Sewing a Regency (Day) Dress [Chapter 3 1/2: Strategy Update]

I dreamt about the dress - and the blue material.

So, first, the green one shall be dealt with in second, and then I came to realize a couple of things: the pattern could be... let's say, not perfect, and instead of sharing something that may need too many adjustments, I'm going to work on a standard pattern that could be adapted to different sizes (hopefully).

In order to make sure that my pattern works, I'm going to try it.

Chapter 4 won't be posted until I've finished the dress, but that means that the pattern can be trusted, and I can post Chapter 5: Cutting the Pieces, Chapter 6: Assembling the Dress, and Chapter 7: Showing Off Modelling the Dress at the same time.

Unfortunately, the Easter break is happening very soon, which means that two weeks of my life are about to be eaten up by Muggles.

Well, I'll have time to convert all the measurements meticulously...

I should have realized the issue about creating the pattern and posting it straight away, but I think the pollen's melting my brain cells.

See you soon-ish with (hopefully) four new sewing posts...

Sewing a Regency (Day) Dress [Chapter 3: Material (Shopping) Madness]

So... I went shopping... for Regency plausible material.

I was really trying to find some crépon like the Elinor blue dress in Sense and Sensibility, but there was none, and the only affordable one was black (I love black, but I really thought it'd be a tad too much). 

I went to a store that specializes in selling remnants (10 ft for £4!!!), and I found really nice things:

- first this nice light maroon/dark beige crêpe with golden flowers (yes, I swear they're flowers; hopefully, it'll photograph better with the whole dress):

 [incidentally, I placed the remnant on my dark maroon satin coat lining]

- then, I found this light green light cotton fabric:

 - and last, I adopted this thick cotton fabric:

I'm going to start with the green one.

Everything's almost ready about the pattern, but, as I'd like to give you the measurements in inches and centimetres, I'll have to do some maths and that's going to be barmy and basically pure hell.

Oh... what's going to slow me down, as well, is the local, self-appointed assistant.

Here, you can see him working on what's going to become a petticoat for my V&A Couture Inspired Dress:

So, basically, Chapter 4: Dress Pattern may be slightly slow to appear...

Sewing a Regency (Day) Dress [Chapter 2: Planning the Pattern&Testing Things]

So... I was planning to go buy material last Friday, but I had to change my plans, and I'll go only next Friday.

However, I've been collecting quite a few photos of dresses in museums, and I've made choices about the pattern that I'm about to start plotting (can one plot a pattern? Ach! Never mind...). 

I've noticed two ways to deal with gathers on the top front part of the dress (I can deal with that, or with pleats, on a skirt in my sleep, and plan what needs to be done before tea, and with just my non-dominant hand - I've got years of training on 19th century skirts). I could either make the top front part in one or two pieces (both would be historically possible). 

As it happens, I don't want to have two pieces, and so, I'm going to need to make a few tests in order to assess how much material is needed in order to get the proper gathers.

Basically, checking how much material is needed won't take me long, and then I can start combining patterns.

Incidentally, the sleeves may end up being the tricky part of this pattern: what shape to choose? Buttons on the forearm or not?

For my first dress, I'll probably stick to what I can see in the captures from Sense and Sensibility, which means a simple long sleeve with decorative buttons.

All right. See you all in a few days, and wish me luck!

Sewing a Regency (Day) Dress [Chapter 1: Addiction&Pattern]

*curtseys*

How do you do?

I see you've met my... Oops! Wrong reference, sorry!

*coughs discreetly*

So... I happen to have addictions: mint sweets, cheeses, books, music... and making historical costumes (that started when I was dancing, and I had to make my own costumes - because that was waaaaaay cheaper that way).

As it happens, Sense and Sensibility (the 1995 version) is my favourite film, and for the past two days (and I can't even remember how it started!), I've been looking at photos and blogs and pages and documentaries and anything I could find really about Regency dresses.

It turns out that I could only find two free patterns on the Internet, and so, I've decided that if I manage to make the dress of my dreams, I'm going to share the pattern here.

My plan is to use what I've found on the Internet, what I know about the history of fashion and... what I can snatch from the Sense and Sensibility film.

Basically, I'll be trying to make something like this: 

Now... I just have to:

- work on the pattern

- go shop for some material and ribbons (that I can afford)

- find time to work on it

- deal with ignore my Muggle relatives as they'll disparage my wish to wear a Regency dress today (basically... So, what???!)

Wish me luck?

Research News

I've learnt to allow my plot bunnies (all my plot bunnies) to hop at their own pace.

Usually, I've got two works on which I work alternatively because that helps the bunnies hop and go farther, but I've got a whole list of projects that are all simmering in my brain cells and that are getting their bunny legs whilst being marinated in the barmy sea of my imagination.

The literary plot bunnies are healthy and hopping very well.

The research plot bunnies have been slower... probably because the freezing nerve has been preventing me from having any of those for seven years (doesn't help at all!).

Last year (!!! Hell! Nasty thing Time; it disappears into thin air), I mentioned possible topics, and Federico is still number one on my list.

I didn't want to focus on one part of his works or write a full (if short) biography. I wanted to find something different. A fortnight ago, having a tad more energy, at last, I started consulting info about him, and one detail caught my eye. It's a tiny, tiny little something, but I couldn't find anything about it; in consequence, I have now put my Detective cap on, and I'll have to hunt for clues about that detail (incidentally, I want to officially declare that in spite of whatever my blood relatives might have wanted me to believe, learning several languages was a brilliant idea since I could find info in Spanish, and these papers are going to be important and solid sources, which I wouldn't have found otherwise).

Basically, there are weeks (maybe months) of research ahead, but I want to believe that I will come up with something interesting...

As well, I think I may try to work on the history of a small street where I live. The place is, I was told, the smallest street in town, and it's got a charming ensemble of mediaeval houses that are absolutely gorgeous. A beautiful library's right behind that street, so I might focus on the area in the Middle-Ages if I don't find much on that particular short street. That could be something slightly different... and hopefully interesting, too.

In literary plot bunnies news, I'm about half-way through my fantasy novel, I'm writing a new short story about love (but with a planetary twist... and I may post that one here when it's done - you'll understand why when you read it), and I'll start working on the second story of Muff&Sherly - The Annotated Edition.

I started working a bit on the screenplay for Mireio, but it's going to take longer than I thought: I've got to make a choice about the language; when the idea first came to my mind centuries ago, it was clear that I wanted it to be in Provençal, but it might be unrealistic... Then, there's the question of the History references in the plot, which are interesting in the book, but could be odd on screen.

Choices, choices, choices. There's a lot of work ahead, and... I'll have to let that plot bunny simmer in the pot a bit longer (but that has to be for the best).

Right... back to the fantasy novel: the bunny's at a turning point, and it's loud and demanding... See youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Dear Mobile Users (+ Other Notes)

Note to mobile-addicted bipeds: 

- if you're going to break up with your better half (and that's probably literal) in a call whilst on the bus, have a spot of self-esteem, and don't have the entire bus enjoy the whole thing. It makes you look like a demented creature who might well be just out of Bedlam - or at least in need of some education (then again, you all know about my love for mobiles).

- if you've just done drugs, don't phone your best mate to tell him (in great details!) how you feel and everything. The world doesn't need to know what you took, how long it made you puke, how dizzy and high you're feeling and how hungry you are (okay, that part made me go: 'Helloooo, Amazing Grace!'). Once more: self-esteem and good education.

I've got some seasonal extra work now, which means that I'm covering for other people, and I got to meet students who are not "mine". 

Bottom line? I may have slightly scared mine, but now they arrive on time, they keep their mobiles out of sight, and they do their homework (not all of them, but most of them, and I'm darn proud of that because I hope they'll remember to behave decently outside of school, and I want to believe that a bit of what I taught them will stay with them after they leave my care). The others? Simple... when I left the room, I started wondering what half of them are smoking, inhaling or taking.

Utterly disturbing and odd.

May the end of the week be quiet for all of us...!

Music, please!

Long time, no music...

My musical plot bunny's been keeping this in his paws for... years. It inspired a first story in a prior incarnation, and now... it's coming back in my Doncaster story.

Listen and melt.....................

Of the Importance of Education (My Week on the Net - Mostly)

This week has been odd. In real life, and on the net.

In real life, I had to start reading the Riot Act to the wankers downstairs: the din is back ("But... we had a plumber dust the fan off!" - Sorry, Cupcake, you need a new A/C unit, not one that's been gathering dust for over a decade), now there's music, too, and they close at 1 AM! 

I hate them. I positively hate them. Excuse my French, but they don't give a fuck about the people around them. They're a pathetic example of "Me, me, me! And the rest of the world can fuck off and die, I don't give a shit!".

Still in real life, one spot of blue sky, singing birds and fluffy... stuff: I work with a few nice ladies, who are being really kind, and that's awesome. When I'm really better, I'll bake them cookies, or something.

Oh, no link, but my Sci-Fi novel is going to be Muff&Sherly - The Annotated Edition (having too much fun adding footnotes!).

On the net... Oh, boy, where do I start?

Well, let's take things in order, shall we?

Last Saturday, I went to bed as it was announced that a zoo had offered to rescue Marius (the giraffe - see prior posts). When I got up on Sunday, it was to see photos of Marius's corpse being dismembered. All the people involved in that slaughter are sticking to their guns, and that's awful. Apparently, the entire planet could have told them not to slaughter Marius, and they'd still have done it, just to show us who's boss. How mature and human is that? (Being rhetorical here.)

We need to teach compassion and empathy, or we'll be the endangered species before 2050.

Next, I caught someone making a joke (or not) about beating his wife. Does he beat his wife? I'll probably never know, but the bottom line is that most boys (because those are not finished in the head) find it funny to joke about beating up a woman. 'Chill! It's just a joke for God's sake!' they'll say, thus patronizing all the victims of abuse. If that's their idea of a joke, sorry, boys, but it's NOT funny, and that shouldn't be a common topic for pseudo-jokes. Who raised you, an amoeba?

This is one aspect of abuse that needs to be addressed... before the next millennium.

Then, I got to read posts by the lil' boy (who's quite a few years older than I, but that's another story) who keeps writing like an escapee from Pirates of the Caribbean on a bad day (he's the bloke who inspired this sordid fairy tale). On a forum mostly visited by (mostly) adult women, that bloke behaves like a peacock that thinks the king died and he's the heir to the throne (or like a bloke in a harem who managed to make the sultan believe that 'Honest to God, Guv', I'm a eunuch'. Your average fox in the stupidly welcoming hen house). 

Since I'm just a visitor there, I'm not commenting, but if he tried such a thing anywhere I'm a Mod, I'd have ripped him a new one aeons ago.

And that one illustrated the importance of teaching respect. And (full) gender equality!

Speaking of respect, the next incident is half lack of respect, half bullying: I've seen famous people who care about animal rights be lectured by some idiot who thought it was good to point out that now that they'd been informed of some issue that was going on, if they didn't act immediately, they'd be as guilty as the people at the source of the "issue". Way to go, you twat! When one's lucky enough to have on our side famous people who, let's face it, can reach a lot more people than Tom, Dick, and Harry, one doesn't risk antagonizing them by comparing them to the very people they're trying to stop from committing abuse.

As well, that reeks of bullying, because that person was basically trying to shame fellow Earthlings into doing something (whether they had the time or not, and as if they belonged to him).

That's when being polite and knowing a thing or two about strategy can be quite useful. 'Could you pretty please lend your voice to this cause; that'd be so kind of you' has got to work better than 'There's issue "ABC" over there. Now you know. If you don't do something this instant, you'll have as much blood on your hands as the actual culprits'; at least, I know how I'd react to the latter...

And today's "fun" was provided by a religious nut. I don't care that he's a bigot and that he's attempting to shove his beliefs down the throats of all Earthlings. It happens that in his miserable attempt at showing the world that he's a dedicated zealot... Oops! Sorry, a Christian, he decided to add an obelus (it's the † symbol, and you can find its definition in the OED) after his name in order to show where his loyalty lies.

Problem? Well, it's just usually used to indicate that a person is deceased, not to show that one's a Christian. Just sayin'...

And that tells us that one should always do one's homework in order to avoid being utterly ridiculous.

Right, I'll go back to adding fake footnotes to my novel.

See you...!

On My Wall of Shame (#7)

On February, 9th, 2014, a healthy giraffe was slaughtered by the staff of the Copenhagen Zoo.

If you haven't already read about it, you can do so there.

In spite of what the zoo's scientific director pretends, Marius didn't have to be slaughtered - and then cut into piece. There is no law (in spite of what that man pretends) that forced them to slaughter that poor baby that day. If you want to read more on that topic, go there.

The man who gave the order "had never considered cancelling the killing, despite the protests", which shows how important that biped thinks he is.

Marius, an 18-month-old giraffe, was considered useless for breeding because his genes were too common. Fuck! How common are the genes of the bipeds that slaughtered him?

The zoo idiots keep justifying themselves, and all I hear is 'BULLSHIT!'

The man who made the choice and didn't change his mind is Bengt Holst. May he get, very quickly, some super interesting, entertaining, challenging karma.