Hunting through my fabric stash to see if I had anything suitable, I discovered 8m of very short pile cotton velvet that I had picked up for $2/m at the Riccarton Kutwell's closing down sale about 3 years ago. This seemed like a good thing to use it for, since I had had no plans when I bought it, it was just cheap. I had seen some gold braid at the town Kutwell's that was quite nice, and about the right width. I worked out that I probably wanted about 60m of braid, and headed off into town in the hopes that there would be enough left. I was in luck, they had a roll there with about 10 m left, but they also had an entire roll of 100 yards, which I got for $100 (instead of paying $1.50/m).
I had looked at the linen that I had to use for lining, and had a choice of two shades of dark brown or dark green. After discovering that the braid had a green thread down the middle I chose the green linen, mostly because it was prettier.
The exciting part of all this dress making is that I have no dress making dummy, and only unwilling assistants, so I have to drape and pin everything on myself. And self fitting a bodice while wearing a corset calls for its own special form of contortionism. Having said that, I managed to come up with a bodice pattern that I was fairly happy with. I cut it out of the white linen/cotton interlining, with nice outlines thanks to my newly acquired water soluble marker (fabulous, fabulous invention), and out of the green linen.
At this point it is in one piece, with only seam finishing to do. The hanging sleeve pattern is partially draped, and I've just cut out the collar lining.
And from now on I should probably date stuff...
7 May 2007
Made 20 brass hooks last night, since that was easier (and quicker) than buying some. Need to stitch the collar on so I can attach the hooks and make thread eyes, and thus be able to do more fittings...
Collar cut out and stitched on, just need to finish edges now - probably tomorrow in breaks at work.
8 May 2007
Collar lining hemmed, 17 hooks sewn on, probably 4 more to go. Discovered that thread loops do not work as eyes (probably a reason they used metal eyes), so have made a bunch of brass eyes,6 are stitched on. Bedtime now, hope to get the rest of the hooks and eyes attached tomorrow, then I can start working on the sleeves properly.
My Sleeve Epiphany
When I was reading about the hanging sleeves, and trying to work out the pattern I made an interesting discovery. It started with wondering why there was a completely straight seam down the back of the sleeve rather than cutting in one piece. From looking at the photograph and the line drawings of the dress in Patterns of Fashion, I then managed to work out that the straight edge was the front opening of the sleeve. And there seemed to be something interesting happening at the bottom of the sleeve, where there appeared to be a bit of a gap between the top and bottom of the sleeve. From looking at the photos from the first website linked from the top of the page, I managed to spot a bit of undersleeve from near the top of the hanging sleeve, and from the back side. So the top and the bottom pieces of the sleeves are not in any way attached. I'm not sure how common this is in clothing of the period. The other items of clothing with hanging sleeves in PoF all seem to have one-piece sleeves. But what I think I am seeing seems to coincide nicely with the fact that the top piece of one of the sleeves has been removed, indicating that they are easily seperable, at very least. So my hanging sleeves will have 4 seperate pieces. If I decide at a later date that this is wrong (or simply annoying) then I can easily oversew the back seam together.
Of course, the downside to this discovery is that it means even more care in sleeve draping, since I won't be able to pull the two halves straight against each other by stitching the back seam.
9 May 2007
All the hooks and eyes attached now, and side and shoulder seams of the lining are felled. Gapping appears to only be about 2-3 mm, which is better than I expected.
Redraped sleeve now, and cut approximate sleeve linings from some cheap yellow silk ($4/m due to some water damage along one edge, which washed out anyway). It's a bit slubby but it is more similar in texture to a taffeta than a dupion. And anyway, it's only lining (albeit a visible one). I plan to get the shaping on the bottom of the sleeve drawn out tonight, and the velvet for the sleeves cut out.
11 May 2007
Stitched the silk and velvet together on one piece of sleeve so far, and am about 1/3 of the way around the second piece of sleeve. For some reason this feels like a great achievement, but it is getting rather tedious. I think when I've finished this piece (the whole right oversleeve! Hooray!) then I will have to sew some trim onto it (after tracing the shaping onto the other sleeve), simply for a change of scenery. Or make a farthingale, which I really should do sooner rather than later...
The last couple of pictures are supposed to show the stitching that is more obvious than I would like, but it seemed to be less noticeable in the photo.
13 May 2007
Not much sewing done yesterday, but quite a bit today. Braid stitched to lower sleeve, and three of four pieces stitched to upper sleeve. Will try to finish this tomorrow night, since I don't really want to take my 100 yard roll of braid to work...
14 May 2007
Started working on second sleeve, so far the upper sleeve has the velvet and lining tacked together.
15 May 2007
Finished sewing braid onto the right upper sleeve. One sleeve complete! Hurrah! (Picture yet to come). I will be very glad when the other sleeve is also done, since that is the bulk of the braid sewn on (or at least the bulk of the long pieces).
One week per sleeve. Only 6 1/2 weeks to go. I think there will be enough time. I hope there will be enough time...
Edit: I was looking at the wrong line on the calendar, actually 7 1/2 weeks. Which is definitely better.
18 May 2007
Finished stitching the velvet and lining for the second sleeve together last night, I have another weekend of stitching braid on ahead of me. And then I'll have to work out which bit to do next. Probably attaching the sleeves to the bodice lining.
23 May 2007
Stayed up too late sewing last night, but I now have two complete oversleeves attached to the bodice lining. Have cut out the velvet for the bodice now, I hope to finish stitching it on by Friday, so I can start attaching more braid (oh the joy). Cut out some panels for the skirt, need to do some ironing before I can do any more sewing.
30 May 2007
Over the last week I have managed to finish the velvet for the bodice, haven't hemmed the length of it yet though. Discovered after sewing on three pairs of stripes that I was putting them closer together than I needed to, so there are 7 pairs on each side instead of 5. Only 2 pairs on one side to go until the horizontals are complete. Have also done the shoulder seam braid, the centre back stripes, and the strip around the base of the collar. Still need to do the diagonals and the centre front and top of collar. Looking very spiffy now though.
Discovered that I didn't have enough velvet to do four panels for the skirt, so I'm making do with 3, with a centre back seam, and a taper on the sides of the back panels. The fronts are straight rectangles, each half the width of the fabric. Not sure yet how I'll finish the front opening (still debating whether to line or not). I might just do a facing.
There is one side seam left to go on the skirt, none of them have been finished yet though. I'm hoping to complete the initial stitching on the skirt by the end of Friday at work.
11 June 2007
Skirt all pleated, tabs mostly done (another 8 or so to go). Bottom of bodice marked, and can be stitched once the tabs are sorted out.
14 June 2007
Bodice half finished, including braid.
16 June 2007
Bodice all done! Hurrah! Green silk bought for undersleeves and forepart. Looks like a taffeta, but is much lighter, so will be backed with linen.
16 June 2007
Cartridge pleats on skirt attached to bodice. Front few inches currently pinned (and will wait until skirt length is finalised and braid stitched on).
22 June 2007
Undersleeve seams stitched, one has seam finished and is hemmed. Farthingale is cut out and skirt seams are done (by machine, admittedly, but still...) Bottom hoop is in and approximately round. Will have to try to bend it into shape, or maybe steam it.
25 June 2007
Underskirt partially sewn from the yellow silk. Would have tried to sew the next two hoops (which are made) into the farthingale, but the cat is happily curled up in the middle of it...
28 June 2007
Farthingale done! Well, it has 3 hoops. But it seems to hold the shape quite nicely, so I'm happy with it as it is. Maybe I'll make a better farthingale one day...
And the petticoat is done. Except for the hemming, which I guess I can sort out now that I have a farthingale.
3 July 2007
And now there is more braid sewing, around the skirt. Really rather boring, and I'm starting to run out of time. Hems on petticoat and dress stitched, and a pillbox hat coming into existence as my work sewing project.
5 July 2007
Braid nearly finished, and the hat has velvet on the top
6 July 2007
Gown is all done (apart from seam finishing, which isn't critical). No hooks and eyes to close undersleeves yet. Hat nearly done, just need to attach one more row of braid. It isn't lined yet, but that's not really important either.
8 July 2007
Dress was worn yesterday. Sleeves never got hooks and eyes, hat didn't get lined, and there is still much seam finishing to do. The petticoat was very slightly too long (managed to stand on it a few times), but other than that I'm happy with it.
For more details, here is a link to the appropriate entries in my crafting blog