Current project
I'm making this:
because I have always wanted a white reeeeally late Victorian Edwardian picnic dress.
The pattern is from The Voice of Fashion (which, by the way, is a wonderful resource but I wish it went back as far as the 1880's because bustlesssssssssssss) and it looks (in part) like this:
Crazy, right? I'll spare you all the gory details of how scaling up and drafting life-size versions goes.
Those three paragraphs, though? Here, have a cleaner version:
That's _it_ as far as instruction goes. Not very helpful. Sure, it was probably plenty for the turn-of-the-century seamstress who did this stuff for a living; for example, there's no information anywhere about how this thing closes. The notation along the center front line says "1 1/4" hem." Hem?? wtf. Since the back piece is cut on the fold, apparently it opens in front. The drawn picture doesn't show buttons or anything, though. Soooo, is that "hem" space meant for the button placket? Is it hidden somehow? This must have been such common sense back in the day that it would have been superfluous to include it in the instructions. Also apparently superfluous? A pattern piece for the waistband of that skirt.
What was giving me the biggest headache, though, were those cute-as-hell upper sleeve tucks. 'Cause you can see the sleeve pattern piece and it's obviously post-tucking-shape. And there _isn't_ a pre-tucking-shape piece. Sooooo.... how do I get to that point?
So I was like, okay. Maybe they didn't provide a template so that the seamstress could do tucks as tiny or wide as her client wanted. So I messed around with some scrap fabric and folded it up and found a width I like, and started to slash-and-spread the upper sleeve portion of the pattern and oh, Jesus, what a headache.
uuuuuuug-leee, right? Frankenpattern. I've been futzing with that for like a week and it's tedious as hell to measure and tape and so easy for mistakes to multiply by the time I get to the other end.
Then today I was like, screw that noise. I'm sure professional (= busy) seamstresses back in the day did _not_ dick around like this. So I cut some mockup fabric into a long rectangle a bit taller than the tuck panel and more than twice as wide, and I just started making tucks the size I decided that I like.
I did that for about forty five minutes until it looked like it should be wide enough and then I treated it like normal fabric and pinned down my pattern and BAM
I'm not sure but there might have been a choir of angels singing somewhere.
Here it is, attached to the sleeve and pinned to the bodice lining mockup
IT WORKS! I AM EXCITE!
The outer bodice pieces _do_ have tuck lines on the pattern, yay! There's no pattern for the tucked band on the skirt, but hey, I know how to handle that now. :D
because I have always wanted a white reeeeally late Victorian Edwardian picnic dress.
The pattern is from The Voice of Fashion (which, by the way, is a wonderful resource but I wish it went back as far as the 1880's because bustlesssssssssssss) and it looks (in part) like this:
Crazy, right? I'll spare you all the gory details of how scaling up and drafting life-size versions goes.
Those three paragraphs, though? Here, have a cleaner version:
That's _it_ as far as instruction goes. Not very helpful. Sure, it was probably plenty for the turn-of-the-century seamstress who did this stuff for a living; for example, there's no information anywhere about how this thing closes. The notation along the center front line says "1 1/4" hem." Hem?? wtf. Since the back piece is cut on the fold, apparently it opens in front. The drawn picture doesn't show buttons or anything, though. Soooo, is that "hem" space meant for the button placket? Is it hidden somehow? This must have been such common sense back in the day that it would have been superfluous to include it in the instructions. Also apparently superfluous? A pattern piece for the waistband of that skirt.
What was giving me the biggest headache, though, were those cute-as-hell upper sleeve tucks. 'Cause you can see the sleeve pattern piece and it's obviously post-tucking-shape. And there _isn't_ a pre-tucking-shape piece. Sooooo.... how do I get to that point?
So I was like, okay. Maybe they didn't provide a template so that the seamstress could do tucks as tiny or wide as her client wanted. So I messed around with some scrap fabric and folded it up and found a width I like, and started to slash-and-spread the upper sleeve portion of the pattern and oh, Jesus, what a headache.
uuuuuuug-leee, right? Frankenpattern. I've been futzing with that for like a week and it's tedious as hell to measure and tape and so easy for mistakes to multiply by the time I get to the other end.
Then today I was like, screw that noise. I'm sure professional (= busy) seamstresses back in the day did _not_ dick around like this. So I cut some mockup fabric into a long rectangle a bit taller than the tuck panel and more than twice as wide, and I just started making tucks the size I decided that I like.
I did that for about forty five minutes until it looked like it should be wide enough and then I treated it like normal fabric and pinned down my pattern and BAM
I'm not sure but there might have been a choir of angels singing somewhere.
Here it is, attached to the sleeve and pinned to the bodice lining mockup
IT WORKS! I AM EXCITE!
The outer bodice pieces _do_ have tuck lines on the pattern, yay! There's no pattern for the tucked band on the skirt, but hey, I know how to handle that now. :D