Tea, Cake and Big Dresses

Assemblage

2012-02-06T18:42:00.008+01:00

Inserted busk:

Seams - these are mock flat felled:

Sewing down the embroidery bit:

Lacing:

There's no modesty panel at the back because I ran out of coutil. I also think I overdid the coutil generally - there seemed to be rather a lot of it. I would normally make the bonecasings out of coutil but I had to use twill tape… also because I ran out of coutil. I think it's fair to say I had coutil issues with this one.

Photographs (if you want to see me in my underwear) are here. Note in these pictures I'm also wearing some Madeline knickers from Collette Patterns - made from white habotai silk and with two slight alterations (they were a little too low cut for my taste so I changed them to sit higher on the hip and I personally didn't like the bows head on so I moved them to the side a little).

Embroidery II

2012-02-03T18:08:00.004+01:00

I am fed up with stabbing myself with pins.

I am spending all my spare time sewing in a desperate attempt to get my corset finished in time for the deadline. My hands look like they've been in the wars - goodness knows what my piano teacher thinks I get up to instead of practicing scales. It doesn't help that in addition to my stab wounds I also managed to burn my thumb with a kettle.

Anyway, as I'm sure you don't want to see pictures of my scabs I'm going to show you a few pictures of my embroidered dragons.

Here I am mid-embroider:

Here we have my embroidered pieces all stitched together (and also attached to the corset):

And here we have a close up:

There should be more corset news coming next week!

Embroidery I

2011-12-19T12:41:00.002+01:00

What a lot of effort! All I wanted was an embroidered dragon! Was that really too much to ask?

As my drawing skills leave a lot to be desired I went to the library to look for pictures of dragons to see how they're put together. I looked in the mythology section, the art section, the religion section and the embroidery section.

Then I looked in Waterstones, the Oxfam Bookshop and the Community Bookshop.

Then I gave up and decided to drop the dragon idea and go for something art nouveau so back to the library and a look at some books on art nouveau for some inspiration.

When returning the art nouveau books I didn't want back to their rightful places on the shelves I accidentally went down the wrong aisle and found myself in the painting section. Lo and behold a book entitled "How to Draw and Paint Dragons" by Tom Kidd.

I joined the library (aren't libraries great?!), took out the dragon book and two on art nouveau (in case I decided to have an art nouveau dragon), bought some food and lugged everything home.

Later that day I came up with this:

Which is an attempt to separate it out into its constituent parts to make it fit onto the pattern pieces.

Then I cut the pieces out in poplin and sewed them together to ensure everything matched up and had smooth lines. They didn't. I had to tweak the design slightly.

Then I traced the design onto some stabiliser

And hooped the stabiliser with the coutil after first tacking the two together to ensure it all stays on the correct grain.

I was going to have two different dragons for an asymmetrical design (in fact I was going to have a winged lion on the other side but I don't fancy my chances of finding a book called "How to Draw and Paint Winged Lions") but I think that might just be a little too much for me.

My satin coutil arrived!

2011-10-03T13:25:00.000+02:00

My initial thoughts were to make a single layer corset but now that I have my coutil I decided to google it and see if that's a bad idea. It does seem that a single layer of satin coutil would hold up to corsetry however I'm a little concerned about wrinkling - particularly with it being satin.

On getting it home I was able to examine the coutil more easily and discovered that it's thinner than I was expecting so the end result is that I think I'm going to back it with normal herringbone coutil. This will mean a slight alteration to my WRITTEN DOWN METHODOLOGY.

Meanwhile… I'm drawing dragons… .

Mock Up MK I

2011-09-26T13:55:00.003+02:00

I am a genius! Not content with my discovery that if a garment is too baggy when worn it means it's too big, I have put together a corset mock up which almost fits perfectly on the first go!

Here it is:

The front is a bit high. Although this height is fine generally, I've decided I want it a bit lower. I think it will look better. I've changed the pattern so it's a bit lower in the front.

The hips are a bit big. I've sliced a bit off the pattern pieces at the sides and shaved the edges of the front gores a teeny tiny bit.

In the category of issues not relating to fitting, the busk is too long and I can't sit in it. I wondered about cutting out a bit at the front above the hips thus enabling a long busk but looking through my (limited) pictures, I only found one 1910s corset that looked like this and the rest of them just had shorter busks. I decided to go with the majority. I think I prefer it that way.

Eeeeee! Now I get to order bones and coutil!

Writing Down The Methodology

2011-09-21T13:35:00.005+02:00

Although I'm still sorting out the fit of my new corset I've been giving the construction a great deal of thought.

After I abandoned the last corset attempt due to realising I'd forgotten how to make a corset and therefore doing it wrong* I decided it would be best to write down the method, step by step, several times, each time refining the method until I could see nothing wrong with it. It has the added bonus of being the all important step 16. Here it is:

Initially, I was going to embroider onto the coutil pieces and then flatline these to corresponding lining pieces before sewing the seams in order to hide the embroidery thread ends.

Then I decided that it would be easier to embroider a separate piece of coutil and appliqué that onto the already assembled corset resulting in a) far less of a need for a lining and b) no bone casing stitching lines going through my embroidery.

Then I realised that I may not be able to make decent flat felled seams because of having gores in which case I would have to make mock flat felled seams and would need a lining to hide the raw edges.

To summarise, this is where I have ended up:

White satin coutil
Mock flat felled seams
Internal bone casings
Spiral steels
Waist tape
Lining
Front opening busk
Flap of coutil over the busk
Modesty panel
Front modesty bit
Silver eyelets
Appliquéd embroidery bit
Black / red / orange / yellow embroidery
Black satin bias binding
Black ribbon laces
Suspenders
Flossing

* I need to unpick my seams and sew them back together… properly.

Picture

2011-09-08T15:56:00.001+02:00

Further to my post of earlier today, please see below an amusing drawing courtesy of Lunchtime Illustration Limited:

I have no idea whether or not it will turn out to be anything remotely like this. For a start the shaded bit won't actually be shaded, it's being embroidered in some way.

New Corset

2011-09-08T11:08:00.010+02:00

This year's Your Wardrobe Unlock'd competition was announced (quite some time ago) and we get to choose between 1812 and 1912. Neither of these two styles of dress used to appeal to me until more recently when I came to appreciate them a little more.

The thing is, neither one appeals to me more than the other and I'm not about to dive in to making them both in such a short space of time! Besides which, I'm not sure I could keep the enthusiasm up.

There has been a lot of doodling and looking at pictures and I kind of came up with a 1912ish ensemble and an 1812ish ensemble but I'm not really sure if I have the capabilities of these eras at this stage or that I'm willing to learn them in such a short space of time.

I do, however, have the capabilities of making an underbust corset and given a decent length of time I may even be able to make it a good one! With embroidery and everything!

Norah Waugh has a very helpful 1911 corset pattern. And if my wanderings into gores fails, the lovely Jo over at Bridges on the Body has kindly provided a different pattern from the same era.

So, two and a bit weeks ago, some of my sewing related activities involved scaling up the Norah Waugh pattern and tweaking it so that it's more in line with my own measurements. (Note, I don't have an amusing drawing as yet.)

Here is the enlargement:

Here are some calculations for alteration to my own measurements:

Here is the pattern altered to my own measurements with added seam allowances:

I've started cutting out my mock up in twill. I think it may stretch.

Fitting dress patterns

2011-08-22T11:50:00.001+02:00

I have problems getting the bodice part of dresses to fit or sit right.

Is it because I have wonky shoulders?
Is it because I have broad shoulders but a skinny body?
Is it because I'm boney?

The answer to all of these questions is "no". It's because I've been cutting my patterns the wrong size.

I feel invincible.

Well.

2011-08-04T19:54:00.000+02:00

Some spanners got lodged in the works and some flies fell into my ointment. This means my sewing went out of the window. I didn't go to Vintage at Goodwood at the Southbank and my plans to go to an Alice in Wonderland themed party as the Hatter have turned into plans to go to an Alice in Wonderland themed party as Alice.

I might continue with making the Hatter outfit I had planned and see if I can somehow crowbar it into another themed party at a later date.

Pink

2011-06-23T18:58:00.002+02:00

On one of my past trips to Goldhawk Road I noticed that there were for sale some cottons with pink roses on them. I pondered what I could make out of that sort of fabric and then remembered something very important - I don't like it. My least favourite colour is pinky pink. I really don't want an item of clothing covered in pink roses.

I recently went back to Goldhawk Road and noticed the cottons with pink roses on them were still for sale. I thought a bit more about what I would like to make with them and then remembered something very important - I don't like them.

The shop was very busy and I had to wait next to the printed cottons to be served. As I waited, I thought about how I could make a lovely floral circle skirt out of one of the pink rose print cottons. I completely forgot that I don't like it and bought some.

As I walked back to the station (in the wrong direction) I remembered something very important - I don't like pinky pink. I looked into the bag to see if the pink was actually dark pink and I could convince myself that it was really red. Nope. It's pink all right.

I got home and washed it and as I hung it out to dry I gazed lovingly at the roses until I remembered something very important - I don't like them.

Once dry, I got in to cutting out the pieces for the circle skirt and no amount of not liking the fabric could stop me. Once cut out, I held one half of the skirt against me and looked in the mirror. I didn't like it.

I slept on it. I considered shortening it or turning it into a pencil skirt or shortening it and turning it into a pencil skirt on the grounds that less fabric = less pink but it was still pink.

Luckily I have a friend with a similar waist size who has no aversion to pink (or roses or circle skirts) and she's thrilled to be getting a circle skirt with pink roses on it.

Potentially Veering Off Course

2011-06-17T18:15:00.004+02:00

There're a lot of things I want to make. I planned out my year. I've got various events I need outfits for (another fancy dress party, the Chap Olympiad / Vintage at Goodwood at the Southbank 1920s dress, Vicki's wedding), a circle skirt for my chum, the new Your Wardrobe Unlock'd competition and some random pieces of clothing that I can just wear on a normal day.

I went to see The School For Scandal at the Barbican last night. It seemed to get quite bad reviews (the ones I've seen and admittedly my research wasn't very extensive) some of which appears to have stemmed from the mixture of 18th century with modern accoutrements. I quite liked this for two reasons: 1) it meant I didn't sit there being distracted by historical inaccuracies because they were meant to be on purpose and 2) it was similar to the world in my head where everyone runs around in sack back dresses and frock coats and stockings and Louis heeled shoes and yet still have their 21st century conveniences and lifestyles.

So what do you think happened? That's right. I now want to abandon everything in my first paragraph and make myself a new 18th century dress!

Vintage at Goodwood at the Southbank

2011-06-10T16:21:00.002+02:00

I'm going back to Vintage at Goodwood this year only it's not at Goodwood, it's at the Southbank. This means I don't have to camp in mud or stay the whole weekend.

One thing I was slightly disappointed about last year was that it only went back to 1940*.

One of my favourite 20th century eras is the 1920s and since dancing classes were on offer last year I was sorry that there wasn't a Charleston dance class option.

This year, it DOES go back to the 1920s and there WILL be Charleston dance classes so now I need a suitable dress.

I have this one (1929) but it's a bit eveningy. I could do with something a bit more… erm… short perhaps. And less pointy hemmed. And less shiny. But I don't want to accidentally end up with something that looks like I bought it from a fancy dress shop. I think it best if I steer clear of fringing and beading if I can or at least keep it to a minimum.

I had a think about it starting with this dress on Fashion Era (the one on the right) and the dress in my head developed from this, via several incarnations, into a blue dress with shoulder straps and an overlay of white spotted tulle but with short kimono sleeves and a pleated skirt with a little bit of pointy hem bits at the side (picture courtesy of Should Be Doing My Day Job Right Now Ltd).

When I finished with Audrey, I began to think some more about the 1920s dress and how I would attempt to draft it. Then Decades of Style sent me an e-mail informing me that their "Tier-Rific"** dress had gone on sale and I couldn't help noticing that apart from the diagonal ra-ra skirt bit, it looked uncannily like the dress in my head.

I shall see how easy it is to adapt the skirt bit to my needs. And for some reason I'm seeing it in orange and not blue.

Now to learn how to do fingerwaves… or get a big floppy hat.

* I would like it to go as far back as 1660 but realise that isn't generally considered "vintage"

** I keep thinking of Mrs Doyle's "tea-rific" pun

Audrey's Final Steps

2011-06-09T12:01:00.005+02:00

I didn't quite manage to get it finished by the end of May but by the end of the bank holiday all I had left to do was to hem it.

Here it is! With hemming complete!

Little things

1) I have added lace to the hem of the lining. I got the idea from one of Casey's elegant musings and while my skirt isn't underlined, there is likelihood of the lining being revealed (when I lift the skirt up to climb out of a window) and if there's anyone watching they'll be greeted by some lace instead of a line of stitching.

I quite like it. I think I'll be annoying everyone at the party by lifting up the skirt and forcing them all to look at it. Of course, running around saying to people "Have you seen my lace? Look at my lace!" and flashing my lining has the advantage of making people think I'm drunk so they won't all be trying to get me to consume alcohol when all I really need to have a good time is a nice cup of tea (and to show off my lace).

2) The bit of satin that I snagged and attempted to tuck away out of sight has happily remained out of sight so far. I snagged another bit but it's on the hem on the inside.

3) The skirt has a waist tape. I need to figure out the best way to put a waist tape into a lined dress. It keeps getting in the way of the zip.

4) I got confused and the skirt lining has the seams going the wrong way. They're French seams though so except for where the zip begins it still looks neat on the inside.

5) I've not yet attempted the hairdo and since mine is too fine to create any volume I envisage a lot of back combing and hairspray in my not too distant future.

6) Note also the white gloves (not black).

7) I made the important decision to WRITE DOWN MY METHODOLOGY in case I wish to make another version.

There is something that has gone very very wrong with this dress. The party isn't until 9th July and yet I've finished it almost five weeks in advance! In order to remedy this I'm going to make a jacket to go with it out of the same fabric (but this time crepe side out) from this pattern (but without the bow and the buttons).

And hopefully I'll still be sewing on 8th July.

Audrey's Third Steps

2011-05-27T11:10:00.001+02:00

Audrey was put on one side for a bit while I had to get on with other things but I'm back to normal now and I'm intending to finish the dress by the end of May which I can do as long as no-one wants to be sociable with me.

I decided to go with satin-side-out after all and no side split.

AUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH! I snagged my satin! Right at a focal point! I tried to tuck the loops in but it keeps popping out!

I'm quite happy at the idea of these sort of mishaps with clothes on the grounds that it shows the clothes are loved enough to be worn and are therefore fulfilling their potential as clothes but this has had a mishap before being worn!

Anyway, maybe it's not as noticeable as I think it is.

I did a lot of cutting out of fabric and a lot of sewing and I did it properly with underlining and clipping and notching and pinning and tacking and thread tension testing. I really want this to turn out well because I really liked the mock-up although there was a point at which I declared "Life's too short!"

I had to re-cut the underlining for the bodice centre front as something went awry and it seemed to be a bit lop-sided and wouldn't line up with the satin bit. In order to prevent more awryness I attached new organza to the already cut out satin piece and then used the satin piece as the template by cutting around it.

The curved top back piece has extra underlining going on because I'm worried it won't hold up. As the pattern piece is curved, I have one underling bit cut on the grain and one cut on the bias.

The top bit's all done - I just have to do skirt things and a zip thing. The skirt is smooth at the front and only gathered at the back as I'm not that thrilled by a gathered skirt at the front. I made this dress a couple of years ago so I'm not totally against the idea it's just I generally prefer a flat bit at the front and a big bit at the back.

Insert "yarn" pun here

2011-05-18T11:15:00.000+02:00

When I was a little girl my Mum taught me how to knit. I can cast on, cast off, do a knit stitch, a purl stitch, stocking stitch, some ribbing and use more than one colour at a time. That's great but I tend to be limited to small things in geometrical shapes (blankets for squirrels anyone?) as I don't find the end result exciting enough to not get bored with what I'm doing. I think if I made the effort to get better at knitting I could make more interesting things but as with all skills, in order to get better at it you need to practice and in order to practice you need to enjoy practicing.

When I was slightly less little my grandmother took a few minutes to teach me how to crochet. It wasn't anything spectacular but I was able to produce a nice chain. Sadly I didn't keep it up and while I still have my crochet hook I have completely forgotten how to even start crocheting.

I visited my Mum last week and decided to use the time away from home and a piano and a sewing machine to re-learn how to crochet. I bought a book (which seems to contain everything you'd ever need to know about crocheting) and hunted out my crochet hook.

Although I learned how to do the basics, the week went wrong and I didn't get much further than learning double, half triple, triple and double triple stitches. It didn't help much that my yarn (left over from here) was too fine for my crochet hook and anything more advanced just ended up looking like a tangled holey mess.

When I can get to somewhere that has smaller hooks for sale I will progress a bit further.

Audrey's Second Steps

2011-04-28T14:49:00.001+02:00

Despite having a four day weekend I only managed to get a little bit done but I drafted the skirt pattern, cut everything out in calico and assembled the mock-up.

I'm quite impressed with it. If I hadn't made a mock-up and had gone straight into the real thing it wouldn't have been a disaster. As it stands the mock-up, while not a perfect fit, is perfectly wearable (if I were trying to start a trend for unbleached calico evening dresses with multicoloured stitching, wonkily sewn in zips, pencil scribbles all over them and raw unfinished edges).

However, as it isn't the actual article I'm going to lengthen the bodice above the bust just a smidgen and take in the side seams under the armpit a bit. I'm also going to move the front skirt darts so that they line up with the princess seams of the bodice. I did try this earlier but somehow it didn't work. Maybe I did something very silly such as compared the front skirt with the back bodice…

Oh… or forgot about seam allowances!

I got myself some black crepe backed satin and I'm having second thoughts about using the crepe side. The satin side isn't overly shiny so I'm thinking I will probably go with satin after all.

And maybe I won't have a side split either. I made the mock-up without and it makes me feel all demure! If I do this, then there's no point in lining it in white as no-one will see it but I've already bought white lining anyway.

So this weekend I will be cutting out pieces of fabric.

Audrey's First Steps

2011-04-15T15:21:00.003+02:00

I decided that I might as well draft my own pattern instead of using The Selfish Seamstress's on the grounds that unless someone has drafted a pattern to my exact measurements, I'll have to make all sorts of adjustments to it.

Then I realised that even if I draft my own pattern it will need a fair bit of tweaking to get the style right anyway… and I will have gone through the pain of drafting my own pattern.

So I taped together The Selfish Seamstress's pattern and it went together very well. Then I measured the bodice parts, removed the seam allowances and discovered that, in terms of width, I only needed to increase the waist by ¾" in total. I left the bust as it was as the measurement was very close to mine although I'm not sure how much ease I need.

I needed to lengthen it quite a bit but that was easy to do. Holding the bodice pieces up to myself I think I may need to increase the armscye but I will figure that out when I've mocked it up.

For the skirt I have decided to draft my own. I'm going to start with a pencil skirt (which I have successfully already drafted when attempting to draft a dress whose bodice I ended up not liking at the mock up stage) and then add extra width to it to provide the gathering at the waist and the desired hem circumference (which I haven't decided upon yet).

I've also decided to go with a split and line it in white - the white being something a bit different than all black and will go with the white scarf and (in my case) the white evening gloves. I've also decided to use crepe backed satin and will probably use the crepe side outwards. I don't think I have enough faith in my satin skills to produce something that doesn't look like it could have been so much better.

We'll see.

I'm quite impressed with my new tracing paper. It's heavier than my usual stuff and as such is less prone to curling when it comes off the roll. I don't know what it's like to pin through yet though.

We'll see (again).

A Change of Plan

2011-04-05T13:45:00.004+02:00

This is how the corset has been going. First of all, my revised post-mock-up pattern pieces:

I was trying to make a good go of this because once made it can be used for other events. I'm making it in green with some black bits.

Busk insertion:

And then this is where I got to:

And that was on Sunday. And then I stopped for the following reasons:

1) I'm not overly confident about making an overbust and was seriously considering chopping the top off and turning it into an underbust. That way I can devote time to trying to get an overbust right when I have more than six days left.

2) I had only six days left and I started to panic.

So I have decided to use this corset instead:

I made it a year and a half ago when I was invited to a fancy dress party with the theme "Fairy Tales" and simultaneously had a thing for teaming red with blue. I also have a thing for teaming red with green* so if I get to John Lewis after work this week and buy some green ribbons then I'll be all set corsetry-wise.

I still have to finish making the chemise thing out of the EVIL fabric and the skirt needs a waistband and the apron needs attaching.

* or red with anything, really

Peacock Feathers!

2011-04-01T18:29:00.001+02:00

In case some of you are not already aware, if you want to witness this Edwardian gown* being recreated (including all the relevant undergarments) and at the same time donate some money to help Haitians then go here… in fact, just go anyway because it's all explained much better than I can.

* it has beetle wing cases on it!

Fancy Dress Parties Part 2

2011-03-25T15:44:00.004+01:00

The party on 9th April has the theme "Victorian" (if it had the theme "Georgian" I'd have absolutely nothing to worry about).

Let me see now, if it takes me one year to make a Georgian outfit, how long will it take me to make a Victorian one?

I've had four weeks.

Luckily for me this is not a party being attended by avid seamstresses and history fanatics so I don't have to come up with something amazing and historically accurate. I just need something that gives a whiff of the Victorian which for me means a corset and a bustle.

You probably want an amusingly drawn picture of the outfit. Here it is courtesy of the Initial Sketch On A Train Company Ltd:

So the plan is to have a chemise/top thing, bustle, skirt, apron, drapey bits and corset. Hmm… it makes sense in my head. The bustle will be my bum roll from here, the drapey bits will be made from the Your Wardrobe Unlock'd tutorial, the chemise/top thing is the top half of a Simplicity chemise pattern and the apron and skirt I will figure out for myself.

The lack of time and my inexperience in Victorian attire has meant that I've decided to do away with an outer garment so the corset will be my outerwear so I will effectively be wearing the bustle UNDER the corset but quite low on the hips. I need to ensure the length of the corset at the back isn't too long.

The fabric for the bustle drapery and apron and chemise come from some green fabric I bought for something else but decided I didn't like. It feels lovely and soft but is very prone to static so its original intended use as a lining isn't going to happen. The black stuff covering the drape and apron it is some synthetic voile. I can't decide whether the syntheticness is making me want to run for the hills (in a certain light, my camera thinks it is red which is a worrying property of this weird stuff) or whether I kind of like that it's shiny.

To the corset then. I decided to make a corset based on the drafting instructions at Your Wardrobe Unlock'd because I only once drafted an overbust corset myself and I didn't really know what I was doing (but sort of fudged something passable at the time which I now hate). I could use a commercial pattern but I need to alter them so much I may as well start one by myself from scratch since I have that option.

Here is the drafting of the pattern:

I don't know if it was my being inaccurate but the waist ended up slightly too big and the hips slightly too small. Luckily I had the sense to measure the draft so I could change it before I started cutting out the pieces.

Since drafting the pattern I finalised the outfit design in my head and realised I would need to make some design changes due to the incidence of bustle.

I tell you what, it's so long since I last made a corset that I've forgotten how to. I had to go and examine the last two I made to jog my memory and hunt through papers to find my diagrams for busk insertion. I think I've got it now.

Fancy Dress Parties Part 1

2011-03-24T17:13:00.003+01:00

Further to my last post I have been informed of the theme of the party on 9th April and have been invited to another party on 9th July, also with a theme. The party on 26th March I will just wear one of my shop bought dresses (probably) as what with having to make an outfit for the April party I haven't had a chance to run up a new dress from scratch.

Right! The theme of the party on 9th July is "Famous TV and Film Personalities" and while the first person who springs to mind is Marilyn Monroe this is not a good idea because a) although I have the ideal dress pattern, I don't have the ideal figure or hair and b) my friend is going as Marilyn Monroe and will do a much better job of it.

The next person who springs to mind is Audrey Hepburn for which I DO have the ideal figure and there's a vague chance I may be able to bully my hair into submission. As for a dress, well, this is the best Audrey Hepburn dress and I want to wear it. What I'm actually going to have a bash at is this one because a) the best Audrey Hepburn dress is probably less familiar to everybody than Holly Golightly's and b) if I try to make the best Audrey Hepburn dress in three months I will go insane… and that's just figuring out what colour it is.

Things I am very happy and grateful for:

The Selfish Seamstress (which appears to be a bit of a misnomer since she's selflessly sharing her patterns)

Christie's

I have spoken to my friend (a different friend to the one turning up as Marilyn Monroe) and I told her I wasn't sure whether I should attempt to recreate the dress as accurately as possible or just go for the general feeling of the dress. She guessed (probably correctly) that I would, deep down inside, want to be recreating it as accurately as possible.

If I were to do this, since there were three separate dresses made, it leaves me with a dilemma… split or no split? Also, it's made of "black Italian satin" and I'm a bit wary of satin with its high sheen and ability to enhance the smallest of faults.

So I've decided to do what I usually do when I want to make a dress but have issues with some of the features: I stick to the bits that I like and change the bits I don't.

And... Relax...

2011-03-10T18:28:00.004+01:00

Things are calming down a little so I have decided to pause and see what is going on in my sewing life instead of running around in a panic hoping I can remember what I'm meant to be doing. Work has become less mental, my piano exam will soon have happened and I have actually done some housework.

This is the state of my sewing life:

Events are coming up that I want to make new dresses for. Whenever I get an invitation to a party my first thought is whether I can accept it and my second thought is that I could make a new dress to wear for it. I tend to get more party invitations than make new dresses (that's much more of a comment on the speed at which I sew than my popularity) so I end up with lots of ideas for dresses that get committed only to paper and not to fabric.

I digress. Events this year I'd like to make new dresses for:

1) A friend's party on 26th March
2) Another friend's party on 9th April
3) The Chap Olympiad
4) The Anarcho-Dandyist Ball
5) The company Christmas party
6) Vintage on the Southbank
7) Bourne & Hollingsworth events I may go to (Prohibition, Blitz, Belle-Epoch)
8) Things that are likely to happen but may not (and I don't want to be counting my chickens at this stage)

Some of these events can have outfits that double up which probably means I can get away with making only three dresses for all these events, one of which I'm already getting stuck into.

This would be good as I have to study for a professional exam this year.

Then of course, there's the new Your Wardrobe Unlock'd competition which I may or may not choose to enter depending on all sorts of things.

I also need to figure out how to get my friend out of her sewing doldrums. She's keen to get started but is being held back by not having enough time and the worry that the sort of things she wants to make she'll never get a chance to wear anyway.

Another friend is coming over at the weekend to sew with me and to take back her sewing machine which has lived with me since August.

The Results

2011-03-08T13:21:00.001+01:00

The winners of the competition have been announced and none of them are me. This is not a surprise. There was some very stiff competition.

I did however get some very nice comments. In particular about pattern matching (hooray for chevron lunacy!) and there was also one about having inspired someone which always makes me feel like I've done something worthwhile. It was really good to receive positive comments from people who understand it all. My Mum was very impressed but then she's my Mum.

I've also got a new follower! Hello!

Anyway, now that that one's over, there'll be another announced. Whether or not I will take part is yet to be seen.

Things that are currently going on are:
- Piano exam
- a dress with little flamenco dancers on it
- taking pictures of the dress I wore to my company's Christmas party

Steps 41), 42) and 43)

2011-02-07T19:22:00.001+01:00

41) Embroider cotton sleeve ruffles

42) Line silk sleeve ruffles

43) Attach sleeve ruffles

I was going to line the sleeve ruffles because:
a) I didn't know how to finish the edge and
b) I thought it might look nice

Then I realised you wouldn't be able to see the lined bit so I thought a bit more about how to finish the sleeve ruffle edges and came up with pinking and stitching.

Step 41) was started but has not yet been finished. Maybe later.

Here is one of the sleeves:

There is another sleeve not shown here. It looks very similar to the one above.

Steps 22), 23), 24), 25), 26) and 27)

2011-02-07T19:20:00.000+01:00

22) Measure from back of the neck and along the gown where the ruffles are to go

23) Cut out strips of dupion with graduated widths and hem the edges

24) Gather or pleat them

25) Cut out bias to go the length of the ruffles*

26) Sew the ruffles to the bias strip

27) Sew the bias strip to the gown

* could use this bias strip to finish the edges

I sewed the ruffle straight onto the gown without the use of a bias strip.

For more information on this, please see Uses for Business Cards.

Uses for Business Cards

2011-02-07T19:07:00.004+01:00

At work I have business cards made for me. Whenever I order some I always get two boxes and I never manage to get through even half a box before I have to order some new ones due to a change in company name or logo.

This means I have many business cards that I can't use. Or at least, I can't use them as business cards.

Uses I have found for old business cards:

1) as bookmarks
2) to put in a wrist splint to prevent the edge digging into my wrist
3) as flash cards for learning how to read music
4) to write small shopping or to do lists on
5) as templates for making box pleats

And it is use number 5) that I wish to talk to you about today. For my gown I need to box pleat strips of silk. I could have chosen to gather or knife pleat them but I didn't.

I measured the length the trim should be by measuring around the edge of the gown. I needed lots of it. I also measured, at the same time, how long the pieces of differing widths should be. I'm intending to have the trim quite deep around the back of the neck and the shoulders and then narrower on the bodice and then deep again towards the bottom of the skirt / train.

I multiplied everything by three and cut out strips of the relevant widths and lengths. I sewed them together with French seams and hemmed the edges.

Now, this is where the business cards come in. I took three business cards and cut two of them length ways - one along the centre and one a quarter of the way in. These I used for my templates to enable me to keep a constant depth of pleat.

I started off with the red trim, folded the end and with a needle and thread stitched it in place (the stitches didn't have to be super secure - just enough to hold it).

Then, I slotted the widest template into the corner and folded the other end over the template to form a box pleat. This I stitched in place.

I turned the trim over and did the same again. I turned the trim over and did the same again. I turned the trim over and did the same again. And so on like so:

… until I got to the end.

Then I did exactly the same thing for the silver strip but with the three quarter width card:

And again for the black strip with the half width card and for the green strip with the quarter width card (these two are cut on bias because they got too narrow to be hemmed sensibly).

Then I sewed all four pleated layers together and attached it to the gown:

Photo' Shoot Part 2

2011-02-07T12:15:00.000+01:00

The pictures of the gown are also up for all to see.

I'm so tired… .

Photo' Shoot Part 1

2011-02-04T19:05:00.003+01:00

After reading some fashion blog posts about how to photograph clothes, it seemed the best option would be to have them taken outdoors. Since I was on my own, in just my underwear and in the middle of Winter I thought it best I stick to my own back garden.

I braved the gusty winds and the drizzle and the cold and tried to take some photographs of my stays. Somehow the lighting was really wrong and everything except for the shrubbery came out too light. I ended up moving myself and my camera indoors.

I have uploaded six photographs to "Photobucket" of my underwear.

I'm allowed to enter up to 10 photographs to be published as my competition entry. I'm intending to photograph the rest of my things on Sunday (talk about cutting it fine!) so I may end up removing one or two of them depending on what further photographs I come up with.

How I made my stays (with little butterflies on them!)

2011-02-04T13:32:00.004+01:00

I haven't previously gone into much detail about my stays but other entries can be found here.

These stays are based on two different patterns. Mostly, they are taken from the 1770s stays in Norah Waugh's "Corsets and Crinolines". In addition, they have the same sort of neckline(?) as the 1780s stays from the same book - a bit straighter across the top. However, they have a stomacher front which is something that is tended to be found on earlier stays (the one in "Corsets and Crinolines" from the 1730s have a stomacher).

The stomacher front evolved from the requirement to have front lacing stays so I could have spiral lacing and still be able to get myself in and out of them. I then decided I should stick in a modesty panel. And then to have a quite wide modesty panel in case I needed to adjust the tightness. And then to have the modesty panel looking good and as a feature. And that's when the modesty panel turned into a stomacher.

I'm boldly going to assume that they qualify for the 1770-1789 time period of the competition and enter them and if they don't qualify then so be it.

I took the pattern I used for my other stays (which was altered from but based on the 1770s and 1780s stays mentioned above), traced it and altered it again. I separated out the centre of the front part and made sure there was a bit of overlap at the edges. As I was going to have a row of eyelets along the edges of the front side pieces I decided it would be best to have a bone each side of them. Once I had drawn them in place I drew in where the other bone channels went (from my original pattern). Other than that, the bone placement stayed the same.

I didn't make a mock up (shock!) because, from the other stays I made, I already knew that, other than the shoulder straps being too long, the dimensions were correct so these took the place of my mock up instead. Although I had changed the style, I don't think making a mock up would have revealed any issues without it having the actual fabric and being properly boned.

I cut out three layers of the stays - two in coutil and one in quilters' cotton and flatlined the quilters' cotton pieces to one set of the coutil pieces. On the remaining coutil pieces I marked the bone channel lines using a combination of tracing wheel, dressmakers carbon paper, ruler and pencil.

Then I sewed the side seams and shoulder seams so I effectively had two sets of stays - one with lines drawn all over them and one with a black and blue and green and gold butterfly design.

So then I sandwiched the two sets together to form one set made up of three layers and sewed along the seam lines to hold them in place.

Three layers of shoulder strap:

Next, I commenced battle with my sewing machine, called a truce, and sewed the bone channels along the pencilled in lines. I think there were two bones on each side that needed to be inserted before I could finish sewing the channels but other than those I left the boning until all channels were sewn.

Then I cut the synthetic whalebone to the correct length (I had a casualty during this stage and I still have a red mark on my knuckle where it got in the way of the scissors), filed the ends down with sandpaper and inserted them into the channels.

Down the centre front of the stays I inserted a wide steel bone to act as busk and there are two bones going across the top which are slightly curved. For these two bones I decided to use spiral steel as there was no way I would be able to get synthetic whalebone flexing in more than one dimension.

I sewed around the edges to stop the bones from sliding out, then trimmed the edges and then sewed bias binding around everything.

Then there were the eyelets of which I have talked before.

Blue ribbon was used to lace the thing up and here it is, at last, in all its glory:

Curly Garters

2011-02-04T13:22:00.004+01:00

I haven't made much mention of my garters so I'll do that now.

Going with the roses on a black background theme I did a bit of internet searching to see if I could find a knitting pattern or cross stitch pattern that would work. I needed it to be fairly small and eventually I came across this.

It's a pattern for some mittens but the rose bud is repeated so I decided that it would be good to use as a repeat on my garters.

I started by knitting it with the long edge cast on to my needles - a normal stocking stitch with three colours. This caused problems as the way I weaved my colours around the back meant that it considerably restricted the stretchiness.

So then I tried knitting it with the short edge cast on to my needles:

and that helped. I knitted the other so it was the mirror image and then decided to find out how to get rid of the curling.

Too late! I should have worried about that before I started so I could have added some non-curling stitch around the outside but now I know for next time. I tried to block them to help with the matter:

Then I added some things to tie them with. Here is one of them on my leg:

General Things

2011-02-04T13:19:00.000+01:00

There will be a sudden increase in posting frequency today. The competition deadline is Monday (!) and I have been spending much of my time sewing rather than posting progress.

I have been very VERY busy lately. On top of trying to get my gown finished, work has been loony (necessitating extra hours in the office) and I'm taking a piano exam in March so I've been trying to fit in practice for that too.

It has occurred to me that I may have a problem.

I've been cramming in sewing time whenever I can (including my train commute to and from work) and quite frankly I'm reaching the stage where I don't want to sew anymore. So why is it that when I receive an invitation from a friend to go to a party I think with excitement "Ooh! I can make a new dress for that!"?.

I am so looking forward to Sunday evening after I've taken my final photographs of the gown because I'm planning to spend it not sewing but I do rather think I'll be spending it thinking about other dresses to make.

I need more sleep.

Steps 29), 31), 32), 33), 34), 35), 36), 37), 38), 39), 40), 20) and 21)

2011-02-01T19:10:00.003+01:00

29) Sew hook & eye tape to edge of gown opening leaving a gap right at the top

31) Wearing everything, push a flat piece of calico up the front and mark around the edges

32) Cut out some muslin, canvas (?) and black dupion a bit bigger than this

33) Transfer rose motif to dupion using the stencil and a green pencil

34) Put dupion, possibly with stabiliser, into an embroidery hoop

35) Embroider the rose

36) Sew bone channels to canvas and insert bones if required

37) Sandwich everything together and bind the edges

38) Wear everything and mark where the other hook & eye tape should go

39) Tack hook & eye tape in place and test and re-position

40) Sew hook & eye tape properly

20) Cut a "T" shape in the chemise and put everything on

21) Arrange the chemise neckline and mark it

I discovered a drawstring may be better for my purposes so I put in a channel instead of a gap.

Thanks to mock up MK VI I ran out of calico so I stuffed muslin up my front instead. Then, after drawing on it, I cut out the shape that will be seen when the stomacher is in place and cut a square of dupion* bigger than this. I transferred my rose motif to the centre of the dupion utilising a home made stencil and a green pencil. I teamed the dupion with an embroidery hoop and stabiliser and got to work.

Rose motif:

Stencil:

I found it went quicker than I thought it would go but it was still a slow process. I used two shades of red and two of green but I didn't really plan which ones would go where other than red for petals / green for non-petals so I just went along and did what I fancied at the time.

Here is some finished stomacher embroidery:

I decided canvas would be too thick and that I ought really to be using the same fabric combination as the rest of the gown (i.e. silk bit, silk organza bit and muslin bit) so I sandwiched those bits together instead.

Cutting out the pieces:

I didn't add any bones. I was a bit worried about bulk.

I wore everything (including the chemise and learnt not to tuck it into my stays too tightly). I cut a neckhole in the chemise and hemmed it.

* which may not actually be dupion.

Attaching the Skirt Bit

2011-02-01T13:41:00.006+01:00

I dyed the rest of my muslin "Tulip Red". I had intended the muslin for mock ups and such like so if it went horribly wrong it wouldn't matter and also it was particularly inexpensive. I made a complete mess in the kitchen and when I finished, the muslin looked somehow a bit like this:

L-R: dupion, muslin, dupion, dupion:

It's a dark pinky orangey thing which is a colour tulips probably come in but doesn't make one think "red tulips!". This doesn't surprise me. I wasn't expecting a really deep red after my earlier experiments to get "Dark Brown" and "Dark Green" yielded light brown and light green. I made some more mess in the kitchen and ended up with "Rosewood Red" on top of "Tulip Red":

L-R: dupion, muslin, dupion, dupion:

Then this is what I did:

Sewed the piping (by hand) to bottom edge of bodice:

Cut the muslin into three equal lengths and sewed them together:

Tacked the muslin to the dupion at the top edge:

Pleated the muslin / dupion combo onto a strip of twill tape the length of the back waist (it got quite thick as there were three metres to reduce to 10 inches*):

Pinned the twill tape to the bodice at the natural waist:

Spent a very long time sewing (by hand) the pleats to the piping through both the dupion and muslin layers almost succeeding to keep the stripes on the pleats symmetrical:

Removed the pins at the waist and cut away the excess:

Thought about finishing the raw edge on the inside by binding and then didn't.

Wore everything. It is impossible to put the gown on elegantly without assistance because the stays restrict me so dressing involves standing with my arms straight up in the air and jumping up and down. This was the first time I had tried on the gown and I was a bit worried that it wouldn't fit. It did fit. Or at least I think it did. It felt a bit tight but then I'm rather used to my modern stretch fabrics designed for the woman with active things to do. I was able to run back and forth to the camera, leaping over the rubbish in my living room with no ill effects (please excuse the hands on my hips pose - the gown (and of course the stomacher) wasn't complete and it needed holding in place):

Took some photographs and measurements and decided that a decent specimen of a train would suffice, rather than a fine specimen (mainly on the grounds that I liked how it looked at this length, the shorter length would enable more successful hoiking up and I can always add a bit extra on at a later date (OK, I admit it - also because I was trying to keep work minimal due to the fast approaching deadline):

I haven't hemmed it yet.

* or alternatively 118 inches to reduce to 25.5 cm

The Hazards of Having Legs pt II*

2011-01-31T16:09:00.001+01:00

I realised I gave you part one but then stopped so here is another part on petticoats.

To deal with my too-much-bulk-at-the-waist-when-I-fold-it-over-and-hem-it dilemma, I trimmed the excess off next to the waist ties and used this excess to cut out a strip which I then folded under lengthways and used to bind the raw edge.

Then I hemmed the under petticoat and found to my delight that I had made it accurately as I just decided how long the petticoat needed to be and pinned it in accordance with the grain. It all matched up and hung level so I trimmed it and sewed it in place.

For the over petticoat I did the same thing but for pinning up the hem I had to make sure the organza bit lay flat. My fabric was a teeny-tiny bit off grain, though.

The over petticoat isn't yet finished. It still needs a dust ruffle and, of course, some more lovely roses blossoming around it. That's not going to happen before the competition deadline so it will have to wait.

* Or alternatively, Making a Petticoat pt. II

Decent Specimen

2011-01-13T11:13:00.005+01:00

I measured the width of my striped dupion and found that while it was long enough to provide me with a decent specimen of a train it was not long enough to provide me with a fine specimen of a train.

So my options are:

1) piece together the dupion and have a seam running horizontally
2) have the stripes running horizontally
3) have a shorter train

I'm thinking of option 1) as long as the seam isn't too obvious

Decent Specimen Fine Specimen
October 2010
Rollergel pen ink and pencil on Re-Move™ notes

Steps 17), 18) 19) and 30)

2011-01-11T11:01:00.029+01:00

Gosh!

It's quiet isn't it?

Time to make some noise!

After a lot of time spent on holiday and making 1940s inspired evening gowns and being sociable and making biscuits and buying presents and travelling up and down the country dispensing the presents and plinking about with a piano and watching "You Rang M'Lord?" I can bring to you the next instalment of the 18th century gown.

17) Cut out actual lining in muslin and outer pieces in dupion and organza

18) Flatline the organza to the dupion

19) Make the gown according to the methodology WRITTEN DOWN in point 16)

30) Make a ribbon from red or green silk and use this to tie the top bit together through the gap

Now it's getting exciting! Real fabric! And also a bit frightening.

I tidied up and I hovered up and I ironed (up).

I cut out the lining and sewed it together and I made bone casings.

Arty bone casings picture:

Snip snip snip! I had to be careful and make sure my stripes all matched up and that I had them at the correct angles. I wanted some chevrons at the back and some more chevrons at the sides with chevrons inbetween.

Naughty chevrons:
Chevrons a little better behaved:

This is what I ended up with:

L-R: side chevrons, side-back chevrons, side-back-back chevrons, back chevrons, back-back-side chevrons, back-side (!) chevrons, side chevrons:

The organza is meant to help to stabilize the bits that are cut on the bias (i.e. most of them):

You've seen a sleeve in calico, you've seen a sleeve in pillow case. Now I bring to you a sleeve in stripes!

Now, this is the clever bit. Here is a photograph of a bird's eye view of one of the shoulders:

The pleated bit at the top is the sleeve. The bit on the right is the top of the front bodice, the bit on the left is the top of the back bodice and the bit in the middle (with the pins in it) is the shoulder piece.

Between the shoulder piece and the front bodice I made great care to match the stripe at the join. I ignored trying to match the stripes at the back because that would involve too much effort at a point in the proceedings which I passed a long, long time ago. Also one of my shoulder pieces is shorter than the other and so there is very little chance I would get both of them to match anyway.

And yet… if you look closely at the back join you will see that by sheer fluke I have ended up with an attractive chevron effect! This has taken chevron lunacy to a new level!

Sadly, I'm going to be covering this up with box pleated trim but I wanted to make sure you knew it was there.

To balance all that amazingness, have a picture of the inside of the bodice once the sleeves were sewn on (considerably less nice to look at than the fluked chevrons):

Update

2010-12-14T13:34:00.005+01:00

I'm starting to get a little bit panicky now because there are only two months left before the competition deadline and yet there is still so much to do! I feel like blaming the Christmas Party Dress (more about that later) but that's only because, other than some embroidery, it's the only thing I've worked on since the beginning of November. It would be more fair to blame my holiday but I don't want to do that.

If I look at my ideal world list, the following are not going to get made:

Pockets
Fichu
Mits
Cap
Fan
Shoes

Which is a shame as, other than the fan and the shoes, I think they would be relatively straight forward things to make and the fan and the shoes would have been fun to make. That is to say, I will make them but not in time for the competition.

The most important thing right now is the gown and stomacher. Good news on the stomacher front (excuse the pun)! When on holiday, in between restaurant visits and meal appointments, I managed to almost finish embroidering it. I'm not too keen on the way I've combined the two reds into the petals but I do like how I've combined the two greens into the leaves (difficult to tell what I'm going on about with this photograph though).

I need to get the bodice front sewn on and attach the sleeves and sort out the skirt. I was quite pleased to find that the recent article on Your Wardrobe Unlock'd about petticoats and skirts was much in line with the methods I used or am intending to use. One thing it had me thinking about, however, was the possibility of box pleating the skirt instead of knife pleating it.

And then there're the trimmings and the dust ruffles.

So, I will be going away over Christmas and this is what I intend to do between now and then:

1) cut out the front of the gown bodice (I messed up cutting out the front pieces - I wasn't thinking and managed to match the stripes right under the arm and not at the sides where it will be visible - so I need to cut them out again only this time while I'm thinking about what I'm doing)

2) do all the flatlining and sewing together of the front of the gown bodice (I need to refer to my WRITTEN DOWN METHODOLOGY because I've forgotten everything again)

3) add a channel for a drawstring and make a drawstring and attach the drawstring

4) wear everything to check for fit and measure for trimmings

5) cut strips out and finish the edges so I can take them away with me

6) when away, do some more embroidery and make box pleats

If I am able to attach sleeves then that would be good too but I have four parties to go to and more Christmas shopping to do and biscuits to ice before I go away.

Christmas Party

2010-11-22T18:37:00.003+01:00

The year before the year before last I made myself a dress for my company Christmas party. It was quite rubbish (as I was relatively new to sewing) but people were fairly impressed that I had cobbled it together all by myself.

The year before last I made myself a dress for my company Christmas party. The party had a 1920s theme. That is to say the party had a theme but the dress code was "black tie" which meant that out of maybe 175 people only four made an attempt to look vaguely 1920s-ish. I was one of them. The dress I made was not rubbish and people were complementing me on it without even realising I had made it myself.

Last year I made myself a dress for my company Christmas party. Again, the party had a theme, this time 1950s and again about four out of 175 people made an attempt to look vaguely 1950s-ish. I was one of them. The dress I made was not rubbish and people were complementing me on it. By the end of the evening, approximately 150* of the 175 people there had word that I had made it myself and they were very impressed. They were also impressed with my dancing.

This year I am going to make a dress for my company Christmas party. Since I went on holiday for two weeks this month I decided that I would make something fairly straightforward and not worry about the theme as I wouldn't know the theme before I went away. I chose this pattern and went and bought some fabric for it. At the same time, I also bought this pattern as I quite liked it.

As it happens, I've been on holiday, skipped around in the sunshine and come back and I've STILL not started to make the dress. I am now back at work and I discovered the theme was announced the week before I came back. It is 1940s.

You can't go around throwing 1940s themes at me at such short notice! I can't turn up to a 1940s themed "black tie" party without making some sort of 1940s effort! I knitted myself a snoooooood earlier this year so it would be a shame to waste the opportunity!

I shovelled some more coal into my brain and thought of a nice pattern on Wearing History. I remember thinking at the time that with a 31" bust it must be fate and if the last pattern was still available when I got back from holiday I would get it. It turned out that when I got back from holiday the nice lady at Wearing History went on holiday so what with that and having to have it delivered from the US, there would be insufficient time. And then on further consideration, I think it may have been a 1930s dress anyway so I thought some more.

It occurred to me that the second pattern I bought might do as it has the right sort of bodice and sleeves and if I team that with the longer slightly flared skirt of the pattern I was originally going to use then it might just look 1940s-ish. I'm not sure if a bias cut skirt would be appropriate what with rationing and all that but if the authenticity police turn up, they will be too busy dealing with the 171 people who are looking 2010s-ish to bother with me.

* this is probably wildly exaggerated - word spread around to a lot of people but I couldn't say how many

Steps 41), 4), 14), 28), 15), 12) and 16)… in that order

2010-10-19T18:49:00.006+02:00

And rather a lot for me to talk about (brace yourself, it's a long one)!

41) Embroider cotton sleeve ruffles

4) Change the style lines to allow for a zone front, chevron action and cut not en fourreau

14) When it all fits properly cut out the lining in muslin and the outer pieces in bedding

28) Order hook & eye tape from Vena Cava

15) Sew everything together as if I were making the real thing, including boning, and consider how to finish the zone front edges and neckline and add the sleeve ruffles and piping at the waist. Also consider how much skirt striped fabric will be needed (to flow out nicely when I walk) and how this is to be pleated

12) Check the side bits fall at the correct place

16) WRITE DOWN METHODOLOGY

I have come on in leaps and bounds but sadly I leapt and bounded into a ditch on more than one occasion. The past few days have seen me contemplate either giving up the project or giving up sewing altogether. My logic brain overruled my emotional brain and told it I should keep going so I did.

I have finally finished mocking up, the last one being MK VI.

So this is what happened:

- Crafty Sunday (which involves tea and cake) came around and I wanted to be doing something that will further this project but won't need a sewing machine. I narrowed down the options to embroidering sleeve ruffles, embroidering the stomacher and making strips of ruffles and then I started preparing myself for one of them. Namely the sleeve ruffles which I commenced with the help of fine white muslin, embroidery thread and some stabiliser.

(As it happened, I managed to get a stomacher prepared before Crafty Sunday and I started embroidering that instead (I think I prefer the brighter green to the dark green). It will probably also be going on holiday with me in November.

)

- The style lines for the chevron action were already in place as I removed the centre back piece. All I need to do is cut the stripes on the bias. Also, as I'm using the lining pattern the gown is already not cut en fourreau. I still needed to change the pattern for a zone front and to make the adjustments for the adjustments on the calico mock ups that I cleverly made a note of as I was doing it.

I also decreased the sleeve head. (Then I increased it again and increased the armscye. I think it might work now.)

- The "it" in step 14) refers to the calico mock up which finished at its fourth incarnation (admittedly with a hurried "yes, that'll do" from me). I washed the muslin, let it dry and cut out a lining from it and the outer pieces from some cheap bedding which serves as a nice change from unbleached calico and having the lining and outer in different fabrics helps prevent my poor brain from getting too confused.

- Things that occurred to me when I was making mock up MK V:
1) Are my pattern pieces small or do you get a lot of fabric in a pillowcase? Either way I was surprised.

2) I wanted more seams!

- I underlined the sleeve pieces with the muslin - Janet Arnold states that the sleeve and sleeve lining pieces were treated as one layer - and did it right! I allowed for turn of cloth and everything! I'm so proud of myself!

Sleeves:

- I decided to try the bone placement at the back seam, the side seams and the diagonal zone bit.

Then, there was the Your Wardrobe Unlock'd article about bodice construction and I had to go away and think about it a bit more.

- Now, one of the characteristics of a zone front gown is such that the skirt bit is at the back and not the front as well. Trying to get the right position of where the back becomes the front (that is to say, the side) is very important. Too far back and it will annoy me. Too far forward and it will annoy me even more. Mlle Ducreux gets it spot on. I started at the side seam and found it was perfect.

- Then somehow it all went wrong with added gaping bits. So MK V was put to the side and MK VI came into being with added stay stitching.

And, of course, I have WRITTEN DOWN THE METHODOLOGY. Here's my notebook to prove it:

Chevron Lunacy

2010-10-13T13:22:00.004+02:00

Something I have noticed while making my gown is that many actual 18th century dresses have one or two seams in the back bodice, sort of curving from the armhole down to the waist.

Mine doesn't and it probably should have so I worried in case it was too wrong not to. I thought I could easily add in a seam but this could end up wreaking havoc with my chevron system. I could add in two seams but then I'd be a chevron lunatic.

But of course it's my gown and if I don't want to add seams then I don't have to.

And then I read the article on Your Wardrobe Unlock'd about constructing a bodice and I began hankering after extra seams.

There's only one thing for it.

Chevron Lunacy
October 2010
Rollergel pen ink on Re-Move™ notes

Stop the Press!

2010-10-12T11:32:00.000+02:00

There's an article this month on Your Wardrobe Unlock'd about how to construct a late 18th century bodice! Talk about the nick of time!

This will be followed by another article (probably next month) about constructing a petticoat, skirt and trimmings!

Clearly it's too late for the petticoat instructions to be of use to me at this stage. It could also be cutting it a little bit fine for skirt and trimmings!

So I think what I'll do is continue with the bodice, embroider the sleeve ruffles and stomacher and be poised with my striped dupion to attach the skirt / train when I get back from my holiday at the end of November. Attaching the skirt is, I think, something I'm going to need help with. I mean, I can think of a way of doing it but I'm sure there must be an easier way.

Aha!

2010-10-07T11:18:00.000+02:00

Problem is solved thanks to this useful thing.

Technical Hitch

2010-10-06T15:01:00.000+02:00

I am experiencing a technical issue. When I started this blog I made various decisions on how it would look and work. I can't remember much about it but I think there was an option to use the new improved automatic version which adjusted your template automatically when you ticked boxes about what you wanted. I decided not to go for this because my knowledge of html on a scale of 1 to 100 where 1 denotes no knowledge at all and 100 denotes expert is at 2 and therefore I had no understanding of how to manipulate the new fangled thing.

I chose to use the old school version which ironically I find easier as although it allows you to manipulate the template with your advanced level 100 knowledge of html it also means you can look at it, copy, paste and change the text with your level 2 knowledge.

The downside to this is that while the new fangled version automatically sorted out tags (known as "labels") for you, the old school version didn't and so I had to manually insert links to tagged entries in the side bar. This is doable although there's a good chance I have somewhere along the line forgotten to add a tag link or two. This is not a big problem as if I find one is missing I can add it.

The problem I have is that if I click on "YWUDPP", it doesn't provide all posts tagged with that tag. It shows all posts with that tag between now and 20th May 2010.

It may be simply down to my using an out of date browser which is failing to show me an "older posts" link or it may be something more sinister which I can't solve without converting to the new fangled version which would involve causing chaos to the other aspects of my side bar.

I will be investigating. Please bear with me if it all goes wrong.

Fine Specimen

2010-10-06T13:11:00.003+02:00

Three things that I really love when it comes to clothes are:

Red
Train
Sash

In fact, a red dress with a train and a sash would pretty much be my ideal outfit… unless it was made entirely out of buttons (but that's a topic for another post).

Considering that one of these three is "Train", you can imagine my delight when I saw this garment as made by Ghost of a Rose*. When it comes to trains, that's what I want my gown to be like!

Now, I don't know about the construction details of this particular number but it seems to me, from merely looking at the pictures, that this fine specimen relies on two main factors for its fineness:

Drape
and
Length

You could also possibly add pleats to that but I would need more thought before I can conclude anything about pleats.

I'm glad I spotted that when I did. I must remember NEVER EVER to make a train too short. If it turns out to be too long then I can only be in a parallel universe where such a thing can happen. If it's too short then it will NEVER EVER become a fine specimen. EVER. I'm a little concerned that because the stripes on my fabric run widthways that it won't be quite wide enough to reach the lengths required. I shall be measuring them as soon as I remember at a convenient time.

Drape could be an issue. I was going to underline my dupion with organza to guard against possible droopage but now I'm concerned that this action will also prevent the correct drape. I fear I'm not going to know for sure until I actually make the gown.

In fact, thinking more about it, dupion probably has no intention of behaving this way unless it has been washed anyway. Maybe I need to underline it with something else.

Or not. Or not at all.

Much contemplation on the drape of fabrics will ensue.

* This woman is incredible. As well as producing fine specimens of trains she produces a squillion garments each year! I think "prolific" may be the word I am looking for.

Step 13) and steps 3), 5), 6), 7), 8), 9), 10) and 11) revisited… more than once

2010-10-05T12:20:00.003+02:00

13) Make any adjustments to the mock up and try again

3) Adjust the pattern to allow for my measurements

5) Re-draw the patterns allowing for a seam allowance of, say, ½ inch

6) Cut out the lining and outer pieces from calico

7) Sew the back pieces and sew the front pieces lining as Janet Arnold's instructions suggest

8) Sew the back to the front

9) Attach the sleeves according to the instructions on YWU

10) Try it on over the stays

11) Check for ill-fittingness at sleeves, bust, waist, neckline and back and move about in it to be sure

I think I'm on mock up MK IV. MK II was a vast improvement, MK III was better but not perfect and now MK IV… well, I've finished it but haven't tried it on yet.

The changes I have made include:
Increasing the front pieces at the side seam
Shortening the shoulder pieces
Reducing the width of the sleeves
Removing the centre back piece
Shortening the right shoulder piece a little bit more

Each time it has got better so even if it is still not perfect I'm going to start changing the pattern so that it becomes a zone front and do my (hopefully) final mock up complete with lining and boning.

Here are the results of my labours so far:

MK II (need to shorten the shoulder straps):

MK III (much better on the left, need to shorten the shoulder strap more on the right):

I'm surprised I haven't given up yet, especially as I have to sew myself into it each time I try one on. Usually, if MK II doesn't work I get bored and go and do something else instead.*

* admittedly after MK III I was sufficiently annoyed to stop whet I was doing and hem one of my petticoats instead but only because I was also annoyed about constantly tripping over my frayed bits whenever I tried everything on

Steps 7), 8), 9), 10) and 11)

2010-09-27T13:01:00.004+02:00

7) Sew the back pieces and sew the front pieces lining as Janet Arnold's instructions suggest

8) Sew the back to the front

9) Attach the sleeves according to the instructions on YWU

10) Try it on over the stays

11) Check for ill-fittingness at sleeves, bust, waist, neckline and back and move about in it to be sure

I haven't tried to put a lining and outer layer separately as I'll be using the same pattern pieces.

Look! Sleeves! A dart at the elbow and some tucks:

I used the instructions on Your Wardrobe Unlock'd for attaching a sleeve and once I had the top bit pinned in place I pulled on my stays, bum roll and two petticoats (both of which I am going to have to hem very very soon) and tried out the calico mock up.

Here is the back:

Here is the front:

Oh dear. I got that bit very wrong.

I'm thinking of increasing the hips as it doesn't quite fit there and maybe bringing the back neckline down a little. As for the front… well. It fits up to the waist and then something goes horribly wrong at the bust. I can't believe I got the measurements so incredibly wrong! I wasn't expecting a perfect fit but I was hoping to have enough fabric to cover me!

So the plan for this evening (apart from the non-sewing related items) is to get the bust the right size. Once I've done that then I'll probably be able to see better how to correct my gaping bit.

Sigh. I refer you to this post.

Multi-Purpose Stays

2010-09-27T12:12:00.005+02:00

As well as foundation garments for 18th century dresses, my stays can double up as deranged fairy wear.

There's nothing quite like a "come to a deranged fairy party in two days time" to spur me on to finish binding my stays.

My first item completely finished (including four hand sewn eyelets): the stays

A hand sewn eyelet with accompanying ribbon:

The deranged fairy party was a good opportunity to try out the stays and make sure they were broken in. It was a success. They were most comfortable and I even had space to keep my fan down the front of them.

Of course, going to deranged fairy parties eats into one's time so in spite of the fact that September 2010 is YWUDPP Gown Month and we are now fast approaching the end of it, I have made very little progress.

At least now I will have something to enter into the competition if all else fails.

Steps 3), 4), 5), 6) and 9)

2010-09-16T12:07:00.003+02:00

3) Adjust the pattern to allow for my measurements

4) Change the style lines to allow for a zone front, hot chevron action and cut not en fourreau

5) Re-draw the pattern allowing for a seam allowance of, say, ½ inch

6) Cut out the lining and outer pieces from calico

9) Attach the sleeves according to the instructions on YWU

While adding in the grainlines to the pattern it occurred to me that another thing I forgot to do was to wear all my underwear when taking measurements and not just the stays. It shouldn't matter for most of the measurements but could have an impact on the waist. Due to a passing indisposition* I put off wearing my stays for a bit which caused a slight hold up in progress. When I did get to putting them back on** I combined them with a bum roll and two petticoats. The bum roll sits on my hips rather than at my waist so this had no impact on my waist measurements. The petticoats added a little bit of bulk and I made a note of my new waist size.

I think I end up with a nice shaped bottom:

I cut out the pattern pieces, measured the strategic bits and compared these to my own measurements. Unsurprisingly I noticed that I was more long and less wide than the original wearer of the dress and so I started chopping up the pattern pieces accordingly. Then I moved the chopped up pieces about, taped them together and drew in new seam lines:

It was here that I began to deviate from my instructions. First of all, I decided not to change the style lines just yet. My pattern adjusting skills haven't had much time to develop and I decided that doing so at this stage would just complicate things. I shall revisit step 4) at a later date.

Secondly, the pattern has two different bits - one for the lining and one for the outer layer. These look very different - especially around the back where the outer layer is pleated and the lining is not. When the gown was made it would have been draped and if I had an identical twin I may well have taken this approach. I don't have an identical twin so I am limited to flat pattern drafting. I have, therefore, decided to use the lining pattern only for both lining and outer layers.

So then, as my pieces were looking terribly messy and as though they would fall apart at any moment, I traced around them and then drew in a seam allowance and these became my actual first attempt pattern pieces.

In preparation for step 9) I looked up an article from May on Your Wardrobe Unlock'd about how to attach an 18th century sleeve. I didn't know that I needed to know that. If I hadn't seen the article I would have just folded the darts in the sleeve head, tried to put the sleeve in the armscye and sat staring into space not knowing how to make the adjustment to make it fit. My main problem is that having adjusted both the bodice and the sleeves to fit me, they're not both adjusted perfectly consistently (because I don't know how to).

I started ironing the calico for the mock up then got fed up and decided to pre-wash it. As I let it dry overnight I was able to give more thought to the sleeves and concluded two things: 1) that I will certainly need to make a bigger sleeve head as I have made a bigger armscye and 2) I will need to re-read the sleeve article.

And then I cut out the pieces from the more manageable calico.

* you didn't need to know this but I came across the phrase in a book and I wish to begin using it

** when I initially took the waist measurements of my stays with little butterflies on them! it corresponded to that of my other stays so I wore those instead as I'm still binding the stays with little butterflies on them! and they are full of pins

Whiney Post

2010-09-14T13:08:00.001+02:00

To appreciate this post in its entirety, please read in a whiney voice.

I can't dooooooooooo iiiiiiit!

AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHH!!!! Why am I finding this so difficult?! It's just a bit of fabric attached to another bit of fabric with tubes of fabric for arms! What is so complicated?! I hate calico! I want to give up and cry because it will never fit and never look nice. But I can't do that because then I will be cross with myself. I'm sure I've bitten off way more than I can chew and there is no way I can produce anything that will look remotely good.

And why am I doing this anyway? Why am I bothering to make something which I'm never going to have the opportunity to wear?

In order to get over this I need to go and do two things. The first thing is to hunt out the first thing I made since getting my sewing machine (that is, not the first thing I EVER made which is lost in the midst of 1993 as a Textiles GCSE entry but the first thing I made in my adult life from, I think, 2006) and compare it to the most recent thing I made (which involved decapitating a bunny) thus confirming that as I make more and more things I not only improve more and more but I also get more and more insane ideas.

The second thing is to go and find pictures of experienced costumers with incredible outfits looking slightly smug and as though they are mocking me so I can think "Ha! You're mocking me now but I'll show you!" and then go off and do something impressive.*

* Does this make me sound like I need locking up? It works for the piano.

Steps 1) and 2)

2010-09-10T14:48:00.003+02:00

1) Using 1 inch squared paper and tracing paper, scale up the Janet Arnold pattern for the bodice, sleeves, lining and sleeve ruffles. The sleeve ruffles may need to be taken from another dress pattern - compare sleeve widths

2) Wear stays with the little butterflies on them! and take measurements of bust, waist, bust to waist at front, back and sides, shoulder to waist at back, shoulder to bust, sleeve length

For those of you with access to "Patterns of Fashion 1" by Janet Arnold, the gown pattern I am enlarging is on page 36. I should probably be using one of the other ones as I don't want it to be cut en foureau but I initially considered this style and the pattern on page 36 got stuck in my head before I changed my mind and went for chevrons instead.

My memory served me correctly and the pattern didn't have sleeve ruffles (the more I think about it, the more I realise I really should have used one of the other patterns…) so I took them from page 35 instead. I didn't compare cuff sizes as I realised the ruffles will be gathered anyway. And I've just realised I forgot to mark the grainlines.

The stays still needed eyelets putting in them. I did all the ones down the back and most of the ones on the front and then ran out. And then Chloe gave me some useful tips on how to hand bind eyelets so I decided to practice them again.

It worked much better! I can now actually produce a hand sewn eyelet! They're very small… and wonky… but I'll do a few more practice runs and then put hand sewn eyelets in the shoulder straps. I feel quite pleased with myself. New skills!

Then I finished the metal eyelets down the front and put the stays on. I'm actually quite pleased with how they've turned out - they're almost exactly as I pictured them in my head! I did take a picture but the cleavage they produce is quite alarming for me! I never thought I'd be in a position to not post a photograph of myself due to having too much bosom! Perhaps when I get used to the idea. Or get better photographs. Or get a chemise ruffle.

Then I took some measurements.

Let there be instructions... .

2010-09-02T18:46:00.001+02:00

I have written out a set of instructions on "how to make an 18th century zone front gown".

I managed to expand my first attempt from several months ago when I didn't have a clue:
1) enlarge and adjust Janet Arnold pattern
2) mock up 18th century zone front gown in calico
3) make 18th century zone front gown

to something with 43 steps to it. I think the most important step is step 16) (so important that I've put it in capitals) which I carry out after I have made the final mock up of the gown and in doing so have sorted out the finer details of construction:
16) WRITE DOWN METHODOLOGY

As I make the gown, I will introduce you to all my 43 steps so you will be able to see for yourself how good (or otherwise) I am at making myself instructions that work.

The Handiness of Handy Little Things

2010-09-02T18:31:00.003+02:00

In order to produce a the gown I need to know what size to make it. In order to know what size to make it I need to measure myself with all my undergarments on. In order to put all my undergarments on I need to be able to lace up my stays. In order to be able to lace up my stays I need to make holes in them. I had to do some experimenting for this.

These days you can get these handy little things which you can insert into your garments with a hammer, some pliers or, if you're really up there with the pros, a contraption made specifically for such things. If you live in the 18th century, you can't get handy little things and so don't need hammers, pliers or specific contraptions for this purpose and your eyelets are all sewn by hand. I decided to see if I could have lived in the 18th century.

My first attempt was to make a hole with an awl through two layers of coutil and a layer of quilting cotton and to sew around it with a metal washer for added stability. I had huge problems in that the hole made by the awl, although it was as big as I could get it, was, nevertheless, tiny and liked to close up.

My second attempt involved much the same thing but without a washer to worry about. I had the same problem - even after trying to make the hole even wider by attacking it with a knitting needle.

I realised I was losing the battle and so brought in the big guns. I punched a hole in the layers and sewed around those edges instead. I was quite pleased with the result but was a bit concerned about how it would hold up under stress.

My fourth attempt involved the handy little things and sewing over the metal bits to make them less metally. I thought this will be the best method for my ability - in a gold metal colour so that if I don't get around to covering them in thread or if I turn out to be not very good at covering them in thread, then the gold will match the fabric with little butter flies on it!

Top-Bottom: first attempt, second attempt, big guns, fourth attempt

(note that the fourth attempt ended up with my thread inconveniently knotting but I don't believe this invalidated my conclusions)

And that is where I got to until an article on Your Wardrobe Unlock'd in July showed the method of punching a hole and reinforcing it with a jump ring and stated that this was quite strong.

And then I read someone's blog entry about how punching a hole is rubbish and not strong enough.

So then I didn't know what to do and then time passed… and I've decided to stick with the conclusions from the fourth attempt.

I Declare September 2010…

2010-08-31T17:40:00.000+02:00

… YWUDPP Gown Month in the Lucky household.

I am going to spend my time scaling up a gown pattern, adjusting the gown pattern, mocking up the gown, working out how to put the gown together and, hopefully, actually putting the gown together.

Then it will be October and I will have to make an evening dress for the company Christmas party. Then it will be November and I will be on holiday. Then it will be December and it will be Christmas. Then I will have one month left before the competition deadline.

Although I haven't finished binding my stays I will put in the eyelets so I can at least wear them and take appropriate measurements for the gown. If you're lucky, you might even get a photograph of them (from one side only).

I've Forgotten Everything!

2010-08-24T14:50:00.002+02:00

With thanks to net petticoats, a 1960s style dress and a fancy dress party I'm rather lagging behind with making 18th century items to the extent that I have forgotten what I'm doing.

I carried out experiments and forgot my conclusions. I was mid way through attaching the waist ties to my petticoat and have forgotten what else I need to do to it. I had huge plans about making ruffles but can't remember what they were.

But not to worry because I have it all written down… on random scraps of paper… that I put somewhere… .

So I need to go back to my list of things to make and see where I got to with each of them:

- Stays: need binding, eyeleting and lacing
- Chemise: needs a head hole and hemming - to be done when I've made the gown
- Stockings: garters need things to tie them on with
- Bum roll: need to add frilly bits to hide wobbly bits
- Pockets: not started
- Under petticoat: needs hemming
- Over petticoat: needs various roses, ruffles, permanent stitching on the waist ties, hemming and a dust ruffle
- Gown: not started
- Stomacher: not started
- Hat: needs rosebuds, feathers and ribbon ties adding
- Shoes: not started
- Fichu (bless you): needs hemming and removal of stabiliser (I started embroidering this quite some time ago. I have now finished and am having difficulty removing the stabiliser from the fine muslin.)
- Mitts: need to be made
- Cap: not started
- Fan: not started

And now I need to get back into the 18th century vibe so I'm looking at this lot and this lot.

All that has helped. The only issues I have at present are trying to remember how I was going to make ruffles and how to get those blasted roses on the petticoat*

* see a future post probably entitled "PANIC! PANIC! PANIC!"

How to Avoid the Insanity

2010-08-18T19:01:00.004+02:00

I was roped into making four petticoats suitable for wear under 1950s style circle skirts. Each petticoat requires me to ruffle strips of net and lining material of combined length 90'. That's a total of 360':

As it happens, I managed to get out of making two of them which means I only have to ruffle 180'. However, 180' is still enough to drive a person insane.

I am in the process of binding my stays. I am hand stitching the bias tape down on the outside and then on the inside. It has to wiggle around tabs*:

When I finish this bit, I do the same on the other bit. It's enough to drive a person insane.

I have finished making the two petticoats and I have finished binding one side of my stays, the stomacher and have made a little progress with other side and yet I am not insane (much). This is what I have discovered:

I start sewing down the binding. Eventually, I think to myself "I'm about to go mad… I need to do something different… like… like… ruffling net!" and so I ruffle some net. Eventually, I think to myself "I'm about to go mad… I need to do something different… like… like… sewing binding onto stays!" and so I sew some binding onto stays. Eventually, I think to myself "I'm about to go mad… I need to do something different… like… like… ruffling net!" and so on and so forth.

Simultaneously watching Hercule Poirot / The Mighty Boosh / Hitchcock films also helps (delete according to personal taste).

* I appear to have demonstrated this with the less neat inside of the stays instead of the more neat outside of the stays - please be reassured that the outside looks (a little bit) better

Pleats

2010-07-30T11:23:00.004+02:00

I was getting quite chuffed at the progress I was making and thought "Wahey! I'll be making the gown next and then all the main bits will be done!" (look - pleated petticoat action:

) and then I remembered that making the gown will involve scaling up patterns and altering patterns and making mock-ups and altering mock-ups and trying to work out how to put it all together before I actually cut into my stripy fabric.

So, because I want to cut into my stripy fabric sooner than that, I decided to start decorating my hat.

I bought a bergere from here (at the same time I bought my stockings which, incidentally I've tried on and to be quite honest with you I don't think they even NEED garters to keep them up) and after having taken a look at these handy instructions, I began covering it with my silver dupion (on the top) and my stripy dupion (on the brim). Here are some pictures of the event:

Putting the silver bit on:

Pleating the stripy bit:

The hat:

It still needs things like roses and feathers and ribbons added to it but that will come along shortly.

Petticoats

2010-07-09T14:54:00.002+02:00

I thought it about time you got an update about how my 18th century stuff is coming along since 7th June and as things at work have gone from AAARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! to I-don't-have-all-that-much-to-do-at-the-moment I thought I would take this lull in the workings of insurance and use it to update you all on the workings of my wardrobe.

For the petticoat, I sewed the pleated edge to the waist ties and while this is all jolly and nice, I'm a little concerned about the bulk at the waist. I was planning on tucking the raw edge under and sewing it down but now I think I may cheat and pink it along the top. I tried it on and was a little disappointed that it's very drapey. Then I remembered that it's for underneath and no-one will see it so it doesn't matter if it's drapey, as long at the over petticoat isn't.

Then I started on the over petticoat. This is what the modern people like to think of as a skirt. I got my silk dupion, cut three lengths and underlined it with three lengths of silk organza (to avoid any potential drapeyness). The organza had a bit of a wonky grain so one of my pieces of dupion is underlined with organza slightly on bias… and also slightly on grain at the same time.

After another argument with my sewing machine about thread tension I put the petticoat together the same way as I did the under petticoat except I haven't got to the pleating bit yet. There was a point where it felt like I was drowning in silk but I thought that if I were to drown in silk it would be quite a nice way to go. Better than drowning in polyester, anyway.

My original plan was to make the panel with the roses on it to go along the bottom in three pieces first, then attach it to the three big pieces that make up the petticoat and then sew the petticoat together. I changed my mind for a number of reasons:

1) I would need to make sure the roses, once on the petticoat, would match up at all three seams.
2) I would need to make the panel of roses in advance of the petticoat and should I have any time constraint problems I can leave the panel until the end as it is purely decorative.
3) I don't know how to make the roses (see a future post probably entitled "PANIC! PANIC! PANIC!")
4) If the hem goes a bit wonkier than planned, it will be really obvious because my panel of roses will also be wonky

So, after I got that far I decided to carry out some experiments to find a suitable way of getting red roses onto a black background for the panel which goes around the bottom of the over petticoat (see a future post probably entitled "PANIC! PANIC! PANIC!")

Excitement!

2010-06-29T14:09:00.002+02:00

I've got a follower!

Hello Chloe!!

And what's more, Chloe is someone whose blog I've been keeping track of on Bloglines (hence finding the bum roll instructions)!

I feel very chuffed!

Also, the other night I dreamt I won the YWUDPP competition which was partcularly good as I hadn't even finished the outfit... and then I woke up and realised that I still had a very very long way to go.

The Hazards of Having Legs* pt. I

2010-06-07T11:50:00.001+02:00

This is the bit where I finally get to throw huge swathes of fabric about to create a garment that sits over the stays and bum roll and under the actual dress bit. I'm using white cotton lawn and have, so far, put it together thus:

1) wear stays** and bum roll
2) take strategic measurements: waist 24", front waist 12.5", back waist 11.5", waist to floor at front 43", waist to floor at sides 45", waist to floor at back 47"
3) get some lawn and chop it up into three bits 47" long plus a bit more for hemming plus a bit more for folding over some twill tape plus a bit more for contingencies
4) plain seam the three bits along the selveges but on two of them don't go right to the top
5) fold the raw edges of the seam allowances under and sew them down too***, this time going all the way to the top for all three seams
6) mark a line along the top edge so that it dips at the front and is higher at the back in accordance with the strategic measurements in point 2) (note that the back bit is where the seam has been sewn all the way to the top - the front bit is the other bit)
7) measure this line and work out how big your pleats need to be in order to fit all your fabric into the waist measurement**** (note, I'm letting it overlap by 2" on each side)
8) make the pleats and pin them to the twill tape

I need to hoover.

Find out more in the next gripping instalment of the Hazards of Having Legs!

* Or alternatively, Making a Petticoat pt. I

** These are not the stays with little butterflies on them! as they are still not finished. These are my earlier stays which are almost the same pattern and should therefore be close enough in waist measurement to suffice for this purpose.

*** There must be a name for this type of seam finish but I don't know what it is.

**** I managed to get myself terribly confused here and almost sent my degree back to the university in shame. Then I realised my maths malfunction was probably due to my legs*****.

***** I went out the night before in high heels which I haven't worn for… nearly a year and the next day found I had leg muscles I didn't know about. Such things affect maths.

Stomach-er Ache

2010-06-03T18:43:00.001+02:00

That was a really bad pun. Especially as it's being not so much of an ache as a pain.

I am making a "zone front" dress and these can be constructed as either an all-in-one piece with the zone sewn in or as a gown with a separate stomacher. I'm going to make mine as a gown with a separate stomacher for two reasons. 1) the intended embroidery needs to be not obstructed by doing-up devices 2) I like the idea of it being separate.

I'm having difficulty, however, figuring out how to attach the separate stomacher. In ye olden dayes they were attached using pins but I don't want to do this as I really don't like the idea of wearing a dress with pins in it. It just seems very wrong. I'm sure if they managed to stay in I would just keep stabbing myself and probably in unusual places.

Here are some options:

1) hooks and eyes
2) laces / knots
3) zips* (snigger)
4) velcro* (snigger)
5) buttons*
6) press studs*

It's really annoying. You see all these nice pictures and you just know that they got around the issue by pinning. And the fact that I don't even like fastenings is causing a great deal of vexation.

I spend sleepless nights thinking about this.

* All of these are very wrong but not all in the same way. I am not seriously considering these. I am just in a slightly odd mood.

2010-06-03T18:40:00.000+02:00

Do you know what? Something I hadn't noticed is that this dress, while I was very much aware it was a black and white striped zone front (I've seen the film more than once as Channel 4 like very much to show it), has diagonal stripes on the bodice also. I had better take care that I don't go off track and end up making it by accident.

Stockings

2010-06-01T13:40:00.000+02:00

Yay! This is the easy bit! It's easy because all I had to do was buy a pair of stockings! From here! (They're very long… .)

The slightly less easy bit is to make some garters as I have no idea how they were constructed. Were they knitted (using garter stitch (!))? Were they made from fabric? I remember reading somewhere (I think it may have been in Corsets and Crinolines (Norah Waugh) when I was looking for information on 1880 undies) about the advent of suspenders being wonderful because for garters to be tight enough to hold the stockings up, they tended to cut off circulation. I'm thinking this might imply they had very little give in them. I want to make my garters so that they do have give in them because I don't want either my stockings to fall down or my legs to fall off. I decided to see what I can find in books and on the internet and if the authentic, historically accurate way of making garters is no good, then I will make it all up myself.

Here are some internet references:

18th century stockings
Fushia's thoughts
Marie Antoinette's garters (and shoes) (probably allegedly)

Then, I happened to attend a lecture given by Kerry Taylor of Kerry Taylor auctions where by chance she showed us a picture of some 18th century garters that were sold through her auction house. It turns out that they used springs, yes, springs, to make them stretchy.

Yes, springs.

I'm not going to do that. I'm going to attempt to knit some because it sounds far more sensible (although it may turn out not to be as sensible as I imagine - after all, there must be a very good reason why springs were used in garters instead of just knitting a pair).

The Roundabout Theory

2010-06-01T13:27:00.003+02:00

It's funny how half making a bum roll can give me an enormous sense of achievement.

I used a combination of these instructions (notably cutting one bit on the bias and one on the straight of grain) and these instructions (notably using tin foil to get the right shape).

It seems strange to think that I can get something this simple wrong but once again my inability to envisage how something inside out will look when it's inside in meant that I was unable to affix the waist ties at the same time as sewing the seams and I managed to clip curves when I should have notched and notched when I should have clipped. The notch / clip mix up means I have a wrinkly lumpy seam so I'm going to use that as an excuse to make it pretty by sewing frilly bits to it to cover up the wobbles.

This is one reason why you're not getting a picture just yet (the other reasons are that it isn't sewn up and it doesn't have waist ties added).

All that aside, I think my enormous sense of achievement comes from the fact that this simple item was actually quite a hurdle for me. Psychologically, that is. I have been thinking about doing it but have been a bit scared because although it's very simple to make I've been very worried about the outcome: will it be too small / too big / the wrong shape / too high / too low?

But time is pressing and the fear that I may also have to make a regency ball gown this year frightened me into action so I got over it and plunged right in. I decided to take the roundabout approach. When I was learning to drive I hated roundabouts - they were so tricky and I told my Dad this. He rather unhelpfully responded by saying "you just drive around them". Now that I have conquered the roundabout I can safely say that my Dad was right. So with the bum roll, I decided that instead of trying to figure out how to make it the right size and the right shape, I would just make it the right size and the right shape and hopefully the roundabout theory will apply.

Stays and a very tense sewing machine

2010-05-20T19:01:00.003+02:00

I had an argument with my sewing machine because we have opposing views about thread tension. We've made up now and have agreed to differ but I really don't think my sewing machine needs the same thread tension for sewing layers of coutil as it does for sewing chiffon. I'm slightly worried that on a scale of 0-9 where 9 is the most tense that there will never more be a time for me to go above 2.5. Maybe my machine is hinting that I should next be making a dress out of wood or something.

That aside, I finally made progress with the stays. I re-cut the stomacher parts (a layer of black quilter's cotton and two layers of coutil) and re-sewed the bone channels and inserted some of the boning.

I also cut out the other pieces (a layer of quilter's cotton (with little butterflies on it!) and two layers of coutil), sewed the side seams and sandwiched the left bits and the right bits (not to each other) and then sewed some more bone channels.

I'm thinking that this is not a good description. I need to go away and think how better to describe it… maybe in a series of bullet points.

Anyway, look:

Bone channels

Left and right bits (L-R: right bit, left bit)

I would like at this point to make a probably dull paragraph about flatlining. In this post, I stated that I would be better at flatlining (point 2)). I have achieved that by not flatlining at all. I tried sewing all over the pieces and, apart from getting bored, I discovered that the pieces still shift when sewing the bone channels. I don't know what to do about that other than either sew by hand or get a walking foot. So in the end I just smoothed the layers of fabric out from the seam, pinned the edges to avoid any horrendous problems and sewed the channels top to bottom and from the seam to the edge. This turned out not too bad as there isn't a piece that has a seam on both sides (unlike my previous set of stays which ended up with issues on the centre front piece arising from shifting layers of fabric).

I would like at this point to make another probably dull paragraph this time about turn of cloth. In this post, I stated that I would consider turn of cloth (point 1)). I have considered turn of cloth and then not allowed for turn of cloth at all. I can see how an adjustment could be done for a garment that doesn't have a load of stitching all over it but I'm finding it difficult to maintain the curve as the fabric goes through the sewing machine - what with the foot and the plate both being not-curved. So I'm just winging it, really. We shall see what winging it turns out like hopefully within the next month.

Chemise II

2010-05-11T19:14:00.000+02:00

I have successfully got through the main part of the chemise making. I followed the instructions but haven't done the putting in a head hole bit yet. It is suggested I sort this out when it can be worn under the stays and gown so I will put that on hold for a bit. Also, I haven't yet done any hemming as that will depend on how it hangs when I'm wearing it (and I can't wear it with nowhere to stick my head through).

Front Lacing Stays

2010-04-28T19:09:00.003+02:00

In order to give me the proper shape, I am going to need the correct undergarments; first of all, the stays.

I recently had a go at making some 18th century stays by modifying a pattern in Corsets and Crinolines (Norah Waugh). I enlarged the pattern, changed the measurements, made a mock up and realised I didn't like the bustline very much. So I changed the bustline to be a bit more… um… square, I suppose you could call it. Then I made the stays. I ended up with a few things I didn't like about them:

1) I didn't really consider turn of cloth and ended up with problems
2) I didn't consider that my method of flatlining would be rubbish and therefore compound the turn of cloth problems
3) I didn't consider that for authentic spiral lacing, I wouldn't be able to get into the stays by myself

Nevertheless I ended up with some decent stays albeit with patched fudged bits, wobbly lining to cover up the patched fudged bits and criss-cross lacing:

This time, it's going to be better.

1) I'm going to consider turn of cloth
2) I'm going to be better at flatlining
3) I'm going to have front lacing as well as back lacing

Other points to note are that I will be using coutil. It's not historically accurate but I know it does the job I want it to and that's good enough for me. I won't be using real whalebone as I don't have any whales to torment. I considered using reed but I think I might test that out some other time (perhaps should I try to go for something more authentic). I haven't yet decided whether I'm going to use metal eyelets or hand bind my own but right now, I suspect I'm going to be doing the former.

This is my amusing drawing (no, it's not your eyes - it's blurry):

Here is a photograph of some of the bits and bobs I will be using:

Quilter's cotton (it has little butterflies on it!)
Coutil
Synthetic whalebone (I don't have any synthetic whales either but Vena Cava do)
Some thread
A flat steel bone (to be used as a busk)

Chemise

2010-04-28T19:04:00.006+02:00

I'm starting off with the chemise as I'm hoping it won't be too tricky to make something that looks like this:

I have some muslin, some thread, a sewing machine and a website with instructions. I think that should suffice.

A Perfect World

2010-02-02T15:01:00.005+01:00

This is a silly picture* of how I would hope my outfit will turn out (brought to you courtesy of Janet Arnold):

The bits that look like white are actually going to be a silvery grey. The red and green bits are something made to look like red roses. I'm expecting there to be more frilly bits in reality. Note the chevron action!

The inspiration comes from this and this.

The items to end up with at the end in an ideal world (by no means am I forcing myself to make all of these if it means I'm going to get into a panic about it when I run out of time):

Front lacing stays
Chemise
Stockings
Bum roll
Pockets
Under petticoat
Petticoat
Gown
Headdress / Hat
Shoes
Fichu
Mitts
Cap
Fan
Cloak

Incidentally, since this post is entitled "A Perfect World", I should really say something about my thoughts on the "Natural Form" section of the competition as in a prefect world I would be making that one too.

There was an article in this month's Your Wardrobe Unlock'd about the dress of the era and lots of pictures of outfits that I found quite inspiring. So if I were to go along this route, I would attempt something along the line of this amusing picture* (brought to you courtesy of Back of the Envelope Illustration Services Inc.):

The bits that look like white would actually be a champagne colour and the squiggly bits are some sort of red flower with green leaves… . OK, they're roses again. I have a bit of a thing for red roses at the moment.

I want to make the corset for something else too, so I'll be going ahead with that part of it regardless.

* note that considering I have dial up internet at home and I obtained my first ever combined portable-telephonic-communication-device-and-camera-in-one only last year, it is unsurprising that scanning things isn't in my realm of capabilities at the moment - hence the poor picture quality but I'm hoping you get the idea

The Competition

2010-02-01T19:05:00.001+01:00

The options were whittled down to 4 non-Victorian and 2 Victorian options and following the second round of voting the two winners were announced:

1770-1789 (dubbed "Revolution")
and
1876-1882 (dubbed "Natural Form")

Which kind of puts me all of a dither. I am a Georgian type of girl and, although I'm not generally a Victorian type of girl, I do like some of the late 1870s to 1880s stuff.

So the question is: do I go for the Georgian stuff because that's what I like best or do I go for the Victorian stuff because I quite like Natural Form anyway? Here are the pros:

Georgian:
1) I want to have a go at making something inspired by this era and since things I might actually wear usually take priority over things I'm unlikely to wear, this gives me an excuse to put "Georgian dress" somewhere near the top
2) I could feasibly wear the end result when I finally go to the Venice Carnival
3) A train would not be a problem to wear as they were commonly looped up in this era

Victorian:
1) I may not otherwise get the opportunity to make a Natural Form dress as it's not really "my era" but at the same time having a go at this would be quite nice if only I could get around to it (also relates to the argument in point 1) under Georgian)
2) A train would be a problem to wear as they were not commonly looped up in this era, however, I would get to make a ludicrous train!

So while Georgian has more plus points than Victorian, Victorian gets extra points for ludicrous train possibilities.

Attempting both is desirable yet totally unrealistic.

After a lot of thought and musing on the topic I have decided to go for the Georgian option as I already have ideas for it and know a little bit about Georgian dress. Having this head start will (hopefully) increase my chances of actually getting something finished before the deadline.

At least, I think that's what I'll do… .

YWUDPP

2009-11-13T14:58:00.002+01:00

My plans for entering the Your Wardrobe Unlock'd Single Pattern Project fell apart at the seams (no pun intended). Other things took over my spare time and when I only had two months until the deadline I found I had an exam to study for so I did that instead.

I didn't enter the competition and I didn't win.

This year it's going to be different on three grounds:

1) the project won't be based on a single pattern, it will be based on a time period*
2) the deadline for entries will be extended by five, yes five, months
3) there's a good chance I won't have to spend my Summer studying for an exam

So, this is the deal. Readers submit proposals for time periods. Readers vote for the time period they want to study. There will be two time periods selected for the competition: one in the Victorian era, one not (this is due to the majority of readers liking the Victorian era best so any poll is likely to end up electing a Victorian era leaving the rest of us fed up with studying the Victorian era… again). Readers make something based on styles from one (or maybe both if they are that way inclined) of the time periods.

The deadline for submission of proposals of time periods is this weekend. I haven't submitted one because my unhelpful argument would be "Because the clothes were all so pretty!" and the periods I would be happy to cover are almost all of them since the 1300s.

So far the proposals are 1630s, 1690s and 1869-1873. I'm sure I would enjoy either of the first two.

* this doesn't bear any relation to my ability to complete something to enter into the competition - this is just a thing that will be different this year

Good News!

2009-05-13T17:11:00.000+02:00

My sewing machine is better now. It turns out that it wasn't a case of it getting on a bit and something going wrong, it was just in a bad mood. It doesn't like chiffon, you see. Which is fair enough - no-one likes chiffon unless it is already in dress form. When it's just a bunch of fabric, wobbling all over the place and falling off the table it makes people cross. Unfortunately, getting it from wobble-wobble-fall-off-table to floaty-floaty-skippy-dress involves getting it to behave itself which I have tried to do by utilising tissue paper and only cutting it in straight lines. I'm going to try out things like liquid stabiliser which not only will (hopefully) make it behave better under my sewing machine foot but also enable me to cut out shapes from it that are not rectangular.

I'm still going to get the machine serviced, however, as it is long overdue for one and has a squeak.

The Inevitable has Happened

2009-05-04T13:39:00.002+02:00

It is the time I was not lookng forward to. I knew, when I bought my sewing machine, that one day something would go wrong with it. Something that I wouldn't be able to fix myself. That something has happened.

It started on Friday when my top thread kept breaking. It has done this before but it's either a rare event or I've done something wrong. I put everything back to how it was before, changed the needle, re-threaded, cleaned the lint away, changed the thread, changed the fabric. My instruction manual suggested the thread tension was wrong which would be surprising as I hadn't changed it. I tried this to solve the problem anyway and although it helped a bit, I still got the breakage. I moved the tension back to original place and now my tension is all wrong.

I feel sad.

I will call Franklin's in the week and see if they'll prod it for me.

Pattern Adjustments

2009-02-11T18:38:00.001+01:00

Your Wardrobe Unlock'd has been preparing its readers for its single pattern project competition. In January's issue it talked about underpinnings. In February's issue it talked about scaling up and altering the pattern. What was particularly interesting was that it showed me how to drape a pattern onto a dressform. Hooray! Although I won't be using that method here (I feel more comfortable playing with flat bits of paper and maths) it's a method I want to try out when I make my 18th century dress (more about that later) and have made my identical twin (which is proving more tricky than I originally thought and may need a different approach).

So I spent yesterday evening enlarging the relevant patterns and then trying to figure out whether, how much and how I needed to alter them to fit me.

I enlarged the pattern pieces from my A4 sized pdf printout using some inch squared paper, some tracing paper and drawing the pieces by sight using the grids as guides. I am intending to use the bolero pattern and the skirt pattern for my final concoction but as the skirt is HUGE and the pattern consists of two pieces - one of which is a rectangle and the other a trapezium with a wibbly edge - I decided not to try enlarging the skirt pattern as that can just as easily be drawn straight onto the fabric and so won't require acres of paper.

I was a little disappointed that after scaling up the bolero pattern and measuring it, I didn't need to make much in the way of adjustments*. The sleeve needed to be lengthened and possibly narrowed but the bust was only slightly larger than mine. Or at least the width where my bust would be if I wore the jacket was only slightly larger than mine. It seems likely that if I were to lengthen the pattern in the chest (which in all probability I'm meant to do) then I would need to measure the bust at a different point which may yield a bigger number. It's being very difficult to tell but will no doubt reveal itself when I make a mock up.

As I wanted to get stuck in to the whole pattern adjustment thing I went and scaled up the pattern for the evening bodice too. I marked on the bust and waist lines and then went to bed.

Another exciting installment of pattern adjusting will follow (hopefully with pictures)!

* I am in the process of making a dress from a Vogue pattern and it has been a nightmare to get it to fit. This also means that I've got caught up in a pattern adjusting mood.

Clickity-Clack Clickity-Clack Choo-Choo!

2009-01-06T14:27:00.002+01:00

My main problem with interpreting the Your Wardrobe Unlock'd big dress pattern was that I don't get excited enough about cage crinolines to actually wear one. While pondering on how to get around this, I came across this post on A Dress A Day. It was not the actual subject matter of the post but the picture used to illustrate it that caught my attention. That was it! Don't like the huge skirt? Stick it 'round the back!

So my idea is that I will use the skirt pattern but put all the pleats at the back and have it as a sort of long pencil skirt in the front. So then I'll have a sort of train thing which, to stop it getting in the way of people, I can hoist up with the use of pulleys and gears and things* (then when I'm in a large empty room I can let it down and run around).

I love trains but they're just so impractical.

It then occurred to me that maybe I should make the skirt and train separate so I don't have to wear them together if I don't want to.

Also, I will be making the bolero which in terms of learning from this project is the important bit as it will cover fitting, sleeves, fitting sleeves and hopefully fitting lining to the sleeves. I may change its neckline, though.

I'll be making a corset with separate cups and hip gores too that can be worn under or over the skirt and train (incidentally, it has been announced that there will be a separate competition for the best corset to go with the project).

So nothing will be historically accurate.

* OK then, cords. I would like to have some contraption with cogs to lever it up but that would just make the train even more cumbersome and defeat the object.

1929 Evening Gown with Handkerchief Points

2008-12-08T11:34:00.006+01:00

The Ingredients

I bought myself some drapey fabric, some thread to go with it and some white cotton poplin (the poplin isn't for the evening dress - now that Winter was drawing in John Lewis went and got a shed load of the nice summery stuff so I went ahead and stocked up). I was intending to make a mock up to ensure fit before I went ahead and did the real thing so my fabric is only polyester. But it's still lovely. And I wouldn't have had time to do a mock up too so I went ahead and ploughed straight into the real thing.

The Pattern

I traced the pattern onto tracing paper and made an adjustment to allow for the fact that I'm a bit tall. It was quite difficult to judge how much extra I needed as I didn't know exactly where the shoulder seam would sit when I eventually had the dress on and trying to measure myself down my back was never going to be easy. I plumped for two inches and crossed my fingers (and held my thumbs).

The Cutting Out

This took a long time to do. The fabric (charmeuse) is quite wobbly and requires lots of gentle prodding to get it to line up straight. Then one wrong move whilst pinning and it all wobbles out of line again. I'm wondering if there isn't a lot to be said for a rotary cutter and weights.

Thankfully, the pattern pieces are full of straight lines and often rectangular making the actual cutting out a lot easier than it could have been. I did, however, make a bit of a mistake here which didn't show itself until way into the sewing process but I will tell you more about that later.

The Sewing Together

The instructions with which the pattern came have been transcribed from the original 1920s pattern and are fairly basic but with help from the contest winner I was able to piece it together without too much head scratching. The numerous straight edges called out to me "French seams!" so that's what I did and here's how I did them:

- mark half the seam allowance on the right side
- mark the full seam allowance on the wrong side
- stitch the pieces wrong sides together
- press the seams, fold them over and stitch the pieces right sides together along the actual seam allowance
- then do some more pressing

All of this involves a lot of pinning and tacking and trimming and un-picking and ironing (particularly as I was dealing with wobbly fabric) so you can imagine my dismay when I discovered that one of my side pieces was too big along the top (that's the cutting out error I made) and removing the piece and inserting a right sized piece would mean unpicking a lot of seams and re-doing them all. I will use the excuse of time constraints to explain why I didn't do this and instead I fudged it by putting a tuck in it instead. This means the piece doesn't quite hang right but no-one can see because it's obscured by another bit of dress.

Some pinning and tacking:

The Hemming

I was going to finish my edges by applying bias binding but to ensure the drape wasn't affected I was going to make my own out of the same fabric instead of using some stiff shop bought stuff. I measured all those handkerchief points and found I would need eleven metres and so I began measuring out the fabric. Wobbly fabric on the bias = very wobbly fabric. It wasn't long before I could feel myself going mad so I decided to just use the binding for the neck and armhole edge and try a rolled hem for the handkerchief points.

This is the first time I have ever done a rolled hem and while it's not the most exciting thing to do, it's certainly easy enough if you've got a cold and can't really be doing with getting up and down to the sewing machine and moving about a lot. So I just sat still for a bit and sewed. And sewed and sewed and sewed. I seem to remember posting something earlier about long circle skirts having a lot of hem. So do skirts with six handkerchief points.

Here's my rolled hem:

The Girdle

The girdle is meant to fasten at the front with a buckle. I'm not sure I fancy the idea of that and maybe one day I will post about my views on fastenings but for the time being I decided to try adding a bit of extra fabric and fastening it with a knot. So that's what I did.

The Weight Strap

I took a small US coin (maybe a nickel, I can't remember), cleaned it and stuck it in a pocket at the front of the cowl neck. This is to stop the neckline from flopping out of the front of the dress whenever it takes a fancy to it. I got the coin idea from the competition winner.

The Fit

When I put the dress on it seemed to fit. At least reasonably well. I feel as though the top bit should be slightly narrower (I used the smallest pattern size which strictly speaking was still an inch to wide for me) although this may result in an inability to actually get the dress on. My two inch lengthening judgement seems to be about right as it certainly doesn't look ridiculously long but I think maybe only one and a half inches would have been better. Judging from the compliments I kept getting, it obviously didn't look like it was ill fitting anyway.

Here is the front:

And here is the back:

What I Learned

- rolled hems
- how to reinforce slash points
- that I need to take more care when cutting out

Things that make me proud of myself

2008-12-05T17:14:00.002+01:00

After doing a bit more sewing I can actually see an improvement in the quality of the things I make. I feel as though I have gone from cobbling some fabric together to form something that resembles a dress (but don't look too closely at the seams or on the inside or at the stitching) to actually being able to make a proper dress. This feeling has been given extra strength after my company Christmas party the other night.

There is a website called Pattern Review and the whole idea is that people make things from patterns and then upload reviews of the pattern. The website also holds competitions one of which, back in May, was a vintage sewing competition. I paid little attention to this until I received a newsletter announcing the winner.

This was the winning dress (the (very helpful) review is here but you need to be a Pattern Review member to read it).

And this is the pattern it was made from.

I bought the pattern and hugged it a lot. Then for the Christmas party I made it up and wore it and got a lot of compliments. And I don't mean "I like your dress" from people who knew I had made it (although I did get those too), I mean "Stunning" and "There should be a prize for best dress" from people who don't even know I sew.

So I am feeling mightily proud of myself at the moment and it's all been down to practice. There isn't anything specific that I feel I'm doing better, I just seem to be coming up with better results.

Over the weekend I will try to sort out the various pictures I took of the dressmaking process so I can show them to you.

Fiddle-de-de!

2008-11-28T16:45:00.003+01:00

There is an online magazine called Your Wardrobe Unlock'd which is for people into costuming. Costuming in this context tends to involve some sort of big dress and more often than not a big dress of a historical nature.

There is also a Danish museum which has a collection of big dresses of a historical nature (along with things that aren't big dresses) and in some instances there are patterns that are available for download for those of us wanting to study the garments in more detail or make our own versions.

Your Wardrobe Unlock'd is running a competition. Dubbed the 'Single Pattern Project', readers are invited to make something based on one of the patterns from the Danish museum's website. In November its readers voted on which pattern would be chosen for everyone to use.

A big dress won. That is to say a REALLY big dress won.

I must admit that the 1860s don't really do it for me. I mean, I can "ooh" and "ahh" over the dresses quite happily, however, I have no urge to don one. I'd much rather prance about in a mid-to-late 1700s dress or even a bustle dress of the late 19th century.

If I were to recreate the dress, I would run into a couple of problems:

- the need for a room big enough to house the dress (admittedly, I do believe I have a room big enough but my need for furniture is stronger than my need for an 1860s dress)

- the need to make a cage crinoline to support the skirt (I have absolutely NO intention of making a cage crinoline*).

Thankfully there is just one rule** for this competition: the thing you make has to begin from the chosen pattern so, if I really wanted to, I could take the skirt pattern and make it into a big hat (which is what I would have done with these sleeves had this dress won). Another bonus is that the pattern available creates up to four different garments (HUGE skirt, day top, evening top and bolero).

So I have one or two ideas up my sleeve (no pun intended) but it's safe to say that I will not be trying a historically accurate rendering of the dress.

* Those of you who know stuff about historical dresses and are observant will have probably spotted that a mid-to-late 1700s dress or a bustle dress of the 19th century would also need some strange contraption in order to support the skirts. I have no problem with the idea of making one of these. Just not a cage crinoline.

** There was also a murmuring of having to keep a "dress diary" for it so there are probably two rules.

Service will resume shortly (Honest!)

2008-11-25T17:35:00.002+01:00

Hello! Things have been a little sparse around here lately but as soon as I get my photo's sorted out I will be letting you know how I got on with making this dress.

I will also be telling you about some new projects that I have to get sorted out next year. The good thing about having deadlines is I actually end up finishing things.

Demeter Part One: The Dye

2008-07-15T11:12:00.003+02:00

I am trying my utmost not to use apalling and predictable puns on the word dye/die so please bear with me in case one slips out.

This is the process through which I went.

1) I decided which type of dye to use. There were two varieties at my disposal: machine dye and hand dye. I opted for hand dye for the following reasons.
a) it seems a bit wasteful to run your washing machine on full load at 40 degrees three times for each colour when using the machine dye
b) using thermometers and measuring jugs and scales and prodding things whilst wearing rubber gloves is far more fun than not
c) washing machines scare me

2) I gathered together the following things:

a) washing up bowl
b) kitchen scales
c) kettle*
d) fabric
e) rubber gloves
f) thermometer
g) two packs of dye (one "dark green" the other "dark brown")
h) salt
i) outside tap**
j) inside tap**
k) tape measure
l) small plastic tub
m) newspaper
n) plastic bags
o) kitchen floor**
p) clothes I don't mind accidentally turning "dark green" or "dark brown"
q) scissors

3) Each pack of dye claimed to dye 250g of fabric to either "dark green" or "dark brown". The pictures on the packets gave me a bit of concern that the colours would be too dark but I went ahead and decided to use an amount of dye proportional to my fabric weight. I measured out how much fabric I wanted in each colour, cut it and weighed each piece. The bit to be green was 200g, the bit to be brown was 150g. Using my exceptional powers of mathematics I calculated that it translated to 80% of everything for the green and 60% of everything for the brown.

4) I was in the position to measure everything out. I donned my rubber gloves and clothes I don't mind turning another colour and commenced work on the green dye. I measured out the dye, water and salt (at 80% of the instructions for the whole pack). My thermometer told me that my tap water was around 40 degrees so I went ahead and followed the instructions on the packet
a) dissolved dye in some water
b) dissolved salt in some more water
c) added dye water to salt water
d) bunged in damp fabric
e) squished fabric about for fifteen minutes
f) left fabric in dye for forty-five minutes, squishing it about occassionally

g) attacked budlea with saw***
h) flushed out myriad of creatures that had made nozzle of outside tap home***
i) rinsed out fabric using outside tap (which was not completely beast free)
j) washed fabric in washing machine

5) I reapeated the process with the remaning fabric and the brown dye (except for the budlea and creature eviction stages)

6) I cleared and cleaned things up

The next day and my fabric was dry. On the plus side, the fabric didn't turn out to be too dark. On the minus side, the brown couldn't be called "dark" at any stretch of the imagination****. It was kind of pooey. I re-dyed last night with the remainder of the dye which has improved it considerably.

Pre dyeing:

Post death (snigger cough):

* in lieu of measuring jug
** not so much gathered as left where it was with a mind to use it
*** not actually in the dye instructions
**** I stretched my imagination further than I thought was possible and decided you could use the word "dark" in the "evil" sense

For any of you still interested after a month

2008-07-15T11:07:00.002+02:00

I had to stay up way past my bedtime (and on school nights, too) to get it finished in time for 14th June (incidentally, the picnic was postponed but I had other events lined up, one of which I didn't attend).

It occurred to me that you may wish to see my preliminary sketch of the whole outfit so here it is for your amusement.

And here is what the contrast band ended up like (I won't show you the whole outfit because it looks much the same as in the earlier post and I still don't have a photo' of it on a body).

Some things I would like to say on the matter:

- A long circle skirt has a lot of hem. It goes on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. When I finally got to the end of time I found I'd only done half of it and I'd gone mad. And then I had to do the same for the lining.

- I didn't do the same for the lining because life is too short and I had only just recovered my sanity. Also the instructions said something about shrinking it with steam which, without prior experiments, is something I'm sure I'd do with disastrous results. So I cheated and left it to fray (but only for the time being, until I decide what action to take).

- When I first took sewing back up I made a skirt and for some reason, when I cut out the waistband, it was too short to reach right around the skirt's waist. The dress I have just made, although it doesn't have a waistband, is meant to have a waist stay from tape/ribbon cut to the length indicated. For some reason, when I cut the piece of tape, it was too short to reach right around the dress's waist. Am I doing something silly or are patterns for waistbands all printed wrong?

- For once I have made an effort to make the inside look neat (apart from the fraying lining hem).

- The pattern called for a lapped zip. I didn't bother with that as the instructions made it look complicated. I have since discovered that it's not that complicated at all but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the way I ended up inserting my zip, anyway.

Searching for Persephone

2008-07-14T13:18:00.002+02:00

I'm going to a party, the theme being mythology. I wanted to go as a phoenix but to make a really decent outfit would have taken a long, long time (think of all those feathers) and I would have had to set myself on fire to make sure people knew what I was.

My friend had suggested Demeter which I decided against because it's a bit boring and where would I get ears of corn from?!

So I thought about it for a bit and decided that I would go as Demeter because it's not actually boring at all if I put my mind to it and I could get ears of corn from here. I wouldn't have to set myself on fire, I could just turn Summer into Winter instead (which, being England is bound to happen at some point, anyway).

It will also give me a chance to use up the lawn that went an annoying shade of pinky off-white and carry out experiments with fabric dye.

Here's a picture of Demeter when she realised her daughter wasn't where she was meant to be. I won't look like this. I will have more ears.

Identical Twin

2008-07-03T17:36:00.000+02:00

The trouble with sewing garments for oneself is that it can be difficult to adjust stuff around the back when one is trying on. At times like these an identical twin or a dressform would come in handy.

Dressforms are expensive* and invariably come in sizes that do not correspond to my body. Since I make clothes so that I can wear stuff that fits to my figure, why not make a dressform that fits to my figure too?

The internet makes suggestions that involve duct tape and a helper (another use for an identical twin, perhaps) but with my book about pattern drafting, I'm going to attempt to make a dressform out of fabric, stuffing and anything else I find I need along the way.

Maybe I'll actually get somewhere with it soon.

* I expect an identical twin would be expensive too, not to mention waiting for her to grow into an adult, making sure she doesn't die in the meantime, not being able to pack her up into a cupboard and also taking the risk that she would be unreliable and not turn up for fittings.

Hello!

2008-07-02T17:53:00.002+02:00

It may have occurred to you that I've been a bit quiet recently. The reasons are three-fold.

First, I am totally disorganised.

Second, I seem unable to settle on a particular project.

Third, the things I have been doing have turned out less than satisfactory.

Once I get some focus I will be back.

End in Sight

2008-06-10T11:51:00.004+02:00

There comes a point in the construction of a garment when all the obscure shaped pieces of fabric suddenly resemble what they are meant to be. Yes, that's right, folks… my dress has taken on the form of a dress!

While it is by no means complete you can see it looks like a plausible item of clothing. It needs to make an appointment with the iron, have its lining stitched down and get a band attached to the bottom.

And here it is with its jacket and sash. I don't have any picture-railed walls that aren't red or white or cream so the background isn't the best. Nor do I have a full length mirror or someone to take a photograph of me in it. Nor do I have the patience to go rummaging around looking for my camera instructions, find a suitable place to stand it and set the self timer. Nor do I have a dress form.

Stupidy, Stupidy, Stupidy

2008-06-03T13:27:00.001+02:00

When sewing a plain seam, it is common practice to put your two pieces of fabric right sides together and sew the seam. That way, when you open it out, all your flappy, frayey edges are on the side of the garment nobody sees.

This is fairly basic stuff and something I have no trouble in comprehending. Sadly, my understanding can sometimes fail to translate to the actual fabric and I can be happily pinning my pieces together in preparation for stitching only to find I have one bit the wrong way up.

Last night, I excelled myself. I:

Pinned the pieces together
Tacked the pieces together
Removed the pins
Sewed the pieces together
Removed the tacking
Ironed the stitching
Ironed the stitching on the other side
Trimmed the seam allowance
Clipped the corners

Only to find I had one bit the wrong way up.

Then I went to bed.

First Stage Completed

2008-05-29T18:33:00.004+02:00

I finally got hold of some white cotton poplin (MacCulloch and Wallis had also run out but a gamble trip to Sloane Square turned up trumps as Peter Jones had some) and I spent Monday cutting out the pieces for the dress. And making tailor's tacks. And cutting more pieces for the dress. And altering a couple of pattern pieces. And cutting more pieces for the dress.

Sunday was spent making the jacket. I could list the things I got wrong but I'm not going to. Instead I will leave it to you as an exercise to see if you can spot the mistakes either from these not very good pictures or from when you see me wearing it.

It is from this pattern which is a "Very Easy Vogue" pattern and indeed it is very easy. For a start it has raglan sleeves which means I don't have to sit trying to ease together two pieces of different length fabrics. For an end I get to hem a straight line. For everything in between I've made it out of a sensible fabric which doesn't have a mind of its own.

I haven't top stitched around the seam lines and I have a sneaking suspicion the purpose of the top stitching is not purely decorative. I suspect it serves to hold your seam allowances down in the right direction on the inside which would be helpful in this instance as the jacket is unlined.

All I need to do now is learn how to iron with steam without getting limescale over my clothes.

Moving on to the dress, I mentioned altering some pattern pieces. In my first post I stated that I only needed to make a couple of pattern alterations: cutting the bodice over two sizes and lengthening the bodice. I completely forgot that in lengthening the bodice last time, I hadn't lengthened it enough. In addition, I have had a go at adjusting the straps so that, should it be warm enough to take off my jacket, I won't have to worry about bra straps being visible.

Here is a picture of an altered pattern piece, complete with tea:

I fashion my future on films in space

2008-05-20T17:58:00.004+02:00

On my list of things that have annoyed me slightly this week is included "a lack of white cotton poplin in the shops" and "bleaching cotton lawn that was accidentally dyed pink has not turned it back to white".

While I pass the time until I can get to MacCulloch and Wallis when it's open (yes, I suppose I could order online but then I'd have to pass the time until it gets delivered) I have been thinking about spats.

As you know, in the future we will all be dressing in silver and I, being aware that taking over the universe will require some form of space travel, will need to make myself a suitable outfit. I have been thinking about this on and off for some time now.

One of the problems I encounter when thinking up amazing outfits (which often seem unable to escape from the inside of my head) is that it's all very well stitching together a blouse and trousers* but there are other bits that need to be thought about.

Shoes**, for example.

So I have to find shoes to go with my amazing outfits but where on earth do I find silver shoes that fit me and don't look daft (only Servalan can get away with exploring potentially hazardous planets in stilettos and even then she's pushing it a bit)? These are my options:

1) make my own shoes
2) get some nice shoes that fit and paint them silver
3) get some nice shoes that don't fit and paint them silver
4) get some nice shoes that fit and make a sliver covering for them

1) is not going to happen any time soon. I need shoe making equipment. I need stuff to make the shoes from. I need lessons in how to make shoes. Then I need to get good at it.

If I find nice shoes that fit I'm going to wear them all the time and will therefore not be painting them silver. This rules out 2).

If I were to do 3) I will have shoes that don't fit.

This leaves 4) which today it suddenly occurred to me were spats. And then I found this.

So I've been thinking about spats.

* just for the record, none of my amazing outfits incorporate blouses or trousers
** by shoes I am also referring to boots

Experiments in the Washing Machine

2008-05-02T21:50:00.003+02:00

I did my first fabric procurement for the picnic dress:

Red cotton poplin
White cotton lawn
White nylon tulle
Red thread
Red ribbon
Waistband elastic

I needed to prewash my fabrics in the manner in which I intend to be washing the dress so in it all went at 30 degrees with some Persil. Being a fundamentally white dress, I want to be able to sling it in the machine.

Some quick witted readers will be thinking that washing red and white cotton together is going to be a recipe for disaster. As the two fabrics are to be sewn together I need to be able to work around this so I bought some of these to stick in the machine with them and I crossed my fingers.

I don’t think I crossed them properly as, although the colour catcher appears to have worked hard, the lawn has turned a very pale pink:

(clockwise from top: colour catcher, “white” lawn, a small bit of other white fabric for experimental purposes, red poplin, unwashed white tulle)

This isn’t too much of a problem for the lawn as I was going to use it for lining (although it’s still going to annoy me) but this is going to cause a problem when I obtain the white poplin for the main part of the dress.

Either:
1) I don’t ever, ever, ever wash the finished dress
2) I make the contrasts detachable so they can be laundered separately
3) I make the dress out of one colour of fabric only

1) just isn’t practical for a white dress. I think under this option I would be lucky to get a single wear from it. 2) will be a pain but possible for the contrast at the hem. 2) isn’t an option for the contrast at the neckline. 3) is too dull.

I’m thinking of a mixture of 2) and 3).

I'm going to go away for a bit. Dressmaking will resume next week.

Summer Dress

2008-05-01T18:50:00.002+02:00

There will be an outing for me at some point as two of my friends and I are to be picnicking in the Summer. No specific dates are set yet, although 14th June is being bandied about (presumably weather permitting).

This is to be no ordinary picnic, however. This is to be a well thought out event with a real picnic hamper and checked blanket and proper dresses.

My two friends are very much into their vintage things, particularly 1950s, and so a 1950s style of dress will be required. Such as this one.

It claims not to suit straight-up-and-down figures (such as mine) but to be ideal for hourglass figures (such as not mine). Much to my delight, however, I discovered that it made me look as if I had a more hourglassy figure when I made it in purple satin for my company's Christmas party last year.

It's a fairly nice pattern and I only needed to adjust the bodice a little (lengthening it and cutting it over two sizes).

The dress shall be in white with red contrast.

I intend for the outfit to consist of:

1) The dress
2) A small jacket
3) An underskirt
4) A hat
5) A sash
6) Things like shoes and underwear in which I intend to have no involvement during the making-of process