I am currently in the middle of three hand-sewing projects:

• Adding pearls to the hairnet I completed two months ago. It’s not going too bad but it seems like I can only add about 8-10 pearls at a sitting. At this rate it will get finished in a few years.
• Smocking for the front of a tunic – I was looking for German construction instructions and found this lattice smocking. When I read the directions it occurred to me that I own a plastic stencil that looked very similar to the grid design and I had to know if it would work. So I traced the stencil and, sure enough, I got the desired result – not nearly as clean and nice looking but pretty close. It should take a few more hours of sewing and that will be complete.
• Finally the German skirt.

The German skirt is coming along nicely.

First I cut out three panels of 60inch wide fabric and sewed those together (I had cut out four but only used three) and then I added pleater tape and pulled it to size and am now finished hand sewing it to a canvas band which will then get sewn to a belt so that the weight of the dress sits on the hips rather than my shoulders. If the smocking has taught me anything it’s that I really don’t have the time or patience for pleating without the use of tape. However – I should have stuck with the original plan to pleat the linen in with the skirt – in the end I decided that I was afraid that if they were pleated together then they would not flow as nicely and it would be a pain in the butt to try to clean. It is a very lightweight linen though so I will put it on a standard waistband which shouldn’t be too difficult.

Once the skirt is stitched up (which should be in the next day or two) then it can be hung so I can hem it next week. In the mean time I can get started on the top of the dress and hopefully my fabric purchase should be here by then. I’m excited to see if this gold fabric I ordered will work!