Somebody stop me!

I was looking up Moffat's comment on being misquoted and got an article on The Mary Sue, and in the comments:

... at the time Amy was married and knocked up, she was only 21. Unlike Rose, Martha or Donna, she barely got the chance to explore herself, have a career etc. before she was Mrs Williams and Mama Song.

Rose got to have Mickey as her boyfriend and travel with the Doctor for a significant amount of time, and after he left, she had to sort her own life before settling down. ...

As a 22 year old, THIS concerns me significantly. When young girls who idolise Amy work this out, what are they going to think? I mean, the only job we know she had was as a KISSOGRAM?!

I could write commentary on this, but I don't think I need to.

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I was doing all right with the book since the last time I ranted, but ... then it hit me with another O_O. It started (still in 1889, btw) when Fiona was engaged to Will and Will was becoming weirdly conventional after many many pages of not caring about what people thought and what people of his class were supposed to do - telling her she'd need to give up her business and tea room. And this was annoying because it felt heavy-handed and pasted on for plot reasons, not organic to the character. And then she's at the dressmaker's for her wedding clothes and has an episode with a corset, and I rolled my eyes. Then the dress is described:

It was ivory and made of Belgian lace painstakingly stitched onto a silk sheath and embellished with thousands of tiny pearls. Madame had guided her away from the exaggerated leg-o'-mutton sleeves, high neck, and fussy ornamentation currently in vogue toward a plainer silhouette just beginning to become fashionable. The dress had a squared décolletage that showed off her graceful neck, three-quarter-length sleeves, and a train that swept prettily from the waist to the floor.

What I don't understand is why do people research everything else but refuse to believe it's important to get clothing right? This is Wikipedia-level stuff. PUFFED SLEEVES DON'T GET BIG UNTIL 1893, and they were the height of fashion until 1897. It's not even like there's nothing else she could use to make the same point - the bustle only went out in 1888 and can still be seen around in 1889, so there's your froofy thing she can refuse to be going on with. The lace-covered sheath dress sounds ca. 1900. Low necklines weren't common for wedding dresses, but elbow-length sleeves actually were very common - it's a cross between fanciness and modesty, because it was a very formal event taking place in the afternoon. It would be far more appropriate to describe slightly full sleeves approvingly and have a lace yoke with a high collar. Instead of a sheath-like skirt, to be fashion-forward she ought to wear a gored and pleated skirt that flares out - and that would be a couple of years in advance, but not nine.

Today stuff

So I finished up the pink dress fairly quickly - I did have to redo my pattern of the pleating on the front and back because I realized I'd done it stupidly wrong, but the way of doing it correctly was actually easier. I didn't end up measuring each tuck and drawing the skirt panels untucked, because a) I realized it would be hella long, the drawn-out pattern piece I mean, and b) they're graduated in size but they go from 1" to 1.5", which really isn't that much. So then I got out this blue and black 1860s dress and did it so I'd have done more than just half a pattern, but I'm not sure if I'm going to end up using it because the type of sleeves actually are represented in (I think) the first pattern in PoF2 - they're just not drawn as extremely curved in the picture as the pattern pieces appear to be. Although I kind of think I'm getting a bit too caught up in THEY MUST ALL BE WILDLY DIFFERENT FROM ALL PREVIOUS PATTERNS, which is silly.

I'm going to try to draw them. I did manage to get the 1840s one by basing it off one of the dresses I'd already done and posted to the blog, but I'd like to do the other two, maybe accompanied by cropped pictures that show the texture and color of the fabric.

Heard back from the Washington Co. Historical Society - they have a GAR coat, a petticoat, and a box of things from ca. 1914, so I don't know if I'll be making an appointment with them. And I wrote to the Old Stone Fort to ask for an appointment and permission, and the Schenectady CHS to ask about their collection.

Dad suggested I contact Quite Specific Media to ask about release forms and waivers and things, what legal stuff you need to publish patterns like this.