Just a quick update on that brown dress

So History Alive was on a few weekends ago and I got my first chance to wear my brown dress for two days in a row. It is always good to get that chance, as many times comfort issues aren't noticed when you wear something for a few hours, but are when you wear itfor an extended time.

Fortunatly, everything was relativly comfy (a hard thing when drafting your ownbodices) though I did spend most of the weekend with my skirts tied up as what is a good length for walking is too long for working and bending in mud.

The sleeves worked really well, though the curve at the top was a tad too large (thats ok, just a look thing, it doesn't affect the fit at all) and I will attach a second tie on point (again, just a look thing).

The main problem was the armholes, they were too far back (when drafting the size on the back of the bodice should have been smaller and they should have been larger on the front). As you can see they gape a bit at the back, and by the endofthe secondday they were startingto cut in at the front. There's nothing I can really do on the brown dress to fix this problem (save loosing more weight). I can enlargen the front of the armhole a tad but honestly I think I'll just leave it.

In the above picture the skirt looks funny because it is tied up, and in the bottom picture it is wrinkly because its been tied up all day!

All in all, it is a pretty good dress. The only alterations I'll make to this one is adding another sleeve lacing point. My next pair of sleeves I'll make with less of a shoulder curve. My next dress (when dad can finally spare half a day and the petrol to take me to get fabric) will be a little different. I'll alter the armholes and I might make it so that it laces fully closed (they did both). Of the colours I am dying I am hoping to get a madder-looking orange, and if so I might make it slightly shorter for when I am working on muddy days to save having to tie up the skirts (which is rather unattractive). How often I'll be at an event with mud like HA, I don't know (I sat down and my chair sank inches and I almost fell off), but its good to have a dress I can wear in the mud anyway.

What I would also like to do is order some wool from overseas and make a dress. Having seen a real wool (I mean light weight wool as opposed to the blanket weight stuff you used to be able to get here before us reenactors bought the last of the wool) dress I know what the overseas reenactors mean when they say it falls really nicley- it does. I just don't think I can justify the cost right now though-not when I have dye for three dresses that will work on linen and silk but not on wool.

Hopefully Iwill have photos of my giornea soon to post, my construction of that has been halted however as I am making my mum a dress, not a real dress, just a costume so I have to learn how to do a few things like faking layers (she won't wear a shift or anything as she thinks an extra layer will make her colder. Yeah, thats what she says- shes just being stupid but now I have to figure out how to sew in extra fabric to cover the parts that will show (lacing gaps etc). That will take longer than it would if I gave her the pieces to make a shift and had her sew it on the machine. (time isanother factor in her not wanting a shift, we are short on time so it would be better to waste my time doing something that will take longer than it would take her to do it properly, so we better use up as much time as we can as we are short on it) Yeah, makes no sense, I am still trying to get the truth out of her and failing. At least its just a disposdable dress, not one she wants to wear again so all this stupidness will do is eat more into time I don't want to spare- not with having to do another full outfit for abbey too. As you can see I don't like wasting my time on crappy 'midgeeevilish' costumes and quite frankly I don't know how to make them. As far as modern crap goes I am not a good sewer as I don't know how to do modern sewing. I can just sew clothing from the 15th and 16th centuries and thats all. Which is why it anoys me when mum lies to people and goes and tells them I am a good sewer and can help them with their modern stuff when I can't.

ARGH. ok, rant over.