An Interesting Month

October & November have been a rather interesting months in my life & business. Here are some images of the garments that we made...

These are both 1840's outfits, we made the coats & waistcoats.
Thank you to the Frazier International History Museum for sending the pictures along! (Dashing young men, aren't they?)

I spent most of October bouncing between being terribly sick & hyperactive. A positively unbelievable amount of clothing was produced & shipped out. Despite the head-cold, it may have been one of my best months ever.

November was a little rougher. The cold lingered (the cough has yet to depart) and a new & rather uncomfortable illness set in. My Dr. freaked out & sent me to some specialists & for blood tests and all of them said "there's nothing wrong with you!" Which was wonderful news to me, despite feeling like death warmed over on some days & just peachy on others. A good dose of garlic seemed to fix what ailed me & I'm continuing on with this plan until I find something better. Vampires beware.

Work in November has been rather disorganized, but constant. I've based my schedule more on how I'm feeling that day than who is next in line, though I have managed to keep to the general outline. I've made many patterns, cut about a dozen orders & have been bouncing around sewing various things according to my energy level on any given day. On high energy days I wrestle with the larger garments, on bad days I curl up with my hand-sewing projects. I'm looking forward to the week when everything is miraculously finished all at once!

The quilted petticoat is progressing quickly, I've been devoting a couple hours to it in the evenings while "watching" t-v. The top border is more than 1/2 finished and I'll soon have to decide how to proceed with the middle section... or I'll just work on all those straight lines on the lattice-work top...

I've been messing with various cuts & angles for Canadian Caps. Playing around with "how to make a fur pom-pom" and if it's better to put cording inside the fur strips or leave them on a natural fold. What weaves work best & which fabrics to avoid, (don't use very stiff material, it doesn't turn). One must also account for the space fur takes up when figuring out how large the bottom has to be. The next one I'm going to try will be seams on the outside covered with fur... this might work better than the cording & bag-lined version. We aren't quite there with the design, but I'm getting closer. By the time I figure it out, I'll have enough test hats to give away as Christmas presents. My failed attempts are still very cute.