Okay – this is just an update, since I’m not prepared with pics and such.  But I have been sewing, and I wanted to let you know my progress.

Bathhouse Keepers Shift –

I wore it around the house for a good deal of yesterday.  The shift is machine basted, and fitted properly around my torso.  It supports my chest well enough, and the straps have an interesting side benefit of keeping my shoulders back where they should be.

I have learned something important about the eyelets I showed here.  I don’t like them.  While threading a metal tipped lace through lots of them, particularly in a hurry, without looking, the horizontal bar of the blanketstitch catches the metal, or the metal catches the bar…whatever.  When you’re lacing and unlacing the whole row of twenty-four pairs for the third time in half an hour, catching is BAD.  I’m going to pick them out and redo them with the widely spaced whipstitches that I used on my plaid kirtle, that have always done just fine.

You may be surprised to learn that this sort of setback doesn’t bother me a bit – that’s because it’s SCIENCE (Bill Nye theme here).  Now I know that blanket stitch is needy, and wants attention, and although it works well as a way to insert a panel, it sucks as an eyelet embroidery on the otherside of my bosom from my eyes.  It will be very satisfying to RIP ALL THOSE SUCKERS OUT and put back nice, well-behaved, quiet, whipstitches.  So there.

The shift now requires a good deal of handwork to finish – I’m going to sew the sideseams by hand and flat fell them, hem the edges of the straps, and stabstitch down the top edge binding.   All of this is currently machine basted in place with purple thread.  After all the handsewing is done, I hope I can get help to mark my skirt hem.

I discovered the need for a top edge binding while fitting the whole – the top edge in order to look like a straight edge as in the illustrations, actually is cut on a curve to the fabric piece.  A curve = bias stretch.  Therefore I was going round in circles trying to get the top tight enough to shape flesh as in the pictures.  I added a piece of doublefold non-bias tape to the top edge – no stretch, bingo, end to shaping problems.  (The double-fold tape is cut from the same linen as the shift – no, I will not use cotton/poly on my garb.  Jeesh.)

Bluebonnet linen versatile dress, aka GFD:

I cut these pieces out, and started machine-basting them.  I have already run into something I would Do Differently , in that I cut the pieces out on Saturday night, and Sunday morning woke up with an Idea of how to further improve the fit of the Bathhouse Shift.

Note to self: When fitting self by one’s self, and having Problems, stop and mark all your parts on your pieces while you’re wearing them.  Your spine, for example.

When I’d done this, I discovered that my center back seam had wandered off to one side and was chatting rather too amicably with a side seam, so that neither the side seam nor the back seam were (1) where they were supposed to be; (2) doing their job of holding up the Front Team.  After stern lectures to both, and relocating the back seam, I was forced to admit that the side seam was rather off the side, and thus my Left and Right Fronts were not symmetrical.  At all.

This was Sunday morning.  After I’d cut the bluebonnet.  So the fix that I made work on the shift, I’m going to have to repeat on the bluebonnet.  Bother.  Fortunately, the Imperfection is under my arm, and everyone will only notice it after I point it out.  However, I think I understand how to fix it when it comes to the brown linen overdress, so that’s some comfort.  SMALL AND COLD THOUGH IT MAY BE.  grumble grumble.

(more brightly) I did cut the bluebonnet to have a bit of a train.  I hope this works.