Sewing deadline approaching

I’m still scrambling to meet my sewing deadline.

Our private 18th century costuming group is having a little gathering on May 7th — costumes not required — and I’m hoping to throw together an outfit as fast as I can.  My poor husband will have to wait, so he’ll probably just dress nicely and wear his kilt to make it special.

My outfit won’t be perfect or fancy, but at least I’m trying to move quickly and get over worrying about perfection.  Right now, the most important thing is to have a couple finished outfits.  Then I can worry about being more authentic and fancy.

I’m almost finished with the first outfit.

The first couple of outfits will all share the same green petticoat.  Most of the tops will be “undress” jackets.  Basically (if I understand correctly), these are jackets that one usually wears at home, but not really out.  You can receive guests while wearing them, but you’d dress nicer if you went visiting.

Now you can see one of the (many) reasons I was second-guessing myself recently.  I almost felt like I should have tried to make something a little fancier.  It definitely makes me want to do that for my second jacket.

Unfortunately, I may have to wait a few days before officially finishing.

I’ll be adding the cuffs to the jacket a little later today.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any hooks and eyes (I can’t bring myself to use pins to close garments — no amount of reassuring from anyone works. Iit just makes me nervous worrying if they’ll truly stay closed or if I or someone else will get stabbed or one falls out and someone steps on it).

I need to make a trip to the fabric store to pick some up.  This also means an official-official, final fitting won’t happen for a couple days, so I won’t even know if I’ll have to do some last minute scrambling to fix any errors to make it fit properly.

What’s next?

After I attach the jacket cuffs, I’ll need to get to work finishing two other projects: the second mitt, and the second pocket.  That means embroidering and sewing.

I’m a little nervous I won’t make it.

While neither of those projects are that important, it would be nice to have an extra pocket, and the mitts might help spruce up the undress jacket.  I might decide at the last minute the mitts won’t really go with the outfit, but it’s just nice to have the option.

Plus, it’s also nice to mark two more things off my list completely.

Why’s it taking so long?

This is my first bodice for 18th century.  I’ve not had to fit something like this before, and I want to make sure I get close enough at least.  Also, the stays are back-lacing and I need help putting them on.  It’s not as quick as my Victorian corset (which I can put on by myself).  Sometimes I have to wait before I’m able to double-check my work and make sure before I continue.

This is the first time I’ve used my new tape dress form (which I hope to talk about after I complete this outfit).  I needed to make sure it truly was close enough that I could trust it, before I went too quickly.

I’ll admit, too, that there were days where all I wanted to do was cuddle with my sweetie and take it easy.  Sometimes, I just didn’t feel confident and was worried I’d mess up the jacket.  Other times, I needed to do a little more research to make sure I understood what it was I was about to do.

Thank goodness for deadlines, though.

Although I’ve missed several costuming events over the years for various reasons (many of them I wouldn’t have been able to attend for reasons outside of my control), it’s still nice to have real deadlines to aim for.

I look forward to having most of my foundation garments finished (there will always be more I need to make), as well as a few different outfits for various needs for 18th century costume gatherings.  I also look forward to not having to worry so much about deadlines, and being able to really focus on the details!

Do deadlines help you, or just stress you out more than you needed?

About to attach the first of the cuffs on the 18th century jacket.