So I have been absent here for nearly a month. Sorry!
What I've been doing during that month, though is... mostly stressing. Some sewing. A bit of writing. A bit of gardening. But mostly stressing.
After biting the bullet and signing up for Costume College, I ended up in the last group to get to select limited attendance workshop classes. Did I get any of my first or even second tier choices? No. But I did get three classes which will teach me skills I do not yet have, so that's something.
And I booked my flights for CoCo! Which is its own level of stress. We also booked our flights to go visit family and friends in England this summer. (And, imagining keeping my 7yo entertained and happy and bringing on board food he will actually eat during that long flight... yeah, yet more stress.)
I still need to book a room for CoCo....
But! I have also shifted into sewing garments and deep-diving into the era I want to dress from (1920s). And despite having been quilting relatively steadily for the past several years, and sewing the boys' Halloween costumes... sewing for myself, particularly with any level of historical accuracy, is another ball of wax entirely.
I started by making a linen nightgown for myself, to replace my favorite cotton one that's developing holes. That went mostly okay, though I have some pattern notes for the next time. Then I pulled out my Given a Chance dress pattern from Decades of Style, and some quilting cotton to make a stunt dress. I added some extra ease into the body of the dress because I am busty. The result is... okay. I think next time I'll try slashing and hinging the pattern to get more volume in it because it's not as loose and flowy and wide at the hem as the illustration indicates it should be. But it's nicely sewn, and I experimented with using horsehair braid for the hem, which turned out quite lovely!
(And, yes, I know, I need to get pictures of these garments....)
Currently I have on my lap the pinned pieces of a 1920s slip, cut from that same linen as the nightgown.
Next... will come the corset. Because apparently that image of "they threw away their corsets and let everything hang free in the 1920s" is a LIE. Especially if you are, as I am, what the adverts of the time euphemistically called "stout." And since the two overbust corset patterns I've found for that period have absolutely terrible reviews, I get to draft it myself. Joy.
But! I also finished a project which has been sitting folded on my ironing board for a couple months now:
