Progress!

Two points in this entry: 1) hope fails, and 2) Vintage Textile makes me hurt inside (in a good way).

Point the first.
Hooray, hooray! My fabric has arrived! It is magenta and wonderful. So heavy, so silky, so full of lustre. I feel like I'm the world's most ridiculously colored pearl whenever I drape it over my body, which is quite often. And my hoop skirt arrived from eBay, and it is also glorious and somehow makes me feel very dainty, despite the cathedral bell effect.

I have also slogged through my chemise almost all the way. It's very white and very girly and I can't believe I didn't get into this mid-19th-century thing before. The only drawback is that when I'm walking through the apartment in my hoopskirt, I don't fit through doorways. I have to sort of pop out like the cork in a champagne bottle. This could be awkward, and I'm seeing myself very carefully gathering my precious silk skirt up over the hoops so it doesn't get snagged when going through doorways.

Of course, as a response to all of this needed industry and project plotting, the bobbin tension on my machine decided to go wrong, which is the only way I can describe it. It's just wrong now, and I don't know when/how I'm going to get all this sewing done. I don't have the money to haul Jan Gnome off to a repair shop, the closest of which is half-an-hour away and expensive as hell, because it's the only one within an hour's drive.

The sewing gods hate me.

Point the second.
I browsed through Vintage Textile today and saw this. *drool* Isn't it gorgeous? Not as gorgeous as this ballgown, which will be my favorite until I try to make it and want to curse it, but still amazing and clever and simple. Mmm, stripes. I hate stripes in modern clothing, but in historical stuff? They make me go all funny inside.

17th century Venetian lace

Um, guys, look at this. And this.

That's right, Venetian lace from 1690, some cuffs and a lappet. In amazing condition. And only a little out of period, but close enough to period as no never mind.

How delicious would something like that look on a (hundred years earlier) courtesan gown? Not that I would recommend wearing something that was nearly four hundred years old, but . . . okay, so I am thinking about at least touching them, if only to experience what beautifully handcrafted lace feels like.

So amazing.

Crossposted to sca_garb and my journal.