Labels

Time-Travelling Bodice

Not to retread ground I've already passed over, but certain elements of the construction of the green and peach silk bliaut got skipped over in my mad rush to finish before Queen's Prize, and I'd like to have the records. Also, as I've preened about before, it's my blog and I'll natter if I want to. So: bodice construction part the first today! Part the second and attaching the skirt will follow...eventually.

Green-gold silk with a double-folded hem at the top of the photo, held in place with frequent pins.
Pin pin pin pin. I still love working with this fabric, even if it doesn't crease worth a damn when I want it to.
I trimmed and hemmed the side edges of the silk to match the size of the linen first; extra width would give me either vertical wrinkles (not what I want) or sad bagginess (also not what I want). This way, I'd also decrease the number of raw edges I needed to worry about damaging as I carried the project here, there, and everywhere.

A rectangle of green-gold silk with a double-folded hem at the top edge, being pulled taut to make the hem spiral.
A rectangle of green-gold silk, with two large horizontal creases and a double-folded hem at the top edge, on a dark wood table.
The side hems are on a slight bias, which makes them turn into helices under pressure! I was amused. (And no, I didn't iron anything before hemming it.)

A roughly trapezoidal piece of linen, finished at the sides with narrow hems and eyelets, and at the bottom with a deep hem, pinned near the top edge to a matching piece of green-gold silk, with another piece of white linen pinned with its frayed top edge butted against the first. The top edge and concave upper corners of the linen are very frayed.
A roughly trapezoidal piece of linen, finished at the sides with narrow hems and eyelets, and at the bottom with a deep hem, on top of a matching piece of green-gold silk. The top edge and concave upper corners of the linen are very frayed.

Praise the lord the pieces match good gravy on a zebra. Ahem. Not that I was worried or anything. I did iron before pinning the lining to the silk, and matched the lining pieces at the center of the single silk outer piece—I knew I'd be trimming away fabric to shape the shoulder seams, so saved myself some worry about extra raw edges until they were sewn. I also pinned the sides smoothly only to my underbust; the rest of the extra length of silk will be gathered and tacked down after I attach the skirt, to help hide the rough edge.


A close-up of a flat-felled seam in white linen, with a number of pins in very different directions, and bright green basting stitches running under and beside the tan stitching.
I probably should have tried harder not to stitch through my guide threads, but I was a woman on a deadline.
I trimmed all the extra fabric down to nearly nothing before flat-felling the shoulder seams, hoping to minimize the bulk of fabric there.

A close-up of a row of neat white eyelets on a double-folded hem of white linen, with a needle threaded wtih tan thread inserted just at the inner edge of the hem. A pin holds the space between the left two eyelets, and a line of tiny stitches holds the fabric between the right two eyelets.
Nice neat eyelets continue to be satisfying.
I wanted to hide the eyelets as much as possible when the dress is on; they're a very 18th-century-through-Victorian solution to the problem of needing sturdy edges to support laces, so subtlety is the goal. To that end, I needed to tack down the silk between each eyelet; even under strain, they're only half an inch apart and should stay tucked neatly under the silk edge.

A close-up of a row of neat white eyelets on a double-folded hem in white linen, showing a half-finished line of tiny tan stitches across the width of the hem between two eyelets. A needle is inserted at left, below a completed line of stitches, and a pin holds the fabric down between the left two eyelets.
Itty bitty stitches to the edge...
I took tiny stab stitches through all layers across the width of the eyelet hem first.

A close-up of neat white eyelets on a double-folded hem in white linen, with two lines of tiny tan stitches holding down the fabric between the right pairs of eyelets, and pins holding the fabric between the left pairs of eyelets. A needle in inserted from the edge of the fabric toward the inner fold of the hem.
...and itty bitty stitches back down.
Then tucked the needle through the lining most of the way back, with one tiny tack at the center of the band.

A close-up of a line of neat white eyelets along a double-folded hem in white linen, on top of green-gold silk. Lines of tiny tan stitches hold down the fabric between each pair of eyelets, and a white hand is using a needle to tie off the tail of the leftmost line of stitching at the inner fold of the hem.
I had been going for "immaculate construction inside and out," but I didn't quite engineer the order of operations enough for that. Next time I'm hiding all my tails!
I clipped my tails shorter than the width of the eyelet band so they wouldn't show when I wore the dress, but I'd still like to make a dress someday that's perfectly finished inside and out.

A pinned piece of linen with the raw edge at left tucked under, on a black table with a blue raffle ticket sitting on it. It's ticket numer 2515951, which is a very satisfying number, even though it didn't win anything.
Proof that I can and will sew almost anywhere. I hope I didn't shed any pins.
After trimming the excess fabric at the armscyes down, I flipped the raw edges inward and whipstitched them together, lapping the silk a tiny bit over the linen to increase my chances of hiding it entirely when I set the sleeves.

A piece of green-gold silk, laid slightly diagonally on a piece of white linen with a double-folded hem at left and a column of neat white eyelets separated by tiny tan stitches. Tan stitches are just visible along the left edge of the green-gold silk, and the fabric puffs slightly in each small rectangle defined there.
Arteestic. Gotta have one of those every now and then.
At last, a close-up of the tacking stitches from the right side; even at this distance, I think they're subtle enough to blend in on a body in motion. The slight bubbling should also vanish with a little tension on the fabric.

A green-gold silk bodice with open sides, showing the white linen lining and column of eyelets up the left back piece, and lacking a neck opening.
Notice anything important missing?
There are approximately a million photos of the next few steps, so this is where I'll leave it for now—half-constructed and lacking a neck hole.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment