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construction

Regency Gown #2

I’ve finished the bodice of my dress, which means that the whole thing is nearly done! The skirt is just a couple rectangles gathered into the bodice.

I lined the sleeves with my self fabric, and interlined with organza for extra poof. The right sleeve is misbehaving, I don’t think I ironed it as well as the other side.
The bones still need to be cut – turns out the new dremel tool doesn’t work on the bones, so we have to go to storage* and get the old dremel tool.
I’m really proud of the eyelets – I have an eyelet footplate attachment for my sewing machine, but they were still a lot of tedious work. I like the lacing much better than buttons though. Hope they hold up!
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*I’m not a fan of having a storage unit, and I’m hoping we can sell our house quickly so we can cram all that junk back in our closets! đŸ˜‰

Regency Gown #1

I hope everyone had a great Christmas weekend! We visited with family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and in between I’ve been working on both Chris’s coat and my Regency dress.

I’m using the same pattern I used last year, the Sense and Sensibility pattern. I don’t love it, but I’m already familiar with it. As much as I didn’t want to bother, I needed some pattern adjustments from last year’s version (the bust was too short). I did a mockup out of lining fabric, since I don’t have enough self fabric to recut if the pattern was wrong.

Ginger helps choose lining fabric.

Whew! Glad I did a mockup – I did need more corrections – the straps were falling off, it would have been a disaster! Lining/Mockup #2 is good, thank goodness!

I’m planning to do spiral lacing up the back, my first time trying it. (Why can’t I keep anything simple?)
Here’s my lacing inspiration, from the Kyoto Costume Institute:

And here’s the fab how-to online resource I found for Spiral Lacing: The Zen of Spiral Lacing

I’m having Chris cut down some steel bones for me with the new Dremel tool he got for Christmas. Yay for new tools! Hopefully the dress will come together this week. Yay for short work weeks!