totchipanda

Repairs to the bathroom were completed, and then I discovered that the curtain I put up has already been rendered next to useless thanks to the kittens. I've scooped it up and over the rail to hopefully discourage them from playing with it.

Temperatures are soaring here, which, while nothing like the US south and eastern heat dome, is still very unpleasant. My bedroom is on the south side where it gets blasted with sun pretty much all day. I don't leave my windows open much because I worry about the kittens climbing the screens and/or tearing them loose and escaping, not that open windows on the sunny side help that much. Thankfully the other major windows are south but covered, and north so I can get some cross-breeze. It's gonna be a week of managing windows and laying low, sometimes quite literally.

Weekend of doing absolutely nothing. On Saturday I mostly played video games and looked at my Regency patterns. Sunday was more of the same, with slightly more energy spent on stays, fabric hunting, and a quick jaunt partway across the city for more fabric. My aunt's former landlady had received a bunch of fabrics and I wasn't going to look at them, given that I am trying to downsize my stash, but then she said the magic words: wool-silk. NYYEERRRROOOOOOOM! They are a lovely green and red (separate pieces), both with pale gray pin stripes and utterly delightful to touch.

The only real sewing/crafting related anything that I did was to start by pulling out my regency patterns and Carolyn's book Stitching La Mode. I THINK I can get away with her 1794 apron gown and open robe (though not exactly, it's a good starting point). Comparing pieces, Laughing Moon's chemise gown is a good base for that gown. I looked at their stays as well but couldn't really decide on anything, plus Calcifer was SO HELPFUL and attacked both the instruction book and the pattern itself.

"Why do you have to bite everything??" I asked her. "Bite bite bite!" while poking her with my fingers. Reader, she bit me.

On Sunday I pulled out the projector and the old laptop and loaded up the Bernhardt stays pattern, view C. I had to put the projector on a stool and back it up pretty far to get the square to the right scale (kittens again helped, naturally). Hot damn (literally), that thing puts out of a lot of heat! I have exactly two walls best suited to pattern tracing, both of which are blocked by the table, but it was too hot to want to do it anyway! Then I squared up the lines and cut it out. Holding it up to my body, it seems OK to start, but too small in the back. I futzed the lines to include 2" more on each side. It might be too much but. I also will need to move the hip dart or add another one entirely. "B" seems well placed but very unsure about C.

Then I let the kittens have a ball of yarn while I fished out some fabric to make the mock up. IN doing so, I found the silk organza strip I started to roll hem as a ruffle for my Williamsburg Angelica gown, and the yardage of black silk organza left from the brain hat. Stays were not cut out or mocked up, and in fact all I did after that was nap, eat dinner, watch a movie, play some more video games, and finish that one side of the strip.

Definitely going to take it easy this week. I have some library books to read that I really ought to get started on. Another hold is ready, but I sent it to the south library and when I drove by yesterday, their parking lot is entirely ripped up and being replaced, forcing people to park in the next lot over. I really should have sucked it up and gone yesterday bc my brain said it was easier to train down after work and walk, completely disregarding that's just going to get hotter all week until AFTER my hold expires. Alas.

Spent the weekend stitching on the Angelica bodice.

Well, first I went grocery shopping, getting home just as it started to rain (omg we so needed it, both the water and the break in the 80+ F heat), and then after it stopped raining I went to the library to pick up my books. I got Ahead of the Curve by Jenny Rushmore (of Cashmerette Patterns), who focuses on larger sizes and curvier bodies. Y'all, this book is worth it for the fitting advice alone. The patterns are only the last 25% or so, the rest is all fit fit fit, with items shown on larger bodies. She talks about the difference in sewing cup sizes (different from bra sizes) and where to find certain landmarks on your body (i only disagree with the hip placement, because I've only found one reference to using physiology that works for me. Nearly everyone says "widest part" but they assume that includes your ass -- my widest part is lower than my hipbones, encompassing those large knobbys on the top of the femur), and also to take sitting measurements. She talks about how much ease to look for when you are making something with woven fabric vs knit, and how to use finished garment measurements vs patterned measurements in conjunction with fabric types. And the fitting section! I need ALL the adjustments for pants - low, full booty, full thighs, full calves, full belly - and she had the most comprehensive diagrams for that. Also different belly shapes -- hallelujah! See if your local library has it if you want to give it a look. It's an expensive book but hollleeeeeee the fitting section. My library also had the patterns included, so while I have bought one of her patterns, now I can add to my collection before I decide to buy anymore!

I also picked up a book on "the modern gentleman's vintage wardrobe" which is pretty meh as far as menswear is concerned. I took it out mostly because I wanted to get a feel for a masculine wardrobe, and because the author included some neckwear.

OK back to sewing. I tried on the bodice again, putting on ALL of the layers, and I made a couple changes. Pinned in the waist 1/2" total on one side, and let out the side front seam on the other. Ended up doing BOTH of those changes. Also marked the spot for a waist tie (which I will still pin in place before finalizing). Then I put on The Sandman again and stitched away. (Skipped episode 5 though, it's very heavy)

I left off Saturday with needing to try it on AGAIN to assess fit now that the front was in place, but I did that Sunday afternoon (after a bout with insomnia and also spending like 2 hours winding yarn). I left off the petticoat layers and I didn't lace the bodice on very well (my basting stitches ran through the eyelets), but I might need to adjust those back seams again. And I've already stitched everything down... I have now folded up the back hems too, so we shall see how that works out. If it's good (or even if it's not TBH), it's on to skirt city.

The trim for my silk sack arrived, and I excitedly pinned some in place with the stomacher ruffles. I don't love-love it, but I don't hate it either. And it's hard to fully judge something from only two small pieces rather than the entire outfit. So on it goes. I'm going to need to find a way to keep the petticoat ruffle upright, as it is already falling over without the added weight of trim. I suspect the answer will be "tack it strategically".

Most of the weekend was spent either watching the roomies play LEGO Star Wars while stitching hems and trimming on top, or watching The Sandman on Netflix while stitching hems and trimming on top. Roomie J asked if I could sew it on with the machine, and while I could, I'm not going to. I have no deadline for this, I fully expect to spend the next four months on it.

Sunday morning, I got all kitted up in chemise, stays, two petticoats and a split rump to measure myself for the Angelica gown, and later in the day took laundry down and traced/cut/sewed a mock-up. I did try it on, though not over any of the underlayers, but like, my measurements were more or less the same. I had at least a hand-span's worth of extra room at the back waist, which seems excessive. I even traced a smaller upper-half size (knowing that it's almost certainly drafted off a modern B-cup block) and did most of the waist-size grading at the front only, and like. What? I'll have to get kitted up again to do the fitting, but this doesn't seem right.

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On the home front, roomies discovered Friday night that some enterprising wasps have decided to make a part of our home into theirs, accessing a space between the outer wall and the basement window well for their nest. We are confident it's a fairly new development as it is not far from our AC unit and water spigot, and I was out there near both of those perhaps a week earlier. We aren't sure if it's something the condo board deals with or if we do, but Roomie M is potentially allergic (as her mom is, but she has never been stung and we don't intend to ever have that be the way to find out) and also none of us want wasps in our house regardless! She reached out to an exterminator for a quote, but of course it's the weekend and it's not urgent... yet. They have not yet accessed the house itself, but we will be on this this week to get it taken care of ASAP. Our neighbours across the lane had a wasp nest under their stairs, and the condo board's solution was to put spray foam in the gaps. Which did precisely nothing.

In a rental or an outright ownership situation, the solution is obvious. Condo is great most of the time, but this is a little more serious than "who mows the lawn".