Of Petticoats & Pasta.

In my quest to actually complete a sewing project (my 1895 Skirt), I have -- alas -- finished all the long seams in all 9 gores. (Remind me again why I picked a skirt with gores as my assignment? Nine gores? On a hand-cranked 1895 sewing machine?) They were pieced and sewn together late last week, and the gores fitted together rather nicely for a custom drafted pattern. Was feeling rather impressed with myself.

Until I tried it on. I had a slight fitting issue (the fabric, where it's on the bias, stretched a little) but it's easily remedied. It was seeing me in a skirt usually worn with a corset on my flabby uncorseted form which gave me the biggest shock. My somewhat decent-looking, after-baby-but-still-breastfeeding body had apparently gone on an extended vacation without giving me any notice whatsoever.

Despondent, I put the whole project away and scrubbed the bathrooms and kitchen.

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With kitchen and bathroom now sparkling, I decided to upload the pictures so those of you who are interested can see the progress. The little pleaty things in the front are where I'm going to have to take the skirt in. The panels are on the bias right there and the waistband just didn't fit. I kind of expected it with linen. It's strangely slippery, movable stuff.

The skirt definitely needs underpinnings (even though it's lined) -- and a ruffled petticoat is just the thing to lift my girly spirits. I mean what girl doesn't love ruffly underthings? C'mon.

So that's the skirt progress as it stands now.

Dieting is next on my list.

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Speaking of dieting, my darling consort gave me KitchenAid's pasta attachment set for my birthday. I know! What a sweetheart. So guess what I made today? I'll give you a hint:

Took hardly any time at all, seriously. The dough is super-easy to make and the attachments made short work of producing lovely angel-hair pasta. Oh, and I tried out the ravioli attachment, too. Uhm. Let's just say I need more practice. Thankfully I didn't waste ALL of the dough on ravioli.

Ciao!

Progress.

{ stitching on my ca. 1895 wilcox & gibbs }

Well, I got the lining all cut out (on Tuesday night) and got all the linen pieces cut out. I had to piece the side bottom portions of the back, but it still looks good - and authentic. They would have done it back in the auld days. I've decided to stitch this up using my wilcox & gibbs machine. I don't have a treadle for it, so I'm doing it by hand, but it's quieter (much!) and I can use it on the kitchen table, right next to the room where Victoria is sleeping so I can go comfort her several times per evening while she transitions to sleeping in her own bed.

Besides, who doesn't kinda dig the idea of sewing an 1895 pattern on an 1895 model machine?