When we last left our heroine, she had gathered her materials and was ready to start sewing...
Friends, let me be frank: I am an ill-prepared person.
I was that kid in class who could never find her pens when she needed them and who still prints her papers out at the school library because I forgot to bring my printer up from my parents place in SoCal. So naturally when it comes to things like owning a dress form... I'm also lacking. So all fitting is getting done by FGS (fairy god siblings) and yours truly as best she can.
The Truly Victorian patterns came in quickly and I still had white muslin left over from planning to make a new faire chemise (Take a shot for a project I started but never finished) so the mockup started. The nice thing about Truly Victorian patterns is that they take into account that people are both funny-sized and most likely going to change in proportion. That said, I have this remarkable ability to squish in a corset so I'm always very suspicious about fitting. The Truly Victorian pattern asks you to measure around and your front and then measures your back and adjusts the front and back based on that. So- as the saying goes- I measured twice, and cut once.
The mockup was too large. Which is fine, that's why we make mockups. It was then taken to a FGS for a fitting. We wound up removing a SIGNIFICANT amount of fabric from the front and back of the bodice as well as adding multiple darts.
If the bodice looks awkward in the picture, it's the lack of boning. I'm praying it looks better with the boning in and I won't have to wear a bra with the thing.
So once the bodice was finished, I moved onto the skirt portion.
Based on the Truly Victorian skirt pattern I had determined to use 2 inch horizontal pleats for each panel with two inches in between each pleat. I accidentally cut the first panel too short so once pleated it was about 36 inches long instead of the 40 I needed at the ends. Unfortunately in the middle it was still almost 56 inches. Also, when I finished the pleating it looked like this:
So not too bad, the edges of the panel are too short which is REALLY annoying and I'm severely hoping it's just because of the fabric but that's sort of... okay... right? RIGHT?! I'm probably going to space the bottom pleats a little more to add some more length and make the bottom a little less even. It'll take some experimentation.
The Mockup Stage
Friends, let me be frank: I am an ill-prepared person.
I was that kid in class who could never find her pens when she needed them and who still prints her papers out at the school library because I forgot to bring my printer up from my parents place in SoCal. So naturally when it comes to things like owning a dress form... I'm also lacking. So all fitting is getting done by FGS (fairy god siblings) and yours truly as best she can.
Alright, lets do this
The Truly Victorian patterns came in quickly and I still had white muslin left over from planning to make a new faire chemise (Take a shot for a project I started but never finished) so the mockup started. The nice thing about Truly Victorian patterns is that they take into account that people are both funny-sized and most likely going to change in proportion. That said, I have this remarkable ability to squish in a corset so I'm always very suspicious about fitting. The Truly Victorian pattern asks you to measure around and your front and then measures your back and adjusts the front and back based on that. So- as the saying goes- I measured twice, and cut once.
The mockup was too large. Which is fine, that's why we make mockups. It was then taken to a FGS for a fitting. We wound up removing a SIGNIFICANT amount of fabric from the front and back of the bodice as well as adding multiple darts.
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| The blue lines were the new seams we seriously took like, 6 inches in. |
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| Checking out the re-fitted bodice with my petticoat. |
So once the bodice was finished, I moved onto the skirt portion.
Based on the Truly Victorian skirt pattern I had determined to use 2 inch horizontal pleats for each panel with two inches in between each pleat. I accidentally cut the first panel too short so once pleated it was about 36 inches long instead of the 40 I needed at the ends. Unfortunately in the middle it was still almost 56 inches. Also, when I finished the pleating it looked like this:
Naturally there were tears. (take a shot.)
I ran to the main consulting FGS who asked if I knew it was that terrible (after all, it could look nicer once on the petticoat...)
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| If you can't tell by the expression, I wasn't happy. |
Either way, now I have a week so I'm going to go ahead on the bodice tomorrow and fix the old skirt mockup.
Wish me luck.
You'll be okay, and your costume will be beautiful! Remember Dory in Finding Nemo: Just keep swimming!
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