After I fnished Little Red last night, I moved back to the bustle gown bodice. I marked everything from when my BF helped me fit it on Saturday, took apart the pattern pieces, and then stared at the front piece for over 30 mins trying to figure out how to draft the darts out of it. Then I gave up and moved on to the bathing suit.
I cut out the skirt pieces, though I'm wondering if two panels is going to feel a bit skimpy - I think I'll have to wait till after the bloomers are made to decide if I need another panel. Then I moved on to cutting out the bloomers, and realized that back in the LA fabric district, during last CosCol, I bought about 6" less fabric than I actually needed. Agh! So I spent about 30 mins trying to figure out how I could actually make it work. I wound up cutting about 3" out of the rise of the bloomers, so I hope they don't feel like I'm wearing low-rise. If they do, I might piece in some fabric into the rise - it will be under the skirt anyway, so no one will see.
Of course, once I sew the skirt and bloomers together, I'm going to be left with two crazy bodices to pattern. I'm at a loss for the bathing suit one, too. I almost wonder if it might have been made out of a knit... It's so fitted to her, and I'm not sure where/how to put the closures in. Hooks and eyes don't seem to make sense in a bathing suit, but would it have buttoned up the back in the early 1830s?
I've also yet to find adult-size swimmies, which I thought would be both appropriate and funny. So I think I'm going to have to make those undersleeve poufs, but that's certainly not something I'd ever want to go into water with! Not that this bathing costume is actually very appropriate for swimmming. Just as a reminder, in case anyone has forgotten, this is the suit:
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