5 days until Purg Turns out the skirt is 46″ by 250″. That’s about 7 yards of skirt. Sheesh. I just barely had enough wool (good thing I bought 10 yards).
Saturday was spent sewing on the guards. There are three of them. I ran out of thread just as I was attaching the last guard (at 9:30 at night). Had to wait until Sunday morning to finish that up. As mentioned previously, I’m top stitching the guards currently. I think it looks like shit, but I don’t have time to hand-applique the guards before Purg. The plan is to do the hand-applique after Purg but before 12th Night.
Sunday I pleated the skirt, trimmed it to length, and attached it to the bodice. I had planned to attach the skirt using a french seam. This worked well when I made my italian dress. The difference here is that this skirt (made of wool and with its rolled pleats) is -way- bulkier than the italian skirt was (made of linen with its knife pleats). As I started attaching the skirt I realized there was no way it was going to make a nice neat french seam(Add to that, I didn’t leave enough seam allowance on the bottom of the bodice to allow for the french seam.). So I started over and changed the plan to put the seam allowance to the inside.. and then bind that with a strip of the lining linen. I think it’s working out well.
One of the draw backs of this change in mid-stream is that now my guards are 1 inch too low. I’d added 1 inch to the top of the dress to allow for the french seam. Now I’ll only have 1″ (or less) between the bottom guard and the hem instead of the 2″ I originally planned.
Sunday night I finished some of the hand sewing. I added a skirt hook to the bottom corner of the bodice to hold it in place and hemmed the edge of the slit in the top of the skirt that allows me to get into and out of the dress.
While at Jo-Anne’s on Sunday morning (picking up more thread to finish up the guards) I also found some lovely trim with -huge- pearls on it. I think it will make a lovely choker (thus avoiding the whole “open chain link necklace” thing from the SCA perspective. (if you’re in the SCA.. and you have a german gown.. and you go to a Renn Faire… do you wear the chain? Even though it violates SCA custom? Hmm.)
I tried on the dress with my Italian chemise.. and I don’t like the way it works. For Purg I think I’m going to go without. For 12th Night I’ll make up a new chemise.
I think at this point I need to hem the dress, make/attach the brustfleck, add lacing rings and make/attach the sleeves and I’m done.