So, what's next?

I've been madly busy and away from home for the past few weeks; it always seems that September and the first half of October are the busiest months for me (if you don't count the summer, that is). Now I'm actually looking at several full weeks at home, so some sewing would be nice (What dissertation? What dance competition rehearsals?).
I still have the blue Regency dress that I need to finish. I'm done with maybe 1/4 of the embroidery on it, so that's one project. I also need new Regency stays; for some reason both the pairs I have gave me horrible shoulder cramps all week long in Bath, so I've decided to try and make a new pair. I'd like to try the patterns that Sabine of Kleidung um 1800 researched so expertly.
I also searched Etsy for sarees and managed to find two very nice embroidered silk sarees, so once they arrive, I have a couple of new gowns to make. I still want to block print a gown fabric, too, if I ever find suitable thin, white cotton (I'm beginning to lose hope :P ).
I also want to make a highnecked Regency gown, after this fabulous number from the Eremitage collection in St. Petersburgh:

Curiously, I'm suddenly drawn to the later 19th century styles. I came across this painting via The Ornamented Being tumblr and fell in love. I have absolutely no experience in the 1880s styles, not to mention the underwear etc. But a girl can dream, no?

Portrait of Anne-Marie Dagnan, 1880, Gustave Claude Étienne Courtois, via The Ornamented Being

The Chinoiserie stays

I finally finished them! Couple of days ago I was in a strange state of mind because I voluntarily dug up the unfinished stays, took the back pieces apart, made them smaller, sewed everything back together again and trimmed and lined and generally finised the stays! Hooray!

Staymaking, not my favourite. But this time the result is slightly better than with the previous ones I've made. The pattern came from Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines, and as said, I had to adjust the fitting a bit.

I call them the chinoiserie stays, because of the funny fabric (linen, btw), and it is very period appropriate because China and the far East were a source of facination to the 18th century fine society. The stays have altogether four layers: the top fabric, two layers of rather heavy cotton fabric and the batiste lining. I used cable ties and some scraps of rigilene for bones.

I also started embroidering the blue gown, not much progress yet but I like the look:

Another gown

Hmm. Now that the pelisse is done I feel like I can move on to new projects. I took a little break from sewing after the pelisse to rest my fingers - with all the handsewing, fiddle and harp playing my poor fingers do deserve a little holiday :) - but now I'm at it again. I'm working on the blue gown I begun while I was procrastinating for sewing on the pelisse trimmings. So far, I've fixed the fit of the bodice (too wide to begin with), repleated the hem (too much of an Italian Renaissance going on with the first version) and started on the embroideries.

Surprisingly, it seems that this gown will be a sort of jumper version as the short sleeves I was planning to have didn't really work out. I'm also making a long-sleeved chemisette to go under the gown. Also, it's strange how often I'm choosing blue fabrics for my Regency gowns. For years I didn't wear blue at all, not because I hated the colour, but because it somehow felt very alien to wear blue clothes. However, lately my partiality to all things blue in period clothes has even influenced my everyday costume choices. Odd.

I don't have any presentable photos on this project at the moment, but here's a picture of another blue gown.

Wearing the sari gown at a masked ball

A quick post on what's to come

I've been busy with the needle lately. The Nordiska Museet spencer is done (sans the decorative buttons, as I haven't found anything suitable yet, and I need 104 of them...) and I'm currently hemming the blue, to-be-embroidered-with-white gown. I was very inspired by the neckline of this dress and I think I've managed to create something akin to it. My dress will have short sleeves, so I can make a long-sleeved chemisette to be worn under it.

The pelisse is still waiting for the trimmings. I was lucky to find more of the fabric when I was visiting another city (and met up with the lovely Rococo Atelier, btw :) ), so nothing is going to save me from making an buttload of rouleaux piping now.

Today was one of those days when you go to town to look for something and come home with five other things besides. I went to buy bargain flannel to make me a dressing gown and just happened to find cotton,  just the perfect shade of green. And it was on sale, too. So, let's add a new 18th century petticoat on my to-do list. Then I got the idea of embroidering it, something like this, this or this. I must be mad or both.

I also ordered wooden block print stamps from Blockwallah, because I have one such stamp and I've been meaning to print a gown fabric with it but (as usual) haven't found the suitable fabric yet. Now I think I'll try the stamps on the dressing gown and then print a gown fabric if I ever find any. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find suitably thin, white (but not too white) cotton.

These are the stamps I ordered:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/129718394/wood-block-stamp-paisley?ref=shop_home_active
http://www.etsy.com/listing/129626753/border-hand-crafted-wood-stamp?ref=shop_home_active
http://www.etsy.com/listing/129526208/paisley-wood-block-stamp-especially?ref=shop_home_active

If I don't have trimming for the pelisse or the spencer...

... that means that I can make a gown, right? I've been itching to begin making a day dress out of this blue fabric I found a couple of weeks ago. I intend to embroider it with white and use one leaves and flowers pattern I've had lying around for ages. The pattern goes around the hem and up the centre front of it; I might sprinkle the rest of the dress, the bodice and the sleeves with some random leaves depending on how I feel.
I browsed the net today but couldn't find that many blue gowns. I wonder why that is; there were tons of white embroidered gowns, of course, but for some reason not that many blue ones.

The fabric, a sketch and the embroidery pattern

I have a chance to hit fabric and haberdashery shops in another (and bigger) town next week, so I'm hoping that I'll find suitable trimming for both the unfinished coats, but until then... :)