Depleting the Pleats
I've been staring at my dress for 2 weeks now, pinning pleats and taking them out because it didn't look right. Again, again, and again. The problem is due to where the side-seams fall, it ends up looking odd or the seam doesn't fall inside the pleat so it's hidden. The pattern called for gathering the skirt at the waist, but I thought it would be too bulky, hence the idea to do knife-pleats on both sides.
So last night, I go about pleating it again. Then I get frustrated and figure I'll add a gathering stitch so I can play with it and move it around instead of pinning, pinning, pinning my delicate satin. I gather it, and Lo and Behold - the gathers look just fine. Not too much bulk (no more than the pleats), the seams are out of the way, and I can move it to my heart's content. I'm done in 30 minutes. All I have to do is add the waistband. I could have done that weeks ago, and gotten on with the beading already. Yeesh.
On the plus side, I learned that gathers do not necessarily equal bulk, and that pattern-instruction writers do sometimes know what they're doing. I also learned I lost a few pounds (somehow - eating like a Queen at work since we have corporate visitors?) so the corset and waist fit like a dream. If only I can just keep it that way - those 5 pounds need to stay in Manchuria or wherever they've wandered off to. I was happy with my weight before, just not the shape I'm in, but I'm certainly not complaining.
I took the petticoat and skirt off of the dressform to check the fit - while the form is available, I'll throw Makara on there and take a proper picture this weekend since I only have a less than flattering progress pic for that. I'm not working on it at the moment, but it'll be nice to be able to give a better idea of what I'm thinking of with that costume. I'll also finally be able to give some of the background on it that I'm using as references since this area is more open to costume discussion, so look for that if you're interested.
Today's pic isn't taken by me - it came in a forward someone sent me, but it's really cool despite having nothing to do with anything at all in this post. It just looks neat. Enjoy! :)
