Whoops?

So I looked into my wool storage bag and pulled out the charcoal wool, formerly a pantsskirt, skirtpants, culotte, whatever those things are called.

I also found some pieces of cardboard and a plastic sign, my hammer and knife and have proceeded to slash the wool hither and yon. I'm not sure what it will look like, but I'm mounting it on an interlining at the moment and will make it up into a front lacing bodice. My cuts are undoubtedly horribly uneven and some are bound to be double-slashed and too short, or too long. But I didn't have a chisel of any kind, only a knife and my hammer.

I drew out the slashing pattern on a piece of paper which I pinned to the top of the wool and used the knife through all the layers all at once. It will be very thrilling to see how it works.

Joy of joys!

Hurrah! I shall have a new outfit for Civil War! I got a bee in my bonnet, an ant on my toe and a great mucking spider in my... errr. Sorry, I got lost among the fauna. Let me start over.

If anyone recalls a project I talked about, being a total fangirl and copying myladyswardrobe's red 1569 gown with pinking and the shoulder straps done in the odd curved shape, quite a long time ago now, you can now stop waiting for news: here it is!

I have used knife and hammer, charcoal wool, white linen and silk sewing thread and I have produced a bodice with slashes all over it. When it's laying flat you see nothing, but when I wear it the stress opens up some of the slashes and you can see the white linen interlining peeking through. I whipstitched together the three panels (one back, two fronts) sturdily just now, and tried it on by merely pinning the shoulder seam and sewing myself into the front opening bodice.

Let me tell you, I rather like it. If it were done in some outrageous colour or banded with contrasting colours you'd think me a bumlerin at this stage. But that is not my goal at all. I shall tart it up right proper, just you wait, and I'll be as English as can be. There'll be no Germans in my closet! (I will eat those words in the future, I bet).

Anyway. I had much fun, and I shall have a new outfit for Civil War! Hurray! I may even make another petticote if I don't do a skirt up for this bodice and whip it in place. And I definitely need a new white apron. Cor, maybe I can do a bit of drawn thread work on a nice white linen apron. *drool*