling the trim, I can sew that on the side openings of the hanging sleeves. Not to mention trim the bodice and skirt.

In the meantime, I’m going to make the underskirt base out of white twill. Figure I can use the same pattern as for the farthingale, just a skosh bigger and make it fasten up the back. When the beading is done, I’ll spray-baste and sew the forepart to the front.

Not sure if I’ll start the hat or ruff after that. Hat is technically more important as I need to cover my head. Except I’m still not sure what kind of hat I want to make! The ruff I know all about. Yet I can’t put the hat off.

I have a surprisingly large amount of the pearled ivory silk leftover (probably could have managed with 2 yards instead of 3). So I might make a soft attifet out of that, simply wire the edge. Could alternate pearls and the red beads along the edge, if I have time to get fancy.

It’s not the more coronet-like fantasy I had, but I don’t have a real construction design for that either. I *have* made attifets before, so that is a known quantity, wouldn’t take much time. And time is not on my side right now. Less than two weeks to go. And all next weekend will be occupied with partying (yay!).