I need a kick in the Ditchley...

[mollymishap]

Today's update:

Still no flower poufs...BUT I did find the bin with the pintucked underskirt fabric, AND as an added bonus, I found where I had actually started to make larger farthingale sleeves, but ran out of bias tape (and steam), so only one of them is actually boned.  I had forgotten that.  I also found four packages of the buttons for the pouffs...MIA are still the fabric for the over-skirt, bodice & sleeves...which is weird because I could have sworn I had grouped them all into a bin & called it "Ditchley", but that labelled bin is nowhere to be found, and since I now have about half of the fabrics gathered up, I don't know what to make of that.

I also went ahead and gave the fabrics a quick fresh-me-up wash to get the stale out of them and un-tacked the smaller (and actually completed) farthingale sleeves from the linen chemise so that I can work on making them sturdier.  Of course, I had already done this before I found the larger pair, so now I'm not sure which to work on: fixing the smaller pair or finishing the larger pair.  

I have the text and a few pictures of this part of the costume up at http://myfairelady.com/sleeve-farthingale if anyone hasn't seen it before.  

My goal for tomorrow is to really focus on finding the poufs and the red fabric, then over the weekend finish up the underpinnings.  Once those are squared away, I can start work on the underskirt for the gown.  And in between all of the above, I can pouf and pouf and more pouf.  I found where the wayback machine had archived the text from my old site (no pics unfortunately) regarding the making of the poufs.  It can be read here: http://web.archive.org/web/20090228202501/http://www.myfairelady.com/?page_id=40

37 more days to go (counting today).

P.S. Gem, I saw what you did with your own website: nice going!  I found once mine had to be taken down that waaaaaay too many of my pictures had been downloaded from my site and uploaded to various and sundry other websites without any reference to my work.    Soooo, it's taken me extra-long to get it back up again because I won't put up any pictures that haven't been watermarked.  I don't remember now if yours are, but I'd suggest to you and anyone else who has pics up online to do the same.  Sad that that's how things have to be, but there you have it.

ETA: I FOUND THE POUFS!!!  All 79 of them & about 14 yds of the fabric for them, which makes me nervous...I think now I'm missing some pouf fabric...

[Kate XXXXXX]

Sleeves: Both, and make them detatchable so you can use them with different costumes.

Well done for finding the poufs.  And the rest of the fabric WILL turn up...  I once mislaid a 10 meter chunk of 90" wide sheeting...

[mollymishap]

Yes, I think that's the way to go, Kate.  I've got a couple of hours where I'll be in a car & can do some hand sewing, so I think I'll work on the smaller of the farthingale sleeves (and more poufs) since the larger sleeves require a machine to stitch down all those boning channels.  Once I've made the smaller sleeves nice & rigid (up at the top which is where they're sagging), I can determine if those will do as they are or if I should finish up the larger pair.  I agree that eventually it would be best to make two complete sets.  

Thanks again, all, for the encouragement.  It's really helping me to focus on what I have to do and get my goals down in writing.  Y'all are GREAT!!!

Hut, HUT!!!

(More later...)

ETA Update: So I worked on the smaller sleeves and now I remember why I started on a new pair...and why I never finished the second, larger pair...ugh!  I handstitched and unstitched and restitched and I still have stitching to do.  I think I'm going to modify my plan for this weekend to include finishing both the smaller and larger sleeves because I'm not sure the smaller sleeves are going to give me the right look, but since they're now almost done (for real), I'm going to hold them in reserve in case I can't finish the larger sleeves...so after tonight I've got 35 more days to go.

[mollymishap]

OK!  I'm posting early so I can set my goals down & commit to them.  IF I can get it all done, I'm going to be VERY pleased.

FIRST, I have to clean my house (I know, TMI, but really, it's pulling my focus, so that has to happen first.)

SECOND, I have to tackle organizing my sewing room because now I can't find my quilting gun that I need to have in order to work on the poufs.  I used it recently, so I think it's just misplaced or accidentally buried between layers of the remnant bin from one of my last two projects so that's where I'll look first.

THIRD, I need to finish both pairs of farthingale sleeves.

Also, since my last update, I've found the red overskirt fabric, but I think I'm missing some pintucked ivory for the underskirt and some pouf fabric though the last I'm not too sure exists...I may just have bought less than I thought I did in which case I have a backup plan: use the existing fabric for the poufs and buy some more fabric for the strips between.  Thankfully, I was able to spot some that will serve at a local fabric shop while on my lunch break yesterday.

So today starts the 34th day before the gig.  Wish me luck!

[mollymishap]

End-of-weekend update:

I'm reasonably pleased with where I'm at even though I did not even get to work on the second, larger pair of farthingale sleeves.  I am actually sticking with the original pair.  After I tweaked them, and then tweaked some more, I think they're going to work just fine.

If you scroll all the way down the page, you can see a picture of me wearing the whole kit-and-caboodle at my website here: http://myfairelady.com/sleeve-farthingale

32 days to go  (it's already Monday where I'm at).  Good nite, all!

[Kate XXXXXX]

Looking good!

[mollymishap]

Thanks, Kate.

I wish I could say today was as productive as the weekend.  I'm stuck & in a bit of a slump.  Now that the underpinnings are done, I'm having a hard time getting motivated to start on the *real* dress.  I've got a plan, but I keep finding myself draping and pinning and etc. when what I really need to be doing is making a toile of the skirt so that I can get the underskirt cut out so that I can cut the under- and over-sleeves so that I will know how many poufs I'll need so that I can get to work on poufing.  Waaaah.  I hate this part of a project when it's not much fun creative stuff and only drudgery.  Ugh.  I think I'm gonna call it a night.

31 more days to go.

[mollymishap]

Not much accomplished today, but for other reasons than yesterday. 

I literally just got home from rehearsal (it's about 11:15 PM my time) after a whole day of work, so no time to do much except that I took the pouf fabric with me to rehearsal & I was able to rip some 48 strips of organza which should yield close to 200 more poufs.  I'm hoping that by the time this week is over I've at least drafted a toile of the skirt so that I can count how many more poufs I'm going to need all told.

Anyone wanna come over for a poufing party?

30 days to go.

[gem]

I would TOTALLY come and pouf with you!! Where are you? Oh, guess New Hampshire is kind of a jaunt from Kansas City... drat.

[mollymishap]

LOL!  It's the thought that counts, Gem!

So tonight I inventoried my store of ooches and--once again--my memory isn't representative of reality (hate it when that happens).

I have 226 large buttons and 393 small ones.  The large ones are 1" across and look like this with the pouf:



I don't have a picture of the small ones, but they're basically the same minus 1/8" in diameter smaller.

In my memory, I had more larger ones than smaller ones, but it appears quite the reverse by almost 2:1.  I may have misplaced a bag of the larger ones but that's unlikely at this point being as I've scoured the whole house & garage looking for various & sundry things and I probably would have seen said missing bag by now.

SO, plan B with the poufs is to make all that I have in the larger ones, work on the toile to figure out just how many I'm going to need, and then come up with a way to artfully mix the sizes up so that it's not so obvious.

Tomorrow I get to sit in a car for about 5 hours so I'm trying to get set up tonight so that I can pouf and pouf and pouf...I hope it's a productive trip in that regard.

29 (gasp!) days to go.

[Kate XXXXXX]

Put the smaller ones on the sleeves and bodice and the larger ones on the skirt.  You can space the larger ones out a bit more...  Make the pattern a bit bigger on the skirt.

[mollymishap]

OK! I've been up since 4:45 AM today so I'm going to keep this update brief cuz I'm POOPED!

I was able to prep/tack all but 60 or so of the larger poufs and I completed another 11 bringing the grand-total of completed poufs to 90.

Prepping the poufs is easy & fairly quick, but stitching them down with the buttons is another matter.  I got my speed up to about 6 minutes a piece, but if I want my hands to last, I'm going to have to sacrifice a pair of leather work gloves by cutting off the thumb & first two fingers so that pulling on the upholstery thread I'm using to secure the poufs doesn't cut into my skin so much.

Oh, and Kate: that's a good idea about using the smaller poufs for the sleeves.  Hopefully, I can get to the toile this weekend so I'll know what I'm  up against because I'm not sure that I'll have enough large ones even to cover the skirt.  We'll see.

Good nite, all!

(28 days to go.)

[mollymishap]

Current completed pouf count: 106. 

Plan for the weekend: at minimum, have a complete toile for the underskirt & overskirt (I already have a pattern for the sleeves) and figure out just how many poufs I'm going to need.

At best, make a petticoat from said toile out of a holiday tablecloth I bought this week.  The fabric is glitzy enough to wear by itself as a backup in case I am unable to finish poufing or decorating the "for real" underskirt.  And if I do finish the "real" underskirt, I can just wear the petticoat as a--well--petticoat.

27 days to go.

[mollymishap]

OK, so here's my end of weekend update: still no completed toile.  BOO!

I've been working on the thing since 3 this afternoon and I must admit that this has been the most difficult fit I think I've ever worked on.  I've made skirts before where the hem is on the grain and the waist is where the adjustments are made (my old Elizabethan Venetian for one) but because in this case, the hoop is an ellipse AND the center is off-center AND it has that point in the front, it's been just plain hell to get the drape right.  I've got the waistband and skirt cut out and I'm at a point where tomorrow I'm hoping that I'll be able to baste them together to make sure the fit is right before I make pattern pieces out of them.  I'm thinking that I'll need to put in some kind of stay-strip to tame the pleats at the edge of the wheel or they just want to fall towards the CF which is most unflattering.

UGH.  What have I gotten myself into?  I'm starting to fear I may not make my deadline.

25 days to go.

[Kate XXXXXX]

Making a stay for those pleats would probably be a good idea.  Cut a piece of your toile fabric the same size and shape as the top of the farthingale, and pop it on that.  Then when you drape the pleats you can pin them to it and tack them down with thread when you are happy.  You may well need to stand to do it on the dress stand, but it will be worth it.

Want more progress pix...