(ever have a verse that gets stuck in your head and won't leave? The title is the first bit of one that I'm giving involuntary brainspace to right now...)
But as R:tAG put it:
Yay us! If you were at our wedding, do you feel old yet?
Regency trousers are done, vest is in the works*, shoes are ordered, my hat and reticule are still on deck. Prognosis for achieving full costumed status: favourable.
We attended the RiffTrax Live event here in San Jose last Thursday and it was very funny. Perhaps not the best thing to attend with a friend who is suffering from a double hernia** though. I was also thinking of what they could have done to make it feel more like a live distributed event... this is a cool thing to do and it's odd that it just still felt like we were watching a taped live performance, if that makes sense.
So of course I started thinking about the U of C HCI lab and their Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) projects because they had some really neat ideas (even years and years ago when I was in academia) on how to make people who are geographically separated feel like they are still working together. So now I'm thinking of designs to make people in ~200 theatres feel like they are having a shared experience, without that becoming the main event. Like Walt Whitman nothing good will come of it,*** but it's a neat problem.
Oh, and here are some random links. It's been a while since I've done random links:
Otter Half
ZooBorns - As good as Cute Overload but without the tooth-gratingly twee text.
Cute Kitten - Hi, Bne!
Wondermark
A Handy Flowchart
Zebras
Hm. A picture-heavy link list, I notice. Maybe I've used all my words.
ETA: Yep, I'd used all my words before I mentioned that Terry and Dancin' Cicada Jen paid us an all-too-short visit last week. It was great, though it was such short notice... only six weeks!**** We just hung out and talked, really, but we also found this good Ethiopian place. Ethiopian bread is like eating sour J-cloths... but in a really good way. Yum.
* With the caveat that the collar modification is still unimplemented. And that rayon brocade is a slippery bitch goddess.
** Not a figure of speech, alas. Poor guy.
*** Hi, Cenobyte!
**** The sarcasm hand sign is up.
Coat: complete! I am happy that R:tAG is a perfect Butterick XL. I can follow any kind of correct instruction, but making diagnostic alterations* apart from a bigger or smaller hem is beyond me.
I was very happy with the pattern; Butterick 3648. It's not actually Regency, more early Victorian (note the waist seam, the square transition between the body of the coat and the tails, and the curved bottom of the tails) but the pattern was cheap, the right size**, clearly written, makes a well-designed piece of clothing, and was quickly and easily acquired. I should have made the collar facing velvet, really, but I couldn't find any in a matching green or brown and didn't have time to experiment with dye. So it's only the buttonholes/buttons to do on that. Yay!
I also made the muslin of the trousers (which, thank goodness, also require no alteration) and I think I've figured out a collar for the vest.
And I got the stuff to make a bonnet and reticule for me, so we'll see is there's time. August is just speeding by!
* i.e. saying "Oh, the horizontal wrinkles mean it's too tight here, so I need to change the seam/shape in this way..."
** Men's Regency costume patterns are not that easy to come by. The only other one I found has a reputation of running very small (and R:tAG is just barely within its upper size range), and also has reported other errors. As I said, I'm not that proficient a tailor to overcome these obstacles on a tight timeline.
I am falling behind in my sewing. The trouble with most costumes is that one needs the proper underpinnings to get the right look... the term "foundation garment" is completely accurate, in an architectural sense. So my Regency dress meant a bodiced petticoat* first. And then the dress fabric I chose (an embroidered cotton voile) was so sheer that I had to do handsewn buttonholes. And then there was the whole "inside out French seam" incident and the "drawstring casing on the outside" incident, of which I will not speak except to say that I think I have an inner ear disorder.
But at last, the dress is done!
It's hanging before its final hemming right now, and I have to see if it will fit on my tailor dummy. I really hope it does, because it makes hemming so much easier, but the "Regency silhouette" involves rearranging squishy bits which is impossible with my packing-tape dummy. The really hard-core costumers make different dummies while wearing different undergarments... one with an Elizabethan/Tudor corset, one Regency, one Victorian, etc.. I'm not that obsessed and/or blessed with storage space.
It has to be R:tAG's coat next, because in a pinch he can wear modern trousers and I can't make the vest until I see how the coat fits, because I'm altering his Victorian vest pattern to have a higher collar.** So then we'll see if I have time to make the cute spencer for myself. At least I don't have to have a hat, though a reticule would be nice. And shoes. I have to find shoes.
All this, and ten hour days at work! Whee!
* Which combines a chemise, corset and petticoat thus saving a few steps at least.
** I hope I'll just have to add a stand-up collar piece, but I also need to check the length to make sure it peeps out below the coat's waist in a stylish fashion.
