Falling out of love

[janestarz]

I've been madly in love with this blue linen kirtle project, dubbed "Lena's dress". Philene (pr: fi-LEEN (in Dutch), hence the 'Lena' nickname) will be my Maerquin short adventure character and she needs a dress. I've been madly handsewing the inner edges to keep them from fraying, and last night I finally got around to sewing the buttonholes on the sleeves.

This beautiful blue dress, which I've been so madly in love with that I spent weeks handsewing it. The blue dress where I passed the point of no return without blinking twice. The beautiful blue dress that I explicitly made side-lacing so I could wear it with my red wool kirtle. This beautiful blue dress...
...I've completely fallen out of love with.

It didn't even take that much. I was happily sewing on the dress, finishing off the sleeves. When I tried it on, I realised that the sleeves that I had cut out were now too long. And by a fair bit, too. (Mind you, this is the second set of sleeves I cut out, because I had thought the first pair would be too short. That first pair of sleeves has now been used in facings, so it's not like I'm wasting the fabric, and I wouldn't have taken out these sleeves anyway, but it's a fair slap of dôh! there.)
I checked in the mirror how the dress looked and wiggled it a bit over my shirt so the center front was in the right spot. The sleeves were definitely too long, and luckily wide enough at the biceps to allow for a shift underneath. The underarm was tight enough to not allow for a shift, but that would work anyway. And the sleeves were too long by eight centimeters.

I folded over the spare cloth, creating cuffs. YES! I thought. The cuffs would work really well for a priestess of the Blue Moon, creating this 'pious look' (according to NoKey).
And I fell out of love with the dress right then and there. As lovely as the cuffs would be, they would not be period, never be period, never ever ever be period... and gone was my love for the dress.

I forced myself to sew the facing of the cuffs on anyway, created buttonholes and test-sewed one button on. The sleeves will now have 5 buttons each (I planned on six) and a cuff. Perfect for a Blue Moon, totally unsuitable for anything slightly period. My period dress with only minor topstitching is ruined. Even if I just fold the cuffs inward, it's still ruined. So out of love I am.

The buttons will be sewn on the sleeves tonight after dinner, and then I'll just have to finish the side-lacing and the hem. Hurrah!
Of course, now that I'm out of love with the dress it'll be that much harder to finish, but I need to decide whether I'll draft the shirts for Lanelle from my basic gown block or just take a standard jersey shirt pattern in my size instead. And then make a mock-up.

*sigh*

Comments

[lenny (from livejournal.com)]

I don't understand. Short sleeves are a problem, but long sleeves can just be shortened, can't they?

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

If you want wrist-length sleeves, they should not (like all my mundanewear things do) end halfway down the forearm. They should also not extend beyond the wrist. They should bloody well behave and end at the wrist.

Because I've sewn the facings down by hand, it's rather pointless to cut into the sleeve now. That means I'll cut my handsewing in eight places, that means I'll have to carefully unsew the facings, tie off those threads, etc. etc.
Additionally, the cuffs look great for a fantasy priestess. Great! But not for medieval dress.

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

Your sewing muse is such a moody one. I don't envy you.

Huggle.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

One dress to rule them all;
One dress to shine them;
One dress to be medieval;
And in a pinch, will hide them...? blind them?

One-dress-fits-all-costumes does not work. Le sigh.

[lenny (from livejournal.com)]

I gave up making a one-dress-fits-all costume long ago. I make a new one for every character / occasion.

[steelweaver.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. When you have such a clear ideal of what it's going to look like, it's always hard when the result doesn't live up to that *eyes 'to finish' pile*.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

It's a very strange feeling when this dress you're making is perfect for that fantasy priestess you were going to play, but then isn't at all applicable for any medieval-type costume any more. A "yay, it sucks!" feeling. It's yay, but then it sucks too.

[ikhier.livejournal.com]

You might just fall back in love with it again. You never know!

But I get the frustration :D