11/03/2007

I got a little sidetracked when I ran out of black velvet trim, and it took me about three weeks to get back on track. Yesterday I decided enough was enough and it was time to get a move on... I cut out the skirt, sewed on the velvet ribbon, pleated the waistband, and bound the hem. None of that is terribly exciting, so I didn't take any pictures of the process.

This morning, I woke up having an internal debate over what to do about the blouse. I had the fabric, a pin tucked linen/cotton blend, but it was only about a yard and a half. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to make a blouse out of so little, but decided to go for it anyway. I used every scrap of that fabric and managed to get a blouse out of it, just fine. Again, I didn't take any pictures of the process, this time because I was lazy. It's hard to break your stride with in-progress photos!

Anyway, the gown is 98% finished as of right now. Below are the pics:

The black lace pannel down the front of the bodice is just pinned in... I was playing around with it and decided it looked kinda cute and broke up with white expanse of the blouse rather nicely. I also just have the lace cuff pinned in place on the right sleeve, and haven't gotten to pinning it into the left sleeve. Need more white thread before I can finish that off. Otherwise, all it needs is button holes and buttons on the blouse, and hooks and eyes on the skirt and the paletot. After which, it will be time to focus on the accessories!

10/01/2007

The goal for tonight (sewing on a Monday night! How novel!) was to get the sleeves mocked up, cut out, trimmed and set into the paletot, and no one was more shocked than I when every single one of those things went off without a hitch! Talk about a rare occurence. And this dang jacket just keeps getting cuter and cuter to boot. I think I've already decided that this is going to be one of my favorite costumes of all time, not just because it is effing adorable, but because the whole thing has just been a darling to sew since the first stitch. And I can say that without jinxing myself because the last step is to sew the skirt and that's just a matter of cutting out straight panels and sewing them together.

The sleeves came out a tad longer than in the picture, hence why the bands on the sleeves don't match exactly with the inspiration image. But that's fine by me. I would rather have the sleeves be longer than in the fashion plate (and they still don't cover my wrists) than to be too short.

So, all this work and now I have to wait until I get more of the black velvet ribbon.

A close-up of the gathering on the bottom ribbon, taken with flash.

9/30/2007

I woke up today going over and over in my head about how I was going to make facings to finish the edges of the paletot and then stitch the velvet ribbon down by hand. It's not a surprise that I also woke up with a migraine... This was the boring, labor-intensive part of the process that I wasn't looking forward to, but since I've got a mountain of costuming projects to get through in the next few months, I was good and just got through it.

The hardest part of this whole process was the velvet ribbon, which doesn't want to go around curves. Since the bottom of the bodice is almost 360° in circumfrence, the ribbon had to be hand gathered along the top edge and pulled to fit the inner curve of the peplum. I pressed the ribbon from the inside of the bodice, as the ribbon is rayon and melts if it so much looks at a hot iron.

I got to playing around with the corners of the ribbon and liked the extra little detail of flattening the pleat out, so I stitched them down on both sides. I think it adds a nice little touch.

Next up are the sleeves, but I really need to get ahold of some more black velvet 1.5" wide ribbon so I can finish the skirt as well. I think I have *just* enough as it is for the sleeves.

9/29/07

I finally decided upon a pattern that I liked, after a couple of mock-ups. In the previous entry, I had started with a pattern that had darts in the front of the bodice, and a waist seam that went from side front and side back only. This got complicated, needless to say, so I decided to streamline the pattern and eliminate the waist seam, and I'm glad I did. The darts now work much better in the front of the bodice, and there's no weird seam bulk to deal with at the waistline. I can't promise this is at all period, but I tend to be of the opinion that if it's logical, it's plausible. I also draped the sleeve, which is not pictured here, because I'm not completely done fitting the armscye. The neckline gave me some issues because I was essentially trying to fit a straight line over a curved shape, but I ended up with sometning that will be lay reasonably flat.

So, the obvious next step was to cut everything out and sew it together. I used a heavy, tightly woven black silk/cotton sateen for the lining, which gave it enough body to negate an interlining. I spray basted the two layers together, then zig-zag stitched the raw edges (because my serger is annoying and I don't feel like doing this by hand), sewed the darts first and then the seams, pressed everything and then put it on my dress form. I pinned a line of velvet ribbon to give me an idea of how the trimming will look. Super cute!

9/16/07

After some discussion with People Who Know Better Than I(tm), it was decided that I should do double darts in the front and a shaped seam in the back. I was a little stymied after that point as to how to go about shaping the peplum of the jacket, but ran across the GBACG's review of Evolution of Fashion entirely by accident, and discovered that there was a very good pattern for this style of jacket laid out in there. I swear, after placing so much emphasis on primary sources, I sometimes forget that I have tons of books in my costuming library with better information than I credit them. If nothing else, the Big Pink Book gave me a starting point for where to put seams and how to go about draping the peplum.

And here's what I ended up with after several minutes of futzing with pins and muslin:

The front piece needs to be reshaped a bit, as it was sloppily cut out, but I'm on the right track at least.