Trystan's Costume Closet

The pink Florentine is wearable and screamingly pink. I should add neckline trim, and I really should have sewed the inner sleeves in instead of safety-pinning them in (I’m going to worry about them popping out all tomorrow). BUT, I’m tired. I absolutely hate sewing late the night before an event! I really hardly ever do that, and I *never* absolutely NEVER sew on the day of an event or in the hotel or whatever. Not my style. It’s either done or it’s not.

That said, in the past few years, I’ve gotten quite a few wild hairs to make a new outfit in a freakishly short time before an event. Wtf? There have been, um, three one-week jackets in less than three years now. That’s crazy. None were essential. Just “hey, how about a new outfit?” Bored with what I have in the closet.

The pink Florentine was more of a “hurry and up and see if I can finish this thing that’s been languishing for months.” But still one week. Really don’t know why I pushed myself to do that — only day-tripping a principality event, after all! I’ll be there for a few hours. Ah, but the gown was so close to being done … famous last words.

Since we are day-tripping Mists Coronet, I need something to wear. And while the black and grey kirtle is basically done and looks fab, I kinda want to save it for Beltane. Then I saw that Sarah was working on a pink gown and I thought, ah-ha, maybe I can finish up the pink Florentine!

I’ve been noodling around on this gown for half a year, and the vague goal was to have something new and pretty to wear to camping events in 2011. Well, it’s that year now. Should finish this puppy up, and there’s nothing like a crazy-short deadline to help with it…

Last night, I finished attaching the skirt — I had the cartridge-pleated back done last year, but I still needed to sew on the fussy flat and curved fronts. Which was fussy, but iz done. Then I started an underskirt. Decided, what the hell, let’s cut up some of the pink faux silk originally slated for the MQoS pink gown.

Oh and I nearly got derailed thinking about a way to rehab the black silk overgown of the Veronese outfit. I really love that overgown, but the undergown parts no longer fit at all. I maybe could remove the buttons and hook-eye closure from the overgown front and pin it over a stomacher. Then add matching or coordinating sleeves and forepart. Because I have some embroidered faux-silk in a rich burgundy that’d look pretty cool with the black… but I digress!

So last night, after fussing with the overskirt, I cut out the pink skirt panels and sewed it into a tube. That’s as far as I got before bed. I figure I can assemble the skirt tonight and hopefully mark the hem of the gown itself. Then I need to trim the gown — at least trim up the oversleeve openings and preferably trim the center-front bodice. Y’know, cover the ugly bits!

Gah, can I do all that in three nights? Look for me on Saturday to find out.