Plum Medieval Dress: Hem Progress

The pattern for my Plum Medieval Dress, Simplicity 2573, includes a tiny train. I didn't realize this until after I cut out the back pieces, then decided I would decide what to do about it later. I thought about trying to get the skirt hemmed today, so I lay out the skirt and trimmed the back layer to be roughly even to the front layer. I wasn't worried about being too precise since I'll be measuring the hem against the floor for the final length.

This turned into this:

I think there is a little bit of sun damage there at the bottom of the skirt. I had stored my fabrics folded up in direct sunlight for a couple of months. Silly newbie mistake! I'm not too worried about it though, because it's not at all noticeable on the dress form. Also, It's possible that it will end up in the hem. I'll see once I have the hem turned up. I'm not against the idea of turning the hem up higher if needed or maybe just going with it since a long dress in a medieval environment certainly wouldn't have been pristine along the bottom.

I was all ready to pin the hem up and get to work on setting it up for a hand-stitched blind hem (slip-stitch?), when I realized that the lacing might affect the way the hem hangs. I have 15 eyelet holes left to go! Slow but steady progress.

Speaking of dress forms. I have a dress form! I picked it up a few months back and am just now putting it to its first use. I managed to get it to match my measurements at the hip, waist, bust, and upper bust. I changed the form to match on everything but the bust, then added an old bra and stuffing. I don't have sewing friends, and there's only so much helping that my husband was going to be a good sport for, so dress form it is!

These pics were taking in a room that my husband and I are currently renovating. It will be an office. But for now, it's empty. Too bad it won't stay that way. White wainscoting will cover the white section of the wall.

---

On an unrelated note, I noticed today that one of my favorite sweaters has a hole starting. I had darned a hole in this sweater 4-5 years ago and it has held up immaculately ever since. I'm reasonably sure, however, that I didn't keep the yarn that was left over after that fix. I don't think there was very much left. You can see the irregularity of the darn just to the left of the hole in the below picture. I love this sweater, so I'm thinking about attempting a fix.

I like the idea of working some embroidery directly onto the sweater, but I'm completely perplexed about how I would draw on the sweater. So maybe I will embroider on a different piece of fabric and applique it to the sweater.

---

OK, one more diversion. One of my favorite bloggers when I started into the world of sewing blogs was Sommerset at Pins and Needles. She hasn't been blogging for a few years now. I miss her voice in the blogosphere. I hope she still finds time to sew just not to blog about it. The projects that she shared on her blog were true works of art and I always appreciated the details she would share about construction, decisions, etc. Well, Summerset used to have a "Parting Shot" on pretty much every blog post. It was a non-sewing related photo that gave a peek into the rest of her life.

I have a goal this year of using my downtime more consistently to progress on my sewing projects. In my mind, part of that goal also means posting more regularly here. I think the two will go well together. I hope that I will feel motivated to sew because I am being held accountable to show some progress on my blog and that I will feel motivated to blog because I have made progress with sewing. We'll see though, since I'm back to work tomorrow after 2+ weeks off for the holidays.

As part of a more consistent blogger presence, I thought it might be nice to borrow Sommerset's idea. Instead, I think I will call it a Frivolous Photo.

For today's Frivolous Photo: playing trains with my boys. My 3 and soon-to-be-2 year olds are obsessed with trains at the moment. They got several track additions for Christmas, and now this is all that they want to play. It's good times for everyone!

Medieval Dress: Eyelets

The pattern for this dress calls for eyelets and lacing at the sides. Because I decided to use turn of cloth with the lining to finish the sides, I have six layers of fabric where the eyelets go. I did a sample with the same fabric arrangement.

I tried two types of eyelets/grommets that I had around: one that has one piece of metal and one with a front and back. Both were unable to handle all of the layers of fabric. These are the two holes on the right, above. I liked the idea of using thread anyway. It's more period-appropriate, but also I was not going to get anywhere near the plum of my dress with a metal eyelet without some serious luck. My sewing machine has an eyelet stitch. That, with an awl poked through is the second hole from the left. The stitch looked decent, but it was not going to stay open. I had read a suggestion from Bunny at La Sewista once about making really nice buttonholes by covering a machine-worked buttonhole with a hand-stitched buttonhole. That with just some standard thread is the hole on the farthest left. I liked the way that looked!

I ordered some purple buttonhole twist. I think I got the reference from Sunni at A Fashionable Stitch? It's a tad more violet than the color of the dress, but a substantial part of what I love about sewing is working with fabulous fibers, and I wanted to go with silk thread.

On the dress, I stitched the eyelets with my machine and I am now working on completing them with the button twist. The more violet thread is pretty dramatic up close, but across the room, it just highlights the eyelets.

Apparently I've been using the wrong needle for the job. I never quite know how to choose a hand-sewing needle. I have dozens around and typically just go with whatever has an eye that fits the thread I want to sew with. Probably time to re-think that strategy!

I currently have 8 eyelets done (one with the wrong thread, so I might re-do) and 16 to go.