Over the last few evenings I cut out the bodice (refreshingly easy as I had a separate piece of not-off-grain fabric) and basted together my layers, and then put together the main bodice pieces. Did the first try on tonight — the fit is a little weird around the armholes and neck because I haven’t clipped the seam allowance yet:
…after which I took in the darts just a smidge at the top (to get rid of that pointy thing) and took in the waist at the sides a bit more. I’m also going to lower the V neckline a bit to avoid the choking look.
Now I’m trying to gear up for buttons and buttonholes — le sigh! Seems like an awful lot of work making bound buttonholes, but you know me — no machine shortcuts here! I looked through a bunch of period images and fashion plates to see if anything used any other closure, but it seems like buttons were ubiquitous. Of course, I only have 8 covered button forms in the house, which necessitates another trip to Joann’s for supplies.
I also need to get boning for this. I never buy boning ahead of time because you never know what final measurement you’re going to end up with. I want to just do the easy thing and order online, but Lost Coast Historic Patterns doesn’t have the lengths I need, Greenberg & Hammer and Farthingales want me to spend my firstborn child on shipping, and we all know what happened with Grannd Garb when I made my 1910s corset. So it seems I’m going to have to call AlterYears or Lacis in the morning — maybe Lacis? I could just go over there, but when you live in San Francisco, a trip to Oakland takes about 3 hours round trip, and that’s just too much time out of my life!
Back to buttonholes…