More on the skirt...

After a sick day delay (boo!), I was able to finish up a large part of the skirt.  It's almost too bad a good portion of it will be under swaths of lace--although that will also hide some of the less perfect parts.

Hiding a pocket in the closure--easiest place to do it and it will be covered up anyway.  I made it deep enough to hold my cell phone since I always carry it around at school and never have anywhere good to keep it in the historic outfits.  This is way better than hiding it in my cleavage...

Showing the construction of the bands--there are no visible seems on the original dress, but also no images showing exactly how it was sewn together.  The bands seem to 'float' above the background fabric, so I gave them a bit of extra room to allow for puffiness.  I think this approach would have worked better if I'd used a fabric that could have a crisp edge ironed into it.  This thick upholstery fabric didn't quite comply with my wishes.  The green is sewn to the base layer (muslin) at the top, then the bottom is sewn directly to the smaller ivory band.  The ivory band gets top-stitched to the muslin very close to the green fabric seem (almost stitch-in-the-ditch), with a little extra room for the green to 'puff' and cover over the top-stitching.  The pattern continues, with no visible top-stitching once complete.

Right side of the skirt.  This will be largely covered by lace, fabric, and more fabric.  And some more lace.

Bands ready for decorative fun!  The original seems to have some sort of bows, but there is no photo of the left side of the dress (also where the top closure is hidden).  So without a clear direction, I chose to go off on my own.  No, I have no particular historic garment to justify this particular design.  Just that I am not overly fond of bows, but I do like buttons--sans buttonholes.  I hate making buttonholes.

Insets sewn in and ready to flip right-side-out.  Then a lot of hand-sewing to get all the parts connected without visible stitching.  This part got pretty tedious.

Buttons!  Cloth-covered and debonair.  

Next up are yards and yards of lace to drape artistically.  Followed by about seventeen hundred more tasks after that...until then, more NyQuil and some sleep.

Dress Construction!! Bodice and Skirt

Finally!  I'm actually working on the dress itself!  

First, there was a bit of a detour in fabricland since I couldn't find what I really wanted.  Apparently blue is just not in this year--it was impossible to find.  I did locate something that might have worked, but I would have had to order online and hope it was good, and at $70+ a yard, I figured I'd better pass.  So after one last-ditch trip to Joanne's, I did find some upholstery fabric that will work.  Out with the blue and gold color scheme, and in with the green and creme!

Dress form adjusted for corset and ready to rock

I needed to start drafting a pattern for the bodice.  Thankfully, a lot of the bodice is covered by other pieces, so this seemed like a great place to start.  The original body block/slope was for completely different measurements than the corset, but did have my correct armscye (I think I must have ape-like arms).  The corset pattern also had a lot of the correct shaping.  Therefore, I figured combining the two would at least give me a good place to start.

Original body block + corset pattern = new pattern

I had quite a bit of correcting to do from the first attempt (which I expected with such a random mash-up approach!).  I was glad I'd spent time figuring out how all this worked--it was much easier to snip, pin, move, and add darts than my first try at drafting a pattern.

Corrected pattern pieces out of muslin

Pretty new paper pattern all cut out and ready to go

I did add an additional piece along the front closure so I have a bit more strength when it comes to adding the boning, grommets, and lacing.  Oh yeah, I am out of grommets and only have a setting kit for 3/8th inchers.  Now I need to go get more grommet toys...

Not trusting my dress form entirely, I figured I'd better just try it on myself.  The front closure is just pinned together, but I think this will work!  Day 1 is a success.

 Next up, the skirt.  I started with just a big loop of fabric the correct circumference at the floor with a couple extra inches length on the back to allow for the bustle.  Then I used the dress form (named Dorcas) to drape and get the waist just right.

One side is all done--look how much extra fabric I removed by using darts instead of gathering (and that's just on one side)!  

Inside-out checking the fit one more time.  Reminds me of a nine-gore skirt.

Skirt is ready!  Right-hand pocket access is being planned in since I ALWAYS wish I had a pocket, but am usually too lazy to put them in.

Front is fairly narrow and drops straight down with little flare.

Shape of inspiration dress

Back is full of darts with one box pleat at the center to allow for lots of bustle room.

Back to the sewing table!

Victorian Unmentionables Complete!

Here are just a few quick pics of the completed corset and petticoat.  I will add more once I have a chance to take some decent photos.

Losing Steam

I have almost completed the corset--just have the flossing and the beaded lace to finish it off.  Granted, you can spend a lot of time on the fancy embroidery extras, but I'm planning on going fairly straightforward with this design to keep in line with the functionally simple combination underwear.  However, I still haven't completely settled on what the flossing design should look like.  Sigh.  Too many options!

I am also almost completely done with the petticoat.  All I have left is the closure.  Really, that's it, but I realized that I should have given myself more leeway on the waistband.  As it is, I need to have the corset tightly laced for it to fit, but already finished the waistband and am feeling too lazy to remake it with extra length.  This wouldn't have been an issue, except that I jumped the gun on the waistband just estimating as I was waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting on Richard the Thread to send me the continuous spring steel I needed to finish the corset before final measurements could be taken.  Yep, I should have waited.  Now I think I'll just add a bit of fabric to the end so I have some more room.  I contemplated making it adjustable by putting in a few different buttonholes, but now I'm just getting tired at the thought.

Sigh, just as soon as I get these little bits done, then I'll be able to get final measurements and start the dress toile.  That will be the fun part, if I can ever get to it!!

Merry Corset-Mock-Up!

I am waiting for this to get difficult...

I have been dreading and fearing the corset-making process more than any other aspect of this project.  I even bought a pattern (Laughing Moon #100 'The Dore' version).  I was originally going to try out a spoon busk design from Corsets and Crinolines, but balked at how fast all the materials were adding up and mostly the idea of drafting out the pattern.  I  decided to go with something a bit easier for my first attempt.

Here is the mock-up I made to test out how well the pattern will fit:  the striped affect is just because I'm using scraps and didn't have enough of any one color.  I kind of like how it looks, actually.  Unintentionally Carroll College-ish in the colors.

I obviously didn't complete it, but I think it is good enough that I can start on the real thing.  I only had to adjust one set of seams so far--we'll see if there will be future adjustments.  Without the boning, it's hard to tell what it will look like in the end--the dress form is just ever-so-slightly different than me (and she doesn't suck it in very well).  I do have it coming up a little too high at the moment.  I am weighing historical accuracy vs. controlling a large bust.  My current thought is to leave it higher at the front, then trim so it is low enough under the arms to be comfortable.  I have to see if this messes with the waist.  I suspect it will be fine since I have a pretty short torso anyway.  It all seems to work on my toile, so we'll see from here.

Big deep breath--now to start the final draft!

Combination Underwear's Maiden Voyage!

Under my new Spencer (to cover up the worst dress bodice ever made), I tried out my Combination today.  Sure, this outfit is several decades too early, but I don't have any correct Regency underpinnings anyway, so this was a fun excuse to use what I have.  

It worked well--except that I had only lined the Spencer bodice (which was over the top of the really bad dress bodice anyway) and not the long sleeves.  They're red.  Now the armpits of my Combination are a bit reddish too.  Oh well, I did make this to be used and abused--now we'll see how well it washes out!

After wearing it, I have realized that my worry about not having enough buttons was completely unnecessary.  I really could have done without the five extra I added, and then it would have all matched.  Oh well, next time I make one, I'll have to trust the pattern!

Combination Underwear is Fantastic!

Whew!  I finally completed a concrete accomplishment!  After all the planning and 'research' (flipping though books and websites looking at pretty dresses), I actually have something checked off my list!

Dressing Step 1:  Combination Underwear!
Cinderella's not ready for the ball yet, but at least she isn't naked!

I've seen a couple different years given on this Harper's Bazaar image, but safe to say it's from the right time period.  The idea is to combine a few different layers of undergarments into one uber-garment.  That way, the amount of bulk is reduced, while all the functionality remains.  My dress will be form-fitting, so I don't want a lot of layers shifting around underneath to worry about.

I was able to borrow a copy of Truly Victorian's TV105 pattern--sans directions.  Somewhere along the route, the directions got separated from the pattern pieces.  I had hoped they might turn up in another envelope, but so far, no luck.  Oh well, I have all the right shapes so this should be easy!  Not too complicated, I bet I can whip this out in a day!

Not quite.  Turns out a pattern with no directions or detail pictures is quite an interesting challenge when it is a garment I've never seen in person, nor have found many pictures of that show construction details.  So I decided not to worry about what would have been the historically accurate sewing method and just to be happy with a functional garment.

I also had to debate what exactly I wanted out of this underwear.  Would it be all lace and ribbons?  A pretty, special occasion garment to coordinate with the corset and dress?  Oh, but wait, I don't even know what fabric I'm going to use for the corset, let alone the colors.  I haven't located fabric for the dress either, so I don't even know what I'll be matching.  And the kicker:  I started this the day before Thanksgiving.  The only fabric I had on hand that would come even close to working was the last of a bolt of plain white cotton.  Any additional fabric and notions would have to be purchased--on Thanksgiving?  Nothing's open.  The day after Thanksgiving then--ARGH!!  That's Black Friday.  I avoid Black Friday like it's the Black Plague.  Oh, right, and I forgot that I'm broke and going to be buying Christmas presents.

New game plan:  I will make a 'cellular combination', meaning that it is constructed of natural plant-based fiber fabric:  the cotton I have on hand.  That part is historically accurate.  Sure, this dress would have probably warranted some fine muslin at least, if not some lovely silk, etc., but I have justified the rather plain design with this argument:  when I go dancing, I will wear the ugliest undergarments in the interest of comfort and overall look of the dress.  I don't wear anything that might make my dancing experience less fun, nor do I want weird looking rumples on my dress from unnecessary bows and lace poking around.  So if the me in 2013 will wear functional but boring underwear, then I will choose the same for my late 1880s/early 1890s alter ego.

This means I need to choose a historic figure who would follow the same thought process of 'function over form'.  That may help me narrow down the field a bit as I am still completely undecided.

My other argument is that this will be used for quite a few different costumes, including a number of my dresses that would have been before the combination underwear was in use, but hey, I am excited about how functional this garment turned out to be!  Especially the upside-down sleeve design to protect my dress from any perspiration.  I plan to wash my combination often, which led me to the next design choice.

I machine sewed pretty much everything.  I am following the rule 'hand sew if it will show'.  Sadly, I haven't the time, patience, nor expertise to make everything by hand, and the sewing machine was at least in use by this time in history.  None of my underwear should be showing, so there's no pretty hand-sewing.  I did French seams for most of it, with every single seam finished--no raw edges anywhere in this baby!  I want to machine wash, so that's my best chance to keep it from falling apart.  Although the machine-sewn button holes are not going to hold up as well as if I had hand-sewn them, fifteen button holes was just more than I had the time and patience for.  The coup de grace is the plastic buttons.  The plastic buttons that almost match.  Ten of the fifteen are the same, with a group of five rounding out the crew (the pattern picture showed only ten, but my buttons were a bit on the small side and I didn't want to end up with them spaced too far apart).  I'm not going to be parading about in these underwear, so I'm going to hope that the goddesses of historic costuming forgive me on this one.

All complete, and it even survived a maiden voyage through machine washing and drying!

For everyone who asks how you go to the bathroom:  yep, it's really quite easy!  The legs are completely separated.
The sleeves wanted to fall off my shoulders, so I ended up adding a box pleat along the back.  I decided to just let the fullness spread from there so I wouldn't lose mobility.  We'll see if I need to control that with more of a dart or something later once I have the corset finished.  If I ever make another combination, I think I will draft it from my body block so the bodice fits better--apparently I have some weird shoulder/armscye business going on.

Sleeves are hard enough for me to figure out--I always have to double, triple, and quadruple check before I sew them on, and still sometimes make mistakes.  Sewing this one, where the design is essentially an upside-down cap sleeve, set in with a French seam, just about exploded my brain.  

In the end, I decided that I rather liked the streamline look to these underwear.  Although I began with more of a frothy lacy be-ribboned image in my head, I am enjoying the simplicity of what I ended up making.  The straightforward cellular combination is my new favorite thing.