There are no strings on me... but cats and chocolate

And also, I really need to press my seams, because hugh !!... uglies.

Well, the thing is that I try to make pictures of my 1928 dress with pipped overskirt sewn on, but you couldn't see anything of the dress, or the pipping or the overall form of the dress, so I deleted them. You will have to wait for me to try on the dress to make yourself an opinion.

Good thing : I really need to press my seams :)

I'm very happy tonight. It's been a long time I haven't been that crafty : today I

- make self-fabric bias for my 1928 dress,
- begin making the related self-fabric pipping,
- sew together the parts of the overskirt of said costume,

- then I try to make a pattern for a 1880 poke bonnet (you can see here, here, here, here, here, here and here -- the first hat -- that poke bonnet was indeed very fashionnable in the first years of the 1880s), with so-so results, but it's only my first attempt,

- and I'm also hoping to finish my crocheted so-called 1928 cap tonight, while lazily surfing on internet.

A good day, really.

I am on Ravelry, at last. Already a fan : it is so neatly done ! And very complete, and intuitive. Love !

Anyhow, my username is manekineko (this is what manekineko is, if you were curious). I wanted a bit of a change with my name, but it can make it a bit difficult for people who know me on LJ to find me on Ravelry... Idiot !

I found three of you people, but I just couldn't remember more username. So if you people on Ravelry could just send me your username or friend me, whatever you prefer. but none of you could be as fast as koshka_the_cat !

And in honor of Ravelry, I kept my last project secret and you can find it here. Others can see the pictures here and try to guess what's it's (supposed to) going to be. If you fail, I will take pity of you, and give you the answer. (Yeah, I'm evil)

One thing that noone never tells you when you begin sewing is that you can never really trust your toile. You may have the perfect fit with it, it will end up being to small or wrinkled or something when you will make the garnement out. Happens to me all the time.

But never to that extend.

I have a 1 inch and an half difference at the hips between my toile and my finished garnment. On a pillow-case type dress ! *facepalm* Luckily for me when I saw the toile was to big, I just decide tha it would give me ease, and didn't redraw the pattern : now it's tight, but still wearable. I just need to buy myself a panty. Which I didn't want to. 20s lookalike undergarnments are so ugly...

But now I'm worried : I did actually cut a bit of the pattern of the matching vest, because on that one, to big was just not acceptable. And the fabric's already cut out... I'm afraid it might not be wearable once put together...

I find it less annoying to sew by hand than getting my mother's sewing machine out of its husk of dust.

I'm hopeless :)

80% of the pieces are cut out.

One good thing done, as cutting is what I hate hate hate the most.

My year begins well.

As I'm not posting much on my sewing agenda, I think I could just do a recap of what I'm I'm working on right now :

- The 1928 Janet Arnold's dress : I don't have have a picture of it right now (it's the black and white marocain dress). Mine will be Bronze and Ivory.
The pattern is done, except for the sleeves. I made a first mock-up, but really without and underwear it didn't work, so I will have to redrawn all of it after I made underwear. Which are on way : already have a bandeau for the breast. I didn't really search for accuracy. And I avoided complicated ;-))

Without With

( the bandeau _ under a cut because... hem... some people might not want to see that much flesh )

For the hips, I will transform the 1914's thing from Corset and Crinolines

- The 梅 の ドレス (the ume dress) : 1880. That's the only one I talked about lately, but actually, I've begin working on it only two weeks away.



- The 1873 dress. I kept it a secret, because I didn't know if will be able to to buy the fabric I wanted to make it. And then, fabric sale ! So now, it doesn't have to be a secret anymore.
I found the pictures of the fashion plate on ebay. That's why they are so so lame.



Note the most important thing : it has pink in it ! Everyone should know by now that I hate pink with a passion. But I'm trying to cure myself.

I've begun the skirt. I'm making a built-in pink petticoat (yeah not period, but my skirt is unlined, and it required a petticoat, and as I'm doing the following...) and a built in bustle. I'm also thinking of doing a crinolinette, to have the right hem form.

- The final, not begun yet project is the fantamabulous Simplicity 1880's dress. Yes I know : Simplicity. Fantamabulous. In the same sentence. Wrong, isn't it? Well, no.

Because I'm talking about the pretty :



Why working on that one? Just because I've discovered that my Toto shop is doing great great silk for just 6 euros/meter. That one silk I'm using for my Ume dress. And 6 euros/meter, when you will nedd 10 to 15 meters of silk, is pretty yeah !!

Obviously, the free open internet connection I was pirating has became too weak to be pirated now, so I don't have internet unless I go to my hyper expensive cyber café. Too bad for the internet addict I am.

Anyway, I learned that the next Galliera Museum (one of the two Paris costume museums) exhibit is going to be "Les Années Folles" (the 20s) : see here (in french) for more informations : http://www.viafrance.com/evenements/les-annees-folles-305812.aspx

I'm lazily thinking of doing myself the black and white 1828 suit from PoF to go to the exhibit, but going alone is not very fun, so if anyone else of my french and belgian friends is interested... (exhibit from 20 october to 28 february). SMS answer is welcomed for those who have my phone number.