Rockin’ the Rococo

I did stop working on this over the summer, and, well, up to a couple weeks ago.  I hadn’t intended to be away so long, but after the Exhibition, other priorities took over.  Little things like moving halway across the continent in a Uhaul, trying to get my butt in gear to write my MA thesis (first, crappy draft is now done, yay!), make a wedding dress (not mine….yet), and the last month or so has been dominated by writing funding applications for my PhD (while still working on my MA, go figure).

However, I’ve been snatching little bits of time lately and have finished the stays page, and there was much rejoicing!

I’m going to try to continue with these little snatches of time to steadily get the rest of the pages finishes, and add in the other bits and bobs I want to.

One thing though, I’ve noticed that the stays page is uploading funny.  It looks fine when I write it, but when I go to view the page on the site, about halfway through the photos and text start to get skewy.  Are other people noticing that as well?  Please let me know if you do, and I’ll try to find a solution somewhere in the maze of wordpress help topics.

At least all the info and stuff is there, and hopefully still readable and enjoyable.

The exhibition page is up!  What a pain in the a#$ it was to do!  Word and WordPress do not get along together AT ALL, so I ended up re-typing all the information and label copy directly into WordPress.  And even then it seems to like messing around with your stuff!  Bah!

But at least it’s up now.  What I’ve done is just transposed the exhibit as-is into a page on here.  Therefore, some of the information is repeated because in the exhibit it’s divided up between information panels and label copy that goes with each ensemble.

If there are any weird things going on with the page that I missed, or spelling errors, etc please let me know!

Hope you enjoy!

I have completed the pet en l’air page.  So the last finishing steps are up.  Unfortunately there is not picture of the finished front, which is really anti-climactic, I know.  However, I have started the exhibition page, so it will be available for viewing there soon.  Once the exhibition comes down, I’ll also get a series of good studio shots done with proper lighting, etc.  Those may end up going in to replace close-up shots on the exhibit page since I’ve been having trouble with the glare off the glass.

Do please be patient with me as I slowly get content on here.  Even though the exhibit is up and done, there’s still quite a lot on the plate!

The sack dress page has been updated – and finished!  So now you can see the best parts of it all done and up close.

With really bad hair, boo. 

However, I do have an announcement to make:  All the garments are finished, and the exhibition is up and running!

The media relations lady at the university really came through for me and I was interviewed by 4 tv stations and 3 newspapers.   Below are links to said media coverage.  I particularly like the CTV bit, despite my bad hair and washed-out face.  Why don’t people tell you about these things in advance? *sigh*

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Now that the sewing is all done I can start catching up on here.  I also intend to make a page on here that is a sort of “virtual exhibit”  for everyone who can’t come see it in person.

It’s a very strange feeling being done.  I’ve been working on this over the last 6 months (though I took December off) approx 30-40hrs/week.

But man, is it ever a relief!!

I was re-visiting my draft pages this evening and came across one that I’d worked on some time ago.  It’s a “short version” of the project overview.  I totally understand anyone not wanting to slog through the long version, which is actually just a slightly adapted version of an exhibition proposal for this project I did as a class assignment over a year ago.  The short version is meant to be much more digestible and concise.  It also includes a quick description of certain peramaters of the way I’m doing this project that I have not included on here before – mostly because I wasn’t quite sure how to do it.

Upon a quick re-reading I decided it really didn’t need anything more to be useful for actually putting up.  So….I put it up.  Hope this helps explain some stuff and provide a bit of context for why I’m doing all this!

I have *finally* got a new page up.  It’s not for any of the garments pictured in my last, recent post – so proving that I have been even busier, eh?  It’s for the riding habit, well the beginnings of it so far anyhow.  I started it quite some time ago (maybe November?) but put it down after about a week (3 10-12hr sewing days) to get started on other garments.

Hopefully I can start getting more pages up and others updated in the not-too-distant-future.  For now, I hope you enjoy my early forray into 18th century women’s tailoring along with its trials and tribulations *sigh*.

I have not abandoned the blog, I have not abandoned the project.  It’s actually because I’m now sewing for this about 40+ hrs/week in addition to TAing, trying to put together the exhibition all this stuff is going into, and starting on my actual MA thesis that I have not got on here in so long.  That, and I just ignored everything over the month of December/over the holidays for the sake of my sanity.

I am slowly working on updating pages and adding new ones, but thought I would post a few teaser pics of what’s coming to prove that I have been working steadily away:

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and….seamstresses.  I had hoped to be all caught up on here by now, but as you can see…..um…..yeah.  It’s nearly the end of term, I have a paper to write on the material culture of 18th century sewing tools (I’ve limited it to the big 4: pins, needles, scissors, thimbles) that’s due in….hmmmm….3 weeks today!  Yippeee!  And I still need to tackle the Old Bailey Records online for some primary source material (from which I’m hoping I may get some info regarding ownership and possession *fingers crossed*).

Again, I have continued working on the sewing steadily/regularly, such that the calico jacket and petticoat ensemble is almost finished.  However, in order to get more updates posted I may not try to write that page in its entirety at one go.

I did have a question for people though: I am curious as to whether any of the processes/methods I’ve used during this project so far have been surprising to anyone, or different from what you might expect from garment construction of this period?  I’m hoping there might be at least something, after all, that’s part of what this whole thing is about!

After a somewhat prolonged absence, wherein I felt swamped by other schoolwork and obligations, I have posted an update!  I have kept working on this project regularly, just didn’t have time to work on the blog.  So there will be several updates coming, hopefully, soon.  The one I just finished is for the mantua, which is itself pretty much finished now!  (And there was much rejoicing…rahhhhh…..).

Other new stuff to expect soon: some work has been done to the pet en l’air; the riding jacket has been started; as has the calico jacket.

So all of the ensembles have now been started and are at some stage along the way towards their completion.  I think I just *might* be able to get this all done by the time I need to after all (but I’m keeping my fingers tightly mentally crossed all the same).