Self-indulgent

Dreams last night, I think because I went to bed at nine with a nasty headache and nausea.

( nothing is more fascinating than other people's dreams )

Weird obsessions

So today my major accomplishment was pinning a lot of 1850s/60s undersleeves and fashion plates featuring them. I am honestly not sure what kind of work-work there will be for me tomorrow (probably taking pictures of things and putting them in the system) but hey-o I've got some downtime stuff to do.

I realized today that I could make a few sample sleeves to baste ruffles/undersleeves into to show the finished look. Oh, I am psyched about this. I have to finish my spencer but as soon as I'm done I'm going to start on some pretty white cotton things.

Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for the people who follow me on Pinterest. I mean, I know they follow me because they want historical fashion stuffs, but does anyone really want dozens of near-identical white undersleeves flooding their dash?

La petite oye

Ordered some swatches from Dharma Trading Co. Their silk gauze and cotton voile look like they come close to some of the extant pieces, although I don't know if I'll be ever able to find anything like the transparent manchettes I've seen in paintings (and the one extant piece I linked). Hopefully the gauze comes close, just because I'd like to be able to do really nice things on occasion.

[This episode of SVU stars Cary Elwes as a gravelly-voiced, heavily-accented mob lawyer and it's really, really surreal.]

I hope I'm not being stupid, though. I mean. I know I'm not going to become the next American Duchess with ruffles and undersleeves, but the thing is, I enjoy research and making authentic small things for the sake of making them. The few places I've seen this sort of stuff online (mainly chemisettes, some 19th century undersleeves), it's been either rather plain side products to go with a shop's dresses and underclothing or the main deal but they're churned out by machine. I would honestly be happy hand-sewing ones like these (working my way up to scalloped edges and such), just because I like sewing them. Selling them would help me make fabric money, basically, and give me leave to try out different fabrics and techniques. But there's a part of me that's like, "why would anyone want to buy these? They're not that hard to make." Frandslist oh frandslist, answer me do (but not while feeling like I'm going to force you to stick with your answer in the future): if you were working on a nice 18th century gown, would you consider buying a set of double ruffles in silk gauze to go with them for $20-$40 (or thereabouts, I need to time myself making up a set once I get some of the fabric I've ordered), or would you be like, that's not necessary? I am suddenly afflicted with self-doubt.

Oh my god, Tumblr is infecting me, I keep wanting to write self-deprecatory tags and that's just not necessary.