1950s Project Update

 Jenny's dress is coming along quite well. It has had it's share of hiccups. I can see I'm going to have to do something to force the little dodads on the shoulders to lie flat. I couldn't find quite the fabric I wanted. I would have preferred a crisp cotton or silk with polka dots. Actually now I'm wishing I'd thought to make it from white broderie anglaise with a plain light blue cotton under dress and trim. But I'm still happy with it possibly mostly because I know I would have had a hard time finding broderie anglaise in the middle of Winter.
 It doesn't have the skirt attatched yet. I wanted to starch the underskirt so the dress stuck out properly but apparently real starch (the kind you soak fabric in, not the spray on ironing kind) doesn't exist anymore. At least I can't find anywhere that sells it and nobody seems to remember it ever existing. When I was a kid, my mum used to have to starch my folk-dancing petticoats until they could stand up by themselves. That's kind of how I want the underskirt and you don't get that effect with the spray on stuff.
 Even so my mum suggested spray starching the underskirt as much as I can, then sewing some stiff net or tulle into the hem of the underskirt and covering the top of the hem with a length of grosgrain ribbon. If that works, I'll probably have this finished tomorrow. If not, I'm going to need to make a petticoat and I'd rather not have to do that.