Internship Beginnings

Saturday marked the end of my first week interning at the Margaret Hunter Shop in Colonial Williamsburg. So far I have had a blast!

Our work area, Right to Left;
Eliza (fellow intern), Doris (Journeywoman) Tori (fellow intern)
and me! At the Margaret Hunter Shop

The staff is extremely friendly, and every day proves to be more enjoyable than the last.

My typical outfit for the day time.

So far we've worked on perfecting our stitches and I patched and mended a cute blue jacket that I love to wear.

Such lovely patchwork, wouldn't you say?

Then on Saturday we got all "gussied up" in beautiful silk gowns and wonderful hats. We walked about town, letting millions of little girls take pictures with us.

Us ladies of the Millinery Shop (I'm first on the left)
Don't we look lovely?!

Me in a Coral gown (I do not normally
wear this color)

Eliza in a peach, ivory and green cross-stripe gown

I got to wear a coral Polonaise gown with silk gauze and a bum roll; feeling wonderful. The other intern, my new friend Eliza, got to wear a Saque-Back gown and AWESOME HAT. I was jealous.

All in all, we've had a wonderful time so far. Things keep getting better, and we're getting into some more "serious sewing"; which we're very excited about. More to come!

Ophelia Bodice: finished

 Hooray! The time has come to show you the finished pictures of the Ophelia Bodice! After 2.5 weeks of working on lots of beading and tucking the finished product was sent to Santa Fe on Friday to be graded. And here are the pictures from an impromptu photo shoot right before it was sent away. My mom was the photographer and did a fabulous job :)

This pose was mom's idea.

I'm pretty happy that it looks almost identical
to my concept drawing

I thought she was only taking a pic of the bodice, not of
my face with it

 My mom thought it a good idea to take the other curtain and wrap it around as a skirt, so the pictures would look a little better. It did help the photos, but you can still see the creases!

I've got a bit o' giraffe neck goin' on.

I was trying to pose as my drawing, but closed my
eyes at the wrong time :(

 The following pictures are not the correct color, but thought they were fun and should be included in my post XD

Cheese!

I think I saw a fox in the field, which is why I'm squinting...

Close up!!!!

I can't wait to get it back and start the skirt portion! But I need some undergarments first....hmmmm

The Queen of Tucks

I think it should be my new nickname because I have sewn over 350 tucks for the trim of the bodice. That's. A. Lot. Of. Tucks.

Just some of the tucks...

The tucked trim had to be done in 6 pieces to get the length and contour correct. And it took a very long time to do them all. Looking back, I should have done a large rectangle then cut it down into the strips needed, but I did it the other way around; cut a bunch of strips THEN did the tucking. Well, now I know what not to do. Despite the intense labor, after they were pressed and all put together, they look kinda fabulous--I'm not gonna lie.

Aren't they perfect?

Now the scary part... application...There were a couple ideas thrown around on how to apply them. I couldn't think of any other fullproof plan than to simply top stitched them to the bodice. It was nerve-wracking, I'll tell ya, to sew all those tucks to the bodice. The whole time I was consumed by a fear that something utterly terrible would happen.

Pinned and ready to go...

After being stitched.

But it didn't! After all was said and done they look pretty spectacular (I was fully expecting them to look very terrible) I was also nervous that having the tucks the same fabric as the main part of the bodice would be a bad idea, but I think the texture is all it needed. The last pic is taken in natural light, so it's the closest to the real color as you can get. and you can see the texture really well. I'm really excited for the next post. You'll be able to see it finished!