Sleeves. Ugh.

So it's just hit me that there's an event on this weekend (shit) and I was wanting to have a brand new dress ready for it. The blue wool cote, despite some amazing progress on it, will be nowhere near ready. The grey cote, however...quite a bit closer to being wearable. So there goes the rest of my week, making sleeves and weirdly-shaped underarm gussets because I am terrible at this.

No, really -- who has pentagonal gussets? Me, apparently.

I also have a chemise that I've been meaning to put proper white sleeves on, rather than the awful natural ones that didn't work right when I first made the damn thing. They didn't sit right and they kept bunching up in my elbows...hopefully these are better. They're made of a much finer linen, so the bunching problem should be lessened. Having white sleeves, however, is also making me think that I need to redo the top bit so it either doesn't show or only shows white rather than natural linen.

One sleeve, mostly done. Woo!

Right now, the chemise (and the grey cote, urgh) has one sleeve mostly on and one sleeve that is still a rectangle of fabric with raw edges. I think I've made them large enough at the shoulder to not really need gussets but I'll have to make sure before calling it done. The gussets will have to be done either pieced from the white linen or out of the natural color, so hopefully they're not really necessary. Too much effort!

If I get all these damned sleeves put on and done properly then maybe I can consider finishing up the buttoned cuffs on my purple dress. Somehow I don't think I'd feel quite so frantic if I used a sewing machine, but I like to do everything by hand, because authenticity and also I feel like I learn more about construction when I do it by hand.

Anyways -- must get back to sewing so I can chuck the chemise in the wash before wearing it.