Beverly want's to know," Whatcha sewing?"

Whoops, meant "Control Panel"

When we moved five years ago, I packed selected tools and the current project into the foot locker where I keep my notions, and we brought that and the sewing machine with us in the car.

NB: never ask the three stooges to set up your bed. You can sleep on a mattress on the floor -- but not on a bed that has only four of its six legs! Luckily, there was a very comfortable sofa already in the house.

NfurtherB: Fabrics clothespinned to wire hangers will collapse a wardrobe box. (More weight per hanger than finished clothing, and the hangers fit closer together on the rod.)

Joy Beeson

Just finished a backpack, and picked up two patterns on Friday. A Belgian Military Chef's jacket, and a varsity jacket, both from Folkwears. I'll also need to rebuild some things on my backpack as I tested it out this weekend.

I've just finished my interlock slip to wear under winter dresses. Well, it's down to hemming the tail and the bands on the sleeves. All three hems are wet with starch at the moment, so I can't stitch them until tomorrow.

I had a T-shirt pattern that I'd narrowed for "interlock" (I suspect it of being one-on-one ribbing) and a sleeved-slip pattern for jersey. Since I expect to want only one ankle-length interlock slip in my life, I didn't draft a pattern, but chalked around the jersey-slip pattern on the fabric, then took that pattern off, pinned the T-shirt pattern on, and chalked transition lines between the two patterns.

I suspect that this interlock is a tad less stretchy than the interlock I made the T-shirt from, but by making the felled seams as narrow as I could, I gained a quarter inch on each side seam, and it fits all right. (Though I'm glad I wasn't making an interlock

Now in progress: an inauthentic "bedgown" for a schoolmarm gig at Back to the Days of Kosciuszko next Saturday. Turned out that broadcloth is a bit *too* broad, so I'm going to widen the neck hole, then sew in pleats from the back of the neck to the waist. (It can overlap in the front, so I'm not making pleats there.)

(And yes, I know that a schoolmarm would no more have worn a bedgown to work than Mrs. Sims would have worn a housedress or Mr. Robinson would have worn a T-shirt -- but I don't have the time, money, or inclination to mock up a set of stays and make a proper gown.)

The apron should be easy -- I've torn off a length of unbleached muslin and plan to pretend it's two breadths of tow. I've already made a 18th-century cap. It wouldn't have been made of unbleached muslin, but everyone else is wearing turn-of-the-20th-century mobcaps, so it should pass.

One of my twentieth-century scarves and two of my twentieth-century pleated skirts will complete the costume.

Joy Beeson

I have to find a place to publish them, and once again ask DS to show me how. He is good with computers and I definitely am not. Emily

Super, I hope he'll get busy on that! There are several people who post here, who have used an online site, but I can't recall the URL at the moment.

Beverly

Thirded! I also love emblibrary.com designs. Yes, they are dense. I have found that stablizing, stabilizing and stabilizing is super important. Also, don't try the designs on delicate fabric. They stitch out beautifully and have great attention to detail and color blending. I love their sales and the fact that I don't have to pick up everything in a pack. I can buy a single design if that is what I need. They have free designs to download each month and a 17cent design every month that you can purchase when you order any other design.

Marilyn in MN

On second thought, the slip doesn't make a bad dress at all. When driving to Back to the Days of Kosciuszko this morning, I wore only the slip, and put on my petticoats, bedgown, cap, apron, and handkerchief in the parking lot.

It wasn't as big a disaster as I expected. (I'm portraying a schoolteacher, and I'm a certified non-teacher. Well, I can teach people who really, really want to know and ask appropriate questions.) After coming home tonight, I sewed a couple of pieces of twill tape to my cap so I can tie it on tomorrow -- it had done quite well until lunch time, when I went outside and it blew off, and thereafter refused to stay in place without a big black bobby pin up front where it shows.

It's really, really time that I bought a book or some patterns! The bedgown was a real disaster: it came out *way* too big, and I had to put six pleats in the back, then re-cut the neck, and I was sewing on it late last night even though it's 100% machine-sewn. Then when I started to trim the pleats so I could turn under a hem around the neck, I groggily trimmed them on the side that shows. Solved the problem by letting the hem peter into just-turned-under-once at the pleated area, then running an extra row of topstitching to inhibit fraying. It's all black-on-black, and I wear a handkerchief over it anyway.

Hope I wake up early enough to comb my hair properly tomorrow morning. Joy Beeson