Tiger Lily's Threads

So.. It looks like I have worked myself to exhaustion. After spending more than 109 hours on the flounced petticoat, I am ready to toss it in the basket and work on something else. So, to grab some variety and sanity, I finally cut out the pattern for my husband's long awaited 18th century waistcoat, and did some knitting. Looking at my calendar, I still have plenty of time to finish the petticoat before the convention and the challenge #20 for the Historical Sewing Fortnightly, but as for now, I'm just going to take a long awaited break. 

My goodness, It's been a very busy month for me. Aside from bracing myself for the Christmas rush in October (the "joys" of working retail), I have been doing a lot of sewing and jewelry making for an upcoming convention called "Chessie Con". It's not exactly an anime convention, but a convention for ALL things Geek and Science Fiction and Fantasy . (Think Game o f Thrones, and Lord of the Rings, and Doctor Who.) While I am very inquisitive about this convention, and it's going on's, I'll mostly in the artist alley/dealer's room helping out a good friend of mine sell her jewelry, as well as selling and advertising my Steampunk jewelry and a few other hand-made items. As far as all of the sewing, I have been diligently working on the Victorian Flounced petticoat and over skirt, to go with my steampunk attire. It's been a lot of fun to sew it, but my goodness, keeping track of all of those knife pleats and pinning the lace to everything, I

It's been a while, but after 4 yards of bleached white muslin, and 4 spools of lace I bought from work, and weeks worth of knife pleating, the back part is finally done! While I am glad that the back part is finished, I really enjoyed making the flounces. If anything, I'll add just one more at  the very top of the skirt, for the heck of it. Now to work on the waist band and front of the skirt. 

Just got back from a War of 1812 reenactment this weekend for the Defender's Day battle at North Point. Only, my unit was about a mile away from the main event due to political and personal issues (aka reenactment drama). So we were moved to a farm settlement about a mile away where there was some historical significance to the battle of North Point. The settlement we were patrolling was a place called Todd's Inheritance, a farm that has been in the Todd family for 15 generations. Originally the British burned down the Todd's family home, and they rebuilt in 1815 as well as added on to the house in 1830 (pre-Civil War). Anyway, the whole living history event we did went pretty well. There were drilling demonstrations, a lecture on women's fashion, and lots and lots of answering visitor's questions. When I had some time, I was able to sit down and knit a reticule bag as well as work on some finishing touches on my chemisette that I had made the night before.

So, the progress for my victorian bustle skirt has changed, just a tad. I figured that since I already have a lobster tail bustle and a bustle pad, the next thing I should focus on is an under petticoat to go over it, thus making the overskirt look a lot fuller when I put on. Plus, it would also serve well as just a Steampunk skirt. Well, let's just say that 2 weeks into sewing this project and getting frustrated, I have finally decided to scrap it and redo the front and back pattern pieces, as well as elongating the bottom flounce. Instead of using the online tutorial that I was originally following, I decided to use the steampunk simplicity pattern. The outcome was much more successful. My favorite aspects of making this skirt, would definitely be the ruffles and flounces because of how the lace looks when it's all scrunched up. As soon as I can find my camera, I will show more than enough pictures here. But for now...