Blouse troubles

My 0910 blouse for the 1912 Project is making me nuts!!!!  I just can't seem to get it to fit any where close to right across the shoulders.  I may just have to take it all apart AGAIN and resew it or try and lay a regular pattern that fits over it and see if I can figure out what the problem is.  I did order a corset, it is not exactly the correct type of this period but I have to have something to hold up my bosom. The 1912 corsets were under bust types and if you are busty that just won't work or at least I can't figure out how to make them work.  The one I got is bad enough, it is very low cut, more like a shelf bra.  I can understand why they ladies wore corset covers and all the other undergarments they wore.   I am going to have to look up on line to figure out what order they go on.  I don't know who I am going to get to cinch me into this silly corset, that alone should be funny.  I told Max we need to have a canopy bed so I could hang on to it like Scarlett O'Hara did when Mammy cinched h

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er up.  I will give a report on this big adventure when I get enough nerve up to give it a try.   Well, I'll write some more later when I get this blouse figured out.

Figured it out!

I just finally figured out that that is not a band on the bottom of the blouse, it is the skirt band.  I think the basque piece is what threw me off but got it figured out now.  Found some old fabric that I can use to make up my muslin.  Not a muslin but it will work!  This is going to be an interesting blouse.  Maybe interesting isn't the right word, different?  If I don't get some sleep tonight I am going to put it away until I'm not so tired or I am going to mess it up so bad that there won't be anyway to fix it.  Don't know what the problem is, just wide awake at 3 AM!  Now I am sleepy, wonder why........  Off to go do some work on my little brother's quilt.  One of these days I am going to quit calling him my little brother, after all he is over 6' tall and 200 pounds and is 50 years old! 

My stupid computer has a stuck key, "X" and of course I use it all the time since it is in my last name. Just one more of those silly things that makes me growl!

Strange problem

Well, got the blouse cut out of some old cotton fabric that I had and I got started making it up.  Sounds good so far, right?  Well, that is where the good part ends.  For some reason, the blouse is more like a halter top.  It is super short.  I figured out that what I thought was the band at the bottom was just the skirt band which just makes it worse instead of better.  I guess I am going to have to hope that someone else has this same trouble and can explain how to fix it or at least what they are doing about it.  (Side note: My stupid "X" key is still sticking on my laptop.  Didn't realize how much I used it until it didn't work.)  I guess that only one of the reasons to make up a muslin before you make up the garment in nice fabric.  I would have been really OPed if I had cut it out of the pretty silk and then found out that it is short.  The instructions don't really explain anything about the bottom of this blouse.  Well, guess I will go back and re-read it again and see if something jumps out at me or see if someone on Facebook has made it up and had the same problem.  I knew that I would have to do an adjustment on the bust measurement and that wasn't hard since I have to do that on all my tops, hurray for Nancy Zieman's fitting book, if you haven't used it and you have very many alterations to do with commercial patterns you will be glad you bought it.  I may have to get a new one as mine is getting a little raggedy.  Of course mine is one of the first ones.

Latest on the 1912 Project

Here I go with the 2nd garment in the 1912 Project.  This one is a ladies blouse, #0191.  This drawing at the right is what it supposed to look like, but probably not what mine will look like!  I nearly went crazy just working on the pattern layout, the front and back is all one piece but the lining is like a regular blouse, very odd.  In some ways it was easier than the first pattern I printed out, the Princess slip, at least I knew how to lay all the paper pieces out.  Since the front and back is one giant piece I thought I had done something wrong when I was taping it together but it is just the way the blouse is made.  I'll try and show you what it looks like as I go along.  I have to do a lot of adjustments as I am probably not going to wear a corset and even if I did, can't see me cinching down to a 25" waist and wearing it for any length of time!  The blouse is really beautiful and will be nice to wear with a simple skirt or even jeans.  I love the way it has a band on the bottom of it and 3/4 length sleeves are back in fashion.  I am thinking of not making the bottom band look like a belt as it does in the drawing, instead just leave it plain.  I don't think it would matter since I am really trying to make it more modern, so I can wear it now and not exactly like a 1912 version.  I have a piece of yummy green silk that I have had a long time but never made into anything, couldn't find the right thing for such a luxurious piece of fabric so I just kept it for "something" well, I think that "something" has come along.  Now I just have to figure out what to use as a trim.  I also have a piece of gray linen but that might be a bit stiff and not drape very well but it would make a nice skirt to go with this top.  Next time I will be working on the muslin of this top and try and get all the adjustments done to correct the size of this top.

The Slip Part 2

Bob helping

I can't believe that I have almost finished the slip.  Still haven't figured out the flounce on the bottom but got the rest of it figured out.  I now realize that in the future I will still need to let out the bust measurement a little more.  The rest fits nicely but I have to figure out how to adjust the bust since the patterns are made for a different body type.  I think the older patterns have lower bust points than modern patterns.  The only reason I can figure out why the difference in the fit is that bras are a lot different now, in fact, I am not sure if bras even existed then.  I'll have to do some research on this.  When you see drawings the waists were tiny (due to corsets but they show the women busty and hippy).  I guess they would consider that figure type "curvy" now.  Isn't it funny how the standard of beauty changes?  When you look at the period following the Edwardian style you get the ultra slim, flat chested standard of beauty of the "flappers".  I remember my grandmother talking about binding her bust since she was definitely not the flat chested type.  I got my build from her, thanks Grandma. 

I know that I am going to have to either make a corset or see if I can buy one.  The only place I can think of that I might be able to find one is at the  Blockade Runner in Wartrace, Tennessee.  These are Civil War era corsets but they would probably work after all, getting cinched up  is getting cinched up.  If anyone has any better ideas please be sure and let me know in the comments section.    Thanks for joining me in this journey.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

1912 slip project

I have started working on my first project in the 1912 Project.  This is a sewing project in honor of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic.  It is a slip, sounds simple doesn't it? After all, it is just a slip.  Well, remember that in 1912 all the proper ladies had a maid to assist them in dressing.  This slip has buttons all down the back and unless you are some kind of contortionist you would have to have help!  Most women today wouldn't have a clue how to dress in the garments they wore then.  Heck, when I see how a lot of women go out in public they don't know how to dress now, lots of them look like they just fell out of bed and went to where ever they were going.  I may not be a fashion plate but I do comb my hair and put on jeans and don't go out in my PJ's.  I am going to use this slip as a summer night gown when I finish it.  It may be the summer before I get all the lace put on it!  I am so glad that I bought the giant box of lace at the garage sale 2 years ago.  Didn't have any idea what I was going to do with it when I bought it but I think it will all be put to good use now.  I will be able to just put lace on all sorts of stuff.  I am struggling with how to do the pleated bottom ruffle, may just leave it off and put a piece of lace around the bottom.  Have to think about that!  The only way I can think of to do the pleating is to pleat it and iron it and hope the pleating would stay in but I don't think it would.  Here we are, back to needing that maid!!  I will post picture of the slip when I finish it.  I really should have taken pictures of me trying to lay out the pattern print out with Bob, Richard and Bear helping.  Three large black cats were really not helping no matter what they thought but at least if a hurricane had come through my pattern wouldn't have blown away!  Printing it out on regular sized paper then taping it all together was hard to do. (especially with the guys helping).  Tune in later for the next  adventure in slip making!

Happy February

Here it is already, the 2nd month of 2012, are you still writing 2011 on your checks?  I write so very few checks that it isn't generally a problem but had to write the date yesterday, I did it right but it just looked wrong!

I had a wonderful text conversation with John (my brother) yesterday.  Seems like he is a little down in the dumps, wish I was closer to him, we might could share our loads.  I don't know what he is down about but maybe things will get better for him soon.  I am going to make a quilt for him, he said any color but KY blue would be good when I asked him what colors he wanted.  I have a blue patchwork I have started on but I don't know if it is KY blue or just blue but I think that is what he is going to get since I have the materials, just hope it is going to be basically what he wants.  Nothing warms the body like a hand made quilt, especially one that is made with love.  Max wags his small one around like Linus.  I don't know if the one I am making John will be small enough for him to do that, I think it will be bed sized. May go ahead and make a lap quilt for him to match it.  I sent him a picture of Emma's bright colored one, he didn't say if he liked it but I had also sent a picture of George and both John and his girlfriend thought he was the cutest thing.  She wanted one but no one answered me when I asked where the goat would stay, after all he is a goat no matter how sweet and cute they are when they are babies.  Kind of like puppies and kittens, they grow up to be dogs and cats and lose that "cute factor".  Of course there are those animals that always have it.   Kind of like Andy, everyone that comes by the house stops and pets him and he is such a ham.  The Fed-Ex man did a delivery the other day and was petting Fritz and then asked me what Andy was.  When I told him that he was a mini horse the poor man's jaw just dropped and he asked if Andy was a foal.  Hard to believe that he is a 4 year old stallion.  I hope we don't have a problem this spring when the girls go into season and he doesn't know that he is only 34" tall!

Have to go get busy, got some orders to finish up today so they can get shipped, one apron bucket, 3 aprons and 3 bonnets.  Great to be able to make a little extra money and still be able to stay home with Max, there is no way I could not stay home with him unless I had someone stay with him.  Those costs would keep me from making any money at all with what sitters charge.  I don't mind paying Cody to stay with him sometimes when I need a break, but that is different.  Guess I need to find out if there is any kind of program that would pay for respite day care.  He wouldn't go someplace else so someone would have to come here and stay with him.  I am going to try and go with Teresa on Friday to Murfreesboro but will just have to wait and see.  It is hard not to be able not to just go off for even a couple of hours without worrying about him.