11 hours of frenzied sewing later, I have finished the top of the Elizabethan tutu, minus the right sleeve and the two shoulder rolls. I am having mixed feelings about this top. The sleeves keep falling down. I am blessed with extremely broad shoulders, and big trapezius muscles (the ones that go diagonally down from the neck to the shoulders). The net effect, which I should have remembered, is that anything with straps slides straight down the sloping trapezius to the shoulders and then nonchalantly dives off the tip of the shoulder, landing halfway down my arm. (The person who invents a bra strap that will STAY UP on my shoulders will earn my eternal gratitude.)

Well, the shoulder straps on this are no different, especially since they’re placed so precariously next to the shoulder in any case. So they are falling off my shoulders. Fixing a nice heavy shoulder roll, as pretty as it is, is just going to accelerate the Olympic dive off the shoulder and down the arm. So I have a choice between (a) figuring out once and for all how to keep the straps from falling down, and (b) accepting that the straps are gonna fall down and deciding what to do from there.

I’m thinking vaguely that if I attach a piece of elastic in the back, just below the neck, stretching between the two straps, perhaps that would work. It would look sorta geeky from behind, but at least the front would work right. Alternately, I could eliminate the straps entirely and make it a strapless number, except that I really like the space-alien look of the shoulder rolls. (See yesterday’s post for a photo of what I’m talking about.

All that being said, I’m pleased with my progress today although somewhat appalled that, despite all that effort, it ain’t done yet. I still have to put on the right sleeve, add the decorative ribbon, and do the skirt. The skirt may require some alteration – right now it’s really heavy, possibly too heavy to be propped up with mere tulle. (It is designed to be used with a hoopskirt, after all.) I’ll have to sew it and see.

Tomorrow my intent is to finish sewing up the Elizabethan tutu (figure another three hours), then sew up the fuchsia-and-iridescent-maroon/blue tutu, which should be relatively quick as it’s blessedly uncomplicated. That will leave me with Wed, Thurs, Friday evenings to finish feathering the peacock feather tutu, and put finishing touches on other garments. I think it will work out, though I may have to take Friday off work as well.

Off to bed! Tomorrow is another (busy) day.

Today I did a 45-mile bike ride and then finished sewing the bodice of the peacock-feather tutu.  I also made the body of the skirt, which will be gold organza covered with peacock feathers.

The in-progress piece now looks like this:

I’m still debating what to do about the peacock feathers.  The group on the left is untrimmed, natural; the group on the right has the “hairy” parts trimmed away to reveal just the eye.  It’s a neater look but not quite as swoopily graceful as the natural peacock feathers.

I’m sort of inclined to trim the feathers, because in my experience from last time the green “halo” looks a bit wild and unkempt in actual life:

This time I want a more tailored, precise look – so I think I will trim the feathers.  I’m interested in what other people think, though, so if you think they look better untrimmed, let me know!

Tomorrow I will sew up the fuschia-and-maroon/purple tutu, and start the Elizabethan tutu – which is going to be complex and difficult.  Tuesday I will finish the Elizabethan tutu, decorate the white tutu (which right now looks more like a nightgown than anything else – have to sauce it up a bit!), and then go back to work on the peacock feather tutu.  I am doing things in the order of disaster should it not get done in time.  I figure with the peacock feathers I can always reuse the metallic gold tutu, but the other two have got to get done.

I also have to make a black underskirt and possibly a gold underskirt, which will be a pain – I hate working with tulle, it’s fluffy and hard to handle.  I’m putting that off to the very last since I do have a white underskirt already.

Making progress, but still lots to sew!

This week has been hell at work – I’ve been under the gun all week working on sales proposals.  Not what I expected when I took the job, but then, virtually nothing I’ve been doing at this job is what I expected.  That’s a good thing, actually – everything is novel and interesting.  I thrive much better in chaos than I do in order.

But now it’s over, and I’ve already told everyone I’m taking Tuesday off.  I’m going for one last long ride on Sunday, and then I’m not cycling (except to/from work) again until AIDS Lifecycle.  Which leaves me three days for frantic sewing.  (I may take Friday off as well.)

Which is great timing! because the fabric just arrived for my last tutu.  I had been hoping to make it out of handwoven fabric, of course, but the timing just didn’t work out.  So I ordered some absolutely beautiful garnet red and gold fabric for this dress:

I’m doing the one in the foreground, and am envisioning it with the garnet/gold fabric, gold organza puff sleeves (I still have plenty left over of the metallic silk organza), gold organza for the underskirt (allowing me to recycle a tutu), and metallic gold ribbon for ornamentation.

The fabric itself looks like this:

The left side is what the “right side” of the fabric looks like – gold swirls with darker garnet centers.  The right side is the “wrong” side of the fabric, but also the side I think I’m going to use – gold rayon swirls with swirly gold dots in the center.  Looks much richer and glossier than the other side, probably because of the long floats and the fact that it’s predominantly rayon (the fabric is 80% cotton and 20% rayon, I think).  It won’t be as durable due to the long floats, but this is a garment that will only be worn once, SOOO….I think it will be OK.

And now, off to bed.  Time to get ready for a grand week of sewing!

After several more hours of work, I’m almost done with the green scale feathers:

I’m a little miffed that the beauty of the feathers doesn’t show through.  It gives you an idea of how it looks, but minus the excitement – in reality the feathers are beautifully iridescent green, not flat green-brown as they appear in the photo.  I suppose something about the lens flattens the diffraction-grating-generated iridescence.  (Peacock feathers, in case you didn’t know, are actually brown.  What creates the illusion of color is a diffraction grating not unlike that in a python’s skin (which has rainbow iridescence if you look closely in bright light).  If you look at a peacock feather through a polarizing filter, it looks brown, not multicolor.)

Minor commentary on physics aside, I’m very pleased with this piece so far.  I believe it will be one of my most magnificent tutus yet.  🙂