Trystan's Costume Closet

Madly pushing along on the To-Do List of D00m. Did lots of bits on various things this weekend, but only finished a couple. Started and completed a new chemise, a quilted supporting petticoat (that’s a real hack job, gah, but functional), and the bat pocket.

Finished the inside of the polonaise and made the black petticoat for it, marked and pinned the hem, but I haven’t sewn it yet. I may sew the hem in the machine because it will be covered by a ruffle. But if I do that, I’m committed to putting on a ruffle.

I *want* a ruffle, but what if I don’t have enough fabric, or more likely, enough time? I can’t leave a machine-sewn hem showing — that’s one of the few standards I have! But I also don’t want to lose 4 hours to hand-sewing the hem … of course, there’s always the middle way of using stitch-witchery. Gawd, I love that stuff. We’ll see.

Almost making it out of Polonaiseville alive!

Technically, the stripey polonaise itself is done — I only have to finish the petticoat. Want (but do not absolutely *need*) to add a ruffle at the hem. I cut it out, sewed it together, hemmed one edge, and wave-roller-cut the other, so it’s completely prepped. Have to gather it, and attach it, but then I’ll need to hand-sew trim over the gathering stitch, and that’s slow going.

Took all day today to sew the trim around all the edges of the polonaise skirt, but I’m done-ity done done! And while this is not all that historically accurate, it’s goth as f*ck, and that makes me very happy. I’m a pretty pretty gothic princess!

Too bad I can’t photograph this dress better — neither flash nor no-flash seem to really work, plus the different materials give weird shines. Whatevs! It looks killer in person, trust me.

Gown with petticoat, in-progress

After finding a very helpful video showing how to do a blind hem stitch on your sewing machine, I realized I need a new foot for my machine. Additional research showed I might could use a specific guide, not necessarily a full foot. I’ll check and see if I already have such a thing (because, after all, I owned a rolled hem foot for a decade before knowing what it was, much the less trying to use it). However, hopes are not high.

Odds are, I’ll be using stitch-witchery on this hem, just in case I don’t get around to the ruffle. See? Trystan is a sewing slacker! That’s something y’all can count on, like death and taxes.

Later that night…

Looks like the machine blind hem stitch may not be the answer for me. I followed the video’s instructions — eyeballing it seemed to be OK. But I didn’t like the result. There’s a 1/8th” pleat that it creates when I fold the bit back. My hem measurement isn’t *that* exact, but still. I don’t enjoy messing up with my already approximate length. I’m probably doing it wrong though.

Anyway, I used iron-on hem tape, and hemmed the entire 130″ of the petticoat in about 15 minutes. Can’t beat that with a stick!

Have to hem mark and hem the polonaise itself, and then I’ll have the whole argument with myself again. Harumph. When can I get on to the trimming?!?

I should be sewing, but I don wanna. Put sleeves on the stripey thing, feel like that’s huge, and now I’m all tuckered out.

Another bandwagon jumped. This one started by Lindsey, Loren, and Leia, and the CC27 18th-century posse, inspired, iirc, by the movie The Duchess.

Conversations started on LiveJournal in, I think, January, probably when the movie came out on DVD and people started obsessing over every last costume, especially the huge, poufy, stripey polonaises Georgiana and Bess wear in Bath. Suddenly, everyone had to have one! And since I didn’t want to wear my boring old 18th-century costumes to CC27 — and particularly since a group of us were going to Colonial Williamsburg beforehand! — and I also have a bunch of stripey fabric in The Stash, of course I got sucked in!