Underwear or Outerwear~ Which Is Your Fav?

[Cilean]

I seem to be always making Shirtes or Smocks!

I think I have a Dozen now in Italian/Tudor/Elizabethan!  Even my kids have them and the hubby we have all the inner workings but I always seem to be 90% done with the outerwear!

I have friends who say they have the same Smock for 10 years, they hate making the dratted things, yet I love how they look and I am always checking out new linen to make more!

So how about you all? Do you like making the underthings or is it a drag and you can't wait to get to the good stuff??


Also? I always make my sleeves first, I forgot once and did not have enough of the material to make sleeves and had to readjust my skirt so that I could indeed have sleeves for the outfit!  Giggle


Cilean

[Miranda]

I like them both.  Actually it drives my friends nuts that I'm nearly as anal about the stuff people don't see as I am about the stuff people do see, I.E. flat felling the seams on my smock, when I have a fully functional serger.  Not as obsessed with the "no visible machine stitching" thing on the smocks though, I guess  I use the tiny machine stitches for that. 

Undies are the foundation, and the clothes don't look right without it.  And I'm a girl...I like having pretty underwear.

[operafantomet]

I seem to be always making Shirtes or Smocks!

I think I have a Dozen now in Italian/Tudor/Elizabethan!  Even my kids have them and the hubby we have all the inner workings but I always seem to be 90% done with the outerwear!

I have friends who say they have the same Smock for 10 years, they hate making the dratted things, yet I love how they look and I am always checking out new linen to make more!

So how about you all? Do you like making the underthings or is it a drag and you can't wait to get to the good stuff??

Cilean

It's a drag! I hate it hate it HATE it. I made a chemise in 1998, and I wore it for all my Renaissance costumes until April this year, when I FINALLY sat down to make a new one. I'm very happy with the new one, and very happy that I actually made it. I bought a wonderful Vicentine lace to decorate it, to have something to look forward to, and the though of getting so far I could sew the lace on got me through the boring work...

This is the new chemise: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/venetian/venchemise.jpg

I have to say, though, that wearing a new chemise or a fine shirt, feeling the nice fabrics and embroideries.... it's a very good feeling. I just hate MAKING them.

[nliedel]

I make nifty undies, so I sew those first, then the bodice. I'm learning a lot this year about bodices. I've made myself three dresses and I'm getting pretty darn good at them. Skirts. We are working on. I can pleat a lot of skirt into a little bodice, but it takes time. My new thing is blackwork as a decoration. I'm really having fun with that. So, I love all of it, except hats. I can do them, but yuckers.

[Lady Neysa]

Also? I always make my sleeves first, I forgot once and did not have enough of the material to make sleeves and had to readjust my skirt so that I could indeed have sleeves for the outfit!  GiggleCilean

I don't mind making chemises. The very first one I made I sewed all  by hand.  It was made from a heavier cotton gauze.  I screwed up and cut the sleeves out wrong, with the lines running horizontally instead of vertically.  It was all the fabric I could spare, so I went with it.  After it was done, I had 2nd thoughts and was afraid to wear it for the longest time, fearing it would look dumb.  I eventually got over it, and now it is my favorite chemise, and it has actually held up well for being hand sewn...my hand sewing skills are somewhat lacking. 

[sealion]

The undies are certainly easier with less fitting to mess with! (Well, excepting corsets! lol)

[gem]

I've been pondering this question since Cilean first asked it, and I think my answer's gonna have to be...

Undies.  Now, speaking truthfully, I really don't actually *enjoy* sewing all that much.  I like having made the garb, not actually making it!  (This is an old writers' joke: I don't like to write.  I like having written.)

However, if I look back over the stuff I've made, there are two projects that were actually fun for me: my corded petticoat and my hand-sewn linen 18th Century shift.  Since those are both underwear, I guess that wins by default.

(But I don't really mind skirts.)

[nliedel]

there was no way on earth I was ever going to tackle a corset, till a saw a cast member wearing one yesterday. She did an okay job with it and looked great. If she can do okay and have it work so well, then I know I can. By not having it perfect, it almost dared me to try because I know mine will not be. Make sense? I was afraid till someone showed me that my standards for first time articles are a tad high. I'm expecting miracles when it's just learning.

[AnyuBoo]

For me, the answer is really both.  I enjoy making corsets, but I also love making court gowns.  Generally, if I'm making garb, I'm happy.  But I get called upon to make mundane clothing every now and then as well, and for some reason, I don't really enjoy that as much as creating garb.   

[Katie Bookwench]

I like undies a little better -- they're simple (with the possible exception of corsets) and they don't need so much tailoring.

And really...when you're wearing fun and crazy bloomers, how can you help but smile?

I have a pair of pink bloomers with HOT PINK polkadot linen at the bottom. I have a pair of white linen with red and blue crabs on it, a pair with pink plaid on the bottoms, and going to make a really really RED pair with black trim for this season.

Oh, then there are the Harry Potter print bloomers, and the red ones with hearts (printed cotton) on the bottoms, and on patches all over the legs. For Romance Weekend, of course. :-)

[AmazonSage]

I tend to make a new bodice or corset every year, I'd make a few if I had more time.  I usually make at least one full outfit each year but my focus is always on the new bodice I for some reason just have to design.