White Wool, Day One: Feb 21, 2004

Of course, now that I've rearranged all my fabric stash and the crepe for this gown is wedged in a box under my bed, I decided to start on this project. Good job, Katie. Anyway, I prefer to do my sewing while I'm alone and don't have an audience, so when I had the afternoon with the house to myself, I spread out in the living room and began fiddling with sleeve muslins.

Version one muslin: Used my redrafted sleeve pattern from the Requiem dress for the upper sleeve, and made a big half-circle for the lower sleeve. I pinned them together so the middles lined up and then pinned the underarm seam, which was located under the arm.
The sleeve, on top of being too long (detail for now), did not hang or flow right with the sleeve seam under the arm. I had been wondering about that, since Katherine placed her seam at the back of the arm when she did her Traveling coat. So, I went on to the next try.

Version two muslin: I slashed up my upper sleeve muslin and pinned it back together (stacked flat, right side to wrong side) so that the seam went down the back of the arm. Then I pinned the half circle to the bottom of the sleeve again so the middles lined up, and voila! It worked. The sleeve hangs much nicer with a back-arm seam instead of an under-arm seam. Next step is to make the half circle more of a "D" shape; it should be sort of squashed rather than a straight semicircle.

Day Two: February 22, 2004

Well, I added that quote at the top of the page today, and realized (not for the first time,) that I am simply not Eowyn. I am neither slender nor tall, and neither am I fair. I'm dark, short, and fat. However, since this is not a "I am trying to be Eowyn" costume but more a "I love this dress and have a formal occasion as an excuse" costume, we'll all live with it. Anyway, basically, today I'm just posting a picture of my eight yards of "washable crepe: eggshell" taking over the living room. Now, it is poly crepe. However, it has two distinct advangates.

• It does not cause me to break out in a rash like wool does.
• It was only $2.35 per yard. I got eight yards for $25.75 from Fabric.com. Compare this to $40 for eight yards of navy crepe for the Requiem dress. Yeah. No contest.

Day Three: February 24, 2004

Went to Hobby Lobby this evening, where I bought two colors of Pearl Cotton to try for the neck embroidery and braided trim. I'm not going for tinsel-gold here, though, so I just bought a nice buttery gold-yellow instead of the sparkly metallic stuff. That, besides the fact that I'm still fed to the teeth with metallic after that Requiem dress. Anyway, I got colors "ecru" (no number) and "676" (no name). I tried out braiding it, and it looks great with two strands of each color. Well, four of the ecru, actually, since it's a 2:1 ratio white/gold.

For the sleeve lining, I'm very tempted by Fabric.com's ivory satin charmuese. It's lightweight and washable...and cheap. I'm on a budget, and brocade just doesn't work with that budget. Another option is their ivory sophisticate jacquard, but I don't really dig the little flowers. They don't really strike me as terribly Eowyn-y. Also, the satin charmuese also comes in a nice garnet "cranberry" color that I want for my wrap.

And yes, I am plugging Fabric.com an awful lot. They're very good to their customers; I just got a special coupon for the entire month of March, no limits, because company loyalty really does work in your favor. Go, shop there, keep them in business!

P.S. No, I don't have a pattern yet. Yes, I am worried. No, I don't have any clue about what to do for the belt. Yes, I'm an idiot. But I have til May 7! It's all good!

Day Four: April 21

I know, I know. I'm so bad; I haven't updated in forever. The news, basically, is that I've decided to use the Regency dress pattern again since the empire waist is more flattering on me than anything else, and that I ordered 3 yards of charmuese satin in ivory to line my sleeves with. I also got some remnants at JoAnn's the other day to play around with for mock undersleeves. I'm not going to make a full sleeve, probably, since that'd be three layers and the banquet is in the middle of May. In any case, I have a shadow-patterned silky bit, and some gold organza with caviar-beaded starbursts on it. They're both pretty, but I'm leaning more toward the former, since it's closer to the color of the rest of my dress. And I've got more of it.

I'm also entertaining the notion of wearing a corset with this dress. I've been wanting to make one anyway, and it seems like no matter how I try to lose weight for events like this, it never works amid the stress of everything leading up to whatever event I'm trying to lose weight for. I'm sitting here with the corset pattern on my lap right now, wondering if I should take it out and look at it or not. I don't know if I'll have time to make a corset before banquet, though. I wish I could justify buying one.

Day Five: May 1

Today, I cut out all the pieces for the dress except the bodice lining. I'm using my trusty old Butterick 6630 again. I know it's not even close to screen-accurate but this is a banquet dress. I want it to look good on me, not on Miranda Otto. This pattern fits well and, here's a plus, I've used it before so I know how it goes together. All I had to do was alter the neckline to be a "v" shape. It's actually quite high compared to almost everything else I've made for banquet, but it's very sophisticated-looking. I mocked up the sleeve to my satisfaction while watching Braveheart (so...gory...erk...), cut out the bodice & skirt in between Spartacus and the Televisión soccer game, and cut the sleeves and their linings while the family watched The Fifth Element. I'm so TV'd out it's not even funny. BUT! It's all cut out now. Since we only have like, four days to get this thing sewn together, mom's doing most of the construction work. It's not that I can't do it, it's just that I have school and work to deal with as well.

Day Six: May 3

I cut out the bodice lining today. Mom put together the bodice and sleeves while I was at school, and so this evening I hand-tacked the sleeve lining to the rest of it. It looks really nice. I love the crepe fabric; it's very liquid and heavy.

Interlude

Since my mom did most of the sewing, the dress went together lighting-fast. I hand-hemmed it about a week before banquet...and then didn't have anything left to procrastinate over until the big night. It was a weird feeling not to be frantically hemming or finishing trim the day of the banquet. At any rate, the dress was done, with infinite thanks to my mother. I could have done it, but she did a lot faster. She went out and bought lining material to line the skirt with, since two layers of crepe would've weighed a ton. The dress weighs about five pounds already, another layer would've killed me. I already had a nice kink in my back from supporting all five pounds straight from my shoulders all night. Anyway; on to pictures. I've updated with some of my mom's pictures, which, being taken on a very nice camera, came out very well.

My best friend Andy Barber asked me to banquet. That's an interesting story in and of itself, but I'm not going to tell you anything except he waited for the very last possible moment to ask. Freedom's grapevine is very efficient, poor boy. We went with a group--Eliza and her friend Ben, and Thomas and Rebecca came with us too. We all had a very good time, though I don't think poor Andy realized how many pictures the parents were going to take before we even left for the banquet.

It only looks like we're that close. In reality, my hair is barely brushing his shoulder He was very nice about it, even though I was kind of invading his bubble. We're friends, we lived.

The group! This is a great picture in real life. It's also the picture my mom should use to advertise if she ever becomes a professional florist. Everybody looks nice, and you can see everyone's flowers. Mom made all our corsages and boutonnieres, and they looked incredible. Go mom!
You can also see the slight train my dress has in this picture. It's all artistically arranged and everything...completely by accident.

Um...sleeves! Also, the hem touches the ground when I'm not wearing three-inch heels.

At this point, someone said, "Okay, squish in so we can get you all in the picture." Elizabeth and Andy moved in really close and friendly. "All right," I said. "Later, we're going to have a contest. How many people can we fit on my sleeves?"

Well, this one's up so you can see how the sleeves fall with the seam where it is. I would also like to say for the record that I feel really bad about this picture. That's bona-fide bubble invasion going on right there. Wasn't our idea, I blame the photographer. Anyway,
Andy, if you read this, I'm sorry about the hand. I really am.

This one's up because I like it.

...And this one's here because I think it's hilarious. My mom saw him and ran back inside fairly giggling, "Katie, Andy's here, and he looks like a CIA agent!" About the time he hit the door, I had a gigantic attack of shyness and didn't get near him for a good couple minutes while I remembered how to breathe. Then I realized, hey, this is still my best friend, and everything was all right again.

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