I have indeed been working on the dress lately, but it's been boring little bits here and there like trimming away the extra the lace on the hem or sewing the corset to the bodice or other unimpressive bits which need to get done but aren't really worth mentioning. And I've kind of stopped keeping track of how many hours I'm spending on this, because I'm so close to being done that I think I'm just going to call it 150 hours and be done (unless I have to remake the corset, in which case it will be 160).
Why would I have to remake the corset, you might ask? Well. Karine came to help babysit the kids for my first day back at work, and we took advantage of that time for her to try the dress on again, and we realized that with the zipper in place and the additional tightness that caused, you could see the horizontal seam where the body of the corset attached to the skirt layer through the dress. This kind of ruined things. So either I remake the front of the corset all in the same fabric so that there's no seam whatsoever, or we get rid of the corset altogether.
At this point I think there's value in trying it without the corset, partly for the reduced labour but also for the increased coolness. The dress is quite warm already, and removing the two layers which make up the corset would cool it down considerably. As well, it would make it much easier for Karine to get in and out of (I now understand why anyone who wanted to look decent in the Victorian era needed a ladies' maid). However, the corset does provide support, in that it helps the dress stay up, and also gives some shape underneath the dress (though the dress was designed to flow over the body instead of fitting it like a second skin, so that part is less important). In any case: I've removed the corset from the main dress and we're going to try the corset-less option at the end of September when I'm driving past the area for the Quilt Retreat with Nancy. If the dress fits and looks okay and stays up, I think it will be a better option all around. We'll see.
In any case, the tasks I have ahead of me are:
* hem the silk skirt
* finish trimming the extra lace around the scallops on the hem
* make and attach the sash
* add an underbust stay for added support in case we go corsetless (the bodice is already boned)
* re-bead and mend any small errors on the main dress.
The trickiest part right now is that I'm back at work, so I have no more days where the baby boys are away when I'm at home. What I'm trying to do is work on the dress sometimes in the evenings or during the day while the boys are napping, and Jeffy has been great about taking over child care duties while I do that. It shouldn't be a problem to get it done; it's just a matter of being diligent about it.
So today, I removed the corset layer from the rest of the dress; measured, pressed and pinned the hem on the silk; and began hand-sewing that hem. I had contemplated sewing the hem by machine, but I think it will look more professional if it's done by hand. My big fear is after all of this work, the dress will still look "homemade" in the details, and I'm doing my best to prevent that from happening. Ultimately, if Karine feels happy and beautiful while she's wearing it, that's the most important thing. We're almost there!
