Book and stays

I’ve long wanted a book about Gustaf III’s national costume, Studier rörande Gustav III:s nationella dräkt by Eva Bergman, that was published in the thirties. Last week I found it online for basically nothing- it’s not hardcover, but in very good shape. I got it yesterday. Yay! Now I have no excuse whatsoever for not making it. I have the fabric, I have the pattern and now I even have the book. I’m aiming to have it done to the 12 night ball Gustafs Skål will have in January

I tried my Regency stays the other day and the good thing is that it fits very well over my waist and hips. It’s the first time I’ve tried boning with reeds, and they seem to work very well. I put boning channels beside the busk and on both sides of the front side-seam. And on both sides of the lacing holes. I thought I would need more boning, but it seems not. However, the cups are another matter. I definitely need to cut the front higher and also widen the gussets a bit. They work, kind of, now and I will follow advice of adding a strip of fabric to make it a bit higher, as I don’t have that much time before I need to use it.. And I will remove the wide busk and put in a much narrower. The wide one may be period, but my breasts aren’t small and it doesn’t work to have them pushed apart sp far. So a new busk channel, an additional stripe of fabric for the front and then finish the edges and I’m done.

Aaargh!

While sewing boning channels in my regency stays I did a stupid mistake that I really know better than to do. I put a big unsightly scorch mark at the front of the stays. While I hadn't planned to prance around just in my stays, it really bothers me.

More than the 18th century

Two years ago, I sew a 40's evening gown:


It was a lot of fun to sew and I felt I wanted to do a short version, when I found the right fabric. And at a visit to Carina's fabric shop, I found the fabric. Rather surprising actually, as it has flowers on it. And I'm so not a flowery fabric person. But it spoke to me, and I bought it, and when I dug out the pattern, I understood why.



My sub-conscious mind has obviously a much better memory than my conscious. It's rayon, though, and pure hell to cut and sew in, so I'm still working on assembling the pieces.

Other news is that I'm sewing the boning-channels on my Regency stays. I'm nervous of the fit- it's the first time I've sewn something with bust gussets. And I think it may be cut too low...