Allergies still suck, tho

It's amazing how much faster it is to sew something that's not a corset. I did like a third of my gown yesterday, and that includes scaling up the lining pattern and trying it on over the stays and whatnot. But it's soooo nice to finally get to use all of these techniques that I've seen in tutorials, books, and extant clothes - and it's also very nice to use the right weight fabric and know that I'm not making another unwearable and unfixable dud. I'm using the pattern I took from the sacque at AIHA, as it's easy to switch from one type to another - the lining's the same shape and the back outer piece is based on the lining. Apart from my forgetting to put in a center back reverse box pleat it's going very well so far (and that's the sort of thing I don't care too much about - I've seen enough variation in back pleating that I don't think it would completely confuse someone of the period). I did the back pleats, then sewed on the front lining pieces and then the strap lining.

Oh, thank goodness

I've been so worried that I'm not getting responses on the internships I've been applying for because my degree sounds so clothing-oriented, like I don't know anything about decorative arts, which would imply that I will never get a job - but I called the Chapman this afternoon (on Dad's urging) to see if anything was going on, and learned that I am a top candidate and they're glad I'm still interested! So all is not lost and my degree may not be worthless.

Oh incidentally

I can't stop thinking about the possibility that early mantuas were worn over uncovered stays, hence the many stomachers with nonfunctional cross-lacing on them that might have been worn to give the appearance of a fancy set of stays. And then in the middle of the century there are plenty of women whose kerchiefs completely cover where stomachers might be that I wonder if maybe they aren't wearing stomachers either.

Maybe this is one of those things that are obvious to everyone else, but nobody seems to state it out loud so I don't know.