I'm such a procrastinator. I have a terrible, terrible habit of planning really well and then just not executing. *sigh*
At any rate, Steampunk Unlimited... I've known since last year that I'd be going to this. Do I have anything to wear? No, no I don't. Well...I mean I could wear what I wore last year...or something I wore to Steampunk World's Fair...or I could have finished one of my UFOs...but I didn't. I decided I wanted to do something different.
Of course I did. Over planning and under performing. Yep, that sounds about right.
So after the crazyness of impromptu costuming all summer and the Prohibition party I finally sat down to decide what I wanted to wear.
Two weeks before the event.
Yep. That sounds right.
I have a pretty decent fabric and pattern stash, so I started there. I found Simplicity 1819, which I've been wanting to make for a while. I actually have a stash of lovely home decor fabrics that I purchased specifically with this pattern in mind. I pulled some of the fabric and played around with my surprisingly vast selection of corsets and settled on two outfits.
Yes, two. In spite of the fact that we're only going for one day and that I had just two weeks to make the outfits.
Sounds about right.
I wanted something that I could wear during the day and then easily change in the parking lot for a different look for the evening concert. I decided to make the long skirt without the apron and the short view separate, wear one corset and bring a second. I knew I wanted to change the waistband to a drawstring to make it easier to get in and out of and eliminate the need for adjustments later. I hate adjustments. I don't like the ruffle, so I planned to extend the bottom to make it long enough and eliminate all that work making the ruffle.
Awesome. So I had a game plan, got myself together and cut the pattern out.
And then nothing. Because I have an event in two weeks, so there's no pressure for me to make anything yet, right? I don't even have a good excuse for this, I just didn't want to do it.
So this weekend I knew I needed to get this stupid skirt made. So I watched TV and didn't actually start working on the skirt until 3 PM on Saturday. Ugh such a procrastinator.
At some point during the cutting process it occurred to me that I might not have enough fabric to actually execute on this grand plan.
It was about this point that I realized that I'd already screwed up.
This pattern is weird. It's an apron and bustle built onto the skirt. The front and back cascades are all separate pieces. I did not realize this when I cut the pattern pieces or when I started to cut the fabric.
The front of the skirt under the apron is three pieces. I ended up cutting two of those pieces at the longer length, but not as long as I wanted to replace the ruffle before I realized my mistake.
The apron is (way way!) too short to make without anything
under it (although now that I think of it it would have looked cute
over leggings...) Since they were too short to use for the long skirt and too long for the short skirt, I cut them down, but I ended up wasting a good chunk of the fabric because of it.
Luckily I caught it before cutting the third panel or the back pieces. *sigh* Once I realized my mistake I cut the remaining pieces and started putting the short skirt together. I figured of the two skirts the shorter one would be more versatile and I knew I'd definitely have the fabric for it.
I ended up about 1 yard too short to make the longer underskirt and decided to go to the fabric store in the hopes that they might have some more of the fabric.
I bought this stuff on red tag clearance from JoAnn's years ago but I still see it show up occasionally. The problem is that it's not JoAnn's fabric, its remnants from somewhere else that end up there, so if it wasn't in clearance there wouldn't be any of it anywhere in the store. It was a crapshoot, but I decided to at least try to see if I could get some more of it.
They didn't have it. They had the same taffeta in a gorgeous teal color that I seriously considered buying to make a layer, but ultimately decided against. And that is how I wasted most of my Sunday.
Let's recap: wasted half of Saturday cutting fabric I ended up not using. Wasted half of Sunday shopping for fabric I ended up not buying. Skirt still in pieces. Event the following Saturday.
Awesome.
That is how I ended up sewing this stupid thing together at 10 PM the weekend before Steampunk Unlimited and why as of Monday and it still was not done.
I ended up scrapping the cascades because I am, quite frankly, too lazy to cut a lining or properly finish the edges. I'll tell you it's because I don't like the way they look, but that's only half true.
So I spent all that time carrying the pattern markings over to the fabric and by the time I actually needed them they'd worn off on all the pieces except for the cascades, which I wasn't using. Excellent. Guess it's not like I needed them or anything...
In addition to deciding to scrap the waistband I also decided that I didn't like the weird bustle pulley system Simplicity wanted me to rig up or to line the bustle. I ended up deciding to make the bustle like I did for my skirt last year and just tack up the puffy bits. So I really didn't need a lot of those markings. I made a rolled hem on the bustle. I hate rolled hems.
As of Monday and the skirt was mostly done. I managed to tack up the puffy bits on the bustle (previously held up with safety pins) and hemmed the skirt. True to form, I did this Friday night after work.
I also found out at that last minute it was going to be in the 50s on Saturday and my "clothing" plan was a short skirt, lace top, and a corset...I contemplated making myself a jacket too.
Unexpected jacket made in less than a week? Hahaha! No. I wore a cloak that I'd made years ago for a red riding hood costume.
