Back on track, weekend sew-a-thon!

Well the week prior to Easter and the weekend of Easter was a bust. I didn't get nearly as much accomplished with all the travel, mainly becasue I did not want to check a bag to bring my sewing along. In retrospect I should have but I am glad I didn't becasue I didn't have to waste 30 min waiting for my bag to arrive.

So this weekend was sew-a-thon. 7 specials on military tactics, countless movies and who knows how many Discovery channel shows I wrapped up about 8 pm last night to have dinner. The best thing about sewing is I don't snack and I probably lost 2 pounds! I started on Sat morning about 11, sewed until 8 or 9 that night accomplishing the rest of the boning channels and attaching the backs to the sides.

Started 10am on Sunday and sewed most of the day, took a short nap around 2 finished the book Atonement then finished the sewing the sides toegther, and tried it on. I needed to make a few sizing adjustments to smake the garmet a bit smaller around the wasit. As you can see, I left the fabric I brought in (alittle less than 1" on both sides) attached so I coul let it out if I need to at a later date.

I am starting to understand why garmets were adjustable! It is much easier to build them with a little room to grow or shrink than it is to build a whole new set!

So, I finished up any of the small tailoring and decided that I would try out adding the boning. As from reading other blogs I followed advise of soaking the reeds in steaming hot water, but devaited from the plan when I decided flexibility was probably better to stuff these suckers into channels than stiff, unwaxed (I don't want to stain the light color linen with beeswax) reeds that can break and splinter.

I put 4 strips of reed into their thier hot tub and took out one reed when I saw it uncoil on its own. So me and the reed moved to the living room to start out afternoon project about 4:30.

• After trying to stuff a blunt end into the fabric I thought a tapered round end would be more productive, which it was


• I cut the still damp reed into the aproximate length and rounded the entering end and wiggled it into the channel


• If a 1/4" reed was too wide, I cut the reed length wise to fit


• Damp reed was much easier to work with becasue it damped the fabric making it more adjustable


• The reed would sometimes it would get stuck and I would need to strech the fabric by pulling or lifting it away using a seem ripper very carefully

I boned about 1/2 way in less than 2 hours then went back and trimmed down the reeds to the proper height to add my binding tape.

• I cut the tips slightly rounded at the ends.


• I found that the dry reed splintered much more and I had to replace a few of the reeds that were already cut.


• The channels were much easier to restuff, as the fabric dried with the reed holding the shape
  

Addtional notes:

• I had to re-sew the channels on the front peices becasue my stiching was much neater toward the end of the project, and I sewed that peice first. So start sewing in the back and do the front peice last next time.

I have a reader!

In 3 years of blogging on various blogger sites, I finally got a post from a person I did not know in real life. So to announce this special moment on my new blog, Welcome Chole. She has a blog Slightly Obsessed that I should have been reading when I started this project!

So here I am wasting precious, extremely limited time sitting online reading her blog and also looking for info on GAoP period correct fabric colors (Damn it, I want an eggplant color mantua!) while waiting for my grocery drop off from Fresh Direct.

This is a monumental day, as since we have been living in Brooklyn I have been setting up Fresh Direct orders, one might call it window food shopping, but never actually submitting the order because I thought it is easier to get off my lazy but and walk 3 blocks to key foods. But something came over me last night, and I hit the button. The food will get here between 9-11 am- kinda of like waiting for the cable guy to get here for an install..I am starving I hope he gets here before 930.

I am going to go back to my hand stitching. After looking at Chole's stays and her hand stitching I noticed she did one seem per each channel (her stitches look so nice)- I did one down and one up because I was worried about the amount of pulling I will be doing on them and I didn't want to lose a channel while at an event. I am starting to think I doubled my time for nothing...

Off I go, hopefully I will have a post by end of tomorrow with the last panel of bone channels sewed and pieces attached together!

Days 7,8,9

Well thanks to Kass at RH I started the LONG journey of hand sewing each boning channel last Saturday.

I forgot how tedious and long it takes to sew by hand. In the last few years I have only done small projects- no gowns, no bodices, nothing. I have even been relying on the tailor of fixes to my hems. You know, modern conveniences like sewing machines terrify me, so for now I am sticking to many tiny little strong stitches made by my right hand.

Last Sat I worked for about 4 hours and last Sunday I sewing mostly straight from 8 am until 2 pm then again from 5 to 10. Last night I spent about 2 hours and today another 6. The time flies by too quickly and I did not finish as much as I wanted to. I am however still on time for completion of all channels by Easter.

Estimated sewing time accomplished: 22
Estimated sewing time left based on current (sloth-like, slow) speed: 8 hours (one side panel, and about 20 tan seems to put in the other sides)

Pictures are from Sunday night.

Day 6 of work

I have been bad about the whole documentation aspect of this project.You know what they say about good intentions.
Kass pattern from Reconstructing History- is pretty easy to follow as long as I have some caffeine in my system and I read the directions. So far I have probably put in about 8 hours on the initial patten size and adjustments.

As you can see in the picture my first attempt at the cardboard version. My challenges stem from the fact I am extremely short and petite in the shoulder length and width across the sholder span. But having some extra width with the girls-means I had hybrid the two very different sizes. In attempt 1 of the cardboard you can see some of the progress of the change in this picture. Since this photo in January, I have deconstructed the 1st attempt of cardboard, made alterations to it, tried it on again, tore it apart again and sewed a quick base layer to see if the shoulders were the right size and correct shape.



At this point, I made some alterations to the fabric model, ripped apart the seams and transferred it to cardboard. I am not sure why I didn't take any pictures...oh I know.
Capitan Crankypants didn't want to take any more pictures of this project that week. In fact i think I am driving myself and him mad with the amount of mess currently occupying out living room floor.

Last weekend I finished up the adjustments and sizing to the cardboard so the shoulder line is accurate to Kass's pattern and other drawings I have been looking at. I was already to transfer the final pattern to the fabric and I realized I never washed it! So in lieu of having a lack of washing machine's in the house, and the washboard we have is travel size and not meant for 4 yards of fabric- I washed everything in the tub and hung it all to dry over the shower curtain rods.

Aside from not having a washing machine, I also had to then borrow an iron from my friend Arien so I could then iron the fabric so the linen wrinkles would go away!

Here is the make shift ironing board

After the ironing, tonight I transfered the patten to the fabric.

This weekend I hope to accomplish the start of sewing the boning channels with some help from the talented folks on the pub and their advise. My goal is to have the channels done before I go to Orlando for work on the 18th.