theladyrebecca | Entries tagged with natural form

All the wide lace is sewn on! That took soooo much longer than I had anticipated. And the sash is about 1/4-1/3 attached. My 1840s pattern also said it arrived in a city 10 mins from my house this morning, so I'm hoping that will get here soon. If it does, I will switch to that for now, but I'm not holding my breath. Otherwise, I really really hope to finish the gala gown tonight.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/318814.html

*Sigh* Still working on the dress. I am apparently the world's slowest hand-sewer, so although I worked Wednesday night, Thursday evening/night, all Friday, and Sat afternoon, it is still not finished. And yet, for most of that time, it has felt so close!

I made and attached the last ruffle on the skirt train, sewed on 25 hooks and bars, tried it on, took in the back a little more (again), moved about 8" on either end of the bottom two ruffles .5" lower to fix the hem length, finished the sleeve hems, and made and attached my two pleated sections for the side-fronts of the bottom of the skirt. And then for the past 2+ days, I've been sewing on the lace everywhere.

I have most of the lace sewn around the front opening/neckline, about 3/4 of the lace sewn on the hem, and about 1/2 of the vertical lace pieces where the front skirt meets the back section. All of that lace has to be carefully pinned in place and hand-sewn on either side, which I've been doing while it's hanging on the form. I still have to add the narrow lace on the sleeve bands and across the front of the neckline. And I still have to make the sash that goes around the knee-level, which is also edged in lace, plus the bow for the back.

I was really hoping to accomplish all that by last night, so I'm definitely off-schedule. I may have to skip dance classes this week to make up for it. On the other hand, I ordered the new 1840s McCalls pattern last Wed morning, and it still hasn't even been marked as shipped, so that may not be able to happen at this point. (It was supposed to arrive sometime Wed-Fri of this week). At this point, I'm going to keep working on the gala gown, and also make a chemise for it -- ideally, I'll finish both by tomorrow or Wed. I also have to make a bib at some point, since we decided to make those for Maggianos this year.

If the pattern hasn't arrived by then, I may just try to make my own 1840s dress, and not use the pattern. I can probably use my go-to Victorian base pattern, with a shirred-front bodice and a straight-panel skirt, and then I would just have to figure out the sleeves. Honestly, that might be easier than using a new pattern anyway. And if I run out of time to finish that, then I think I might bring my old LWD Regency with the red velvet spencer, since I haven't worn the spencer at CoCo and the dress has had a couple changes since the last time I wore it there.

So this is my potential line-up:
Thursday night: LWD Regency with spencer; If I finish the 1840s dress, then I will wear my cotton 1910s dress here instead
Friday day: Anna Frozen Fever
Friday night: Fairy Godmother bustle
Saturday day: Plaid bustle
Saturday night: Natural form bustle
Sunday: 1910s cotton dress; If I finish it, I'll wear the 1840s instead. Either way, I probably need to bring an apron for the 18th c hair products class.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/318456.html

*Sigh* I wrote out half this post and then my computer crashed and didn't save the draft....

So, as per usual, my sewing did not go as planned yesterday. Of the 2+ hours after work that I was supposed to be hand-sewing, I wound up spending about 1.5 hrs working on putting together my set for my two 4th of July gigs tomorrow. Finding an hour worth of singable pre-1965 patriotic music is hard! So I only wound up hand-sewing just over half of my hem facing, and that's it, which was a bummer.

On the other hand, after tap class, I came home and made the probably stupid decision to stay up late and sew. I finished pressing the 2nd row of pink pleats and sewed it onto the skirt.

It was at this point that I looked at the taffeta remaining, did all the math, and realized that while I have just over two yards left, I need about 3 yards to do everything left in the pink (sash/bow around the base of the bodice, side front pleats, and one more skirt ruffle). Shoot.

So now I have two options:
Option A: I could nix the 3rd pink skirt ruffle, and either undo the 2nd one, turn under the top with the serging and reattach it; or cover up the serged edge with bias made of the stripey fabric (though this second choice would mean that the top ruffle would probably look slightly wider than the bottom ruffle).
Option B: Face the sash and the side front pleats with organza, which I will probably dye to match first. This should save me nearly a yard, and I think I can eek the rest out of the other two yards, if I have a smaller seam allowance on the top ruffle and put the bow on the lengthwise grain instead of across grain.

Any opinions? I'm leaning towards Option B myself. Assuming I go for option B, I may try to dye the organza today, but that is the only sewing work I would wind up doing, since I'm having a game night tonight and have to clean the house after work.

In other news, I checked at Joanns again yesterday for the new McCalls pattern, and not only do they not have it in yet, it's not on the Joanns website, which means even their corporate whatever hasn't gotten it in yet, so it could be weeks or more before it gets to stores. And then today, it went on sale for 3.99 on the McCalls website. Since I am already clearly fixating on this project, I decided to order it directly from McCalls, even though with shipping it was nearly $9 (I never spend that much for patterns, especially not a big 3 pattern!). It says 5-7 business days, so that should mean somewhere between Wed-Fri next week, which is definitely cutting it close. But hopefully by then, I will have the gala gown and a new chemise done. And hopefully the pattern fits well and goes together easily!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/318132.html

The ruffles are going sooo slowly. Or at least, that's what it feels like. For the bottom silk organza ruffle, I had to rip nine 8.5" tall strips of the organza, join them all together, press them in half the long way, run them through the ruffler foot, and apply vintage lace to the bottom edge with about a 1/8" or less overlap, press the whole thing so they'd look more like messy pleats, and then serge the top edge. The three taffeta ruffles are the same, minus the lace application (plus they're only 5 pieces joined together, since the fabric is wider). And then of course, I have to mark where the ruffles are going on the skirt, and sew them onto it.

All this to say that I have the bottom two ruffles currently sewn to the skirt, and the third ruffle is half pressed. I'm glad that I haven't ripped the silk for the top ruffle yet, because I think I actually want it to be narrower. The three bottom ruffles are just sewn flat on top of the skirt and overlap each other quite a bit, but the top will have its ruffled edge flipped under, with nothing overlapping on top of it. So I'll have to check my measurements for that one.

Anyway, I decided that today is going to be a handsewing day, not ruffling. I have tap class tonight, and it's north of my work, and I live south of my work. So I'm just going to stay at the office for like 2.5 hours after I get off work and do some handsewing, so that I don't have to waste an hour of that on driving. I have the hem facing, 25 hooks and bars, and some pleat tacking on the CF section that I can do - I don't think I'll make it through all of it, but I'm excited to knock most of it out, because that would pretty much just leave lace application for the only other hand-sewing.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/317719.html

I don't typically post over the weekend, but I do sew! Or at least, I did a lot of sewing this weekend. I'm starting to feel like I'm in a decent place with the gala gown, and that I maybe even *fingers crossed* can finish it by the end of next weekend.

At this point, the skirts are on the bodice; the whole opening/neckline of the green part has been bound; the whole pink center section is attached (more on that in a min); the hem facing is applied, turned, and pinned in place; sleeves are on (though the hems are not finished yet); and two of the four tiers of ruffles for the train have been run through the ruffler foot (but one still needs to be pressed).

I have 25 hooks and bars to put on the bodice closures, binding and lace to be applied to the sleeve hems, lace to be applied all over the bodice and skirts (it arrived, but I'm not in love with it - however, I'll probably have to use it anyway, since I have no other solution), and the pleated faux underskirt sections to be made and applied to the side fronts. Plus all the ruffles. But I think that's it. My goal for today is to complete and attach the ruffles.

I do also want to make a new chemise for this, and a balayuese. Possibly petticoat ruffles if I find I need them, too.

If I can finish all that this weekend, then I think that allows time for one more relatively simple project. If there's a McCalls pattern sale by then, I really want to try the new 1840s pattern that was just released. I'm not sure if it's 100% historically accurate (the sleeves are questionable), but it's just so cute, and I still don't have anything of that era. If I can't get that done, I might just bring my Regency LWD with the red velvet sleeveless spencer - I've worn the dress to CoCo twice, but not with that spencer.

As usual, pics on instagram!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/317638.html

I tried on the bodice yesterday, and was still not happy with how it was fitting at the bottom. I wound up tapering out about 2.25" more at the hem, and taking some out of the CB at the waist. I've also given up on trying to figure out how it appears to be gathered or pleated up the CB over the rear, because every time I tried it, it made the rest of the back/sides very not smooth. So I'm just going to leave it pleat-less.

Then I pleated the skirt where it joins the bodice, and pinned it to the bodice, and realized that I had the join of the bodice waaay too low. Like, by 5" or so, I think. I've re-pinned it higher, and it looks better, but I want to test it with a sash sort of thing over the join before I sew it in place.

I also got the rough dimensions for the pink CF section. I think I'm going to build it on a base cotton layer, with the silk done in two pieces over that. It appears that the bodice area is gathered up the center to create a horizontal ruched effect, whereas the skirt section is in long vertical pleats, so I think I'm going to make a faux bodice hem in the CF panel over the join.

I'm also trying to figure out the ruffles at the hem, so that I can start working on those. My wide lace shipped today, and should arrive on Tuesday, which is good, since I think I'll have quite a bit of time for sewing over the 4th of July weekend. But obviously I have quite a bit of work to do before I get to the point of adding the lace.

Oh, and after working with this gown fabric quite a bit yesterday, I think I might have to name this the Watermelon Bustle. So much pink and green!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/317294.html

My audition yesterday wound up running way long, so I had a lot less sewing time than I had anticipated, unfortunately. And since I still wanted to get things done, despite starting at around 9:15pm, I naturally stayed up way too late. But I did get the other side of the organdy cut out, and I got the two large pieces of the silk cut out for the skirt. I still have to cut out the extra piece of the silk for the bottom of the CB of the skirt, because the pattern is too wide for my silk. I think I'm going to serge most of the three edges that are already pinned in place to the flatlining, and then add in the missing bit, so that the other sides are secured first. And then I have to hope my stripes match up down the CB when I sew the two sides together!

I'm going to tap class tonight, but I'm hoping I'll still have time to at least do that, and then I can hopefully try on the bodice and start attaching the skirt to it on Wednesday (though I do have another audition), or Thursday (though I do have ballet class). At least I'm not working this Friday, so I should have more time to sew this weekend!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/316782.html

I put together mockup #2 of the gala bodice on Saturday. And for some reason, the fit was way off! So I spent about 4+ hours tweaking the fit, taking a ton more flare out of the bottom, and more out of the waist as well. I feel like there might still be more flare to take out, but I lost patience with it after a while, and it least it was too much flare, not too little, so I decided it was still good enough to use to cut the silk.

So yesterday, I picked apart all of those pieces and used them as a pattern for the silk! I flat-lined the silk with cotton sateen, and assembled the bodice. I hope to try it on today, but I decided that instead of trying it on yesterday, I would rather figure out the shape for the skirt. I patterned it onto organdy, so that I can also use that for flatlining. I had to add a couple small pieces to my original pattern shape to round out the train, but I think I nailed it! I hope to also cut out the other side of the organdy, plus the silk, and assemble that tonight. That's only the back part of the skirt -- the front pieces are just straight, so should be easy to pattern.

I also have to figure out the CF pink sections of the bodice and skirts, but I think they should be fairly simple. I plan to figure out the bodice part when I try on the stripey section. I also have to do a sleeve mockup, which I should probably do before I attach the skirts, so it is easier to try on. I've ordered the flat lace for the front of the bodice/skirts, but still have to order the ruffled lace for the bottom of the skirt. Why is it so hard to find wide gathered lace?! And I have to decide if I want all the pink ruffles at the hem to be gathered or pleated.

But anyway, it's coming along pretty nicely! Pictures on my instagram.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/316445.html

I didn't manage to get the other side of the mockup fixed on Tuesday, but I don't think that matters to much (yet, anyway). Yesterday, my friend Emily came over and helped me with a little more of the fitting - namely, helping me mark out the length of the bodice where it will meet the skirt. It is so nice to now have a sewing friend live so close! I'm super excited for more sewing days to come. We determined that the reason this bodice length was so challenging to figure out is because the original fashion plate is so out of proportion with actual humans. Talk about legs for days (or at least, waist to hem length for days).

Anyway, we wound up pinning a wide ribbon around the bottom so that it would mimic the sash that goes over the seam, and it worked! The back of the bodice needed a fair amount of length cut off, and the front actually needs a few inches added.

After she left, I seam ripped all the pieces, and cut off all the excess fabric on the second side, so now when I sew it together, both sides will fit correctly. I need to recut the front pieces, fixing the length and the neckline (which was way off), and then see how mockup #2 works. I have a feeling *fingers crossed* that that will be the only other mockup I'll need. And that means that hopefully, I'll be able to start cutting the silk this weekend!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/316203.html

My house projects are temporarily on hold, because I can't find the paint for the cabinets. Also, I got a signed contract for a commission, so I have to be working on that.

Naturally, though, all I really want to work on right now is my CoCo gala dress, because I figured out my design! I'm really excited about it. I'm going to do a natural form 1879 dress based off a fashion plate I've been eyeing for a while. I'm fairly certain I'm going to make it a princess dress, since that's what I originally thought the plate was, though

sewtimely noticed there is actually a waist seam. In between the commission work, I'm going to play around with some patterning, and see what I like better. I have to find some long pieces I can use for mockup fabric, but I already have the green/pink satin/taffeta stripe, and the pink taffeta, both of which I bought in September at Luxury Fabrics in LA. I'm hoping to find some nice wide lace online, and I'm also trying to figure out what I might have to do for the understructure.

Anyway, here is my version and the original plate: