theladyrebecca | Entries tagged with bustle

We had more snow on Friday into Saturday, and on Sunday into Monday, which both helped and thwarted my sewing. On one hand, being house-bound meant that I had a lot of sewing time, but it also meant that I couldn't go pick up supplies! I ran to Joanns in the lull on Sunday and got the eyelet trim I needed for the sleeves and neckline, but then found out Sunday night that I was out of bars for the closure. I probably could have made it to Joanns yesterday, but didn't realize that until it was getting dark. So I'm going today instead.

But because I did have so much sewing time, the plaid bustle dress is entirely finished other than the missing bars and the buttons, which should arrive Friday. I realized that although Joanns no longer carries the buttons I wanted, the manufacturer still had them in stock! So now I have 18 buttons coming my way!

I can't remember the order of how I did everything over the weekend, but it involved fitting sleeve mockups (not too much trouble there, thankfully, though in retrospect they're a little on the tight side), piecing together enough fabric for a non-ruffled tier at the bottom of the skirt (I had just enough for a flat tier; there was no way I could get a ruffle out of it!), hand sewing that tier to the skirt, hand-hemming that tier, making and attaching the sleeves to the bodice, and finishing the bottom edge of the bodice. Then the run to Joanns came in, and figuring out which eyelet to use - naturally, it was the one that required me to pleat the whole thing. But it was worth it! I pleated the collar section, attached it to the neckline, and finished the edge with bias. Then I put all the closures (that I had) on the bodice - I think it's something like 21 hooks and eyes total, because it closes down the center and down the asymmetrical piece. Then back to pleating for the sleeves, and attaching the trim and hemming the sleeve ends. Then hooks and eyes on the waistband and attaching the four buttons I already had on hand.

Once I get the bars today, I will try to get them on before tonight. And then I might try the whole thing on, since I haven't done that since I was doing the sleeve mockup. I sure hope it works!

I don't think I'll have much time for sewing the rest of this week, since everything that has been put off in the last week is now getting rescheduled. But next on my list is the Fairy Godmother day bodice.

In the meantime, here's some snow pictures:

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/309645.html

I worked a little on the bodice yesterday. I got all the pieces flatlined and assembled, and cut out and assembled a sleeve mockup. Today, I plan to set the sleeve and try it on. Hopefully it will work - I hate sleevils! And assuming it does, I can cut out the actual sleeves, and then finish the bodice and do the skirt ruffle. I still haven't decided on buttons, but I'm guessing that once I see everything together, I will.

I'll probably have to wait to fully finish the outfit, though, since I need lace for the collar and sleeves. I doubt I have anything in the stash that will work, and we're supposed to be snowed in all weekend, so that will have to wait till the roads clear.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/309340.html

We had snow overnight Sunday into Monday, and since that is a rare occurrence in the Seattle area, and we have many hills (less for me now that I live in Auburn, though), it meant that everything has been closed for the last two days. And snow days mean sewing time!

Over the weekend, my organdy order arrived, and I made a petticoat to go with the Fairy Godmother dress. I didn't have anything big enough/the right shape to go over my cobbled-together crinolette, so I used the Truly Victorian bustle petticoat pattern as a base. I used the three main pieces relatively as is, lengthening them by 3" and widening the back pieces by about 3" each as well. I added three tiers of ruffles on top of the back sections to add more oomph. And then I decided to rip strips of the organdy and use my ruffle foot for the two additional tiers of the petticoat (in addition to the ruffles on the higher back sections), so I don't know exactly what the math worked out to, compared to the actual pattern. And I'm still not sure it's entirely done, mainly because it is shaped to go over a bustle, not a crinolette, so mine is pretty high off the ground in back, and I may add another ruffle to the bottom of the back that tapers off to nothing at the sides. But it's done for now!

After I finished the petticoat, I pleated up the skirt and put it and the overskirt on the same waistband. Once I finished it and pinned up the hem, I realized that the overskirt was not coming far enough around on the sides. So I undid that section of waistband, undid a pleat on the overskirt, and moved it about 2.75" farther along on either side. Then I tried on the skirt, and realized that it was 1 7/8" too big around the waist, and I couldn't just have a bigger overlap because of the overskirt. Gah! So then I undid the CB of the waistband, made a CB seam in it, removing that extra length in the waistband, and increasing the back pleats. But because I kept having to redo the waistband, I'm sure I wasted a good 2 hours. Really frustrating!

Anyway, it's done now, and I stayed up late on Monday night to finish hemming the whole thing. Yesterday, I marked where the pleated tiers go on the front of the skirt, did the math, and found out that I don't have enough fabric. Ugh. I need 51" length x the entire width of fabric, because the front is wider than I had estimated originally. And I'm almost 100% certain that there's no way that I can get the bodice and those tiers out of the fabric I have left, let alone the bodice trimming (or the evening bodice I was also thinking about making), since I have about 2yds left. Val has said that she can check the fabric district for me when she goes in a couple weeks, but in the meantime, I'm going to make the day bodice first, so that I know exactly how much is needed.

But before I start that, I decided that I should really finish cutting out/fitting the mockup for the plaid 1880s bustle bodice, whose skirt has been hanging there mostly finished since the end of December. So that's what I did yesterday evening. I only had a few small tweaks that needed to be made to the pattern, so now I just have to take it apart, transfer those tweaks to my original pattern, and cut out the plaid fabric. And I can use my mockup as the flat-lining, which is nice. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that bodice this week. I'm going to try to use much of the same base bodice pattern for the Fairy Godmother, too, though I'm going to attempt to turn it into a two piece back instead of a three piece, since that's really obvious in the extant one.

But anyway, work reopened today, so the next few days will probably be quite busy between work, gigs, rehearsals, and auditions. That said, we're expecting more snow on Friday night, so who knows what might happen?

Here's some cats in the snow pics. For some reason, the ones of Lion and my yard are refusing to upload to Flickr, but you can see more on my facebook if you want.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/309025.html

I feel like I may as well just post the link to my post-CoCo goals post for this, since I have made literally nothing on that list (and yes, I just used "post" three times in one sentence). So click here for that.

That said, my goals are not exactly the same as what I was thinking in the end of July - just really similar. A lot of that stems from the fact that 5 months have gone by, and I haven't made any of those, so I'm trying to be realistic. Plus I made a couple other things that can fill in gaps at CoCo. And I just can't bring myself to make 18th c stays anytime soon, which means the 18th c outfit from the last post is getting put on a back-burner, despite actually having all the fabrics for that one already.

So here's my new list:

Finish the plaid 1883 walking dress. If I actually buckle down and work on this, I think I can finish this in 2-3 weeks, and it should only take me that long because I'll be in NYC for five of those days.

Find pink silk or break down and go with pink poly, and make the Fairy Godmother early bustle dress. I can't get this dress out of my head, so even though I thought for a while that I was going to switch to Anna for the Disney bustle dress, I've come back around to this one.

Daniel Deronda riding habit. Really, I should make this before the fairy godmother one, because it would be a really functional dress to wear to the Victorian Festival in late March. But I'm more interested in the other one, first.

Natural form gala gown. I still have no concrete plans of what I want it to look like. I should probably play around with the fabrics I have available, and sketch things out, and see what sticks. This would be another good one to make before the Victorian Festival, since I could wear it to the ball. But if I don't make it by then (which I probably won't), then I guess I'll just wear the yellow 1890s from last year. This is one of my favorite natural form dresses, so maybe an evening version of this, except in pink and green, since I'm using the blue fabric I was going to use for this for the fairy godmother.

Just those four would give me enough that, if I also wear Anna Frozen Fever and the 1910s white cotton and lace dress I made in August, I would have enough for every event of CoCo. But I would still really like to make an 1840s dress, too. I don't think I'd need any extra underwear for it, which is always a plus, and I probably have a bodice pattern I can tweak to add a fan front. Of course, I don't have the fabric for this one, but I really just think I want a relatively plain patterned cotton dress, and a bonnet to go with it.

That said, if I wind up finding the perfect fabrics for this (the red and white), all the other projects are getting pushed back. I have this hanging on the wall in my bedroom, and every time I see it, I decide I love it even more. This will be a next year project if it needs to be, but if I come across the fabrics before then, I'm bumping it up.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/307744.html

I really don't feel like I made that much this year. I'm not sure if that's because I just started sewing for the first time in two months, or if it's actually true, though. So here's what I made:

1830s plaid silk dress and yellow bonnet, made for wearing in Oliver, plus the Victorian Festival and Costume College

Blue wool coat, which I basically wear every day

Burgundy and mauve striped silk bustle dress, for the Victorian Festival and Costume College

Burgundy silk Regency dress, as a pattern test for Laughing Moon

Ripaway mermaid tail and Cinderella costume (and some other bits) as costumes for Disenchanted, for which I was Costume Coordinator

1890s Plaid "ice cream parlour" shirtwaist and navy walking skirt for Costume College, but also worn in The Music Man

Yellow 1890s Gala Gown for Costume College, including choker, royal order, bracelet, and petticoat with detachable train

A white cotton Victorian-style robe, which turned out to be the most practical thing I made for Costume College

Elephant dress for my friend's new baby

1910s white cotton and lace dress, worn to Snoqualmie Railroad Days

3 skirts and 3 playdresses through my etsy shop

Dapper Merida for Dapper Day; Also worn in White Christmas and to Christmas tea

Disney-print 1950s jumper dress

Princess Anna Frozen Fever

A bodice and skirt combo for the Silverbells Carolers, plus a few alterations for them

A "Totes Ma Goats" totebag as a secret Santa project

A skirt for my mom

A Marauders Map Fleece Blanket for my dad

The beginnings of an 1883 walking skirt (not finished, though I started cutting out a bodice mockup yesterday)

I guess that's a decent amount of stuff after all. But if I'm going to be on track for CoCo this year, I can't just take a two month break from sewing again!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/307537.html

Yikes. I didn't realize it had been two whole weeks since I posted...

I did do a little bit of sewing leading up to Christmas - I made my dad a Marauders Map fleece blanket, and I made my mom a skirt out of some fabric she picked out in September. And naturally, I took no pictures of either of those.

My parents came up on Dec 20th for Christmas, and were up here through the 26th. We went to a lovely Christmas tea last Friday, and I wore a Christmasized version of my Merida dress. We did some other Christmassy things, too, like hosting a holiday party, going to see a Panto, seeing movies (Mary Poppins and The Favourite), going to lovely brunches, making a wonderful Christmas eve dinner, driving around looking at Christmas lights, playing board games, and watching Christmas movies. It was a nice relaxed time with them.

Here's pictures from the tea and of my Mary Poppins Disneybound:

While they were here, though, I started itching to sew again, which is good, since I've done so little of it recently. Of course, the first project I wanted to do is one that I don't have all the fabric for yet - the early bustle Fairy Godmother project that I had fallen in love with and then abandoned when I couldn't find the right shade of pink silk last summer. So that is now back on the table, because I really think I need that dress. If all else fails, I will use poly for the pink, even though that rather hurts my soul. But it's mostly lining/backing/trim anyway, so maybe it won't matter.

But anyway, the evening that they left, I went through my stash and pinterest, to see if I had anything that matched up and struck my fancy. I didn't feel like working on the Daniel Deronda riding habit yet, even though I do have everything for that, but I found this interesting plaid 1883 fashion plate, and 5 yds of a plaid unknown-fiber-content-with-a-nice-drape fabric that I've had in my stash for ages, so it was a perfect match!

On Wednesday night, I draped out the whole skirt, and last night, I sewed most of the skirt together (including pockets!). I have to set it on the waistband, and do the seam where the faux-wrap is. I'm guessing that I may have to do that seam by hand, which is why I left it so far. I also plan to add the inner layer around the hem, but I'm leaving that till after I cut out the whole bodice, since fabric is so tight on this, and I'll piece that if I need to.

Here's the inspiration plate, and a picture of the skirt draped on the form:

My goal is to finish the skirt, minus the ruffle, today, and maybe start on the bodice. Now that I'm not dancing all the time, though (and because I gained a few pounds over Christmas), I'm back to trying to go to the gym on most days, so I'll be splitting my sewing time with gym time a bit.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/307393.html

Saturday of Costume College, I wore my 1830s plaid silk dress (with the bonnet that was so big that I had to carry it on the plane), because I was wearing it for Jennifer Rosbrugh's Dressing the Plus Size Silhouette Class. I thought I remembered taking something earlier in the day than that, but maybe all I did was socialize, because I can't find anything on the schedule that looks familiar! After her class, I had signed up to take a class on Patterning from an Extant Garment, but it turned out they meant existing, not extant, and it wasn't suitable for fragile extant garments, so I left that class within the first 10-15 mins.

That turned out to be good, since it meant I could start getting ready for the gala. And for once, I wasn't running late! I wore my new yellow silk 1890s gown for the gala. I'm mostly pleased with how it turned out, but there's something about the fit and/or plainness of the back of the bodice that bothers me. I also styled my hair with all the tiny curls on the top of my head, since that's how you always see ladies of that era, but it was such an unflattering look on me! I wish I hadn't done my hair like that, because I'm not a big fan of how my pictures came out. We made the super-long trek to Maggianos for dinner, probably for the last time, since you can no longer walk through the mall, which made it a very long and hot walk. I ubered back, and unfortunately lost one of my shoe rosettes somewhere between Maggianos and the Marriott lobby, which is a bummer. I'll have to remake it for the next time I want to wear my Titanic deck dress. After we got back, we just hung out in the CoCo lobby area, chatting with people and taking pictures. We got a fun picture of (almost) everyone who was wearing yellow, which was a lot of people!

Eventually, we went to sleep, but definitely not early enough! I think I wound up getting about 4.5 hours of sleep before waking up for breakfast and the Bargain Basement on Sunday. I didn't get that much this year, but boy, they wanted to charge me an arm and a leg. Those estimators are ridiculous. I did talk them down significantly, but still paid more than I should have at "bargain" prices. The one thing I was really happy that I got was an extant 1860s bodice, so that was really cool. But no fabrics this year, which was unusual. I did manage to snag a few Truly Victorian type patterns, though, and a couple trims/laces.

For breakfast, the Bargain Basement, and my first class, I didn't have time/energy to wear the bustle dress I had planned for Sunday, but luckily, I made a Victorian-ish dressing gown, so I wore that over my corset/bloomers/petticoat all morning, then changed into the dress after my class. It was a great class! It was making and setting Elizabethan ruffs, and the two teachers each had a different great method for setting them, so it was really nice to learn both. I was so inspired by the class that I had hoped to be able to make one as soon as I got home from CoCo, but didn't wind up having time before the Ren Faire the next weekend, so that is on hold. But at least I have the linen and the know-how now.

After class ended, I changed, had lunch, and spent some time socializing before taking my final class, which was Soutache: Mastering the Tangle. It was a really good class, but I doubt I'll really ever have the patience to apply it on a garment. It's really challenging. I did wind up going to the marketplace a few times over the weekend, too. I bought a whole ton of ribbon from the new ribbon vendor (such great prices!), a gorgeous early 1870s huge fashion plate in a frame (only $10!), and a busk, but totally forgot to go back to Richard the Thread the second day for millinery wire (they had run out by the time I got there the first day). So now I'll have to order that online. We ended the day at the pool (which is what we did Thursday night as well). It was so nice to get to spend so much time socializing this year!

As you've read about previously on here, Monday's shopping trip was really a let-down, and I purchased almost nothing. Luckily, I did make up for that by the trip down there last weekend, so hopefully I will be mostly set for the year now. And I think I might start selling the silks I'm not as happy with anymore. In any case, I need to start making everything so that I'll be ready for next year's CoCo!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/301171.html

For the bonnet, I wound up going with the light yellow silk that I used for Titanic and am almost definitely using for my CoCo gala gown. So that is really going to be my color of the year this year at CoCo! The bonnet is coming along, though somehow between the paper pattern and the buckram, the crown seemed to lose at least an inch of circumference. But by the time you join the brim with the crown (which is when I realized it), I had basically done everything, so there was no way I was redoing any of that. So unfortunately, it's a bit off of what I would like it to be. I'm also trying to figure out how to decorate it. I have wide green-embroidery-on-net lace that goes around the brim, and a matching green velvet ribbon at the base of the crown, but that's all I've decided on so far. Right now I'm a little over halfway done with binding the brim edge, and I still have to put the crown lining in, but otherwise it just needs some more decorations on it. I think it will work.

I decided yesterday that I was at a point with the bonnet where I could focus on other things (because all that handwork and gluing I can do at rehearsal on Wed or Thurs), so I moved back to work on the stripey bustle dress. I highly doubt that I will be able to finish it by the time I head to the Victorian Festival, but I figured why not work on it as much as I can this week.

If you remember, I made most of the skirt (except the ruffly bits at the bottom of the inspiration plate) last fall, but when those ruffly bits wouldn't play nicely, it went in the naughty pile. I've known since then that the two main problems were A) there wasn't enough fabric in the skirt, and B) double-faced silk satin just does not drape the way whatever fabric was originally intended does. So yesterday, I picked out (and attempted to press out) the old hem, undid the back of the waistband, and opened up the back seams of the skirt so that I could add in another back panel. Then I pleated the back sections instead of gathering (which is what I had done before), redid the waistband, and pinned the hem so that it would be as long as I could make it. (It was originally a shorter hem so that the ruffles could go underneath.) So now I just have to sew the new hem, and the underskirt is at least wearable. I may add a ruffle to the hem, but it won't be in the style of the plate, since I can't figure out how to make that work.

Then I moved on to the overskirt. The back section is all pleated to fit, and I draped the front section, which is on the bias. I just have to hem the edges, put the two pieces together, and put them on a waistband, which I'm hoping I may be able to get to between work and rehearsal today. That said, I still don't think I can make the bodice wearable by Friday, because it still needs sleeves, closures, hems, decorations, etc, and I basically have tomorrow after work, and maybe a couple hours on Wed to do all that. But at least I'll have a lot more of it done already for CoCo!

Here's a pic of what it looks like so far:

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/274778.html

My 2016 Goals changed a few times over the course of the year, but this is what they were:

Navy blue swiss dot Regency - Done!
Black silk taffeta bustle ballgown - Done!
Child's Victorian Gown - Done!
Daniel Deronda Riding Habit - Still hasn't happened, and is no longer on my specific upcoming goals list.
1860s Fully Handsewn dress - Didn't even pick this up all year. Maybe someday, but probably not anytime soon.
Turquoise Silk Mid-19th c Giant Ballgown - I kind of knew this was going to be a 2017 project, and sure enough, it will be.
Fur-trimmed bustle-era skating outfit - Coming up next; I've already started cutting pieces out.
Winter bustle gown - Almost done!
Super-secret Disney-related project - No longer super secret. This is the Snow White Designer Disney dress, and will be made for the CoCo pool party this year.

In June, I added an Elizabethan kirtle and Mary Poppins Jolly Holiday to the list, both of which I have since completed.

And here's picture proof of everything I made!

( Click here for pictures )

I think that's everything. Overall, not a bad sewing year, though being unemployed for the first eight months of the year certainly helped in that, and as you can tell by my posts, my sewing has definitely slowed down since I started working in September!

I really wish this dress actually photographed. I've done so much work on it, and it still looks vaguely like a trash bag when I take a picture. I finished the pleating for the back section the other night, sewed it all on yesterday, and then spent several hours trying to repleat parts of the front pleats, because I didn't take into account the angle of the side-front piece where it meets the side back piece. That was like 3-4 hours of my life that I'll never get back. But I fixed it, and I attached the front pleats to the skirt as well, and sewed the lower side seams of those pieces back together (I had taken them apart so the edges of my pleats wouldn't show). Next, I plan to put the trim around all the tabs on the back (I really hope I have enough!), and then I'll turn my attention to the row of pleating that scoops its way across the front. And I keep forgetting to order my fringe! Joanns doesn't have enough at the store... It feels weird doing two bustle gowns in a row with fringe, but that's what's in the original plate, and I'm not sure what else I would use to substitute it anyway.

Also, I realized I've actually been taking pictures, and then not sharing them, so here's some pics of my progress!

This was how I was storing all the front pleats I had done, while I made the back pleats.

The back pleats

There's a lot of them!

Pic on the left is w/o flash, on the right is with flash. They both suck.

Hem detail. Or you know, not so detailed because trash bag.

Actual hem detail so far. Not sure how I got this picture to actually come out, though of course, it did change the color of the fabric!

I sewed today! It was my first project in the new sewing room, my first project using my ruffler foot, and the first project of the year (started and finished on the first day of the year, naturally).

Don't get too excited. I made a ginormous bum pad!

For over a year now, every time I've needed a large bum pad, I've sewn together my small bum pad and my 18th c petal-shaped bum pad. Then, when I've needed them separately, I've ripped them apart again. I've done this probably at least 3-5 times, so I figured it was time to actually make a ginormous bum pad. I used the two together to make a pattern, and cut it out of pink seersucker I had originally bought for the candy early bustle gown in 2011 or 2012, and never used. I used my ruffler foot to make the self-ruffle along the edge, and the tie is some crazy vintage brown wiith polka dots bias tape I've also had in the stash forever. Luckily, I had batting leftover from the banquette, so I had enough to stuff the whole thing, and made it within a couple hours.

Picture proof!

The old, and the new:

First up, I will be stacking it on top of my lobstertail bustle to make enough oomph for the black silk ballgown.

I also managed to get completely unpacked! I put all my clothes in my dresser (finally), and unpacked the last of the boxes. Plus I hung a few pictures. I didn't make it out in the garage except for a couple seconds at a time, so no painting happened. I never even left the house! It was a nice day off. Tomorrow, we have to go up to the apt to do the walkthrough and hand in the keys, which means I have to go up there a few hours early, put my old couch on a truck (I really hope the thrift store will take it!), and make sure the place is clean.

So unfortunately, my goals really haven't changed much since the last time I wrote them down. I guess that's what happens when I sew basically nothing for the last 2+ months?

Navy blue swiss dot Regency (mid Feb possible deadline) - I already have the fabric, and had origainlly intended to make this for an event this weekend. Clearly, that didn't happen, and I'm not going to the event anyway, so I guess that works out. At this point, I'd like to have it finished by the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie event that

vanessa_lynne is hosting in Feb. This is my inspiration plate, and I'll be pairing it with the chemisette I made this summer. Hopefully the dress itself will be fairly simple.

Black silk taffeta bustle ballgown (mid March deadline) - I might make a day bodice too, if there's enough fabric. If I finish it in time, I'll be wearing this to the ball in Port Townsend in March. I had hoped to make a new corset before making this, but I think at this point, I'm out of time to do that, too. I'm basing it off of the turquoise dress in this plate:

Child's Victorian Gown (CoCo Meetup for next year. Care to join us?) I have the fabrics, and I'll be working on this one probably in late spring.

Daniel Deronda Riding Habit - I never got to this one last year, but I still have the fabric, and I'd still love to finish it for CoCo.

1860s Fully Handsewn dress - From the class I took in CoCo 2014. Maybe I'll actually finish it this year?

Turquoise Silk Mid-19th c Giant Ballgown - I'm really excited to make this, even though it wouldn't be worn any earlier than March 2017. This will be my CoCo 2017 gala gown, and I already have 15 yds of silk!

Fur-trimmed bustle-era skating outfit -For the Little House party in Jan 2017.

Winter bustle gown - for Little House party in Jan 2017. Something along the lines of the one on the right:

Super-secret Disney-related project

Hmm, just off the top of my head, I certainly haven't done much since CoCo. Maybe going through everything, I'll realize I was actually productive this year?

These were my goals:
~~1. 1831 Archery dress~~ Done!
~~2. 1829 Orange ballgown~~ Done!
~~3. Corded petticoat to go with both of the above dresses~~ Done!
~~4. 1830s bathing suit~~ Done!
5. Professor Trelawney artistic reform gown for the CosCol Ice Cream Social This got switched to the green and cream bustle gown
6. Daniel Deronda riding habit (already have the fabric) Still have the fabric. Maybe I'll actually make it this year?
~~7. Little Red costume from Into the Woods~~ Done!
8. Striped silk bustle gown. (Or maybe a sack-back. I found silk at Hancocks today for $8/yd, and I'm determined to not let it sit in the stash.) Yeah... That silk is sitting in the stash...
9. Handsewn 1860s gown. At this point, I'm still determined to do this fully handsewn, so who knows when/if I'll ever finish it. If I let myself do it by machine, I'm sure I would have finished it months ago... Still on the list. I just haven't had the time/patience for that much hand-sewing.

( And this was what I accomplished. )

So overall, I guess that wasn't too bad. I definitely need to start sewing again soon if I'm going to be at all on track for CoCo though!

On Saturday, my bf and I went to Steamposium, and it was pretty fun. It was in the waterfront convention center, so the location was good, and they had great vendors, many of whom were even very reasonably priced! I attended three lectures - one was a vocal workshop, which was kind of neat, one was a panel with four contestants and one judge from Steampunk'd (very cool, because they told quite a bit of behind-the-scenes of what goes on in making a show like that), and one was a terribly innacurate lecture on corsets. (I kept wanting to correct her. Eventually I just left). The ball was a big dissapointment - nothing like the elegant balls they had at Steamcon when that was still going on. But my bf and I did a little swing-dancing to the few songs that were actually danceable. Then we left.

There were also some really cool gadgets there though! Definitely the highlight were the two working robots - one, a dalek, which was actually made by a friend of mine, though this was the first time I've seen it. It was so cool! It lit up, and she could talk through it with a voice changer, and it wheeled around and blew steam and stuff. And the other was a Steampunk R2, whose barrel body was actually a working beer tap!

Somehow, Sean and I didn't get any pictures of each other during the day (I wore my green and cream bustle), and we have one selfie of us with a friend. But he did take pictures of me in my new ballgown bodice! The neckline turned out kind of gappy, and I'm not sure how, so that was slightly disappointing, but I'm still quite pleased with the rest of the bodice, even though I didn't have time to sew in any of the boning except the very CF.

But here's several pictures anyway:

Oh, and I bought a thing. One of those reasonably priced vendors had so much cute stuff! It was between this one, or a watch whose top had been taken off and had Toothless on it instead. Here's a link to her store if anyone is interested. It doesn't look like there's really anything in there right now, but she does take custom orders. Sorry, I don't know why these pictures are going in upside-down.

The bodice is almost done! Last night I fixed the neckline, including re-binding the front and extending the lace. I also finished all the box-pleated trimming, and sewed that all on. And I added a hand-made vintage lace to the sleeve hems. I'm picking up some shorter boning for the CF tonight after work, and will swing by Joanns to get more bias tape, because I am just about completely out of cream or white bias, and the last real work I need to do on the bodice is binding the hem. I mean, I need to sew in all the boning to the seams, too, but I could always wear it without all that if I run out of time. In fact, I'm thinking about attempting to fix the wrinkly bust on the day bodice before I sew the boning in. We'll see. And then tomorrow is Steamposium!

Sneak preview with bad lighting:

Oh, and in other news, it would seem that my FFC wool is in fact not 100%. I did the bleach test yesterday, and there is still fiber in the bleach. It has certainly disintigrated a lot, but there are little shreds of the blue left after 24 hrs, and the black has turned itself into three little rolled up tubes after 10 hrs. Not sure exactly what that means as far as the blends go. Each piece started as about 1"x2". I think I might see if they'll pay the return shipping to take it back, since what they sent wasn't what they advertised.

Here's a couple pics of the bleach results, the color of the blue for

nuranar, and the texture of the black if anyone is interested:

~~Please let me know if you can't see any of the pictures. Flickr kept breaking all my images, so I've gone back to google for todayal~~ Edited: We're going to try dropbox now. Because all the other hosting sites I've tried suck!

I've been posting a lot of picture-less posts. So to try to fix that, here is a sneak preview of my box-pleated trim. I sewed for about 15-20 mins at lunch, finished the squinching, and started the pearling:

Sorry, it's so dark. Apparently flickr's brightening feature is broken.

I'm getting a bit more nervous about the bodice deadline now.

I finished the eyelets, bound the sleeve hem, and attached the sleeves. And then I finally got to try it on. Unfortunately, the neckline is a good 1" too high in the center front. (The bodice also makes me realize just how in need of a good fitting corset I am - mine kind of flares into the bust around my ribcage, so it doesn't actually do anything to the bust. In an evening bodice, you can really tell! So I'm going to be stuffing beneath my bust to try to fix it for this weekend).

To fix the too-high front, I have to take off the lace, binding, and fringe in the front, cut the bodice down, and somehow reattach it without it being too obvious that I will now be piecing in little bits of lace to the very front and center of my neckline... Otherwise, I have to redo all the lace, which I'd really rather not do. I also have to get new shorter boning for the front, at the very least. I haven't yet checked if the dart length boning was affected, too.

Once I laced it up, though, I also marked my darts. And the bodice was really big around the bust at first, so I've actually created one faux princess seam and one dart on each side. I don't think it looks bad this way, and the princess seam doesn't ease out at the top until it's under the fringe, so no one will even know it's faux! I tried it on again after, and other than the neckline issue, it fits like a glove. So well, in fact, that if I don't have time to sew all the boning channels in, I'm not going to be too worried.

I found my hand-sewing kit, too, which had been trying to tuck itself into the back of my sewing machine (sigh). So I sewed on the bus this morning, and I have one squinchy pleat left to do, plud the pearling. I'm hoping there's a chance I can finish it all on the bus ride home, but we shall see.

So at this point, my main concern is fixing the neckline, followed by binding the hem, adding lace to the sleeve hems, and attaching the pleated trim to the neckline. And boning, if time.

Oh, and in purchasing news, one of my antique bodices came. I think it's a dinner bodice because of the lower neckline and long sleeves, and it looks like late 1890s. It's super cute - I'll post pictures after Saturday at some point. The marabou trim I ordered for testing the new Laughing Moon cloak pattern also came. I'm disappointed. Where do you guys get that wonderful fluffy stuff? This seems rather sparse... And my Rapunzel wig came. It needs some serious restyling, but that will be a fun project in a couple weeks. At least the hair feels like good quality.

My eyelet plate came in yesterday! So after work I went to go pick it up (40 mins drive each way), and started in on the eyelets. At this point, I think I have nine left, out of a total of 36. That's a lot of eyelets! I will finish them tonight, and finally be able to try on the bodice to make sure all is well! Assuming it is (knock on wood), I'll probably start whipping the bones in next. Either that or finish the sleeves.

Unfortunately, I went to go finish my box pleating on the bus this morning, and found that my little sewing kit was not in my bag. This is slightly disconcerting, since I know it was in my bag when I left Joanns yesterday, and I don't remember taking it out when I got home. I hope I can find it, because it has my green thread and all the pearls in it. But in any case, no bus sewing for me today, so that's an hour wasted, and it means I will have to do all that hand-sewing at home (or tomorrow).

I think I'm in a decent place, though, if all of tonight's sewing goes well.

Well, the bad news is that I was let go relatively early from the callback yesterday. On the plus side, it did mean that I still wound up with a little sewing time last night. The neckline is completely bound, and all the narrow lace has been sewn on around the neckline. Somehow, I lucked out with the lace - there were a bunch of stains randomly scattered throughout, but on the section I used, they were all on the inside of the lace, and I didn't even check it before putting it on! So that was nice. I also did all my triple stitching on the other half of the green bias strips for the box pleating, and basted the pleats into place. If I did my math right, I have pleated enough length (though I didn't cut the end off, just in case my math is wrong). I also started doing all the pinchy stitches in the box pleats, to squinch up the centers. I'm now just shy of half of the pleats done, much of which was done on the bus this morning. I shouldn't have any problems finishing all the box pleated trim up tonight, and hopefully even attaching it to the neckline. I just hope I have enough pearls!

Unfortunately, the Viking store has not yet called, and I don't know that I want to wait any longer before doing the eyelets. I can do the sleeves first, but I will still have to fit the darts and sew in all the boning (not to mention make a bazillion eyelets!). So most likely, if I don't get the call that my eyelet plate has come in today, I will have to make do with 6mm eyelets. *Fingers crossed that I'll get a call in the next few hours!*

I worked on the bodice a bit over the weekend, though I clearly did not get enough accomplished, because I am definitely now feeling deadline pressure!

All the bodice pieces are together. It seems to fit, but I can't actually try it for sure, because I'm waiting on a 4mm eyelet plate that is supposed to be arriving at the closest Viking center to me by Tues. If it doesn't arrive by then, I'm just going to go and make big ugly 6mm eyelets, instead of the little 4mm ones. I'm going to do spiral lacing, because I've only found evidence of one cross-lacing front opening bodice.

So what have I been doing while waiting for the eyelet plate? First, I made twill tape channels for all the bones. I was hoping to use 3/8" boning, but my supplier was out (and doesn't know if she'll restock!), so I had to use 1/4". I know that's what they used anyway, but it just seems so tiny and flimsy! After I finished the boning channels, I started on the sleeves. I used the pattern for the sleeves that goes with the bodice, so they are tiny gathered cap sleeves. However, instead of doing a big band at the bottom like the pattern, I am doing the green fabric cut in a small bias strip, and binding it, plus putting gathered ivory lace at the bottom.

I also laid out all the trims. It took a lot of playing around, but I have finally decided that around the neckline will be the fringe, with a strip of the green fabric that has the two rows of triple-stitching, and which has then been done into a decorative box pleat where the centers of the pleats are squinched in and pearled. I blame

vanessa_lynne for rubbing off on me. I'm also putting narrow scalloped vintage lace around the edge of the neckline. Have I mentioned that I'm wearing this on Saturday, and likely have two nights this week where I'll be unable to sew? Yeah, I've lost it.

Luckily, the fringe is already on, and I've put bias around the neckline, half of which has already been turned down. I anticipate a lot of waiting around tonight at a callback, so I packed that, plus the narrow lace for the neck, plus half the green box pleated trim, with the pleats already basted in place. I also brought the pearls. I sewed on the bus this morning, too, and will on the way home, so let's see how much I get to!

In other news, we also had a lovely Edwardian tea yesterday, but I will post about that separately, once I get all the pictures from my bf.

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Rebecca Maiten

Lady Rebecca Fashions

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Diary of a Costumer

Entries tagged with bustle

Basically Done!

Bodice Progress

Snow Day Progress

2019 Sewing Goals

2018 Year in Review

I started sewing again!

Costume College Wrap-up Part Two

I'm Sewing!

2016 Year in Review

Pleat pleat pleat.

A project of firsts

2016 Goals

2015 Recap

Steamposium/The Finished Ballgown Bodice

Evening Bodice Progress, and Wool Follow-up.

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February 2019

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