TV 216 #1

Today I started on TV 216 for the mourning costume. 

Concept drawing from the Truly Victorian website

Since I've had good experience with the TV skirt patterns in the past, I decided that I would simply start with the pattern without alterations. 

The center front section is comprised of two flat under pieces (the front and side fronts) overlaid with two pleated apron layers edged with trim. 

I made my own trim out of two layers of silk topped with some cord & velvet trim I had in my stash. It took my a while to figure out how I wanted to make the trim. After some experimentation, I figured out how to use my gathering foot. This is a genius invention. Here's a link to how to use it from the Bernina website. In order to get the gathering to work with the two layers of the stiff silk, I had to set the stitch length to maximum and the bottom thread tension to maximum. 

Ooohhh... Aaahhh! Fancy trim!

I just got the front section done today. The trim is a time consuming endeavor, so I calling it a night for now. Here are photos of the current progress. 

This looks a bit strange because it's pinned to the hoop skirt. 

Looking good so far...

TV 428 #3

In which things are going suspiciously well...

I marked the waist length adjustments and made a new muslin, just in time for Craft Day last Sunday. 

Marking the tucks on the dress form. 

Spreading out the muslin to get the waist length reduction onto the pattern pieces

On Craft Day, I got some fitting help (which, of course, I did not take pictures of). Really, with the waist length adjusted, I didn't need much. The pattern recommends making all waist size adjustments in the front darts, but when we took it all in there, it was too much. The side back seam, and side seems needed slight adjustments as well. 

The shoulder clearly extends far beyond my shoulder point, but my friend, Cricket, wisely suggested that I leave it alone and fit it by hand in the final version. I added about 2" of height to the sleeve cap because we think that I will have to take about that much off the shoulder. I want to be sure that I can fiddle with both the should width and the sleeve cap height as needed to get a smooth fit. Honestly, I think this may be one of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten for dealing with my shoulder fit. Thanks, Cricket!

I decided that I was happy with the muslin fit, so I transferred the minor changes to the pattern and cut it out in the striped fabric. I put boning on the recommended seams, but I skipped boning the front darts because I could figure out how to attach them without distorting the smooth line at the bust. Also, since I didn't use interlining (the fabric is reasonably think and stiff), I didn't have a good way to invisibly sew in the boning channels on the front. 

I just used poly boning here. I tried to leverage the natural curve of the boning to support the waist curve.  Also, I first ran the boning all the way down to the hem (that pattern just says "hip line", which is not marked on the pattern). After trying it on I decided that I would cut it bak to about 4" above the hem line. 

Here is the final fit inspection before I started on the lining:

I think the bones went all the way to the hem in these photos. 

The front lapels are pinned together at the center front,  I was not pinning them out. 

I extended the back pleats about 1.5" so they would lay smoothly over the bustled skirt. 

Then I went about attaching the lining and making up the sleeves today. It all went well until I realized that the pattern does not allow one to put the cool cuffs on the 3/4 length sleeves.

ooops!

Not to worry, I just made some bias ribbon, folded it in half, and used that as a finishing trim instead of a proper cuff. 

Ta Da! Problem solved. 

So here's the next-to-last stage of the project all ready to go to the next Craft Day for a sleeve fitting. Once the sleeves are set in, all it needs is buttons (famous last words...)

All ready for the final fitting!

TV 428 #2

Here are the photos I took last night. I put the corset and skirts back on the dress form so that I could get a better sense of how things were really fitting.

So far, everything looks really positive. I need to shorten at the waist approximately 2" all around, so I pinned that up. Right now, that looks like the only major adjustment I need to make before I do a more detailed fitting on me. As I've mentioned before, the dress form's shoulder slope is different than mine, so there are bound to be some tweaks there. The side and back views make it look like there is a real problem, but I was able to sort most of this out by simply rearranging the fabric. Also, the blue skirt has ties that support the bustle, so I think I can make it less voluminous which should also help the jacket to lay smoothly.

Frankly, I shocked at how well this first muslin turned out. The last TV bodice I made was a nightmare, and I never did figure out why. I really am trying to follow their sizing and fitting methods carefully. Perhaps there's something to this following directions thing after all. hmmm...

front view: I pinned to the neck, even though this jacket opens to show the lapels

Side view: I may eventually decide to make the arm hole smaller in the front. Note the super stealth sewing helper in the bottom left corner.  

Back view: releasing the bustle draw strings and rearranging the pleat in the jacket should fix most of this. 

TV428 (bodice)

I've started on the TV428 bodice pattern in an attempt to have a completed outfit.

Truly Victorian has a unique sizing system. Back, Side Back, and Side piece are chosen according to one's back width measurements, then Side Front and Front pieces are chosen according to (full bust - back width). For me this meant that my back pieces were cut from size G, and my front piece was cut from size C.

This feels a little odd, as I think of myself as, um, larger in front with narrow shoulders. But, I put the muslin bodice together last night, and it's looking pretty good on the dress form. A few caveats to that last statement:

1. the dress form's shoulder slope is more square than my own
2. the dress form is currently uncorseted
3. the dress form is without the skirts that will be worn with the bodice
4. I have left off the sleeves, collar, and boning for now, since getting the trunk fit is tricky enough

I hope to put the corset & skirts back on the dress form tonight and take a closer look. As usual, I will have to shorten the length significantly. That much is clear from last night's first look. I figure if I can use the dress form to revise the length and make another mock up, I should be in good shape for this coming week.

This next week should be a week of major progress because (a) I am on Spring Break -- working in "the academy" has many advantages (b) my parents arrive tomorrow evening and will be in town for a week, which means my mom will be able to assist me and (c) we are hosting a "crafternoon" on Sunday, so there should be lots of good crafting vibes in the house.

Steampunk Wonderwoman? (TV221 & TV 326)

Burgundy Underskirt (TV221)

The underskirt went together nicely and quickly. I've made this pattern before, and so I knew that I could get it done quickly. I left off the optional ruffle, which made things go even faster. The results are a good, if very basic, underskirt. 

 

TV221 front

TV221 rear view

TV 221

Striped Overskirt (TV 326)

The overskirt is made from Truly Victorian #326 (Hermione Overskirt). I used a tone on tone blue striped home decor fabric. When I got into the pattern, I realized that it recommended a fabric with a crisp hand to emphasize the pleats. My fabric has some body to it, but it's not what I'd call "crisp". Oh well, it is what it is. 

This pattern looks great in the design drawings, and I was a little worried about how I was going to manage all the pleats and layers. 

As it turns out, the pattern is deceptively complicated. By that I mean that the results look very complicated, but the pattern is very clear and straightforward. If this is the first time you've ever sewn pleats, this is not a good place to start, but if you are experienced with pleats, it should be fine. 

The apron

The most challenging part of the pattern is the pleating in the center front apron. There are a totaly of five pleats that meet in the same place, so when there are all stacked on one side, that's 11 (eleven) layers of fabric to sew through.

apron pleats

 I got really nervous, given how think my fabric was, but my machine handled one side like a champ. 

pleats sewn in place

Then things got really tricky because the two halves of the apron must be sewn together at the center front. Now, there are 22 (that's twenty-two) layers of fabric to get through. My machine made it, barely, with a lot of hand cranking and making several attempts to get through the fabric at each stitch. Once it was sewn together, I graded the pleat seams like crazy and actually tacked down the seam allowances to smooth things out.

 sewn allowance sewn open

Then end result looked really nice, even though my fabric is far thicker than the ideal fabric.

finished apron center pleats

The other two pieces went together smoothly, and the waistband attached without too much hassel. I did use heavy duty thread to hand sew the inside of the waistband to help support the weight of the skirt. All told, I think I spent about 8 hours working on this, and that includes tracing the sized pattern pieces. This pattern really pays off for relatively little effort.

The finished ensemble

TV326 over TV221 front view

Side view

Back view (note, there is no bustle under these skirts)

Developing Ideas:

William looked at this and said "Steampunk Wonder Woman?". This could be a possibility. Stick a few stars on the bustle, get a gold lasso and a tiara... hmmm... we'll see if that idea goes anywhere. 

Next up...

I am torn. If I start the jacket for this outfit, I'll be closer to getting something one, but it will be awhile before I can get some fitting help. On the other hand, if I start the mourning skirt, I'll have three costumes in progress and I might be in danger of not finishing any of them. 

I'll have to think on it some more. 

So. Many. Patterns.

All the patterns I ordered arrived yesterday. Gah!

It's all I can do to stay focused on getting the burgundy underskirt done. I started last night. The pattern is cut out and about 1/2 constructed. I'm going to try to finish it this morning. Then, I'll have to decide what to tackle next. I think I'll stick with skirts for awhile. Those are easier to fit by myself. I'll save the two bodices for when I have help.

Laughing Moon Trained Bustle (Altered) - Update

Concerning length

I got a comment from a very helpful reader who suggested that the reason I may have lost so much length was that I used the 3/8" tubing instead of the much less bulky hoop wire or hoop boning. I think she is correct.

I was getting concerned that the hoop skirt would be too short and create a shelf effect at the hem of the over skirt. I tried layers two heavy skirts over the hoop to see if that forced the hoop's hem down significantly:

These skirts were not designed for any hoop or bustle, so the fit was not great, but I was interested in the effect of their weight. I measured and they pulled the hoop hem down about 1". I then draped some of the skirt fabric down the back and decided that I was likely to get "hoop ribs" and that I needed to lengthen the hoop skirt.

Being short as I am, I almost never have to lengthen anything. Let us bask in this moment... ahh...

Sewing terror!

So the pattern instructions point out that this garment is underwear, which means that you can do some pretty drastic alterations to it after construction. Would it be better to do these things to the pattern? Sure, but hey, who's going to see it?

So, I gritted my teeth and ripped open the front seams to just past the lengthen line. I then cut along the lengthen line and added in a strip of 6" wide fabric (I was shooting for 4.5" - 5" extra length). The instructions do encourage you to remove the hoop wire before sewing in the extra strip. This is sage advice that I did not follow. It made sewing in some bits a little tricky, but I made it. I really can't believe this worked. There's no reason it shouldn't have, it just felt so... wrong.

before

after

Then I decided to make a bustle pad to help support this bustle and possibly skirts that do not require a bustle. This took all of 15 minutes.

Here is the hoop first without the pad, then with the pad.

Not a bad evening's work, I'd say. I think I'm done tweaking this for now.

Next up (really): burgundy underskirt.

Laughing Moon Trained Bustle (Altered)

I have officially started on my Overachiever's Costuming Plan. Yesterday, I made View C from the Laughing Moon Bustle & Hoop Skirt pattern.

View C is a trained bustle, but it's just a bustle. Given the weight of the skirt I'm going to be putting on top of it, I thought it would be a good idea to put a front panel on and run the bottom two hoop wires all the way around, making it a hoop skirt.

To do this, I straightened the front edge of the Side Front (#9):

(not a great photo, but you can see what I did in the upper left corner)

Then, I constructed the bustle following the directions, mostly (see notes at the end of this post). I put the bustle on my dress form and eyeballed the front opening. I remembered from making View A, that the hoop skirt was left open at the front waist so that it was easy to get in and out of and did not interfere with other garments. This seemed reasonable, so I measured 6" down from the waist. I decided that I needed something cut on the fold that measured 7" at the top and 9" at the bottom. Easy peasy. I added the hoop channels estimating off of the side front pattern:

I had to make one run to Joann's in the middle of the project for an eyelet setter, twill tape, and more wide single fold bias tape, but what's a project without a run to the store? (Eyelets? Why yes, there are two interior lacing panels that hold the upper and lower bustles together so they maintain their shape under the weight of the skirts. -- Seriously, this underwear looks at bra hooks and scoffs. This is a complicated undergarment.)

The directions are very clear and simple. I traced the pattern and cut it out on Saturday, and took me about 8 hours of sewing and supply runs on Sunday to get it completed.

Ta Da!

Thoughts on the pattern

The pattern says that the hoop skirts should rest about 6" off the floor, with no alterations, this sits about 8" off the floor. Remember, I am only 5' 2", so if you are taller, you may want to preemptively lengthen the pattern. However, it's very easy to add or remove length on this bustle after construction and the pattern contains very clear directions. I am going to hold off on messing with the length until I have some skirts to pile on it. The weight of the skirts might easily pull this down into a better position.

Also, I'm going to make the bustle pad for extra support.

Notes on Construction

I used 3/8" stiff poly tubing from the hardware store. Sooooo much cheaper than hoop boning. The only down side to this is that it is significantly less flexible, which changes how and when you can add them.

On the top bustle, I sewed the boning channels top and bottom. Then, I sewed in one side of the lacing pannel, closing off one end of the boning channels. I inserted the tubing from the other side and sewed on the other half of the lacing panel to close off the channels. This makes the rest of construction a little awkward because the bones make the piece less flexible, but it wasn't too difficult to work around.

On the bottom bustle, I able to wait until all other sewing was completed before inserting the bones. I repeated the side insert technique on the top three channels. On the bottom 2 channel that formed complete ovals, I left the bottom edge of the channel open for the entire width of the front panel. The was enough room to manipulate the tubing without difficulty. I does mean that there is a longish bit to hand sew, but it wasn't odious.

All in all, I'm very pleased. I may decide to make a trained petticoat to support the large skirt, but I haven't decided yet. One thing at a time.

Next up: burgundy underskirt.

Upcoming projects for Steampunk World's Faire 2012

Because, clearly, I don't have enough to wear...

On a recent fabric buying binge, I got fabric for three potential Victorian/Steampunk costumes. I went through my stash yesterday and I was please to see that I had some great accent fabric to compliment the two large bolts that I purchased (at an obscene discount).

First, a mourning outfit.

Yes, I know, I have sworn off all-black costumes, but this one will not be all black. It will be black and the Victorian mid-mourning color of purple. Hopefully, this will be enough of a contrast to sew, show, and photograph better.

Here is the fabric:

I have lots of the purple mystery fabric with the black reverse (which doesn't show up great in the close flash shot... hmm... something to test). It was billed as "antique satin" and I have no idea what that means.

The brighter purple is a double faced silk satin which I have had forever. Surely I can work that in somewhere. I have about 3 yards of that. Then I have I have about 2 yards of black dupioni and about 1/2 yard of silk-backed rayon velvet from another project (which I totally should have documented, but didn't).

For these fabrics, I will make a giant fancy skirt from Truly Victorian with the bolt of purple as the base fabric. This skirt will need to be supported by a bustle.

I'm going to start with the Laughing Moon trained bustle (upper right in the image below) and extend some of the bottom boning into full hoops and attach it to a skirt so that it works like TV's Grand Bustle (second image down). If I can't manage that quickly, I'll just buy the TV bustle pattern.

For the top, I am going to make a jacket from Ageless Patterns. It's got lots of places for extra trimmings, so I should be able to incorporate the four fabrics.

Second, a snazzy day dress

I also wanted to make something that could be worn out of doors, meaning no train. I've got some great tone-on-tone blue striped fabric that I bought on the fabric binge, and it turns out that it goes nicely with the left over burgundy silk from the Airship Hostess costumes from last year's SPWF. Hooray!

The top will primarily the blue with burgundy accents. I will make TV428:

The underskirt will be in the burgundy. I will make TV221, because it works, and I've already made the pattern. This time, I will NOT be adding the ruffle. It was much more difficult than it had any right to be last time.

Lastly, I will be making TV326 for the over skirt from the blue stripe (yes, stripe). I am hoping that I can get the stripes arranged so that they are not dizzying to look at. If the ARE dizzying to look at, I will start/join an Ivy Hissplepenny society and figure out how loud I can make a "matching" hat.

This outfit does not require a giant bustle, but I will probably use a bustle pad to support the heavy over skirt.

Sooooo... I should be busy between now and May.