2015 Year in Review

My year review is coming up a little late, but normal work keeps me occupied like always. Despite health issues during the springtime and a full-time work schedule, I got a number of small projects done a couple of big ones as well.

At the start of the year I finished two cross stitch projects that had been in progress for a VERY long time:

Mermaid of the South Seas

The Kiss

Young Girl's Historical Underthings

Another post-holiday gift posting. In October, I started on a set of matched underthings for Lexie, the beau's younger sister. She had already received a dress and accessories, so I figured it was about time to outfit her with some proper underpinnings.

I did attempt to do some research for the project, but finding extant examples of undergarments for children is a hard thing to come by. The only things I found was this underdress from The Met.

Petticoat 1838 - The Met

It matched the pattern I had in my stash from Butterick - B5901 Girl's drawers, underskirt, and hoop skirt. While the style matches, there is no particular date attached to the pattern, so it definitely makes it usable across a broad date spectrum.

Butterick B5901

After obtaining my measurements, I started work on the pattern according to the instructions. The drawers were super easy to put together and match many of the patterns I've put together for full scale women's drawers. They have the split crotch seam, waist ties, and pin tucks along the eyelet lace at the bottom of the pantalettes.

Christmas Reticules

This is one of my heavily delayed posts due the content containing Christmas goodies. For my friends, this year I decided to make some reticule hand bags for everyone. I used two patterns for my bases - Butterick 3485 and B4411, both out of print.

They are both very easy to follow and I made only slight alterations to some of the bags. Because of this, there aren't too many detail constructions. Each bag is listed below with the pattern and materials used.

*          *          *

Pattern: Butterick B4411 View A
Modifications: No major modifications outside of deviating from the instructions on how embellishments were sewn on
Fabric: Red and black silk dupioni, heavy duty interfacing
Notions: Black woven trim for the edges and front decoration, braided black trim for the bag handles, black poly satin ribbon, plastic canvas, matching thread

Victoria's Daughters review

Because most of my projects right now consist of Christmas gifts for the upcoming holidays, I really can't put up anything right in relation to said projects (Spoilers!). Instead I'm going to try and spend the month of November catching up on my backlog of reviews. We're starting with a book.

Queen Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard was plucked from a used bookstore maybe 2-3 years ago and I finally read it over the summer. As the title states, the core material covers Queen Victoria's five daughters; Vicky (Victoria), Alice, Helena, Louise, and Beatrice. From the formative years of their parents' relatioship, to the final days of Princess Beatrice during WWII, the book touches upon each of the Queen's daughters and the unique lives each of them lived.

amazon.com

As the daughters of a monarch who ruled over a quarter of the earth's population during her reign, the princesses' lives were closely watched - and ruled - by not only their parents but by their subjects as well. Each had their own personality, passions and faults, that helped define who they were as adults. Along with their lives, their statuses as British princesses had a huge impact among the ruling houses of Europe as marriages were made, alliances were formed then broken, and wars later waged.

Halloween Witch Skirt

October was a busy month! I've been putting in some overtime for work and then I was away on business for a couple days as well. While there hasn't been much going on in the realm of sewing, I still got a couple of projects done.

This one was a black skirt that I made for work to wear during October. Our dress code rules state that we have to wear black, but there wasn't anything about NOT dressing up for Halloween on Saturday (Plus they did trick or treating at the mall on Wednesday night).

I found a great Halloween fabric at the store on super sale (70% by the time I threw all my coupons together), a crisp poly taffeta with velvet spider web flocking all over it. I'll readily admit, the first time I saw it, I thought, "That would make a great skirt!"