Mrs Maupin

And so, by chance, I discovered that the current state of the website remodel doesn't allow me to easily link to a picture hosted on my own website.
Option one was find another plug-in and a way to go around the limitations of the current template. Estimated time to understand and fiw the issue : two weeks. Option two : just move everything I can to FlickR.
Guess where my fashion plates will reside in the future ?...  Sometimes, it's just not worth my time when I have a simpler option.

One hiking coat is done-ish. It should have been delivered yesteday but the train didn't cooperate, so I still have the coat and E. is hiking in the woods with her old one. Which means I have time to fiw the small things I couldn't do before, like ordering the right cordstops and adding grosgrain loops at the hem.

The corset cover is also done, I'll try to take pictures on Monday.

I have started takign apart my old black skirt to upgrade it into a better mid-1890s piece. It was a quick and dirty job and served me well, but I can do better now. Plus, it's too small in the waist now..The plan is to take it apart entirely, see if I can piece some fullness to the back from the fabric I have, and add gores of black velvet between panels. I have a few reference images of that, and it seems like a period-correct approach to altering a garment. It uses up fabric from the stash ; and they *loved* using velvet as a trim.

The blog post is slowly taking shape. It should be done by tomorrow.

The Oympe dress (modern evening/bridal wear for my protfolio) is mocked-up except for sleeves, which are partly mocked-up. I want to avoid making a full mock-up if at all possible. The skirt part should be fairly straightforward - simple angled panels for fullness. I'm running short on musling for mock-ups, I should probably pick some up before the kids come back, but I don't want to brave Ikea just yet.

Since I was good today I gave myself some time to play and scanned a bunch of pictures from my magazines collection. All of them from La Famille, January 1894. I'm putting them on FlickR for now, because my website is awaiting a complete overhaul and I don't want to upload things there until it is done. (BTW, I also worked with the Home Geek on the website, I'm waiting for him to arrange a few technical things and then I can get going on updating it for good. One more thing accomplished !)
Just a small selection of the pictures below :

I am trying to be good but there are a couple volumes on eBay that are calling my name right now. Not that I have scanned more than a teeny-tiny part of the whole collection, mind you. Today I have moved a few of the books, and I had to take some upstairs because they no longer fit in the downstairs shelves. Or maybe I should put the comic books upstairs and leave the living-room shelves for costume books + board games (another thing that we have an ever-increasing number of and tha I  have no intention of trimming).

I might also have spent a good part of my work breaks dreaming about 1790s riding habits. I might be thinking about a Théroigne de Méricourt inspired costume. What is sure is that right now I don't have the time for this, nor the occasion... But dreams of costume ar sweet dreams.