1883 Chemise

 Almost 6.5 years ago I originally made 1883 Chemise, I drafted the pattern from Fashions of the Gilded Age Vol. 1 Chemise with small sleeves. I never drafted the sleeves and only half hem the bottom, neckline and armscyes. 

In August I had to return home for some medical appointments, and when I was home, I decided I should finally finish it. 

The chemise never fit quite right. The neckline was really low, the armscyes was cut weird.

First I seam ripped the shoulder, this was going to need to be lengthened for less fabric to be removed from the armscyes. I had about 1.5” of excess fabric there anyway. I then backstitched as close to the frayed edged as possible and trimmed the frayed part.

I then tried it on and it was already much better, but I still marked the armsyces where I wanted to cut it. After I removed the excess. I I folded twice as little as possible with some very light pink polyester thread that I think we had since the early late 2000s / early 2010s. The part I didn’t cut was folded once, and just folded the part in half.

Then for the neckline hem, I just folded it over, for the shoulder strap area it was just enough to cover the hem from the armscyes and whipped stitch it down, trying to only catch the hem from the armscye. The neckline hem did increase as the main part of the shoulder strap disappeared, to the full seam allowance that the neckline was originally hemmed with. This part was done with a running back stitch.

When I finished the neckline I decided I wasn’t going to finish hemming the bottom hem, as I didn’t want to do it, and was going to need to iron the chemise again. The hem was originally done on a machine, so it should be good from fraying but if it does I may need to actually hem it, or just make new under garments. It is tight across the chest and hip areas, and I do struggle a tad to get it off.

 

Love,

Paige

Current WIPs: 

- 1880s Redthreaded Corset 

- Granny Stripe Blanket (currently on hold, I have worked on it this summer but it is currently not with me)

 

Planned 

- Knitted Socks (4)

- Repair Work

• Blanket: Binding
• Chemise: Hem 
• Petticoat: Hook & Eyes → need corset
• Wash Dress: Hook & Eyes → need corset
• Crinoline Cage: Bag & Closure may need resizing → earliest mid dec * not likely

Finishing my second year

 I came into the spring semester scared, I was really worried I was going to do bad like I did last semester. The photos are photos I took through this semester.

But thankfully, I was able to not sink again. I didn't do as well as I did my first 2 semesters, but my semester gpa was 0.5 higher than the fall. My mental health was a lot better, even with having a little to much on my plate. 

I did end up dropping from the rocketry club for a couple different reasons, mainly because I was burn out, and the club's president couldn't be professional, and was downright cruel to me.

May 1st, 2 of my roommates moved out into a cheaper apartment, where our expenses, are now 2/3rds of what they were at the old place, which  together is saving us around $900/month.

Paige

2022

 I started off my second semester of college with 16 credits and with joining a rocketry club. Which I dropped every ounce of my spare time into, especially after I was appointed to be one of the lead engineers. When I was appointed lead the spot I was going to fill in the next school year decided that he was going not to do anything anymore. So soon became a schedule of school/rocketry for 20 hours a day, and 3 hours a sleep. I wasn't really purposefully going to bed, I was passing out at 3:30 AM, onto my laptop while doing a presentation. I do not recommend. Health and Sanity are way more important. Though it did give me a nice internship offer.

I was able to donate plasma once again, and I finished the semester with making dean’s list once again, though I did not get a 4.0 this semester. 

Over the summer I took a trip to New Mexico with a group of 23 other people, I went off roading in the desert with my dad for father's day after getting 2 hours of sleep. We got into El Paso at 3:30 AM MT, after driving from Dallas. The drive from Dallas was 10 hours, and pretty much encompassed a total of 2 roads. I also got a really cool Dinosaur from Ikea after landing in Dallas. Two of us in our group had never been to Ikea, as the closet one to me is roughly 5.5 hour drive and in another state. It was a week long competition filled with rockets, dealing with 100+ degree heat and 95% humidity, and shenanigans.

 

Aug 2022, Cornfield (We were launching rockets)

I preceded to work for the rest of the summer, before moving into my first apartment in August. I lived with 4 other people, and I would be okay with living with 3 of them again.

Though this fall semester was rough, I was taking 17 credits which include Organic chemistry, the 2nd calculus based physics class, and had classes from 8 am to 8 pm, five days a week. I was at a point if I got sick I was screwed, which means the 6th week of the semester I woke up feeling terrible. I felt better when I had covid in early 2020 than that 4 weeks. In December I finally finished as was really glad that I passed all my classes. 

Paige

It has been nearly 2 years …

 My beloved readers,

I can’t believe it has been nearly 2 year, the last time we spoke I was excited about possibly getting into a course that my college offers to first year students, for the summer before they start. I didn’t get into the sewing class, but I did get into the cooking class.

Each week had to cook a different food and do a post about the science aspect related to the food or digestive system. The professor tho definitely has biases and is not the nicest to others. I had never had an issue with her but you could tell with the way she talked about others.

Also the last time we spoke, I had just returned to vacation and was on an extremely strong antibiotic, I had been stung by a wasp, and developed a bad bacterial infection in the area after 2 days, If I had waited until morning it would’ve been an ER visit for iv antibiotics. I wished it was iv antibiotics only for the fact that I found out I was allergic to the first antibiotic and preceded to sleep from Benadryl the entire time I was on the med. 

After the the college class was finished, I moved into my dorm (which was at a hotel), orientation week was so busy and didn’t get to unpack until the Sunday after the first week of school. Went to a frat party that Friday but left by 10:30, parties are a lot more fun when you know the people there, and then I started my 1st semester.

I took 15 credits, and finished the semester with a 4.0 and made deans list. I also had the time to donate plama twice the first semester. In October we got a new puppy.

Unfortunately at the end of December, an extremely close family friend, we had been really close to since 2006, and his death was harder than my grandfather’s in 2020.

And with that, 2021 was finished.

Paige