Pushing forward: sleeves done

Sleeves macro
Originally uploaded by Catrijn.

I've now finished both sleeves, shown in extreme close-up here. Next up is going to be fitting the main gown - I left a lot of ease when I did the cutting, so it's approximately the right shape but rather oversized. Combined with the strong hand of the fabric, it looks like its wearing me rather than vice versa. Pulling it in to be more body skimming should (hopefully) bring that under control.

WIP, or just a UFO?

I'm very slowly making progress on my Très Riches Heures gown (no pictures right now), but it's beginning to feel like less of a work in progress and more like a (perpetually) unfinished object. The distinction being the optimism, or lack thereof, about whether it will ever be finished. The lining is very thin, which by itself isn't a problem, but when I turned and pressed the first sleeve, the seam allowances and the fray-prevention zigzag on them showed through in a very unattractive way. I unpicked the zigzag all the way around, painstakingly trying not to create any snags or pulls in the satin. Then I re-bound the edges, using an extra fold and much lighter thread, and re-pressed it all once again. It looks much better now, and I know how to handle the second sleeve now, but it was frustrating to spend an entire long evening on the project just to get back to where I started in terms of assembly progress.

I'm also worried that the fabric ultimately won't drape right at all. Heavy satins drape very differently on the grain and the cross-grain (e.g., do the floats run vertical or horizontal on the garment), and I'm afraid I'm going to end up with something that stands out stiffly rather than falling in nice folds. From the moment I saw it, this fabric insisted it wanted to be this gown, but I'm beginning to think that it lied.