Well, pantalettes, really...
I have an adorable but deeply eccentric customer, my Regency Lady. She wanted some pantalettes. OK, no probs, but:
I forgot to order the pattern (from Kannick's Corner). Bums!
The samples of fabric failed to arrive in time - postal strike! The lace samples only arrived today - fitting is Sunday afternoon.
Yesterday the yell.com lady took up a lot more time than I expected - but the result is a big revamp of my ads, and a bigger net presence. I was out all day on Wednesday (planned), and therefore not available to take a call from a wedding planner, so I ended up spending yesterday morning putting together a raft of estimates for a wedding in May next year. I already have one wedding with bride and 3 bridesmaids, and a possible MoB outfit to do as well for My, and this one could easily be bride and SIX maids, all in Regency kit! Fun, but it took about six hours to find patterns, prices, fabrics, and three degrees of historical accuracy for the planner, ranging from modern dress with Empire line through to true historical accuracy including smocks and corsets! If they go for that option (fingers crossed!), that's SEVEN Regency corsets!
So, today I dealt with two other problems that arose overnight, cleared off the cutting table (clean laundrey, cat, paper, patterns, cat, samples, books, cat, sticky tape, rulers, fabric, cat etc... ) and drew up a pattern. Then I went shopping in the loft for fabric. Not easy with yer fingers crossed! Luckily the boxes of white fabric are not too deeply burried, so it was a case of lift off some light bits and a couple of fabric boxes, rather than shift a ton of Top Quality Tat and
10 boxes of fabric.And I found something MUCH nicer than any of the samples of lawn or voile or Swiss cotton batiste at £15.99m that came from places like McCulloch & Wallis. I found some light weight mercerised cotton poplin. Light as a feather, smooth as satin, almost as strong as Kevlar, and totally perfect for the job.
I have NO IDEA where I bought it. It's been there 10 years easily... It probably came from Croft Mill, so is likely to be a bit found when clearing an old mill for demolition. I would not be at all surprised to find it had been woven back in the 50's or 60's.
I don't care. It's perfect. I've obviously used a bit for something else at some point. So what. Half the chunk is now a pair if pantalettes, cut, turnings pressed, and ready to sew. The rest will become a deeply pretty and delicate Regenct style smock. All for waring on the 4th July! FTL knickers! ;)