More Ballgown Progress
I made a decision on the petticoat situation! After having another look at this amazing Lady's Early Bustle Underwear (which I discovered last year whilst researching for my talk on Bustles), I decided to heck with it, I'll make TWO petticoats! So I got those cut out today at my Tafe's Open Day - Access to large tables for cutting, access to washing machine/dryer for prewashing fabric, access to a mannequin, Free heating, AND a $10 lunch voucher? Hells yeah!!
The first petticoat is the TV early bustle pattern, with 5 small frills edged with lace along the upper back section, and probably one wide frill extending from the seam between the back piece and the tucked flounce to the floor. It's made from bleached calico, with white cotton lace, and will be a standard petticoat I can wear with all bustle outfits. For the second petticoat I used the same TV skirt pattern as the underskirts, and will add a wide frill around the bottom edge. This should help smooth out the line of the skirts and help add some oomph as well. I ended up using some washed calico for the base of this one as I didn't have enough pale pink poplin for the base AND the frill. So I'll use the pale pink cotton for the frill and edge it with some cream lace to match the calico. I plan to get those sewn up tonight so tomorrow I can drape my overskirts at tafe.
I also got to see how the skirts I made yesterday fitted over the bustle on a mannequin. I'm pretty happy with them, except that I realised I stuffed up both waistbands, so I'm going to have to unpick them and fix them both up. Oh well, that's what happens when I do things late at night!
Front/Back of the Taffeta skirt. I pinned the CF and CB, so you can see how one side is bigger than the other at the front and back. I need to play around with the back as it has those pleats in the side back/back seam as well as the ones in the waistband, so I need to move the pleats closer to the back to allow the side pleats to 'breathe' so to speak! I'll be bustling the back with tapes on this skirt too. Front/Back of the satin skirt. It doesn't look much at the moment, this is definitely a skirt that needs a petticoat! But I'm really happy with how the back looks.
You can see from both photos how the front hem only just grazes the floor. I added 4 inches, which I thought was enough, but as you can see, even with the 1.5 inch hem allowance, it's only just going to touch the floor at the front! Unless I wear my smaller pink heels (I was wearing my comfy black heels today), which are about 1-2cm or so smaller. I'll double check once I add the petticoats, but it looks like I'll need to do a hem facing instead of a turned hem. I'm thinking I'll probably use a calico or other plain cotton for this, and make it much longer on the train to act as a dust ruffle.
I think that's about it for the moment, so I'm off to sew these petticoats up!
The first petticoat is the TV early bustle pattern, with 5 small frills edged with lace along the upper back section, and probably one wide frill extending from the seam between the back piece and the tucked flounce to the floor. It's made from bleached calico, with white cotton lace, and will be a standard petticoat I can wear with all bustle outfits. For the second petticoat I used the same TV skirt pattern as the underskirts, and will add a wide frill around the bottom edge. This should help smooth out the line of the skirts and help add some oomph as well. I ended up using some washed calico for the base of this one as I didn't have enough pale pink poplin for the base AND the frill. So I'll use the pale pink cotton for the frill and edge it with some cream lace to match the calico. I plan to get those sewn up tonight so tomorrow I can drape my overskirts at tafe.
I also got to see how the skirts I made yesterday fitted over the bustle on a mannequin. I'm pretty happy with them, except that I realised I stuffed up both waistbands, so I'm going to have to unpick them and fix them both up. Oh well, that's what happens when I do things late at night!
Front/Back of the Taffeta skirt. I pinned the CF and CB, so you can see how one side is bigger than the other at the front and back. I need to play around with the back as it has those pleats in the side back/back seam as well as the ones in the waistband, so I need to move the pleats closer to the back to allow the side pleats to 'breathe' so to speak! I'll be bustling the back with tapes on this skirt too. Front/Back of the satin skirt. It doesn't look much at the moment, this is definitely a skirt that needs a petticoat! But I'm really happy with how the back looks.
You can see from both photos how the front hem only just grazes the floor. I added 4 inches, which I thought was enough, but as you can see, even with the 1.5 inch hem allowance, it's only just going to touch the floor at the front! Unless I wear my smaller pink heels (I was wearing my comfy black heels today), which are about 1-2cm or so smaller. I'll double check once I add the petticoats, but it looks like I'll need to do a hem facing instead of a turned hem. I'm thinking I'll probably use a calico or other plain cotton for this, and make it much longer on the train to act as a dust ruffle.
I think that's about it for the moment, so I'm off to sew these petticoats up!