update on the projects

you can take the project plan away fro the project manager, but you can't take the innate need to report out progress away from from the project manager.

I have been working on a lot family history research. I am tracing my grandfather on my mother's side's male family line. I may have gotten the off shoot of My great, great, great grandnmother's mother born in Ireland in 1708. It is unknown if it is her as I a missing the names of my great great, great grandparents.

As for names and persona- I am know hell bent on finding the proper family line in hopes to chose a name of my own ancestor. Although I will actually have a trade, which they probably did not have, I think it would be pretty cool to pick in a name in that way. As of now I am learning toward Agnes /Aggie (me) and John (Justin). I am hell bent on also finding out if the gentleman (schoolar and memeber of parliment) beheaded with my family's last name in the late 1500's for refusing to convert from Catholic to Protistant is of relation.

As for trade, I am going to go with wife/(miniature) painter and Justin is just sticking with the able bodied seaman (hahahaahhaha this one makes me laugh every time I say it). As fot the back story, I am daughter of an Italian middle class merchant (importer of fine msucial goods) who set up shop in England and married a yong British woman.

I was trained in the arts of both housekeeping and other fine skills needed. The only child of the marriage, I was given leaway to help with my father's business- where I happened to meet a ship worker, a cause of much commotion and run away from home since I was forbidden to continue the relationship. I managed to procuor enough money for passage aboad a ship that he could earn his keep and we've traveled toward the Caribean claiming I am visitng my sick Uncle to help keep house there. No family, little money and a penchant for the finer clothing and skilled at painting and cooking we find ourselves in a bit of a bind looking for work and a more permanat and nicer building, to call home.

Current project list

So my 3 new projects:
1. Finish the 15 or so photo assignments
2. Work on persona as living historian (this is a post on it's own)
3. Begin the process for learning to pain in enamel for miniatures accurate to the 1600-1800's

Number 3, will be apart of my living historian persona- but is also out of interest in increasing my rendering of the human fae and figure and to help me refocus on painting again. Although less contoversial than my normal feminist and political topics the idea of still performing combined with painting and working with objects isn't too far away from the work I had been doing- although the topics are much different.

adventure in the arts of thread

Before this post- my significant other would like to point out that I have still not finished my stays. I currently have about 16 eyelets left to sew. I say that he would like to point this out, because every chance he got this weekend, he pointed out the observation that "you haven't finished your stays, why are you working on (insert various project here.)"

However after much promoting about my stays he managed to also get his pants altered for his leaner, rowing form. Not complaining here, I did a nice job and he looks really, really good. Which was another distraction for me.



I am quite proud of my new petticoat. It was the first time i made a period accurate petticoat, ever. Usually I cheat with drawstrings but I figured I would try Chole's Basic Petticoat Instructions.

In the first hour I finished the knife pleating she also built a great tutorial for.
I would like to point out, that this has been the most successful project I have done so far. Maybe my skills are increasing, or maybe she just writes good instructions- but I was never confused and I finished everything but the hem between 3 hours on Sat morning and an hour on Sat night doing the areas where I needed thread that matched. And I wrapped up my hem last night while watching some Indiana Jones special on the History Channel.

Also accomplished this weekend: Shana's Self Taught Embroidery 101 Crash Evening and why you should just dive into a stomacher!

Not accomplished: eyelets in stays.

To do before Wednesday afternoon while working 10 hour days until then-
Stays! buttons and button holes on wool jacket, assemble my pockets.

Can i do it? Will I get any sleep? Will I even attempt to finish my projects with the Andromeda Strain on tonight? Stay tuned.

what the hell...

i have no idea how to fix this. I gained some weight, and they don't fit-- at all. The bust area is FAR too small for me to squish into. Speaking of squish, imy girls are getting squished so much they are flat under the fabric and exploding over the top and extremely painful.

Suggestions?








On the plus side, I have actually managed to fix the connection in the back since last post.

DO NOT WANT

imagine this. You've been sewing every weekend (except easter and last weekend) since the super bowl. It is Friday night, around 9 pm you just placed all the lacing holes with your bosun knife and you dig in your closet for your ren faire boot to pilfer its 6 foot shoe lace. you put them on, thinking "hell, it was only 10 pounds I gained since I cut the pattern, this should fit just fine!"

You bribe your other half to spend 15 min lacing your expanding self into the damn things.

Finally, about 70 hours worth of sewing!

1. The shoulder straps are too short due to an increased bust size

2. you screwed up on the attachment of one panel to the other, knew there was a problem but didn't realize how bad





3. The boning hurts under my armpits! OUCH!!!





















4. You still need to add a modesty panel, and work on getting help lacing your stays.

4. But you did manage to do a fabulous job plucking your eye brows by yourself :)





















First thing this morning I adjusted the panel attachment, it isn't perfect but it is ok. Then, I shortened the bones in the side panels. I refitted them on me to make sure things look "ok"- and they do. Then, I ran out of thread. So today when we go to my parents for my birthday dinner, I need to pick up more of the correct color. And guess what, since I am traveling again for work this week, I don't get to work on them! I might just pack them, so I can manage to maybe finish the binding tape and half the eyelets before next weekend. Because next weekend, I want to start my new project: making a dress form with my stays on!

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!