Decisions, (hypothetical) Decisions

It's a toss-up, really as to which of these two patterns I crave more. Do I want the little wingéd sleeves and gorgeous shirred bodice of this number:




Or do I want the dramatic deep banded vee of this one?




It is, alas, purely an academic question, as they are both B30, and despite having saved links to every.single.page online that explains how to grade patterns, I don't actually do so. So I've just put out some feelers ... these have to have been made in other sizes, at some point, right?

Thanks to Rachel for the link -- click on the images to go to the Etsy site for fourlittlesparrows. She's got some other nice patterns listed, too ... and they're VERY reasonable. I think these are eight bucks.

Also, a couple people asked me about the fabric for the dress I wore yesterday at Tools of Change. It's this, which I thought I had posted about before, but sadly can't find the entry for now.

Sorry Her Lot Who Loves Too Well

Since I'm talking at O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing conference today (I'm the last speaker), I figured I should post something book-related ... so I went back to the Google Book Search well, and found this gem:

She was very simply dressed; nothing of the grande dame, en toilette de soir, about her as she received her friends. Her dark-colored gown was high nearly to the neck, with sleeves reaching to the elbow, a single row of beautiful lace falling back from the statuesque throat, and over the shapely arms. A rich cream "rose de Provence" was her only ornament. She looked dark and shadowy, yet brilliant, —with that soft brilliancy with which the flowers gleam, as they nestle in their dark-green foliage, beneath the moonlight of an Eastern night.

It's from Sorry Her Lot Who Loves Too Well by Maria Grant (1879) and I think I may have to download it and read the whole thing, just so I can understand this line:

Donna has been a Gentianella (I will not have her called a bluestocking) for years; and she could tell you astonishing things! Why, she is regularly scientific!

What's a Gentianella, that it would be contrasted with bluestocking?

The title of the book is from HMS Pinafore, btw, which I didn't know until I googled it (I'm a Penzance person, myself). And the image is from Nineteenth-Century Fashions: A Compendium. Go forth and explore.