One Musketeer Lady To Go!
Progress at last! With Christmas out of the way and a couple of days wedged in between that and going away for New Year, it was time to get on with the first of the two gwons I'm doing for ME! Yay!
Ravenrigan and I spent a couple of days cutting out just before Christmas finally collided with reality, and cut:
A toile for a pair of stays
The lining and interlining for pengshui_master's suit
ravenrigan's pink bodice
A customer's slashed bodice and venetians suit
Another customer's green gown
My black bodice
My silver bodice
The idea was that we could then get these things ready for fittings/hand sewing. I made up the customer's stays toile and did most of another collar and cuff set. The raven worked on the green gown. Then there was Christmas... Yesterday I finally got to the sewing machine again!
There is a lot of fabric in this bodice... Pattern pieces are: back, side/front, two tabs, sleeves. Each gets cut out on two layers of fabric, and they all get cut out of three fabrics: silk, cotton calico interlining, cotton sateen lining. 30 chunks of fabric. But it's easy because you just slap the interlining and the silk together and treat them as one... Only then you are working with multiple layers of fabric when you attach the lining... so things can squoosh at different speeds as you sew...
I swear by lots of pins and the Teflon foot!
First up, I made the 4 tabs: layer up, stitch, trim, turn, press, apply lace...
Once I had a couple of tabs ready to embellish, I could check the lace. Instinct was right and the one on the right was the way to go. Making ONE tab look decent is easy but fiddly... Sewing the straight edge of the lace gets done by machine, but the pointy ends need to be tacked down by hand.
Trouble is, then you have to make the rest match! Luckily the are all the same size!
You also have to match up these ones with the ones cut as part of the front and the back...
First sew you bodice sections together and line them...
Add tabs...
And pin on the rest of the lace!
You now have to sew something that closely resembles a porcupine made of Basement Fabric!
OK. Deep breath...
The lace is now sewn down all round the edges and most only awaits the hand stitching. The sleeves are assembled. I need to make the eyelets before sewing down all the front lace, and finish the edges of the armscyes and the tops of the sleeves. These get put in by hand because of their placement. And I want to do mini cartridge pleating on those... Watch this space!
Today I try to get a lot of the silver bodice put together...
Ravenrigan and I spent a couple of days cutting out just before Christmas finally collided with reality, and cut:
A toile for a pair of stays
The lining and interlining for pengshui_master's suit
ravenrigan's pink bodice
A customer's slashed bodice and venetians suit
Another customer's green gown
My black bodice
My silver bodice
The idea was that we could then get these things ready for fittings/hand sewing. I made up the customer's stays toile and did most of another collar and cuff set. The raven worked on the green gown. Then there was Christmas... Yesterday I finally got to the sewing machine again!
There is a lot of fabric in this bodice... Pattern pieces are: back, side/front, two tabs, sleeves. Each gets cut out on two layers of fabric, and they all get cut out of three fabrics: silk, cotton calico interlining, cotton sateen lining. 30 chunks of fabric. But it's easy because you just slap the interlining and the silk together and treat them as one... Only then you are working with multiple layers of fabric when you attach the lining... so things can squoosh at different speeds as you sew...
I swear by lots of pins and the Teflon foot!
First up, I made the 4 tabs: layer up, stitch, trim, turn, press, apply lace...
Once I had a couple of tabs ready to embellish, I could check the lace. Instinct was right and the one on the right was the way to go. Making ONE tab look decent is easy but fiddly... Sewing the straight edge of the lace gets done by machine, but the pointy ends need to be tacked down by hand.
Trouble is, then you have to make the rest match! Luckily the are all the same size!
You also have to match up these ones with the ones cut as part of the front and the back...
First sew you bodice sections together and line them...
Add tabs...
And pin on the rest of the lace!
You now have to sew something that closely resembles a porcupine made of Basement Fabric!
OK. Deep breath...
The lace is now sewn down all round the edges and most only awaits the hand stitching. The sleeves are assembled. I need to make the eyelets before sewing down all the front lace, and finish the edges of the armscyes and the tops of the sleeves. These get put in by hand because of their placement. And I want to do mini cartridge pleating on those... Watch this space!
Today I try to get a lot of the silver bodice put together...