Démodé

historical costume projects & resources

Confession time

I’ve been avoiding my blog like crazy, both because I’m deep in must-sew-deadline-approaching-mania, and because I’m irritated (just slightly) with one element.

The buttonholes took me THREE DAYS — but that’s what you get for making bound buttonholes, I suppose! This time around I used the method in the Reader’s Digest Book of Sewing (or whatever) described as “foolproof” — sounded good! I certainly need that when it comes to bound buttonholes! Basically there’s a whole lot of basting involved, which before you remove to complete the buttonholes allows you to measure so you can be sure there isn’t any wonkiness. This actually worked out well except for 1 buttonhole which is slightly wonky, but hey, I can live with that. I turned the stripe on the straight for some contrast on the buttonhole lips.

So then I made my covered buttons out of white taffeta and sewed them on…

buttons1 buttons2

…after which I was able to start binding the edges and finishing up the neckline, which is where the irritation came in. I wasn’t 100% certain about how the V-neckline would be affected by the front overlap, so when I finalized the neckline I realized that my top buttonhole is too high — it really should start one buttonhole down. I’m HOPING that once I put on the super-froofy trim, I can cover that buttonhole — in which case I’ll just take off the button and ignore it. Could be a whole lot worse, but it’s a drag because it’s not something I can rip out.

buttons3 buttons4

So now I’m onto piping edges and sewing in boning — the lovely Mercurio stopped by Lacis during a trip to the East Bay and got me boning and boning tape — yay! We love her!

And now I’m off to the race to the finish — and no, I CAN’T wear the dress without trimmings (I did buy pinking shears, so that’s good, right?). Besides, there’s no victory to attending an event unless you haven’t slept the night before, right? (But seriously… let’s just say I predict I’ll feel a bit peaked on Friday [cough cough]).

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