Madrigal gown: eyelets and French seams
Nov. 26th, 2009 01:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandie_rwIn other words, lots of boring-ness. Have I mentioned lately how annoying French seams are? No? Well, that's because I never finish my seams on anything I make, because I'm lazy and hate things like French seams. But since this dress is not actually for me, I figured I'd be a long-suffering Good Seamstress and finish the seams.
Last night, I draped the bodice of the gown -- I decided to make it in two parts, bodice and skirt, because that's easier for me. And I'm a big fan of Easier. Draping on a real live victim was fun. I'm not used to my dummy yelping when I stick her with a pin. Somewhat miraculously, I managed to not cut the smock, though we definitely had some close calls. Draping took what felt like forever, but when I made the mock-up, no one was more surprised than me to see that it actually fit. Isn't draping fun?
Bodice pieces, of the leftover grey cotton (the rest of it is living in my Tudor gown's sleeves, if you recall).
I managed to cut out the pieces of the bodice in the linen/rayon and sew them together last night as well. This dress, by the way, is machine sewn where you can't see it (hopefully), and hand-sewn where you can. It's all about compromise.
The bodice sewn together. It looks like an ugly vest (and gave me nightmare flashbacks to the blue vest I had to re-sew this summer at work...somebody's mother took it home to make it, and brought back something that looked like she sewed it on crack. In the dark. And she brought it back the day of dress rehearsal. And it was going on a LEAD. That was fun).
Today I hand-sewed the eyeletsbecause I am crazy in the front to lace the thing, and then it looked like...
...well, an ugly vest that laces up the front.
About halfway through the eyelet fun, I got bored and decided to make the skirt. (Because French seams are so much more fun?) Used my usual scientific process of eyeballing it for the gores, of which there are five. The cat insisted on helping me out by holding down the fabric so it didn't escape, and then by attacking the string I was using to make the curves. (See, triangle to gore like magic!)
Then many, many hours of sewing and ironing and sewing ensued. Like I said, French seams suck. I managed to avoid ironing my fingers or leaning on the iron (I have done both), which, considering all the time I spent around the iron today, is nothing short of a miracle.
And then I sewed the ugly vest and the skirt together, and now it kind of looks like an actual garment, which is always heartening. Not too exciting-looking, but better than an ugly vest.
I don't know how much I'll be able to get done tomorrow because, well, it's Thanksgiving Day! Besides the whole going-over-relatives-house-for-dinner thing, there's a whole thing on the Doors on TV earlier in the day that I have to watch because, well, what my friends unkindly call Old People Music is my other obsession.Sewing and costuming's the other-other obsession. In case it wasn't obvious.
Last night, I draped the bodice of the gown -- I decided to make it in two parts, bodice and skirt, because that's easier for me. And I'm a big fan of Easier. Draping on a real live victim was fun. I'm not used to my dummy yelping when I stick her with a pin. Somewhat miraculously, I managed to not cut the smock, though we definitely had some close calls. Draping took what felt like forever, but when I made the mock-up, no one was more surprised than me to see that it actually fit. Isn't draping fun?
Bodice pieces, of the leftover grey cotton (the rest of it is living in my Tudor gown's sleeves, if you recall).
I managed to cut out the pieces of the bodice in the linen/rayon and sew them together last night as well. This dress, by the way, is machine sewn where you can't see it (hopefully), and hand-sewn where you can. It's all about compromise.
The bodice sewn together. It looks like an ugly vest (and gave me nightmare flashbacks to the blue vest I had to re-sew this summer at work...somebody's mother took it home to make it, and brought back something that looked like she sewed it on crack. In the dark. And she brought it back the day of dress rehearsal. And it was going on a LEAD. That was fun).
Today I hand-sewed the eyelets
...well, an ugly vest that laces up the front.
About halfway through the eyelet fun, I got bored and decided to make the skirt. (Because French seams are so much more fun?) Used my usual scientific process of eyeballing it for the gores, of which there are five. The cat insisted on helping me out by holding down the fabric so it didn't escape, and then by attacking the string I was using to make the curves. (See, triangle to gore like magic!)
Then many, many hours of sewing and ironing and sewing ensued. Like I said, French seams suck. I managed to avoid ironing my fingers or leaning on the iron (I have done both), which, considering all the time I spent around the iron today, is nothing short of a miracle.
And then I sewed the ugly vest and the skirt together, and now it kind of looks like an actual garment, which is always heartening. Not too exciting-looking, but better than an ugly vest.
I don't know how much I'll be able to get done tomorrow because, well, it's Thanksgiving Day! Besides the whole going-over-relatives-house-for-dinner thing, there's a whole thing on the Doors on TV earlier in the day that I have to watch because, well, what my friends unkindly call Old People Music is my other obsession.
