Pink bodys and purple dress - Part 3
Welcome back, it's been a busy weekend. Previous posts in this dress diary:
Part I;
Part II;
A quick picture of the materials. I had found a lovely coupon of silk dupioni for only € 8,40 in Marianne's shade of pink. I still have a petticoat in that exact colour, and if I want to recycle this outfit, I might as well take rosewood linen with pink accents. Isn't it absolutely nauseatingly sweet?
After the second mock-up, I figured it was time I would use real coutil and even more bones for my third mock-up. Though the second mock-up was a bit loose around the boob-area, I was confident that I could, with a simple alteration, fix this. So the loveliest scrap of red rosewood linen was found and fused to the coutil.
Throughout the bodys I am planning to use modern dressmaking and corsetmaking techniques. Fusing your 'fashion fabric' to your strength fabric is the very first step and a good example of modern corsetmaking. In the olden days, these layers would be basted together.
Thanks to WonderUnder, I don't have to baste. I can fuuuuuse.
I know of no other garments I can just stick pins in without them coming out the other side...
I had already decided that the third mock-up would be a wearable mock-up and therefore I would use spiral lacing, enough 7 mm flat steels to keep everything in check, and satin binding. This also included machine-sewn eyelets in stead of grommets. I use 5 mm RVS steel rings for strength and use the eyelet plate of my machine to sew the eyelets. This was quite enjoyable, because of the lovely weather, the excellent company (Steelweaver came over and there was much rejoicing, sewing, drinking of tea and procrastinating!) and the fact that I always think sewing eyelets is worse than it actually is.
Next up: the bones!
I always wear protective goggles when working with metal. Be it sewing eyelets into a corset, cutting bones, or even sewing on the binding -- which goes right next to your bones! -- protective goggles can save you a world of hurt. Yes, they're uncomfortable, but they make sure I can still see how beautiful my bodys will be. Or not.
Once the boning channels were all stitched, the bones were cut and tipped, and everything was in place, I had to try it on. I was so curious as to how the pattern was! The last mock-up was rather loose, but when I tried on my coutil bodys, I really noticed the difference.
The canvas I used, stretches. And if it does so with these bodies and mock-ups, I can guess it also stretched in the stays I made last year. No wonder the fit was so bad, that canvas was my strength layer!
And my pattern? Well, see for yourself what a difference coutil makes:
And it's odd, because the first thing I thought when I saw my reflection was: Squee! Perfect Venetian bodice!
Yeah, 'cos we can really use another project. *grin*
This is how much coutil doesn't stretch.
The bodys were really comfortable, and though it took a bit of getting used to it, I was sure that when they were bound, a lot of discomfort of the edge digging in the flesh could be prevented. Also: the pattern had tabs! I nearly forgot about those. So after carefully measuring how much pink cord I would need to close it, I set to binding the tabs, followed by binding the stays.
This method of binding something can work really well, and I managed well enough on the tabs, but on the bodys themselves I wasn't too happy with how it turned out. Of course, you can only see that they're not perfect on the inside, and it still beats sewing your binding on by hand. This method also made the corners a lot easier to do! I just don't think I'll use this method in the final product.
Yesterday I finished the bodys and convinced NoKey to take some more pictures. I wore my italian chemise, pink petticoat (again) and a 17th century cap. The bodys were indeed more comfortable with the tabs attached, partly because they help bend the bottom edge, I think. The petticoat underneath the bodys is also quite comfortable: they tie at the sides and that part is not underneath the bodys. I still need to make a modesty panel though! And look...
...even when it's not super-tight I still get period cleavage! (please excuse the fact that my cleavage throws the camera off-focus!)
Finally, we took some pictures with accessoiries!
Next up: Since I now had a working mock-up of the bodys, I might as well make a mock-up for the dress as well!
Crossposted to janestarz.
Part I;
Part II;
A quick picture of the materials. I had found a lovely coupon of silk dupioni for only € 8,40 in Marianne's shade of pink. I still have a petticoat in that exact colour, and if I want to recycle this outfit, I might as well take rosewood linen with pink accents. Isn't it absolutely nauseatingly sweet?
After the second mock-up, I figured it was time I would use real coutil and even more bones for my third mock-up. Though the second mock-up was a bit loose around the boob-area, I was confident that I could, with a simple alteration, fix this. So the loveliest scrap of red rosewood linen was found and fused to the coutil.
Throughout the bodys I am planning to use modern dressmaking and corsetmaking techniques. Fusing your 'fashion fabric' to your strength fabric is the very first step and a good example of modern corsetmaking. In the olden days, these layers would be basted together.
Thanks to WonderUnder, I don't have to baste. I can fuuuuuse.
I know of no other garments I can just stick pins in without them coming out the other side...
I had already decided that the third mock-up would be a wearable mock-up and therefore I would use spiral lacing, enough 7 mm flat steels to keep everything in check, and satin binding. This also included machine-sewn eyelets in stead of grommets. I use 5 mm RVS steel rings for strength and use the eyelet plate of my machine to sew the eyelets. This was quite enjoyable, because of the lovely weather, the excellent company (Steelweaver came over and there was much rejoicing, sewing, drinking of tea and procrastinating!) and the fact that I always think sewing eyelets is worse than it actually is.
Next up: the bones!
I always wear protective goggles when working with metal. Be it sewing eyelets into a corset, cutting bones, or even sewing on the binding -- which goes right next to your bones! -- protective goggles can save you a world of hurt. Yes, they're uncomfortable, but they make sure I can still see how beautiful my bodys will be. Or not.
Once the boning channels were all stitched, the bones were cut and tipped, and everything was in place, I had to try it on. I was so curious as to how the pattern was! The last mock-up was rather loose, but when I tried on my coutil bodys, I really noticed the difference.
The canvas I used, stretches. And if it does so with these bodies and mock-ups, I can guess it also stretched in the stays I made last year. No wonder the fit was so bad, that canvas was my strength layer!
And my pattern? Well, see for yourself what a difference coutil makes:
And it's odd, because the first thing I thought when I saw my reflection was: Squee! Perfect Venetian bodice!
Yeah, 'cos we can really use another project. *grin*
This is how much coutil doesn't stretch.
The bodys were really comfortable, and though it took a bit of getting used to it, I was sure that when they were bound, a lot of discomfort of the edge digging in the flesh could be prevented. Also: the pattern had tabs! I nearly forgot about those. So after carefully measuring how much pink cord I would need to close it, I set to binding the tabs, followed by binding the stays.
This method of binding something can work really well, and I managed well enough on the tabs, but on the bodys themselves I wasn't too happy with how it turned out. Of course, you can only see that they're not perfect on the inside, and it still beats sewing your binding on by hand. This method also made the corners a lot easier to do! I just don't think I'll use this method in the final product.
Yesterday I finished the bodys and convinced NoKey to take some more pictures. I wore my italian chemise, pink petticoat (again) and a 17th century cap. The bodys were indeed more comfortable with the tabs attached, partly because they help bend the bottom edge, I think. The petticoat underneath the bodys is also quite comfortable: they tie at the sides and that part is not underneath the bodys. I still need to make a modesty panel though! And look...
...even when it's not super-tight I still get period cleavage! (please excuse the fact that my cleavage throws the camera off-focus!)
Finally, we took some pictures with accessoiries!
Next up: Since I now had a working mock-up of the bodys, I might as well make a mock-up for the dress as well!
Crossposted to janestarz.