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This morning I am going to SEW BUSTLE GOWN but first I have to go to the quilting shop because I'm out of black thread. And as long as I'm doing errands I should also get milk for yogurt, which is in the opposite direction but then all my errands will be done.

I have passed the halfway point in The Thinking Woman's Guide To Magic! I'm still mad as balls about the inept P&P "parallels", and personally I think being too descriptive of/sciencey with magic ruins it, but there's something in there that makes reading it not a total chore.

Real Hounds has updated and after reading the new chapter twice yesterday, then going back this morning and reading the previous ones, I started browsing around because reading fanfiction is important. And now I've found that somebody has written 150 chapters (300k words) of a R-rated epic in which Hermione stayed part cat in CoS. What a world this is.

What do you think?

Well, it's taken until after lunch, but I'm pinning the bodice together. Question for the group: should I face the peplum of the bodice with the black silk of the bodice (the original does this, not in black) or the purple silk of the underskirt and bodice trim (exciting!)? The latter is my preference at all times even when, in this case, nobody's likely to see it - I just love contrasting linings and facings.

Same question goes for the sleeve ruffles, tbh. Although these facings are definitely going to be seen. They're essentially like this or the blue one (though there's gathering below the elbow rather than just a belled sleeve).

Me again!

Ha, the bodice is put together minus the sleeves, and it seems to be doing very well! I've learned to never ever judge the bodice fit before you ensleeve it, so I'm trying not to think about the side back seams, which seem to be puffing out. We'll see tomorrow. The sleeves seem to fit well on their own, but maybe with the lining they're too heavy? It's hard to tell if linings are too heavy when it's 80 degrees and any silk clothing at all is just too heavy. But I might end up unpicking it all and just not lining the sleeves.

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This dinnertime I watched Leap Year, as they just added it to Netflix. I remember when it came out and there was a lot of critical talk about tropes etc., but I never got around to watching it. Fernwithy wrote a bit the other day about how Manic Pixie Dream Girls are essentially the Prince Charming rescue fantasy for men, and while I think there's something to talk about wrt both the male and female stories having the man of a higher status - it occurred to me that the trope I have a problem with in general (but not in specific, def. not here) is the uptight/straight-laced woman loosened up by the guy who never takes things seriously. Which made me reflect on how the opposite does happen - it's the MPDG. So why, when I'm thinking about one or the other, does it feel like only one way happens? Well, because it does. It's just the the "one way" is the main character being the uptight one, and the love interest is the one that fixes them. Although now that I'm thinking about it, I'll probably remember a dozen free-wheeling main characters who loosen up love interests.

I'm not really going anywhere with this, I guess? It just seems like an interesting complication in the often black-and-white world of talking about sexism in tropes. Anyway, the movie itself is not very good but ultimately inoffensive; Matthew Goode is in it and is borderline incomprehensible with his Irish accent because he's always mumbling. Amy Adams's hair and wardrobe are stellar. Although the plot device is stupid - "I need to get to my boyfriend in Dublin on Leap Day so Leap Day William will give us candy I can propose to him!" - it fades pretty quickly to the standard "have to travel with unlikely companion" plot and seems less like the sexism it was originally presented to me as and more like a flimsy rationale for having her need to travel quickly instead of sensibly waiting for the train. And it doesn't matter how dumb the rationale is, the characters still give you feels. They're still beautiful creatures.

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Damn! I was going through pictures to find ones of a particular 18th century gown, and came across this one at the NYSM I meant to pattern for my book but totally forgot about. (TBH, so did Connie - she is not good at remembering anything stored flat, and I wonder how many other awesome things I never even knew were there.) It's a dress with two extra bodices, one ca. 1800, one ca. 1810, and the one attached ca. 1820.