Diary of a Costumer

The basically finished green wool bustle gown was worn yesterday for our outing to the Sherlock Holmes exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. It was so much fun to wear, and I got so many complements! It was also pretty warm, which is good. We had to stand outside in line for an hour in probably mid-to-high-30s before we could get into the exhibit, and though my toes were freezing (even in my carriage boots), my arms only started to get cold in the last 10-15 minutes, and the rest of me stayed nice and warm. That should be good for MN, because if the weather prediction stays true, it should be the same temperature there. Also, it turned out the quilted petticoat was the perfect body for this dress. I wore it over the lobstertail and a bum pad, and didn't need any other petticoats.

And now what you've really been waiting for - pictures!


They had this 2x scale dining set, which was very fun to try to sit on!


There was also a corner mirror, which we naturally stopped to take lots of pictures in.


There's just a couple things I still need to do to the dress. Someone stepped on my skirt, even though it was bustled up, and one of the bustle ties tore out (luckily, I don't think it tore the fabric at all). So I have to fix that. Also, while I decided I like it better without any additional trim on the dickey, I've decided to add the three large buttons on either side of the overskirt (on the dressform, that area was hidden by the bows, so I didn't bother, but there's room for them when I wear it). And if I'm able to acquire more of the green velvet trim, I'm going to add it to the sleeves. But even if I can get more of it, it won't be before the Little House Party. So luckily, there's not much left to do for now!

I worked on the dickey trimming a little bit today. I did my three buttonholes and buttons, finished trimming one of the lapels, and put the trim around the collar. I'm debating about doing a little more before I go to sleep, even though I shouldn't.

On the other hand, though, I did submit two class proposals. I decided that I would let them choose between the Super Quick 18th c Quilted Petticoat or the 1830s vs 1890s sleeves. The petticoat would be way easier for me to prep, but I think the other one would be more popular.


Edit: I was bad. I'm now up way too late, but I added the trim on the other lapel, plus the ribbon tie, and a hook and eye underneath the tie. I think it's at a point now where it's wearable, but I might still add lace around the neck of the collar, plus the velvet trim in the square part of the neck. First I'm going to make a bustle-era quilted petticoat, though. I think I should be able to make the whole thing tomorrow, assuming it's not too cold to go in the sewing room.

I didn't sew very much today, because I was feeling a bit burned out after yesterday. I did make the bows for the cuffs, and sewed those down, as well as finishing the fur on the cuffs. And I sewed the bows on the overskirt, and tacked the overskirt pieces to each other so that they wouldn't shift, and put all my hooks and bars on my skirt and overskirt waistbands.

I also mocked up and patterned most of the dickey piece - I have the main dickey piece and lapel pieces cut up and ready to be flatlined, and I think the collar part is just going to be a tapered band. I'll finish that tomorrow - hopefully it won't take too much longer. And then I really need to get on to the skating dress. I'd like to have a significant amount of it done by Monday evening. We start up rehearsals again this week, and I have two this week, and I think four the following week, so my sewing time is really going to be reduced. And there's less than three weeks left till the Little House Party!

I shared this on my year in review post, but here's the complete outfit, minus the dickey. I definitely need to make a better petticoat...

I have been sewing all day today. Like seriously, I've had maybe four 30-40 min breaks since about 10:30am through 2:30am. And yet I feel like I've done nothing. I want this dress to be finished!

So what did I do? I sewed on all the ribbon pieces to the bodice skirts, mocked up a sleeve, and then tried on the bodice. And it's a good thing I did, too, because it was too long in the shoulder straps by about 1.5," and the neckline was way too high. I fixed the shoulders and the neckline, and set (and reset) the sleeve mockup a few times, tweaking things like how gathered it was. And I actually wound up with a nicely fitted sleeve! It was nice to try on the skirts as well - they really worked pretty perfectly.

So then I cut out the sleeves in the sateen for the lining and in the wool. As expected, I did have to piece a little bit - I wound up being 4" too short on one of the inner sleeve pieces. I'm hoping that if I can find more of the velvet ribbon trim (a friend is going to look in the fabric district for me next week), that it will maybe cover or at least draw attention away from the pieced seam. I also cut out the sateen pieces for the skating dress (with a slight alteration to the flare at the cuff), since that will also have fitted long-sleeve two-piece sleeves.

I figured out how I wanted to trim the sleeve hems, and I'm varying just slightly from the plate on these, and sewed the fur in place, for the most part (the part that goes up the sleeve still needs to be sewn on, but that has to wait till after I attach the ribbon pieces for the sleeves). I set the sleeves to the bodice, and sewed on the fur trim around the neckline as well.

And that's it. I feel like it all took way longer than it should have...

I really want to finish it tomorrow, but I doubt that I will. I still have to figure out the whole piece that goes into the neckline, which I know will take a while, since I have no clue what is going on there. Plus I have to add the ribbons to the sleeves and to the overskirt, and put hooks and eyes on the skirt. So I'm not too hopeful. But I really want this to be a 2016 project!

I sewed together all the green wool bodice pieces, and evened out the hem to be more like the lines of the fashion plate (mine weren't quite slanted enough). Then I started on the trimming. I ripped more strips of fur for the trim, sewed on three rows of velvet ribbon to the hem of the back, and machine-sewed the fur to the hem of the bodice.

Of course, buying all my supplies way in advance is really starting to bite me on this project. Not only will I probably have to piece the sleeves, but it also turns out that I'm not going to have enough ribbon for the sleeve cuffs, let alone anything for the neckline. I have 19" left... I'm fairly sure that I need at least 26" to do anything close to what the fashion plate has, and even more than that is preferable. But since I bought all of this in the fabric district after CoCo, I know there's no way I'm going to find a match locally or online. Oh well...

I had intended to line the back skirts of the bodice, and even cut a section of silk habotai to use for it, but I don't think I'm going to use it. It's already interlined with the black twill, and because the addition of the velvet ribbon basically quilted the hem, it's quite stiff. I don't think there's too much of a chance of it blowing up and showing the underside. That makes it a bit easier, and hopefully I'll just be able to sew down the other side of the fur tomorrow, plus add buttonholes and possibly buttons (if I can decide which ones!) I'd also like to get to the sleeves, and/or cut out the rest of the skating bodice pieces. I'm planning to either go ice skating or see Manchester By the Sea tomorrow, though, but at least I don't have to go to bed early, so I should get a fair amount done.

Here's a pic of how it currently looks:


 

I didn't wind up going ice skating or seeing the movie. Which means that other than running a few errands, I spent most of the day sewing!

This morning, I set the overskirt to its waistband. Then I pulled out a bodice mockup I had draped in a "19th c Bodice Draping" class this summer, which I loosely based on this bodice. I thought it would be close, but possibly a couple sizes too small, and or too short, since I had just draped it on a dress form. But lo and behold, it pretty much fit! That made me sooo happy, because that makes everything so much easier. The only things I had to change were to add more in the CF to allow for the closure, change the shape/length of the hem, and cut the armseye farther up on the shoulder. I also took the same pattern, made a different hem and back skirt shape, and I'm using it for the skating bodice, too.

Of course, since I decided to try to cut out the interlinings for both the skating bodice and the green wool bodice, I wound up with not enough twill to completely cut out either. So I'll have to go back to Joanns tomorrow to pick up more. I managed to cut out all but the side-back piece on the green wool bodice, and the front and side-front pieces on the skating bodice. I also cut all of the wool for the green wool bodice. Unfortunately, I am getting really low on that fabric, so I have a feeling I'm going to have to piece the sleeves, which is stressing me out. :(

While I was at Joanns today, picking up more lining for the back skirts of the bodice, I also was trying to find a ribbon solution for the green wool dress. I was hoping for something in the deep grey or dark tan family, but no avail. So instead, I decided to make my own ribbon. I found deep grey poly matte satin, and have cut it into 3.75" wide strips. Then I melted all the edges. I've already made all the ribbon pieces for the larger bows on the overskirt and the back bodice skirts. Right now they're just pinned into place, but I think they work great! Here's a pic:



Oh, and as you can probably tell by the picture, I've decided that this dress definitely needs the lobstertail and pad together to make the right shape. I even pulled my petticoat out of the laundry and put it on here, though I really think I need a new one. I think I might make a matelasse petticoat, for warmth.

Tomorrow, it's back to work, and I'm determined to go see a movie for $5 movie night, but I hope to at least work on the bodice some more.  

I spent about five hours sewing today, and I feel like I have hardly anything to show for it. I picked up black matte poly satin from Joanns today, and cut out the lining pieces for the overskirt. The front panel is close-ish to done - the satin is attached, it's pleated at the waist, and the fur trim is attached on one side - I just have to turn the fur over and stitch down the other side by hand. Of course, I had to attach the fur twice, because the first time I sewed it, I had the fur on the top layer, and it wound up gathering the skirt pieces to the fur. It looked so horrible, so I picked it out and re-sewed it, flipping it so the fur was the bottom layer being fed through the machine. It turned out that it had gathered a total of eight inches the first time!

The back piece has been giving me even more trouble, though. I think it's because I had already trimmed it last night, which probably caused the outer skirt fabric to gather a little, and plus wool can be kind of stretchy (even though this piece is not on the bias). But somehow, the wool piece has wound up off a bit from the satin piece, with the satin both longer and wider at the hem. So I cut off a couple inches, only to find once I was actually sewing it, that the machine was stretching the wool back out to fit the satin, and it would have been just about fine had I not cut that excess off. Sigh... I'm hoping the fur will hide everything once I put that on tomorrow.

I'm also trying to figure out what to do for the ribbon trim. In the original, the fur is kind of greyish. Mine is much more tan, with some black and white hairs mixed in. Joanns has wide ribbon in very limited colors, and nothing in the tan family. I tried seeing what grey would look like (and it just reads white), and I tried black (which just reads as boring). I think I want either a very deep slate gray, or a tan-ish color to match the fur, but have no idea where locally might have 2-3" wide ribbon (and preferably cheaply, since I need a ton of it), and it's so hard to color match online (plus I want it now). I guess I might have to settle for the grey or black, though I'm tempted to cut strips of satin and melt the edges to make my own ribbon. Has anyone ever tried that before?

No pictures yet, because it's 3am, and I should really go to sleep.

Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah! 

I finished cutting out all the pieces for the corset, which means it's ready to sew together. But I can't decide what technique to use to make it! I can't do the only technique I've used in the past (sewing the inner and outer layers together all in one seam) because the bones go across the seams.

So would it be better to sew together all the outer seams and all the inner seams at once, then sandwich the boning in between the layers? Or would it be better to treat the two layers as one, have all the seams on the inside, and use twill tape for the bone casings?

I'm leaning towards the latter, because it would be easier to tweak if I need to. I know people made single-layer corsets all the time, but I don't want this to be just canvas, which is why I'm doing the outer fashion layer as well. Also, if I do the latter technique, how are the seams finished inside? I can serge everything, but I kind of wanted this to look more historically accurate..

Any advice?


I also cut out my skirt panels. I was really hoping to get my Princess Anna order done today, but the fabric store I went to only had ugly shades of blue cotton. So tomorrow I'm going to try another Joanns, and hopefully they'll have what I'm looking for. Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to make do.