One Sleeve In

So, against my better judgement, I went ahead with the one sleeve, finishing it off as far as I could, and then sewed it into one of the bodice halves. I should have been working on both sleeves in tandem, but was too excited to see how it would turn out, so just zoomed ahead with one....

Taking a closer look....

Then I sewed the underarm and sleeve seam.....and tried it on....

It's looking really good, and now I feel like cutting out the skirt and over-sleeves, but I really should do the second sleeve first. And that's what I meant about ignoring my better judgement, since it's rather hard to go right back to the beginning on the second sleeve now.  Sigh.....maybe I can do both at the same time, and alternate between the two, since the skirt and over-sleeves have very, long hemlines - and there's lots of basting involved.  Good idea!

And in case anyone is wondering why Bianca is still wearing her thick plaid skirt with petticoat underneath, it's to help me keep in mind that I needed to make her bodice wide enough to work with all those layers.  I've made the mistake of making a skin-tight bodice before, only to have it end up with a big gaping space at the back after inserting the skirt. It's so easy to forget that the bulk of the skirt will add to the circumference at the bottom of the bodice, especially if the top of the skirt ends up inserted inside the bottom of the bodice, which is how I always do it. So it's important to think ahead and make the bodice wide enough right from the start, to compensate for all that extra fabric.