Category: projects

Except for still a little bit of poochiness on the side bust — can’t decide if I should just extend the side dart up higher, or live with it.  And it looks like I have a little too much width in the bodice back around the shoulders… but I may be too lazy to fix that!  It would require taking the sleeves off, which sounds hard.

Why?  Progress = because I have the week off from work (furlough)!  Posting = couldn’t find my digital card reader, which meant no photos… and I find photo-less posting to be annoying, because I want to SEE what people are talking about!  It’s a thing with me – I hardly ever post without photos.

Okay, so last time we talked, I was busy dyeing velvet.  I then made the collar facing, extending it down to where the bodice closure starts (you can see a tiny little line of velvet there in the film gown).  There was a little bit of futzing to get the collar points to mirror.

Then I made a sleeve mockup.  The sleeve is long, fitted, and pretty basic, with the velvet cuff.  I took the sleeve pattern from my 1875 day bodice and took out the elbow-wrist fullness.

In trying on my sleeve mockup, I discovered some weird, around the bust point but also above, fullness.  I think this was created when I let out the mockup at the center front — I think  things may have pivoted weirdly?  I fuzted with it for a while and then realized I was going to need to redo the darts, so I picked those out.  I ended up taking in a bit at the top of the side seam, and then repositioning/reshaping the outer bust dart.  Annoying, but in the end I’m glad because I like the placement of the darts better, and they look more like the film gown.

Next, I sat on the couch for about 2 days making buttons.  I used Hana’s tutorial that she posted in the comments on the last post.  I had to make 22 buttons, so it took a LONG time, plus Winston our dog ate one of them (luckily no swallowing!) so I ended up making 23.  The buttons are just decorative — squinting at the film gown, I don’t see any sort of loop.  My plan is to use hooks & eyes on the inside of the bodice.

I added piping on the bodice edge, CF, and armholes — it’s not there in the film gown, but I like it (yay for bias stripes!) and it creates an easy way to finish edges.  I should say that I did tweak one thing in the film gown, going with a period, angled shoulder seam (in the film gown, they have a modern, on top of the shoulder seam — my guess is so that the stripes match up).

I made up the sleeve, but I haven’t attached it yet, as it’s easier to do all the bodice finishing with a bit less fabric in my lap.  I had to look at the film images a lot to convince myself that the sleeve cuff really was higher on the front seam than the back, which seems counter-intuitive… but I went with it.

Finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about the white underbodice layer, and finally decided to make a chemisette.  I haven’t found any fashion plate images of chemisettes from this era (more 1860s-earlier), but it seems like the most obvious solution, and if I’m thinking historically, early 1870s isn’t THAT different from late 1860s.  I looked at patterns for chemisettes in Arnold and Hunnisett, making it reach down to the waist, with the turn-back collar and button front closure.  The proportions look slightly off to me — I think in the film gown, the collar opens lower — but if I do that on me, I’ll have cleavage, which doesn’t seem right for 19th c. daywear!  Romola Garai does not have the rack that I have.  I finished the chemisette last night with lace on the collar and buttons and buttonholes – but no pics yet!

Now, I need to get over to Lacis for boning, attach the sleeves, and add hooks and eyes.  Then it’s on to the hat, which I’m super excited about!  I bought Lynn McMasters’ Mid-Victorian Bonnet, and I can’t wait to start messing with buckram (altho choosing the trimming may kill me — but that’s another post).

So I needed cotton velvet or velveteen for the accents on this bodice — collar, cuffs, and buttons. I’m actually tweaking the color palette a bit from the original movie dress:  when I made the 1870-71 evening dress I ended up at Britex looking for velvet ribbon, where I fell in love with a beautiful vintage ribbon that was a sort of violet purple color. I think it is probably rayon (because of the sheen).  I hunted throughout the store trying to find something that would coordinate for the narrower ribbon of the bodice — didn’t find anything, so went with the closest I could get (which was more of a grape purple), and hoped it wouldn’t be too noticeable because of being farther away from the skirt.  But now that I’m going to be using bigger pieces of velvet on the day bodice, I need something closer to violet.  (And now I’m inspired to remove the narrow ribbon and try to dye that to better match, but that’s another project!)

I did the East Bay fabric shop tour — started at Joann’s, then Stone Mountain in search of the right shade, but couldn’t find anything right at either, so I grabbed some veering-towards-cranberry cotton velveteen and some RIT dye.  I’m actually quite terrified of dyeing — I have a front-loading, low water use washer, so I’m always worried that will screw things up — plus I just don’t have a lot of experience.  And I hate not knowing for certain what color I’m going to end up with — I’m the type who will spend more than I have to to get the right shade.  But I wasn’t finding what I needed in person, and I didn’t want to buy online because unless you’re good and get a swatch, you REALLY don’t know what shade you’re buying!

So I did swatches, playing with overdying with blue and purple and various mixtures of the two.  The straight blue worked the best, and I’m really pleased with the result.  It’s not perfect, because I’m trying to match cotton to rayon and the rayon ribbon has a sheen that the cotton fabric doesn’t have, but it’s the same tone and that makes me happy.

So I am not performing at Dickens Fair this year.  Bella Donna did SO MUCH, particularly in September and October, and I need time to sleep, see my husband & critters, sew… you know, have a life!  I plan to gatelist at list one day to play scum, but I also want to go one day with Sarah and Trystan as customers to enjoy being shiny (and having tea! and stuff!). So while I could wear something in the closet, given that I have TIME — I think I’ll sew something!  And given that I only need to make a bodice, it’s not TOO crazy to add it to the sewing docket.

I originally bought the fabric for my 1870-71 evening dress meaning to make this dress from the BBC miniseries Daniel Deronda (hello fabulous bustle gowns, hello stripes!), and I even posted a tiny bit about it.  But then I got distracted, and made something else from the fabric, as one is wont to do!  But when I went to the garment district 1? 2? years later and the same fabric was still there in the same shop, well, obviously it was fate!

For reference, here’s the project page in case you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about.

I grabbed my bodice pattern from my 1875 red & white stripey gown, using the ball gown front as that fit the best, although I still had to tweak it.  I appear to be slightly larger than my dress form right now (grumble grumble), but that only necessitated letting out the CF when I tried on the mockup.  I stared at the screencaps I grabbed a while ago, and rewatched the series while draping/drafting, and then cut out and sewed together.

Now I need to get to the fabric store (I’m hoping Stone Mountain will have what I need?) to get some purple velvet for the collar, cuffs, and buttons.  Speaking of buttons, those will need to be fabric covered buttons, but obviously velvet isn’t going to fit in those covered button form kits, so I’m thinking I should make my own – any tips?  And I’m thinking of basically faking the white blouse layer with it just being slightly wider than the opening, so that I can tack it in (I THINK it has a CF closure?  I’ll do that with tiny buttons or something).  The alternative would be a chemisette type thing, which sounds annoying.