All about the triumph of intellect and romance

This week, I got to photograph a couple of dresses! We had an intern cataloguing the shoe collection, and she found two pairs that were donated with their wedding dresses, so I put them on mannequins and photographed them. They look kind of mediocre ... I never have sufficient/the right underthings for support, because many regular ones, like lobstertail bustles, don't quite work! You'd be surprised how many things requires you to have legs and/or an ass, neither of which our forms have. I used my very janky bustle hoop for the one from ca. 1871, which at least gave basically the right silhouette, but it is, again, janky.

I'm thinking that I might make some small-ish quilted petticoats to act as legs and a basic skirt support, and I know I've said this before so I'm ordering the fabric to do it. (Ordering and making it on my own dime/time so that they're mine and I can do whatever I want with them.) I need to make some bustle pads of varying sizes, too (to create asses for under bustles and hoops, or for skirts that just need a butt under there). Also wondering a bit about the possible utility of canvas petticoats. And/or very small hoops, like in situations where a human woman wouldn't have worn one, but where it's useful to support a full hem.

Then while I was on the "making myself get around to it" train, I went upstairs and did a huge amount of work in the sewing storage room, which has always been the kind of place I just chuck things inside and close the door. But I want to turn the room that has the cat box into a bedroom (nursery) (trying not to act like that's a certain thing in case I can't conceive) (but it's the nursery), which means cleaning up the SSR to the point where cats can't pee/barf/shed on fabric. And it honestly was not that hard, which is depressing because it's been like that since I moved in. I got it to the point where I could move the litter box in there and leave the door open, and now it looks very neat and the bedroom, which I vacuumed, also looks very neat.