Permit me to make an introduction...

Friends of the blogging world, there's someone I'd like you to meet.  

No, I don't have a suitor.
Was that what popped into your head when you read the post title?
:D

Nope, this someone is of the female variety.  She's a bit hard to talk to, but quite accommodating once you get to know her.  I can't exactly say that she has a good head on her shoulders, but she's dependable.  She's rather stiff, but is willing to adjust when you have other plans for her-- in short, she is quite the nicest dressmaker's form anyone could ever want, and I think she and I are going to be great friends.

Her name is one I chose myself, and after much deliberation and consideration of many literary characters' names, I decided to bestow upon her the all-encompassing title of Mademoiselle.  Mademoiselle, meet the Readers.  Gentle Readers, this is Mademoiselle.

Mademoiselle has proved most useful and helpful over the last few weeks (she was a birthday gift in celebration of my first eighteen years on this earth, and I've had her for nearly a month now) as I scurry around like a distracted mouse getting ready for a Big Event.  You see, in two weeks I shall be advertising Miss Dashwood's Historical Costuming in the Young Entrepreneurs' section at the Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania's (CHAP) annual conference.   (Mentioning all this because if you're going to be at the convention, do please stop by my booth!!  I would so love to meet you!)

So I've been very much occupied of late in getting as many sample items ready as possible.  And Mademoiselle's been a dear in putting up with it all.

She has modeled...

...and helped with fitting (though she's not built on the exact same proportions as I am, so a closely fitted bodice is not the easiest thing in the world)...

I call this dress the Donwell Strawberry dress-- not because it's printed with actual strawberries (they are in fact wee rosebuds) but because it rather reminds me of the dress Emma wears to Donwell Abbey during the strawberry outing when everyone is being horrid to Jane Fairfax (click image to enlarge).

I had some pictures of her modeling some petticoats I've made, but I seem to have somehow deleted them, so I'll have to take them again another time.  Sigh.

Anyways, I shall close this short but rambly post with a few more pictures of the dress above-- in that picture, the buttonholes are still in progress and the dress is pinned onto Mademoiselle so that it will lay (lie?) properly.  It's an 1850's style, a design I've dubbed the Esther Summerson, and it appears to maximum advantage when the model is wearing a corset.  Now, Mlle. is capable of wearing a corset, but since she's a bit unyielding, the corset doesn't perform its functions as well as it ought to.   So here's the dress on me (and there's a corset on me, too, but I'm not posting pictures of THAT.)

Forgive the "down" hair.  I was in a hurry and hadn't had time or inclination to put it up.  But as we all know, properly styled hair is totally not necessary to achieve the historically accurate look, right?  Right?  Perhaps I should just get myself a job in a Michael Landon Jr. movie...