In which I give in
My corded petticoat has been making me crazy, like REALLY crazy, so for the sake of my sanity (and time) last week I bought a needle and thread kit for their smallest cage crinoline. It came today in the mail so this weekend I need to bunker down and put it together so on Monday I can use it to drape in class. Because of this change I might slightly alter the design of my dress (too late 1840's, early 50's) but for the most part it will be the same. I'm starting to freak out a little, I have less than a month to finish this dress!!!!
The good news is I think I finally figured out what is wrong with my corded petticoat, the circumference is to big! when I first started in I couldn't find a lot of documentation so I winged it based off of crinoline widths and got around 120". Recently at my internship at Center Theater Group they lent me Costume In Detail and the corded petticoats don't seem to ever go over 90", with most of them being more in the 70-80 range. I tried this out on a mannequin (Pinching the fabric) and INSTANTLY the petticoat hung better. Taking out that much fullness would be a big project though, so I am going to wait until I am not on a tight deadline and can unpick the seams, remove the fullness, rejoin the cording and the ruffles and remake the yoke. I am also toying with the idea of making my day dress later one more 1830's, so that might be a good opportunity to make my corded petticoat more 1830's appropriate.
BLah, when good ideas go not so good.
Also, I finally got around to sketching the design of my Ballgown (Colored pencil, nothing super fancy) I put that and some close-ups of the fringe under the
I started to prepare the fringe for the bodice, fingers crossed it will save me time later in the crunch.