theladyrebecca | Entries tagged with dyeing

I have conquered the Merida sleevils! I think a lot of the issues actually stemmed from the fit of the bodice, but there were some sleeve shape issues as well. I wound up tapering in the armpit of the side seams 2" on each side (a total of 4" all around, because the bodice was poufing out weirdly in the back). I also moved the back darts towards the CB about 1", and lengthened them so that they end nearly at the height of the bottom of the armseye. In doing all that, it also moved the armseyes farther out on the arm in the back, so I wound up shaving off about .5" of that. Then it was time to examine the sleeve shape. It was pulling in the lower front of the armseye, and didn't feel quite tall enough. I added about .5" to the height, and wound up adding nearly 1.5" in the front where it was pulling. Then it wound up poufing just slightly in the back just past the shoulder seam, so I took out the .5" of height that I had added there, and it fit!

I cut out the new sleeves (saving the pattern so I can use it later, of course), and they are now attached. They still need cuffs, but I just wanted to get them set in last night, so I'll save the cuffs for today. I decided to use the solid green bodice fabric for the cuffs - I was thinking about using the plaid of the skirt fabric, but I think it breaks up the line.

In all of my fitting from earlier, I also realized that the bodice was about 1.5" too long all the way around. So I removed that, and attached the skirt to the bodice (I did that before the final sleeve mockup, because I noticed that the weight of the skirt was affecting how the bodice was fitting). It turns out that still wasn't enough length removed, because once I attached them, it still seemed too low, so I did another seam 3/8" from the original 5/8" seam allowance. I think it's much better now.

While I was doing all that, I also dyed the Anna skirt (twice). The first time, I forgot to wet the skirt first, so when it dried, it had a terrible line at the top of the dye (it was dip-dyed). So I rinsed that all out, wet the fabric, and started again. I think it's just dark enough at the bottom now.

Today, I'm going to set the side zipper into Merida and do the cuffs. Then I'm going to cut out and make all the bias for the Anna hem and attach that. If there's time after that, I plan to start on the Anna embroidery and let the machine do that while I hand-hem the Merida skirt, which is the last thing I need to do on Merida. Not sure I'll manage all of that today, but here's hoping!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/301965.html

Oh, silk organza, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1. You rip on the grain in both directions.
2. You dye to the perfect color in about 10 seconds.
3. You are crisp and beautiful
4. You wash easily and dry fast.
5. You are silk, but you are inexpensive!

Basically, other than fraying and attempting to cut anything other than straight lines, you might be my favorite.

So anyway, the three gathered tiers on my skirt are going to be silk organza. I have already dyed it, and I had just about enough yardage to be able to use selvage edges for all my hems. I might roll-hem the gathered side that I'm attaching to my skirt - I haven't decided yet if just putting the edge underneath the ruffle will protect it enough or not.

The problem, though, is that I can't get the ruched look I want with roll-hemmed (or probably any hem) organza. So I think maybe I need to use tulle? I need something very light, airy, and sheer, which can be significantly gathered, and doesn't need to be hemmed. This part does not need to be dyed, so that may make that part easier. Any suggestions?

But back to the silk organza. Does anyone have any idea if it will work for the underside of my train? Honestly, the only place I'll be able to let it down will probably be the CoCo red carpet. Because otherwise trains are just asking for a disaster.

Look how perfectly this dyed! Yep, that's why you can hardly see it!

Also, I blew up the corset pattern that

mala_14 shared to my post the other day, and printed it at a 3 pg x 3 pg scale, and I think it might work really close to perfectly. The bust gussets are enormous, and I'm a little worried it might be short waisted as it goes around the side of the body, but otherwise the measurements seem pretty darn good. So I'm planning to create a mockup with no alterations except the bust gussets, and see how that works. It's weird, but I'm actually kind of excited to make another corset now.

I'm so frustrated! The idye totally didn't work. I used two packets of dye. First, I tried dyeing it in the sink, and it was in there for probably a good 45 mins, but every time I tried to rinse off a corner, the color changed drastically. So I transferred the water from the sink to my large pot and added even more salt, and once the water got hot enough, the fabric was in there for another 30 mins or so, until it seemed like it was going darker than what I wanted. I could tell it was still rinsing out some, though, so I left it soaking in the sink for another 20+ mins with about 1.5-2 cups of vinegar mixed in. And when I rinsed it out, it seemed to keep the color! I didn't rinse it out 100%, but enough where it wasn't crazy running dye all over the place.

I didn't want to rinse it in the washing machine yet, so I just threw it straight into the dryer to see how it fared. And yet for some reason, it is now totally light again, even though the wet fabric was the color I wanted. Like, it's probably hardly darker than it was after the dylon. I seriously don't know what's going on with this fabric, but unless someone has some miracle idea that I could do with the pot of dye I saved from today, I'm done dyeing it. It's sooooo frustrating. Not only did I waste the $25-30 on the sateen, but I have now spent probably a good $20 on dye. This is ridiculous! I've never had this much trouble dyeing something - not even polyester! So I guess now I'm going to have to spend another $25 on plain cotton. At this rate, I could have splurged for silk for what I'm winding up spending on stupid cotton.

It also doesn't photograph well, since the cotton net is definitely not really this blue - it's actually just half a shade darker than the sateen. The sateen is to the left, and you can tell how pale it is compared to the silk, which is on the right.

Also, my ribbon order has been stuck in MD since at least Friday due to weather, and my organdy, which was supposed to arrive Saturday, has had no additional tracking information since Thursday in Chicago. I'm also not in love with the cotton net, which so far looks quite coarse. So maybe I should just scrap the idea of cotton entirely, and go with silk organza for the underside of the train and for all the things I was going to use the net for. Except then I have to figure out how to make ruching look nice, even with a rolled hem. Basically, this project hasn't even started, and it's already seeming like an expensive disaster...

Edited: I decided I wouldn't be able to go to sleep until I tested the silk organza in the now-only-lukewarm-dye-pot. I dipped in a test sample , swirled it around for about 10 seconds, rinsed it completely, and toweled it dry. It's perfect. The exact shade of turquoise I've been looking for the entire time. So I guess that's what I'm going to have to use. Because honestly, I tried ruching up a sample of the cotton net, and it looks horrible. It's so white and thick looking. I'm just going to have to figure out what to do for hems on the ruched part. Mostly, how much will the silk organza hate me if I don't hem it at all?

Oh, and is anyone interested in buying 6 yards of white and 4 yards of turquoise cotton net off me?

I've been twiddling around a bit with 1860s corsets, trying to find a pattern diagram, and to figure out exactly what I wanted from the corset. I found an 1868 diagram, which is a little late, and an 1863, which is a little early. I blew up the 68 and put it together on paper, but it doesn't have bust gores, and looking at all the corsets I like online, they all have bust gores. The hip is also not quite what I wanted, though it does all make up to a nice shape. Looking at the 63, I think it's a little closer, but the bodice shapes don't seem quite curvy enough, and the hip gore still isn't perfect.

My favorite two corsets I've seen online for this era are these:

Both of them have an interesting hip gore/peplum piece that both stop at the side seam. There are no back views of the orange one, but I have to figure it's constructed quite similarly to the blue one, which is, two main bodice pieces (front and back), front peplum/gore, back hip gore, and two bust gores. I rather like the flowy top and bottom edges of the orange one (and the color!), though I do wonder if the flat top of the blue would be more practical. I also don't think I want it to be fully boned in front like the blue one - that seems a bit much.

Here's a question, though. The blue corset's boning all stops at the waistline, except for CF and CB. The orange may also have one bone that goes all the way to the hem at the side seam, though I can't tell. But can anyone who has worn a corset with boning like this tell me if it winds up digging in at the waist?

Also, does anyone have a pattern closer to this than the 1863 one I have?

And in other news, my Joanns doesn't carry idye, so I decided to try Dylon. It sucks. Like, even with two packets of dye, my fabric didn't even get that bright before rinsing. I'm going to try Pacific Fabrics tomorrow, but if it doesn't carry idye, I'm just going to forgo the sateen, and go for the kona cotton that already comes in the right color... :(

I finished stitching the facing of the villains bodice down yesterday. I also made another villains skirt for an etsy order. And today, I hemmed 2/3 of the skirt for my dress, and started playing with the Jolly Holiday parasol. The weird foam handle is coming in handy, because I was able to scuplt it into something at leat vaguely recognizeable as her bird handle. I think once I paint it, it will look pretty close.

I also started trying to dye the top of the parasol. I want every other wedge to be a pale red. But after working on it for over an hour tonight, I'm still struggling. The red keeps bleeding onto the white panels, and then when I go to dab off the bleed with a damp towel, the water bleeds back into the red section, and washes away the dye on the egde. So I need to figure out how (or even if there is actually a way) to prevent the bleed from happening. I really like the soft color that the dye makes, and I feel like painting wouldn't give the same effect... Any ideas?

You can see that two panels look relatively okay, and the other two red panels really have a lot of the reverse bleeding.

I spent most of today at the Puyallup State Fair, which was fun! I've never been to a state fair before, other than speed-walking through the Oklahoma one to get to the Disney on Ice arena. This seemed like maybe 1/5 the size of the OK one, but it was the perfect size to tackle in about 5 hrs today. I didn't ride any rides, but I checked out most of the arts and crafts exhibits, and saw some of the animals. And tried out a couple different massage chairs. ;) We also had fun food like scones, rootbeer floats, and corn dogs. I took some pictures of my favorite things!

Amazing LotR model