I bought my fabric!

I didn't intend to buy my fabrics yesterday. Really. Not that my husband believes me. "If you went INTO the fabric store, you obviously intended to buy something."

I was just sort of vaguely looking. I didn't think I'd find anything. I assumed I'd have to order online. But then I got a deal. I had a 50% off one cut of fabric coupon. Home dec fabrics were 50% off, and red tagged clearance fabrics were an additional 50% off. I found silk in the red tags. In a pretty rosy gold. For $4.50 a yard. It was a sign. So, I started looking for the other fabrics.

I had originally intended to buy silk velvet. I hadn't found exactly the color I wanted though and was ordering swatches at a couple of online shops. Instead, I gave into impulse and bought red cotton velvet yesterday. Its not exactly what I wanted, but to be truthful, having the cleanability (is that a word?) of the cotton is probably a wise choice with my children. It's easier to work with, and since I got it for $6.50 a yard I really am not going to complain.

I found a nice cotton jacquard with scrolling pattern in the same rosy gold as the silk for $3 a yard. Its going to be the underskirt. I'm going to start working on that today I think. Cartridge pleating and more cartridge pleating. I'm actually rather pleased with the color I got. As I said before, I've been working on a never ending Elizabethan loose gown project. The colors for that are blue and gold. The gold cartridge pleated underskirt should be perfect for wearing under that as well. So, I'll be making twice the progress. Whoo-hoo!

Speaking of progress, I just emailed my second progress report in and did a recap of the last week. So there it is, a week in and I have purchased my fabrics for the dress, found a fur to make into a zibillino, put together a pocket, finished a fan, made a muff, and hand sewn a handkerchief. I also have about 8 yards of lace made for the camicia sleeves and have pretty much figured out the pattern for the lace I will make to go in between the body gores.

Not too shabby, even if the biggest projects are still to come.

Tiny bubbles

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Seraphina is the best. While she was fitting my bodice the other day, I was babbling about the partlet and how I wasn't sure how I was going to get the right look. I'd looked at goblet pleats (shape if good, but the fabric lost its sheerness,) smocking pleats (too rigid and geometric of a shape) sculptured box pleats (both problems) and a few other types of treatments and was getting nowhere fast on the partlet problem. She smiled, went to her stash closet and pulled out this sheer linen with gathering threads woven in and handed it to me. PERFECTION!

I was over thinking it. Rows of gathers is going to give me the soft bubbly dimensional appearance of the portrait. The plan is then to couch over the gathering lines and add some sort of decorative stitch as well. That should stabilize the gathers and give me the finished look I want for the partlet.

Big sigh of relief from me. The partlet is such a large part of the visual for the portrait that I knew I had to get it right. Doing pleats was going to be pretty time consuming as well. This should be much faster and easier. Since the gathering threads are already in the fabric I don't have to measure and hope the threads I put in stay and don't break. There is much happy dancing here. A project that was going to take a month of handwork should be done in a week. At least that is the hope. Depends on what I decide to do for the decorative stitching.

I should finally get back to making progress on the project after a weekend of family. I have some lace that is really reminiscent of reticella. The plan is to play with that a bit and see if I can come up with a hankie. I also need to get the wood rasp out and start shaping my chopines. Probably most urgent though is the need to shop a little harder and see if I can find a fabric for my dress.