Mary Heany, part 1

I'll do two posts; this one will be a catch-all with a couple in-progress shots and not-on-the figure shots (aka the less exciting post).

As she was last night, lurking in my sewing room...

I started taking pictures of the shift while I was making it, but left off pretty quickly, because none of this was anything new or complicated! I mean, how exciting is an in-progress shot of a petticoat?

Here are two rectangles. Sew them together at the sides...

Yeah, not very exciting.

The shift is made of a linen-cotton blend - for budget-trimming purposes, as it's a bit cheaper than pure linen.  It's mostly sewn by machine, with only the neck and sleeve finishings done by hand. All the seams are flat-felled, because I wanted to make this entire outfit as if a real person were going to wear it, beat it up, wash it, etc.

Followed the general shape of the Costume Close-Up shift, if not the cutting layout

Before putting the drawstrings in the sleeves

This is the "black quilt". Hooray for pre-fab quilted fabric!

This one's mostly machined as well; the hem binding and pleats are sewn to the waistband by hand. The quilted fabric is cotton with poly batting. The strip at the top is a plain black cotton fabric, and the hem is bound in the same. On actual quilted petticoats, there was a strip left unquilted so that the skirt could be pleated into the waistband without trying to cram top fabric, batting, and lining in, and I think this is a reasonable approximation.

The top petticoat is linen. The long seams and waist ties are sewn by machine, while the rest of it is done by hand.

Not that I think anyone's going to inspect the waistband for machine stitching. I just find it easier to hand sew, since my machine inevitably flips at least one pleat over and then I have to pick it out. Annoying!

The jacket's of a pinky-purple wool-cotton twill. The original plan was to use Virginia cloth from B&T, but it turned out the green I'd ordered didn't qualify for "lightish" in the least! Their Virginia cloth is a plain-weave wool-cotton, and apparently that kind of cloth was also made in a twill...so I thought this was a reasonable substitute!

Maybe even better, 'cause it's pink, and pink is fun!

It's lined in natural-colored linen, and completely hand sewn. I know I didn't have to, but I like hand sewing (have you met me?)! It's sewn using the 18thc construction techniques in Costume Close-up...except for the dodgy skirt attachment. That was all me, having caught teh dumbs that day, so I don't know how period it is! Looks fine though.

And my lovely, lovely sturdy stand, made by Robin's wonderful husband! Such a good sport. And they even drove it out to me this week so I could have it by today.

And here's Mary with her duct tape covered up. I just covered her in white knit, pinned, cut, and stitched up the sides.

I also made her arms. It was totally unnecessary, but an outfit looks so much better on a figure with arms! If they hadn't worked out I would have just stuffed the sleeves a bit. They're a little lumpy, but what do you expect from a tube of white knit stuffed with poly fiberfill and a coat hanger? And somehow I seem to not have taken a picture of the arm construction. Sorry!

Part 2 here