Who's Afraid of a Little Deadline?

This is largely irrelevant, I just wanted a photo for the post. And it's a prototype for the collar embroidery, so I guess it's related still. It's also from this morning, so that was serendipitous.

I really just want to write all this down so I have a record of The Day Sabine Really Jumped The Shark.

Having looked at the kingdom calendar and thought very briefly about my time management skills, I've realized that if I work very steadily at the embroidered dress of doom, I can squeak into having it finished in time for Queen's Prize this year. The event is September 16th. That's totally enough time, and I am definitely ignoring that it's taken me since March to get this far. I don't intend to enter it—the embroidery isn't half as well-documented as I'd want to submit for competition—but it would be fun to wear there.

I have 58 inches to finish the skirt trim. By tonight, I will have finished the narrow borders, and by tomorrow night, the main undulating vine that forms the backbone of the foliate design. That gives me plenty of time to get the leaves and minor vines done over the weekend, and by the end of the day Sunday, I'd like to have the backing muslin for the sleeve portions attached. The "stretch goal," such as it is, is to have the initial chain stitch lines on the first sleeve section done, too.

Assuming, then, that it'll only take me five days per 27-inch sleeve section (and counting the two 12-inch arm bands together as a fifth sleeve section), I should be done with the linear trim by August 17th. I'll take the remainder of August to do the collar, since it's going to be much more complex than the current pattern—but should only be about 40 linear inches.

That brings me to September 1st, when I need to construct the gown and attach trim in...some kind of order. Linen pieces for the underbodice and upper sleeves will need to be cut, and I think I'll pin or baste the silk to the linen so I can construct everything once and finish the seams in one swell foop. Also in September: tablet weave the band to support and conceal the waist seam. I...haven't learned tablet weaving yet. It'll be fine.

Order of Operations

Bodice
• Bind eyelets in underbodice and upper sleeve lining
• Attach silk bodice to underbodice (side edges finished and tacked between eyelets to conceal linen and leaving bottom edges unfinished)
• Attach collar to bodice (slip stitch raw edges)
Sleeves
• Attach arm band embroidery to upper sleeve pieces
• Sew upper sleeve pieces into tubes (finish side edges of silk as for bodice where needed, otherwise flat fell on inner surface with slip stitch)
• Splice lower sleeve trim (add final leaves and vines, no seam finish)
• Attach lower sleeve linings and trim to lower sleeve pieces (proximal edge of trim, lining, distal edge of trim with very small slip stitch—possibly enclose edge of lining/sleeve with trim)
• Sew top and bottom seams of lower sleeves (finish outer and lining seams separately and facing, then tack down in seam)
• Cut opening at elbow of lower sleeves, attach to upper sleeves (flat fell on linen upper sleeve lining with slip stitch)
Skirt
• Splice skirt trim (add final leaves and vines, no seam finish)
• Attach skirt trim to skirt (slip stitch)
• Seam skirt (flat fell on inner surface with slip stitch)
Construction
• Gather skirt and pin to bodice lining (gather in 32-inch sections, folding excess to inside as necessary for length, pin upside down and wrong sides together at octaves and then more closely, leaving 2-3 inches free and ungathered at side seams)
• Sew skirt to bodice lining (stab stitch or very small back stitch)
• Sew bodice to skirt (fold raw edge under, use stab stitch or very small back stitch)
• Attach upper sleeves to bodice (flat fell on linen bodice lining with slip stitch)
• Sew tablet-woven band over waist seam (hide stab stitch in borders, small at top edge going through all layers, larger/looser at bottom edge only anchoring band to skirt)
• Insert laces

So why do all this when I didn't really have a deadline for this dress and don't actually need it done by any particular date? I want to hand write and illuminate and bind a manuscript. And submit it for competition. And uh...the book I'm settled on is roughly 71,000 words, which is a bunch, and I'm no calligrapher, and I am also being seduced by the idea of carved (false) ivory covers, which will entail a whole slew of other new skills and learning curves, and I really really really want to give myself the maximum possible amount of time to do it in, because I have this sense that there's a preference for competition works to have been finished within the year preceding the competition. And if this dress is done, I can almost immediately leap into learning everything I must learn to make a book from almost-beginning to end. It'll be grand. It'll also be mused on in another post, because this is quite long enough.

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