Whew

Crazy busy week.  Too much going on with work to sew.  This weekend did see some sewing time.

Shoulder detail

The bodice came together like a dream even with the top stitching on the shoulder detail.  I did make a slight FBA but felt with the gathers and because it is a bigger size than I normally, I would probably be alright.  Fingers crossed this holds true.

Serger Wars

Front.  I moved the overlap for
more coverage.

Back
A little plunging

I have am losing the battle with the serger.  I think this dress will be about 1/2 serger and 1/2 sewing machine.  I guess you need to start somewhere.  One shoulder I was able to gather beautifully on serger, the other not so much.  For the necklines, I have to admit I gave up and used the sewing machine.  I really did not think it would work well.  I have a problem with seam allowances on the serger but then I am terrified of using the knife and almost always have it disabled.  Really, you could lose a finger with the knife.

On to the midriff pieces …….

Fantasy Outfit

Oh it seemed like such a great idea when I thought it up!  But, I admit it….this outfit has sucked the life right out of me.  Sewing mojo? What is that?  Any mojo I had was sucked out of me.  The outfit has been finished for 2 weeks and nary a post.  Why you might inquire….is she unhappy with the outfit? Was it a big fail?  Nope, it turned out wonderfully but blech I cannot seem to recover.

Pictures.  I hear you asking for pictures.  Hmmmm yup there are some and I will post one at the end.  The one where you can see the outfit is silly and a tad embarrassing.

So construction.  It was a journey.  Ideas came and went.  Starting with the bodice: I originally bought a pattern that I thought I could translate into the bodice.  2 muslins later and still not getting coverage over my boobs ( I was going for a g rating not an xxx rating with this outfit) and I realized ….nope not going to work.  But then, when cutting out muslin number 2 I had a flash of genius, the old light bulb went off…..why not use a bodice pattern that I knew fit.  You know, one of those TNT patterns that so many bloggers who I respect talk about.  That aha moment meant that muslin #3 was a winner.  It worked on the first go!  So bodice sorted, just need to find fabric.

That right, you heard me, I worked out the kinks of the bodice before spending a couple of weeks finding the fabric.  I eventually went with the ultra suede mentioned here.  But really, what in the world was I thinking.  Let’s use an unbreatheable fabric for an outfit to be worn in the middle of summer.  Hindsight is 20/20 and that thought did not enter my mind. 

Next up the skirt.  I muslined that one and it was too big.  I made it smaller for the final version.  Guess what?  Still too big.  I fussed and fretted over making it smaller.  It never seemed to get smaller.  Finally, I gave up.  Yup, you heard me, I just figured what the hell, so its big.  So, the skirt won’t stay up on my waist with out some serious fold over and pinning of the waistband.  The safety pin is my friend!

With the skirt done, it is trim time.  I spent an entire day in the fabric district shopping for trim.  Naturally, what I wanted I couldn’t find and had to do an about face with the plan.  This meant me running blocks to return to stores just as they were closing.  During the day of trim shopping, I found some feather boas that matched the blue in my outfit to a “T.”  So, I complicated my plan further by determining that I needed to add feathers to the sleeves but did not bother buying the boas at that time. (Cue frantic last minute trip downtown to pick the boas up at a later date….yeah that was smart!)

Now we are heading towards the home stretch which means a sleep reduction and an increase in nightly sewing.  From years of practice, before I changed professions, I would routinely live off of no more than 4 hours or less sleep at night (granted I was younger then, but as I discovered I can still do it).  Thus, started the final couple of weeks push to get this done on time.

Recall, I did  not find the type of trim I wanted.   So making lemonade out of lemons, I spent 2 nights creating my own trim.  I sewed various different trims together, by hand to create the look I wanted.  Great idea ….right?  Nope….wrong.  Utter waste of time.  Plus I used invisible thread on this part.  Have you used invisible thread?  Its evil I tell you…pure and unadulterated evil.  So evil it deserves its own post!

After wasting 2 sewing nights of 6 hours each (yes I was keeping track) I had to start over on the trim. By now, handsewing was no longer an option.  Machine stitching time.  Also my plan was not working, needed to use different trim….luckily I had bought so much and such a wide variety of trim this was possible.  The next 6 days were spent sewing on trim.  Trim on the bodice, trim on the sleeves, and trim on the tabs.  Meanwhile, there was the frantic trip to buy the boas I should have purchased a couple of weeks before. ( I haven’t even mentioned creating the tabs and all the bias binding that went on the tabs and the bodice.)  And now the sewing is taking up more time; I am not just sewing all night but in the morning before work….byebye running….and I am not going to mention the all nighters….nope bad memories of feathers and almost crying…nope best forgotten.

Home stretch and I have not even started the obi/cumberbund thing.  I mean how hard is a rectangle to come up with.  Well, after a couple of hours muslining it…I cut one out and yup you guessed it….too big!  Not a little too big….A LOT TOO BIG.  Not a big deal except I did not notice until after all the embellishment was added to it.  A variety of trims were added as embellishments but I ran out of time to completely cover the obi/cumberbund.  The day before leaving for the convention, I was up all night finishing it up and finally added the hook and eye tape at about 5 am.  I finished sewing at 6:45 am the morning I left.  Whew……..talk about cutting it close

Enough with the words you are saying…don’t you know blog posts are all about the pictures.  Yes, I know……so without further ado…viola….me in the outfit looking rather silly.

Me in my best anime kid pose.
There are better pictures but you cannot
see the outfit as well

I feel better to get this finished and off my shoulders.  Now that I have written this maybe I can go back to my normal sewing.

First There Were Tears And Then The Rain Came

Tears, yes there were a lot of tears along with a melt down or two.  The bodice of the Civil War dress was the cause.  This bodice is one of the most frustrating I have ever encountered.  I have done 2 muslins and still the fit is not right. 

Get this: after the first muslin I had to do the following

1.  Remove an inch from the back

2.  Remove a 1/2 inch from each seam of the side

3.  Add in 1 inch in the front

4. Remove 3 inches from the sleeve.

After the second muslin I have to do the following:

1. Remove a 1/2 inch from one seam in the side

2. Add another inch on the front.

Hey at least the back and the sleeves were fixed on the first go around. This process was so frustrating!  The event was fast approaching.

So boy was I excited when the prediction was 100% chance of rain for Saturday, the day I needed the outfit.  My tears of frustration became tears of joy!  Not one of my friends wanted to cross the weather man and our attendance was cancelled.

I have not finished this outfit.  I now don’t need it until the fall!  Maybe the third muslin will be right?  I don’t know and I certainly no longer care.  Yes, there is a bit of pride involved.  I do have to finish it ….sometime.  But for now a break is in order so I can regain some feeling of sanity.

Boning the Bodice

This 1870’s bodice is not just pieces sewn together.  There is some major construction that goes on.  First of all the “fashion” fabric is underlined.  I underlined the striped fabric with a white linen.  These two layers are sewn together.  In addition, there is also a lining to the striped fabric.  I used a heavy muslin as the lining fabric. 

Before the lining can be sewn to the bodice, the boning must be sewn in.  I chose to hand sew the boning into the bodice because it is quicker than using a machine.  With a zipper foot, this can be done on the machine but I find that I make too many mistakes with the machine and can finish the sewing in one go if I do it by hand. 

What type of boning am I using:  well it is a mixture of spiral bones and straight metal bones.  No plastic boning or cable ties in this bodice.  This also increases the weight of the bodice substantially, not just for wearing but also when finishing up the sewing.  Boning goes on all the seams and the darts for a total of 10 bones onto the striped fabric only.  The bones are then encased inside the bodice.

 

Next is to sew the lining to the bodice.  This can be tricky with the neckline ruffle.  You need to be sure to pin securely and insure that the ruffle is tucked in for a nice line.  I ran into a major problem with this step.  The lining was about 2 inches less in width than the striped fabric on one side!!!!!!!!  WTF???????

Blech….it took some finagling with darts and side seams to get the pieces to match.  This through me for a loop because it has never happened before.  Also, being on a tight deadline does not help.   Can you say panic???

Frilly Girly Ruffles

So…what to do with the neckline?  This is 1870’s so it needs some trim. 

My first thought is the ribbon work that has consumed some of my free time.  I was able to make continuous yards of this ribbon design by buying an entire spool of green grosgrain ribbon.  Much more economical than the small spools one gets at JoAnne’s.  My plan is to add this ribbon to the skirt to tie the green in the bodice to the yellow skirt.

But I wasn’t thrilled.  So I started playing around with a ruffle around the neck.  I had seen this technique done on other dresses from this period and eventually decided to go this way.

One of the reasons for going this route is that I know I want ruffles on the sleeves; so this should tie in with those ruffles to make it more homogenous.  I can place the ribbon on the sleeve where the ruffle meets the end of the sleeve.  I am thinking about Dark pink, khaki and yellow ruffles on the sleeves again to tie in the colors in the stripes on the bodice.

The only problem, while I consider myself a girly girl, I have always stayed away from ruffles!

Do Not Adjust Your Computer or How NOT to Match Stripes

Apparently, I am very bad at matching stripes.  Granted these were uneven stripes.  All of my attempts were just off.  Some pieces of the bodice were cut more than once until I just decided to forget it.  I spent hours and hours trying to match the stripes.  I do realize the curved seams did not assist in the matching process but seriously it was bad.

It was bugging me but I did not have enough time to find new fabric.  So what to do?  Well, I made some piping for the obvious seams to kind of distract from the mis-matched stripes.  It was the only idea I could come up with.  I can’t even say it works.  But it is nice piping! I did not make corded piping, just flat piping.  Maybe the cording would have helped even more.