Roadblocks happen. Sometimes they are planned, sometimes they are a surprise.
Mine is both.
Halfway into the month of October, my life changed when little miss Athena d’Cheneau walked into my life. The newest member of the Atelier family, she was an 8 1/2 lb bundle of energy, playfulness, teeth, and exhaustion-inducing care.
Athena is amazeballs. But she’s definitely stolen my focus for the second half of October.
Here is where things stand.
Smock
I’ve cut out the smock pieces and hand-sewn the sleeve seams. I’ve also sewn the gussets to the body. All that is left is to sew up the sides, cut the temporary neckhole and hem the bottom.
Once the kirtle is finished I’ll be able to tackle the final neckline. Sleeve cuffs will wait until I have the sleeves of the gown finished – I want to make sure I understand how they will peek out before I add the frills.
Petticoat, Kirtle, Gown, and Accessories
The only progress made on these pieces so far is purchasing of materials: I found some lovely silk for all of them, and also purchased some synthetic whalebone for the kirtle.
Now, I know that it is most likely a kirtle of this era would not be boned – certainly not unless it was the fanciest of fancies. However I wanted to experiment with something suitable for more courtly wear, and the pattern I’m referencing is Tudor Tailor which DEFINITELY indicates bones. I may regret the decision, but for now boned is what it will be!
That being said – I need to get a move on. Time’s a wasting! Luckily Athena is away for several weeks to get some intensive training, and while she is gone I intend to buckle down and do some intensive sewing of my own!
November Plans
With Athena out of the picture for a few weeks, I intend to get the smock to it’s next pause point and get the petticoat layer completed this month. To be really on top of things, I should also get the kirtle construction underway and at least have my boning channels in place sooner rather than later.
I am not sure yet how much of the work will be hand sewing vs machine – I certainly intend to hand-finish all seams, but for the moment I’d rather get to the point of working on the French Gown portion of this exercise even if it means I won’t have entirely hand-sewn garments. We shall see.
I also intend to blog/vlog/record and share a fair amount of my process, so I need to allocate a bit of extra time for that process…
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