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Unless I hear otherwise, I can finally put my house back into order, and get to some serious work on these sewing challenges I have been terribly, terribly lax on.

I got some cool books from the library, and [livejournal.com profile] mew_infinity was so thoughtful and picked up a pattern book for me while out shopping one day <3 The book itself was a little confusing, because it talked about drafting the patterns according to certain scales, but didn't say what the scales were. I did some googling and found out that the book requires apportioning scales from a patented system used at the turn of the century by the magazine that published the patterns. The book I had didn't have them, but another author had some books made up that did, and even though they were different authors, the rulers used would be the same. So I joyfully made a trip to the library, copied the scales I (thought I) needed, and sat down to pore over the books. My preliminary pattern seemed good, though I won't know for sure until I make it up in fabric, ideally over a proper corset as well, but I was pleased enough with the result to order a couple more of her books. They should hopefully arrive by the end of the week.

The book Mew sent me is from 1890-1899; not really my preferred era though I do like many of the 1890-91 patterns. GIANT SLEEVES OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM just aren't my thing. The book I got from the library is 1900-1906. The others I ordered are 1877-1883 (natural form era, no bustle, but still pleasingly "Victorian"), 1887-1889 late bustle (the last hurrah of the Giant Ass of Doom) and 1906-1909. Can't wait to play with them! The scales are so cool, because they don't use inches. You use the ruler for the size given (ie: draft the blouse with the bust measurement) and that way, you can use many different rulers to get a good fit for nearly everyone :D I'm really excited to see what I can do with them.

My poor brother is tired of hearing me rant about the out-of-period costumes in period episodes of Doctor Who. 1893 was starting to see gigantic sleeves of DOOM. Bustles and narrow-headed sleeves are up to a decade earlier. No one would wear out-of-fashion bustles, and no one as concerned with remaining unnoticed as Madame Vastra was would wear anything significantly out of date, fashion-wise. The costumes looked really good, certainly, but they were just not right.

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