Enchanted dreams

May 26 , 2008

In a few weeks we are leaving for a holiday in France and of course I have nothing to wear :-), so I designed a new victoran gown. Last week I bought 6 meters of pink crushed taffeta and this I am going to use for this new design. This is what I came up with:

First I will start with the corset. I thought I would use another pattern than I normally do. I wanted to try the Truly Victorian pattern that I have had in my closet for a year now.

I measured myself while wearing one of my favorite corsets. After I had figured out which size to cut out, I traced the TV110 pattern onto other pattern paper. For the mock-up (first time I ever made one!!!) I used white non-stretch canvas. Cutting out the fabric:

Pattern pieces stitiched together:

I marked all the pattern pieces, since they quit look similar:

The corset looks big to me, so I put it over a corset which fits quit good. And yes, it is too big.

Hmmm, I don't feel like tracing out the pattern again in a smaller size. So I will lay this corset aside and start with one of the underskirts.

I am making the TV201 for both the black and the pink underskirt. This is the pink crushed taffeta I will use for the underskirt (and for the corset):

Cutting out the pattern pieces:

Sewing it together is quit straight forward, so no pictures taken. Here's the skirt all sewn together, bottom ruffle attached. Only the waistband still has to be attached.

May 27 , 2008

OK, waistband is attached and here's the finished skirt. Front and back:

Now, I'll continue with the corset. Since I still don't feel like tracing out the pattern again, I am going to be "lazy" and use the pattern I always use:

The only difference is, that this time I will make a 3 layer corset instead of 2 layer corset. Normally I use bone casing for the flat steel and spiral bones, this time I will make bone casing by sewing the bones between 2 layers of fabric. This is my fabric for the corset:

The pink taffeta with the white canvas will be the "outer corset" and the black canvas will be the "inner corset".

Cutting out the pattern pieces. Every piece had to be cut out 3 times. Phew, this is quit more work than normallly and I don't really like cutting fabric. So what was I thinking????

I decided to pin the pattern to both the taffeta and the white canvas at the same time. This means I only have to pin and cut all the pieces twice. At least it saves some time and aggrevation.

All the pattern pieces:

Making the "outer corset". First pin and sew half of the buste gores to the front two pieces:

Sew front pieces and buste gores together:

Sew all the other pieces together. As you can see I have marked all the pieces on the inside.

Before I sewed the front pieces to the rest of the corset I "tried it on" in order to see if the cup was the right size. As I suspected it was a little too big and stood out to much. So I adjusted the the cup like this:

After that I sewed it all together. Now it is time start on the "inner corset". In order to make it fit together I have to make the same adjustments. Construction is (obviously) the same as the "outer corset".

May 28 , 2008

Now that both the inner and outer corst are put together and of the same size, I can start on putting in the busk, sewing the corsets togetner and putting in the flat steel and spiral bones.

This is the material that I use for all my corsets: a full steel busk, flat steel bones, spiral bones and 5mm grommets.

The busk is 28 cm long. I would have liked a longer busk, but this was all I had left in my stash. So rather than buying new materials I am going to use what I have.

Before putting in the busk, I flipped over the fabric on the front piece for about 1,5 cm to the inside and pinned it into place. I don't really know how to describe this step. Just hope you understand what I mean. Here you can see what I have done:

I also did this on the back side of the corset:

Then I sew really close to the edge:

This gives you really neat looking front pieces:

Repeat this for the back pieces.

I reapeated these steps for the outer corset. Of course I used pink tread, otherwise the stichting is too obvious. And you want this to be neat, but not to be noticed.

After finished both front and back pieces on both the inner and outer corset, you now have 2 corsets or 4 corset pieces:

Putting in the busk. First I lay the busk on the inside of the outer corset:

Then I put pins around the ??? (don't know what to call them) of the busk:

Then I pinned the outer corset to the inner corset (wrong sides together), leaving open the spaces for the ???:

This is how it looks from the inside:

Now with pink tread in the machine and the outer side (the pink side) on top, sew through the stitch previously made (see an earlier step):

Stitch to first pin sticking out and stop sewing there:

Leave gap open and start again at the next pin sticking out:

Repeat this for all the gaps.

You should now have stitched the two corsets together and have 5 gaps this seam. Put the busk through the gaps and pin really close to the busk:

Using a zipper foot stitch really close to the busk:

Now it is time to put in the other side of the busk. Lay the fronts of the corset together with the right side with the busk already sewn in, overlapping the left side of the corset:

Mark where the holes should come:

Make the holes and attach the other side of the busk in the same way.

Now I started to put the rest of the corset together. I pinned the seams together (matching the seams of the inner and outer corset):

And stitched throught the seam:

Because I am using pink thread (of course I don't want the stitches to show on the outside) you can see the stitches on the inside. Although no one will see it, I don't really like it. So I decided to rip the stitches I just made and not stitch the corset together through all the seams. Instead I will use bone casing. To attach this I only stiched through the the seams of the pink outer corset and so attached the bone casing to all the seams:

Then I stitched through all the seams of the inner corset using black thread:

I wanted to stitch next to the bones through the pink outer corset and the bone casing, but the bones were quite wide. They just fitted in the bone casing. There was no space left to stitch the bone tight to the fabric through the bone casing, so I still had to stitch through both the inner and outer corset. Now the pink thread it still showing on the inside, but at least the bones are stitched tight in the corset.

May 29, 2008

Finished one half yesterday night and the other one this afternoon. Now it is time to put in the grommets on the back side.

Marking the grommets:

Grommets:

Zigzagged both top and bottom of corset:

Pink satin trim on top and bottom:

Black lace on top:

Pleated black satin ribbon over the black lace:

Small black trim on bottom:

Finishing touch: a black satin ribbon bow with a cameo:

Finished corset, front and back:

June 2 , 2008

Today I received the fabric I wanted to use for the black underskirt TV 201 and the overskirt TV305. It's black taffeta with black embroidered roses:

Cutting out the pattern pieces for the TV201:

and for the TV305:

After cutting I started working on the TV201. I have sewn all 5 gores and the back together. Since it's already getting late, I will continue with the ruffle tomorrow.

June 3 , 2008

Yesterday I had cut out 5 ruffle-pieces. I sew them togehter and now I am going to pleat them to the skirt. I don't measure the pleats, just eyeballed if they were roughly the same size.

Finished ruffle:

Here's the finished skirt, front and back:

I gathered a part on the front, so the pink skirt will show underneath. The gathering parts are not on the same hight, but this is just a try-out. I will determine where it should be gathered when the TV305 is finished and I am wearing all the skirts.

And this is what it looks like with the pink skirt underneath:

This day I also continued with the TV305. Didn't take any pictures, sorry.

And finally I started with the shrug. Cutting out the pattern pieces:

Like the other shrugs I made, I modified the sleeve pattern. I don't like the poufed sleeve, so I have changed the top of the sleeve to a slightly flatter pattern. Also I like the sleeves to flare out. So I cut them wide and then later change the pattern again to make it curvy:

Bodice-part sewn together:

June 4 , 2008

I thought the ruffle on the TV201 looked unfinished and I decided it needed a trim:

The TV305 has no ruffle yet and I have not enough fabric left to make the long strips for the pleats. Instead I am going to make a lace ruffle. I have a few meters of this lace in my stash: