It's really pretty, if I say so myself. Actually, my grandma said so, too. The other grandma than my Wonderful Crafty Grandma. I'll have to come up with a suitable taboo name for this other grandma, because she's actually rather crafty, too. I've just lent her a Burda magazine, because she wants to sew herself 3/4 pants and a summer dress.The chemise is all handsewn. The neckline is bound with/the neckline drawstring case is made of homemade (and handsewn) self bias tape (seen in progress here). The bottom hem is finished with it, too.
It's the bottom hem that took me so long, because I couldn't bring myself to do it. Laziness, nothing else. It was quite easy.I think the sleeve hems would look better if they were bias-bound, too. But for now, I'm happy with it the way it is. I love the neckline especially.
For the record, this chemise is more or less based on Regency chemises, and meant for that, but I'll also probably wear it with other styles, e.g. under the medieval dresses. It might not be a medieval chemise, but if the gathered neckline does not show too much under the dress, no one's going to know, right?
The next thing to finish: a case/cover for a window draught block (or whatever it's called). Then, to finish the blue-grey medieval workdress.
I watched F.L. Věk while sewing the hem and got myself all into early Regency. Most of the series actually takes place earlier, and the costume quality varies a lot - none of the ladies have proper 18th century undergarments, I saw Regency long before it could have appeared and a lot of the fancy dresses are just... fancy dresses. The dresses of the village women seem more proper than those from Prague. Other than that, though, the series are AWESOME. (Karel K.'s commentary on IMDb sums it up very well.) And for those of you who love Regency romance, there's that in the last episodes, too, and very sweet. :-) I only don't know if you can get it outside of Czech Republic...
Pictures from the series courtesy of Česká televize.
Radovan Lukavský excels in the series as Václav Thám. Now I count myself lucky that I met him before his death. At that time, I did not really know him, but he was a true pleasure to listen to.
The hem looks so pretty! I love hand stitching.
ReplyDeleteThank you. And that's the inside! I think that's what I love most about handstitching. This: Because it takes a long time anyway, it somehow forces me to be more careful about the inside. While, at the same time, it frees me from fretting over it because, hey, it's handstitched so a bit of messiness is inevitable.
ReplyDeleteI love experimenting with different stitches. This one's a bit of a cross between whip stitch (on the garment side of the seam) and cross/catch stitch (on the bias tape side).
I'm very impressed that you sewed it all together by hand. I think I would have a hard time lasting that long through a project without wanting to go to my machine-- I've been having a hard enough time with my hand-sewing-heavy black dress that I've been working on for the last month and a half!
ReplyDeleteI think it helps that it was my take-with-me project. I sewed the majority of those long seams on trains... there's no sewing machine on trains. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd also my paradoxical laziness. It's easier to thread a hand-sewing needle!
Oh my goodness, Hana! This is gorgeous. I admire anyone who can handsew garments. It seems so difficult.
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest - if you want to be able to, just start. With something. A pencase, or anything. If you really want to be able to do it, it will eventually sort itself out, if you do...
ReplyDeleteIt worked for me with handsewing. I should be more persistent and do it with everything. ;-)
Nice work, Hana!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lisa!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work! And I feel much better knowing that you wear wrong-period undergarments every once in a while!
ReplyDeleteHa-ha. I'm too practical to bother. Because I know I'm a slow seamstress living in a small house, so I won't bother sewing more undergarments than necessary. :-)
ReplyDelete