Fitting, Finished, Fabric, & Feast

It fits! The final fittingof the robe a l'Anglaise was a success!

Those shoulders will be slid further up onto Lisa's shoulders next time, but for this try-on we were just checking that the pieces went together (stays, stomacher, petticoat, and overgown) and that everything fit. 

No photo from the front as we did not have a scarf or fichu to fill in the front for modesty. (18th century ladies wore their gowns pretty low.) But trust me, she looked beautiful in it and we are both happy and relieved that the gown is done.

I do need to hem the robings on the front now that we know that their length is good, and a seam popped open a few stitches by her elbow that I will close. That will take about thirty minutes and then I can call this project done.

I went back through my records and found this photo dated August, 2022 of Lisa in a fabric store with a snippet of her Aunt Leslie's wedding gown fabric to hand and looking for the perfect complementary fabric to use with it. She waited a long time for her outfit, for sure.

My next sewing project will be haversacks for the October Great Lakes Congress show. In fact, I'm in such good shape for Feast that, even though it's Feast week, I may pull out my pony pouch tubs today and take inventory so I know what I need to make.

I just got in more of this fabric (the first batch sold out within a half hour) and I'm looking forward to switching gears from 18th century clothing to 21st century model horse sewing. I love to sew, and I love both aspects of my sewing life, but with Abby gone, I feel a need to get closer to my horsey roots. 

But in the meantime, here is the song, my favorite of all, that will be heard all over Fort Ouiatenon this coming weekend, Hell on the Wabash. 

Bring on the fife and drum corps, the bagpipers, the fiddlers, and dulcimers! Five more days to wait!

Finis!

First and most importantly, I heard from my friend in Boone, North Carolina and despite the hard hit their town took, she and her husband are okay. They have no water or power, but they are okay. Grateful!

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I did it. I finished the robe a l'Anglaise.

It was absolutely the most difficult thing I have ever sewn and took more hours than anything else I've made. What an undertaking it was.

Lisa is coming over for dinner tonight and we will do a last (I hope) try-on. She will wear her stays (the precursor to the corset), the stomacher (a triangular piece that is pinned over the bust and then down to the waist), and the petticoat with it - all are considered part of the gown despite being separate pieces. 

There is some sentimentality attached to the stomacher and petticoat - it was made with fabric from Leslie's wedding gown and she gave it to Lisa to use for the robe a l'Anglaise.

Lisa is so excited to have her gown completed. She started planning it two years ago and together we researched patterns before finally deciding on this one. The pattern was intended to be completely hand stitched, but I did both machine and hand stitching.

It was a massive project, but I am really happy with how the gown turned out and can't wait to see Lisa walking around the Feast grounds wearing it. (That's next weekend - Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!)

I'm checking that robe a l'Anglaise off my to-do list. Time is getting really short for final Feast prep but there is still another very important thing on my to-do list. 

Picking up my new business sign.

I got another photo from the craftsman who is making it for me, and the sign is looking good. The border has been painted and all that needs to be done is sealing it and then adding the hardware needed for hanging. 

I nearly went with a different horse motif (above) and I really do like that one, but in the end, I wanted me to be represented, too. (It reminds me of playing Circus Girls with Leslie when we were kids - that's me riding sidesaddle on the horse!)

I love my new sign and it has ended up being a lovely merging of two things I love - horses and sewing. 

It's Feast week so here is a video to give you an overview of what The Feast of the Hunters' Moon looks like. 

Use the link below if need be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs_MAo5TRjU

It's 8 minutes long and the man who made it does a nice job of  showing the variety of things you will see if you go. And check out those canoe races on the Wabash - one of my customers is in it wearing one of my shirts! 

Today is my day off from sewing, and then I will have Monday and Tuesday to finish final preparations. Wednesday we set up the tent and start stocking merchandise. 

Time is flying!

Feast Prep: Mila's Clothes are Done

Second Post of the Day

Finished! And by the deadline I'd set myself. (I do that to keep myself on track as I have so many items of clothing to finish sewing.)

I spent all day yesterday making Mila's jacket. It has a lining, so essentially I made two jackets and then sewed them together. That involved very precise matching of seams and sides, and with those cut out flaps, I had to be very careful or they would not lie smoothly when stitched together.

It took a lot of pins. Any guesses as to how many it took to put the two pieces together? (Answer below.)

I pressed and hung the jacket and then began working on the sleeves.

Because they would be turned up at the bottom, I made the lining out of leftover petticoat fabric rather than the white cotton I'd lined the jacket with.

And then I sprinted over to Mila's home - I had to do the fitting session before she headed off to soccer practice, so time was of the essence.

Everything fit!

I took it back home because I had one last thing to do.

The jacket closure was twill ties and those needed to added now that I knew that everything fit her.

I'm happy, Mila's happy... 

and now I'm moving on to  finishing up Lisa's robe a l'Anglaise. 

It has taken a lot of pins, too...

but if I ever counted them, I don't remember how many some of the parts of it have taken. 

(If you are wondering, it took 125 pins to pin together the lining and outer part of Mila's jacket together.)

Wish me luck - I'm in the home stretch of making the dress for Lisa, but it is still going to be time consuming. My goal is to be done by Tuesday evening of next week.

Carpe diem!

Breyer Boot Camp & Sewing Progress

Some time ago I mentioned that I was working on several horsey projects but that I could not speak about them at the time. Well, at last I can share! One of them has been announced and the show holders, Liz Cory and Jamie Rott, have given me permission to talk about it.

I'm stewarding for Breyer Boot Camp again this year. This is a show that is connected to BreyerFest and helps prepare novice showers for the Breyer Open Show. Entrants have to be at least 15 years old and cannot have ever participated in shows such as NAN, the BreyerFest Open Show, etc.

I enjoy stewarding (making sure entries are in the right class and that the formatting is correct on the entry) and I  get to see every entry in the divisions I am assigned. What a treat - so many pretty ponies! 

Ask me to judge though, and almost always I will decline. I don't mind judging my own Happy Trails (a pony party/collectibility show held in my home for fun) or I might even judge a youth division at a show, but judging high stakes classes no longer appeals to me. 

I've stewarded for this show several times and was happy to be invited back again this year. It will be fun.

Yesterday I made good progress on the robe a l'Anglais, enough so that a "vision" of the gown can be seen even if it is not yet shaped and is still incomplete. 

There are 4 yards or so of fabric in the gown and so it is heavy. It was a risk to hang it at this point as the shoulder straps are just facing pieces. They will be covered with the robing and have the sleeves stitched to them, both of which will take the pressure of the weight off those thin straps.

I pinned the stomacher in place to give me an idea of how it is going to look. The white lines of stitching around the waist are basting stitches and they will be removed soon. (Long ago I learned to baste in a contrasting color on dark fabrics so that I could see the basting stitches when ready to remove them.)

The white "lines" coming down from the shoulder straps is a pinning line of white fabric from the bodice lining. In the 18th century, women were literally pinned into their gowns.  The pins will go through that pinning line rather than into the navy fabric. It's a way to keep the "fashion fabric" (what the outside fabric of a gown is called) from being damaged from the pinning or by having the weight of the gown distributed through it. The lining fabric takes that stress, hence the pinning lines.

These pinning lines will be hidden by the robing that will be draped from the shoulder blades, over the tops of the sleeves, and down the front to the waistline. The robings will also help carry the weight of the fabric of the gown and alleviate stress on seamlines, preventing tearing.

Using fabric clips, I added the petticoat under the gown and the stomacher. Again, I wanted an idea of how the gown was coming together but I was also aware that I had REALLY increased the weight on those shoulder straps.

Here I have pulled the sides of the gown over a bit to check the petticoat.

Knowing I was risking tearing the shoulder strap linings, I worked as fast as I could. I was afraid to leave the gown hanging like that for too long, and I'd seen enough to be really happy with how it was coming along. I removed the clips holding the stomacher and petticoat, removed and rehung those two pieces, and then rehung the gown.

I folded the bodice in half lengthwise and then draped it over the hanger, again using fabric clips to hold it in place on the hanger.

Teacher Daughter Lisa is coming over later today to do a fitting. I hope to have the sleeves set in before she gets here - they're made and ready to go, so I should be able to have them stitched in place.

I'll post some pics tomorrow. Stay 'tooned!