A late night post

I really should be in bed by now, but I felt like writing a little project update first. I'm sure I'll regret this in the morning...
So, I've been working on the Eremitage gown, and the biggest and the fiddliest part, aka the weird curtain hem decoration is done and I think I managed to produce a drop front gown without actually having to cut  in to the hem, and still have the 1820s silhouette. Here's a couple of photos I took before the holidays. The dress still needs the gingerbread trim, the sleeves and a collar, and I need to figure out all the closings and buttons and pinnings and hooks and eyes and... Now it actually looks like this gown might have all the possible varieties of closing mechanisms save the zipper and snap fasteners.

The shirred bib front is going to have buttons or something on the top edge to attach it to the underbodice which closes at the centre front with hooks and eyes.

I'll try to have some better pictures taken over the weekend to show the construction in more detail. It's been so depressingly dark and lightless all December that there's not really  a point to try to photograph anything. But hopefully now some sunshine and daylight will return.
Yesterday I began dabbling with a project that is very un-me, meaning corsets. I don't like staymaking or corsetry, I've said it before, but there I was, enlargening patterns and cutting a toile for not one but two 19th century corsets. Weird. Both the patterns came from the Corsets and Crinolines book, one from 1844 and the other from 1880. I managed to put together the 1844 model and stick some bones in it to try it on, but I'm not really sure what I think of it. First of all, it was maybe a bit too big for me and felt like it was sliding down all the time. Also, I'm not used to the crisscross lacing thingy where you have the loops to pull the laces tight. It took forever to get the corset on, the lacing in order and the result was not worth all the effort. Back to the cutting table with that one.
I've yet to make a try-on version of the 1880s corset, I've only sewn together one layer of a mock up and I think I want to do a more careful job with it than with the 1844 semifiasco.
Actually, I really should make a new pair of Regency short stays, but I thought it'd be interesting to try and see if I could produce a passable Victorian corset. If the 1880s corset works out, I might try and make that dress Anne-Marie Dagnan is wearing in a portrait painted by Courtois.