Crossing things off the list - the Aqua Spencer!

I made myself be super productive this weekend.  Only two weeks before Costume Con!

By Friday night I had my corset pretty much done.  All that's left is shaping the top and bottom a bit, binding it and adding lace and flossing (which may have to wait...) so that's good!  I need to have the article done by Friday, which means that needs to be my focus this week.

But I couldn't resist getting started on my Regency Spencer!  I so wanted to have this done.  So I did a lot of it by machine which is too bad, but some of it has to be hand finished, so that will at least add the look to it a bit.  I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out.  I decided to make a copy of Lizzy's Blue Spencer after all.  The sleeves were so cute and I liked how it curved up in the back!  Saturday was spent draping and cutting and assembling the bodice.  The sleeves took forever to work out and I'm still not 100% pleased, but I was pulling out my hair, so they'll do.  I was also trying to pattern sleeves for the drop-front dress this will be worn over but had absolutely no luck!  Talk about sleevil!!  It's because of the small back pannel.  The armscye comes in really far in the back, so everything I tried was pulling.  I need to figure out to account for that still.

Anyway, here are pics of the Spencer!  I took pics of the dress but with my camera, not my phone, so of course I haven't uploaded those.  No time!

First, my inspiration:

See more here.

Still needs buttons...

Showing the zig-zag sleeve detail...

See the back curves up a bit? The gathering of my skirt will flow perfectly from under there!

And I managed to get the entire thing out of one yard of fabric!!  With all these scraps left over!  So that means more projects with the aqua silk! :)

Talk about conserving fabric! :)

All that's left to do is finish one side of the zig-zag sleeve (just turning it up - the edge is fray checked - and pick stitching it) bind both of the gathered sleeves and then hem the long sleeves, make buttons and do button holes.  These unfortunately will probably have to be done by machine.  There's just no time!

I am kind of sad I didn't make it short sleeved.  I got these fabulous white leather gloves (NOS that are actually "washable" though I'm not going to try that out) that I thought would look perfect with the dress!  So summery!  Oh well, I can still wear them maybe...

You can see the tag that says it's washable.

So many little details still left to work on though!  Three hats, hems and petticoats!  Not to mention finishing the Francaise!  I think I'm going to have to do hems on the machine as well.  I'm not going to add a placket to my Tudor gown though, maybe just a little hook and eye.  I got "The Tudor Tailor" and it said they didn't use plackets, so that saves some time!  I've also decided there probably won't be time to add more trim down the front of my jumper, but that's ok too.  I wore it as is already and it was fine.  Plus I'm worried that since the trim is lightly wired that it will make the skirt wonky if I sit down, then stand up.  So that cuts down the list a bit at least!

Ok, back to work!