Last night, I sewed the remainder of the skirt onto the bodice.  Of course, I steam cleaned my carpets first, and made dinner (lamb coconut curry with my own curry powder, and steamed green beans) first. So much for a full evening of sewing. : )  But, the skirt went on fairly quickly and without any problems. Until I tried to put it on the dummy. That's when I realized that the 10" of unpleated skirt I had left unattached wasn't quite enough to get the garment on and off.

Over the weekend, I finished the camicia.  I sewed bias tape behind the neckline pleating to give it stability, and I hemmed the bottom of the garment.  I still want to add some lace trim at the sleeve openings, but I will wait until I have more time to do that.

I was DETERMINED to get some serious work done on the Venetian this weekend. I picked it up Friday evening, slipped the bones out of the casings, and clipped them back a bit to shorten them. I had realized, after trying on a few of my older 16th c corsets, that leaving the bones too long leads in damage to the seams of the garment, because there isn't enough room to allow for movement and flexibility.  The bones, incidentally, are industrial grade cable ties that I cut with wire cutters. It's a bit of a pain to cut them, the cutters I have require a lot of pressure to cut through the ties.

Well, I got the new understructure sewn, boned and the fashion fabric pinned to it, and I still didn't like how the V opening sat at the waist, so I pulled out all the side seams, re-set them, and re-sewed them.  Now it lays like it is supposed to.  But, the issue of the Italian gowns is how the front of the V is treated.  With English gowns, women wore corsets underneath their gowns to give them the desirable flat and conical shape (man, tell me THAT doesn't sound sexy!).  There are no surviving Italian corsets or dresses from that period, so this subject is theoretical, and involves a lot

I think it's just impossible for me NOT to have a project to work on. And, Faire season is coming up.  Who doesn't want a new gown each year? : )  The French gown is too hot to wear during the summer months, and the gold gown, well, I don't really have an issue with that one. But I did want a new gown.  I wanted something fairly light and cool, and I'd been looking at darker blues and green fabrics and dreaming.