Last night time escaped me. The drive home was quick, Brad came home, we made dinner and cleaned up in preparation for our upcoming vacation, and by the time we were done eating it was 8pm!
It continued to quickly slip away through the course of the evening and before I knew it, it was 2am and I had 4 hours to sleep! Ugh! Thankfully I think I got plenty of sleep over the Christmas weekend because I feel pretty good today. After dinner and cleaning up I sewed half of the bias binding around one half of the corset (I hit bones during this process and broke 3 needles!). I'll try to do the same with the other half of the corset tonight. I've also got to make some tweaks to the corset. The CB boning is turning in it's channel as well as buckling when the corset is on, so I'm gonna try adding another bone and if that doesn't fix the turning problem I'll stitch the channel smaller. If the extra bone doesn't fix the buckling, I think I'll add a couple of extra grommets to help distribute the tension. I sewed the mock-up pieces together and for the most part it looked really good. The shoulders on the pattern are wide and the center front was about 1 inch too small on each side so I'll let out darts and side seams tonight. I'm thinking I'll mock-up the sleeves as well because though I usually skip the sleeve mock up. However, I'm pretty sure the sleeve are going to affect the fit and I want this dress to go together easily, so I'd like to face any issues before I cut the fashion fabric. I've been brainstorming for trim ideas on this dress, I thought I had it all worked out, really, all I had worked out were the colors. I suppose it doesn't matter much since I've got to have something to trim first... Tomorrow we leave for Austin, Texas, where I'm imagining blue skies and warm weather. Hopefully we'll find some time to relax as well. I'd like some of that!
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I had the chance to work on my recently neglected, new Victorian corset on Monday and Tuesday nights. Progress has been very slow since the beginning of December.
Contributing to my lack of time: 1. we bought a new Christmas tree and even put it up & decorated it! I am happy we did *sigh*. 2. most birthday celebrations have been completed and enjoyed! 3. final is finished and I passed my class with an A! 4.most Christmas gifts have been bought I placed grommets yesterday afternoon and after a break (my fingers were sore after putting grommets in) I cut & tipped bones, then tried the corset on. The gap is wide, meaning the corset is too small, but I like the fit better than previous attempt at the Silverado! I thought I might be in the clear for running so behind, and that Twelfth Night might be cancelled, but I got some news about the Gala that makes me excited to go. I have secured a back up dress (though it may need some adjusting) in the event I can't get things done in a speedy manner (the current headache in the background makes me less hopeful that I can). But...just in case I'm gonna plan a schedule for the next couple of weeks. So, it's been a while since I've posted. Last week I tried making a couple mock-ups and though I think with a little more work it might happen, I am giving up on that corset for now.
I am just sorry I wasted so much time on it, but it was easy to let it go and make a corset from an existing, already drafted up to my size, pattern. I started out making the Silverado from Laughing Moon, but found a link to some pattern instructions on the Truly Victorian website. The instructions were helpful, noting that larger busted figures may prefer to make the Dore, as the fit of the Silverado pushes the bust toward the neck which is not proper when recreating a Victorian figure. So, though I had cut mock-up pieces for the Silverado, I cut more mock-up pieces for the Dore...then cut the pieces out of coutil and silk. I got the boning placement marked, and half of the busk inserted before we left for Iowa. Since I wasn't bringing my machine along, this project wasn't done enough to finish up by hand so I brought The Work Dress and thought I'd work on rebininding the underbodice and/or sewing the velvet guard on... I didn't do very much worth mentioning, got probably half of the guard sewn on the top on the carride home, then it got dark around 4:30 :/ love winter. But I'll switch back to corset mode this week...I know putting it together won't be difficult, but it will take time to cut bones, insert the rest of the busk and pound grommets...I'm guessing by the end of the week it should be done, and I've *really* got to kick the bodice making into high gear. after the corset is done. I signed up for the last of two classes I plan on taking next term and I'm not really looking forward to it, but one positive note would be that I will be that much closer to a degree (after next term 8 classes left). Uh, the previous post sure did give me a false sense of security as far as the amount of work I had left to make my own pattern pieces. Following the drafting instructions provided on Foundations Revealed, I calculated all the measurements for myself then realized I goofed up by not converting all the measurments into either centimeters OR inches...so frustrated, I ended up doing it all over again last night. I also realized I made some other mistakes and as frustrating as it was, I got it done and will probably never ever make the same mistakes again.
Let's hope not. Today is Black Friday and I'm at work...see how early it is? I'm working a 10 hour shift today to cover for coworkers and save some PTO. I agreed to this a month or so ago when I was trying to save as much vacation time as possible in hopes we'd be on our way to Italy next year for our honeymoon. But, I hate to say that the practicle part of my brain knows we shouldn't be taking frivolous trips around the world when the value of the dollar is down, so perhaps 2011 will be the year for Italy...looks like 2010 is going to be full of other kinds of travel. But I'm off topic now. I have brought several projects to work on at work...I've been here 20 minutes now and have not received a call yet. I knew it would be somewhat slow today, especially this early in the morning. First on my list is to cut the corset mock-up. I have a scrappish piece of duck to use for this, but because it's irregular, I think I may have to cut most pieces one at a time, I also brought in the pair of gloves I bought at the craft show last weekend to copy the pattern. I'm thinking I may make some for Christmas gifts (and I don't even need to learn how to knit!). Finally, I brought a reticule that's been cut for about 3 years now that I've never put together. How silly when all it really needs is to be stitched and if I did it by machine could be done in a minute. And I accidentally brought a camera to work, so there may be picage later. this may be misleading, but I'll clarify... Last night, I printed the original pattern pieces...sure this doesn't sound like much, but I had to increase the size of the pieces provided in my image editor to the point where the 1 inch = 1 inch when printed. This meant cutting some pieces in half, and some in quarters (digitally), printing them, then taping them back together. I'm sure this will be one of the easiest parts of the process, but it sure did take more time than I thought it would. However, It is nice to know that I can get working straight away after my other obligations of the night! I'd love to get the pattern drawn tonight and the mock-up pieces cut, and would be super happy if I could get them sewn together...but I'm not sure I can manage all of that tonight. I'm trying to zoom-zoom and have this corset done by the end of November (other than possible holiday decorating & a little test taking, I have no plans this weekend!), so this is possible...but how likely is it? I imagine I can have the corset mostly done, though maybe not nicely finished, by then. So...so far, so good! :D The "undergarments ahead" post from earlier made be think of boating speak for whatever reason :D
Thanks to undycat's post, I found a roll of boning and have placed an order for it and some additional supplies to restock my corset making stash! Yay! But costuming sure is an expensive hobby! I think I'll be asking for money from Santa this year to restock my cash stash :/ That and I'll try harder to use things up in my stash. So, I have a package of goodies winging there way to me as I type. Last night I started working on making the corset pattern and failed. Brad helped me with measuring, and I did some of the math, but by the time I got upping the proportions I realized I didn't print the right size and that because it was so complicated to convert the slightly smaller than the orginal pattern measurements to the actual garment measurements, then to convert those to my measurements I feared chances were that I'd make some wrong calculations and it would just make a mess. So instead of going forward, I fiddled with the image sizes and then went to bed. Hopefully I'll be in the mood to fiddle with ths stuff again tonight, so I can get the pattern made and the pieces sewn together...I'm going to try to borrow Jenny La Fleur's genius idea of boning held in place with masking tape for the mock up stage (I know this will probably only work on straight seams, but I might try taping spiral steel to see how it works out anyway). If it works, it will save a lot of time! I was able to *almost* finish the bustle...like really, really finish. It needs a closure, and I'm not sure yet, but I probably will add that hem ruffle since with the boning in the whole thing poofs out, making it shorter!
I decided against taking the entire thing apart to fix a ruffle thanks to advice from a few friends. It is afterall underwear, and I won't be showing them off often, if at all. Because I ordered the plastic tips for my boning, the bones are too long. The tips have about a 3/4 inch tab on them so you can sew them into your garment (I'm guessing), so I'm going to try cutting off the plastic in some places and may need to shorten the bones too if they're still too long. That will be the end of this project, hopefully pictures tomorrow! Estimated work time: 5 hours In other news...corset! I made my first corset in 2006 before Costume College and the corset making class I took there. I don't think my first shot at corsetry was very bad at all...so I'm thinking it may be acceptable for me to use this corset instead of making a new one...BUT at the same time, I'd like to make a new one. I'm going to try the old one on tonight and check the fit though. I don't know what kind of supplies I'll need for a new corset so I'll have to evaluate the stash and decide. In thinking "too bad this corset is pretty nice, but I want something prettier"...I came up with a plan for my first corset (which is made of a tan & taupe stripe fabric). I could change the binding on it and possibly use it for Steampunk stuff! I'm pretty excited that it may still be usable! So, I suppose that means I have some corset making in my future. I'm thinking of buying bone casings so I don't have to deal with sewing channels. I wonder if I need more boning as well. Hmm... |
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