I was motivated. I had deadlines! But I had all weekend to sew. And then, the storm came on Friday night, and knocked my power out for THREE whole days. Did I get anything done? No. There was also a heat index of 105 for most of the days, so it was hot and miserable. When Melanie came for her final dress fitting, we went to a friend's house in town who had electricity, and did the fitting there before returning home to hot darkness.
Melanie's dress did get finished after electricity returned on Monday night. Did the final bits of hemming and such late on Tuesday evening in the costume shop, with a friend helping so I could work on my own dress. I'd have a picture of Melanie in the dress, but sadly, she got very sick and couldn't make it on the 4th.

I started my own dress last week, but had a heck of a time trying to get the bodice fitted. I hate back closing gowns. I've come to the conclusion that I need to make another duct tape double for my corseted shape, and potentially remake my duct tape double of my stays shape too, since I've lost a lot of weight since I made it. My roommate helped me fit the bodice a little, and my friend from town came over and helped too.

I worked on my dress on July 3rd almost all day, and finally finished it at 2:30 in the morning of the 4th. Sort of. I didn't get hooks and eyes on, so my coworker sewed me up. I also never got a collar on it, and my one white scrap I brought for around my neck was given to another friend who didn't have one for the day either. And I decided to go with a regular skirt instead of flounced in the interest of time. I've got the flounces still cut out, and maybe I'll do them next time.

This isn't the greatest picture of the dress. This is from my tableaux vivants show on the 4th. Marc and I are singing a shape note song, in preparation for the Romeo & Juliet scene. This is also after I tripped on one of the blankets while trying to hang it up, and broke the thread in one of the sections of gauging in my skirt, which began to droop down until I shoved it up under the bodice and into place under my corset strings. Oh well.
All in all, I'm not that happy with it. The lack of something white around my neck bothers me, and I didn't have time to starch petticoats, so the 6 that I was wearing didn't help my silhouette at all. If I find motivation again, I'll work on it some more and fix it up better for next time. It'll need hooks and eyes anyway.