Rosalie Gilbert

The little linen early 14th century gowne is finished.

I stayed up late and after completing the side seams and hem, pinned in the reinforcing strip around the neck, stitched it into place and made two little eyelets for a brooch closure. I'm very happy with it.

I have cut a gore for the back of the gowne, but since it's being worn by a slender young lady in a few months, I feel it isn't really needed. Before I was it, I will split up the back and put the gore in, as the amount of growing likely to happen before next year and the next wear will be substantial. The extra gore will make a nice flow over her shape, whereas this year, the young lady is still quite slender.

Anyway, it's finished, and I'll post up a photo of it soonish.

You probably would believe how sad I was when I had finished carefully hand washing the Elsa Gowne (for the Frozen colour as I fondly refer to it these days) and discovered that I was in such a hurry to wear it a while back that I machine sewed the last few seams of the last gore and now... well, I guess I need to sew them properly before I put it away again.

Darn it. Another project not quite finished. At least it's just 2 seams, and not an entire thing.

I have been umming and ahhing about a couple of silk projects which haven't happened because of the sheer cost of the fabric. It used to be that shops routinely sold smooth silk AND slubby natural silk and both were dear, but not so bad when a sale was on. Other colours could be bought a bit more expensively online. Almost always, the really amazing colours are definitely not on special as they're popular for weddings or bridesmaid dresses. No specials there.

Having watched the skyrocketing cost of silk fabric in a weight I like, I have been dismayed to see that all the good silk has disappeared from most shops and only the slubby stuff remains and it's not cheap either.

A local fabric store which has beautiful high end silk and satin for weddings has often had the red berry silk that I've wanted for years (since my particolour over 10 years ago) but I noted with sadness that even that is not in stock.

Anyway, I did see a pretty ice blue online at their shop which was 150cm wide, meaning I'd need a lot less fabric overall to make the gowne I had in mind for it. I finally went to the shop after work (tricky in itself due to the hours I work) and found it. The pictures online matched exactly, so to the counter I went about to pay full price for silk and sad about it.

Sign at the counter: 20% off store wide! 

Heart happiness! Then disaster. The red was there. Right there. So there was the dilemma. 20% off $87.00 a metre is a big saving but... which colour to get? The ice blue is beyond stunning to go with the new spotty surcote. The red has been on my wish list and hasn't been available in that shade in that weight for years. 

It really hurt my feelings to pay for both, but I did. Thankfully, I had some book money to pay for it, but I had other plans, like saving it. 

Anyway, that's everything ticked off my fabric and project list. I have existing fabric set aside for everything I want to make- upgrades and new projects. And I got $160.00 off my purchase, which, quite frankly is normally what I would pay for on-sale fabric. And I guess it's only going to get more expensive the longer I leave it. I can also sell a bunch of medieval clothes which I don't wear anymore too. 

But still. *sighs heavily* Not a purchase I wanted to make this week.