Fitting Marathon - L & R

Imagine, if you will, fitting multiple garments from multiple eras....  It was a whirlwind of activity as we took advantage of the July 3 early close in stock markets to fit everything that we were working on.  Every surface was piled in fabric.  The floor was scattered in pins.  Robin's foot was a sad and pained thing that swelled and throbbed.  And we got a LOT of stuff done.

What we did, and what we learned while doing it:
Lisa:
Petticoat - multiple layers sewn to a yoke for mid 19th century outfits.  I'd sewn the top layer including lace on the bottom flounce and just needed to attach it to the yoke.  Robin pinned it to the yoke, allowing a level hem.  We also experimented with a 'bum pad'.  Yes...I pinned a throw pillow to my butt..
1850's skirt - with the petticoat pinned, the skirt hem could be pinned.  Well, actually the waist.  We both had already trimmed near the bottom of our skirts, following the plaid, so we adjusted the hem at the waist.
1850's bodice - THIS was interesting.  Being small boned but fat, I cut the back of my bodice roughly 5 sizes smaller than the front.  I expect to have problems matching shoulder and side seams as a result.  I had already fit a muslin and cut and sewn a new one.  So this should have fit nearly perfectly.  HOWEVER, when I was sewing the new one, I couldn't remember if I'd matched the shoulder seam at the neck or armscye. I chose to match at the armscye leaving excess at the neck (we're talking 2 inches of excess).  When I put it on with all my underthings, NOTHING FIT RIGHT.  Poor Robin! (When she does stuff like this, it makes me doubt my initial fitting abilities, thinking "I can't be THAT bad, can I?" until I find out that she's jacked up something on her own  Dude!  I didn't jack it up!  It is entirely impossible to know what to do with all that extra fabric. It wasn't THAT BIG the first time.) Luckily, before too much had been done, we decided to re-stitch the shoulder and our optional bust dart and see what happened.  It was all the difference.  Seriously.  Suddenly, everything fit.
Elizabethan underthings - I finished them.  I put them on.  The farthingale was too long so I'm taking a big tuck all the way around between two hoops.  The corset straps needed grommets, so Robin marked where they were supposed to go and I put them in (and yes, one of them is backwards).
Elizabethan bodice - Robin had taken my measurements and I compared those to the pattern.  It seemed odd and didn't make sense.  I decided to cut the pattern size that went with my corset size and add a bit to the seams on the front and side back.  Turns out I didn't need them, and Robin pinned them out.

Robin: I'd taken the train into the city so that we could both use one car to get to Lisa's house. I lugged my cage crinoline, petticoat, corset, drawers and chemise just for the fitting of the Victorian stuff. I also had to carry my Vic skirt and bodice plus the Ren corset.  Talk about a pack mule.  With my slowly healing foot, carrying that stuff almost killed me.  And then, the fitting sessions did me in entirely.

Lisa adjusted my Vic skirt from the waistband. Adjusting it over a hoop skirt that sways uncontrollably is a nightmare.  I had to take frequent "foot elevation" breaks,which slowed the process.  Adjusting from the waist is a total pain in the fanny (and the foot) but sometimes it's the only way.  Standing still while someone fits you is pure torture, with or without injuries.  We were so tired we forgot to take pictures of Rob's skirt - but you can get a glimpse of the plaid here. (And WHAT is that LOOK on my face??? You'd think I'd discovered something nasty in my tote bag!)

The Vic bodice was interesting.  I was worried that it would be too tight in the back as I'd made 3/4" seams there, but Lisa ended up taking it in even more in that area (Rats!  I'll have to take the piping out to resew that!)

The Ren corset was easy as it was only strap placement. (Except that Lisa get the right shape and I just become a cylinder cuz my ribs won't squish and there's not much room between the ribs and the hip bones )All in all, it took us 5 hours, but it had to be done in order to continue our projects. We were mentally exhausted but pleased.  And I just LOVE my pink binding on the Ren corset! (Worn here with Victorian underthings.)

Renaisance Dress

I'm  changing my mind almost every day about my Ren dress. The more I look, the more I see that, unless it is a doublet, the top and skirt are the same fabric.  I had wanted to do the bodice in the same green velvet that my SO will have for his doublet, but I didn't want the heat of a velvet skirt (and it would break my heart to drag vlevet on the ground). I'd originally thought to have the bodice in green velvet and some thicker trim made of green velvet strips  going down the bodice and along the skirt front edge and the bottom, but the more I think of trying to tie Roger's green velvet in with mine, the more problematic it becomes as I look into working with velvet. It seems that cutting velvet strips and sewing them on will be a nightmare and trying to make velvet piping would probably drive me to drink.  I have enough of the clay silk to do make both a bodice and the skirt, so no worries.   So here's my new idea:  Clay dress, skirt and sleeves - find some interesting lining fabric for Spanish or hanging sleeves if I decide on that or just do the paned sleeve with bigass puff and shoulder boulder strips with puff. (Lisa tells me she's doing the shoulder roll with paned sleeves, so that option is out for me.  We-just-cannot-be-twins rule is in effect. Need to find some sort of satin ribbon to decorate with, maybe rust?  Roger's will remain the same: Green velvet doublet, velvet paned sleeves, velvet paned pumpkin pants with that orange charmeuse showing thru.  The closer I get to actually doing it, the simpler my design will become! I'm so confused.
For the fore panel, here's my inspiration:




All of that design was embroidered by one of Queenie's good buddies, Bess of Hardwick on the figure on the left.  I have silk drapery fabric for the background and I'm going to use the wrong side of the fabric to boot.  I've download a bunch of Jacobean embroidery designs of birds and flowers (couldn't find any fantastical animals already digitized) and I'll start hooping soon. Just this part should take a long time and a boatload of thread! After it is embroidered, I'll cut it out and back it with canvass. I'm not making an entire skirt, just a forepanel. In the interest of temperature control, I will fore go the underskirt and just velcro the forepanel to the farthingale. Th figure on the right I like because of the pearl detailing. I don't want the huge sleeves on either examples, though. Huge shoulders, yes. Huge sleeve, not so much.

What I like about the black & white outfit  is the interesting use of trim and THE PEARLS!.  I have amassed a selection of pearls with 50% off coupons and I plan to go pearl crazy, as much as I can. I also like the sheer partlet cuz I don't like exposing my chest to the sun, but I also like the big suportasse that some ladies work and I'm not sure how to get them to play well together.  Most of the pics I've seen of costumes show the partlet open, but, historically speaking, on an older woman such as myself, the partlet would be closed. The partlet on the lady in blue is one example I'm thinking of emulating. I will NOT be making a ruff this time.  I also LOVE Bob Mackie's "joke" version.  To the modern eye it looks over-the-top, but if you look at the "bow portrait" of Elizabeth, it's not even close to over-the-top.  I'm glad I finally found a portrait using bows so I can include them on my dress somewhere! I love bows and I haven't seen them used in a lot of the costumes I've researched.  Bows on!

My pattern is from Margo Anderson's Elizabethan Lady's Wardrobe which you can find here: http://margospatterns.com/Products/ElizWrdrb.html  
I've already made the farthingale, blogged here: http://idlehandsthems-fitsworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/04/renaissance-farthingale-robin.html and am almost finished with the corset:
http://idlehandsthems-fitsworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/05/elizabethan-corset-r.html and, of course, that ridiculous bumroll!http://idlehandsthems-fitsworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/02/who-wants-to-wear-inner-tube-around.html

After spending many hours pouring over online fabric choices, I've decided that the sleeves will be lined in the velvet that I already have for Roger's doublet and pants. I also started the machine embroidery for the fore panel.  This is a lot harder than I thought and will be very expensive. I did wait for a 50% off thread sale at Joannes, but these designs will take a lot of thread! I bought my designs at emblibrary.com.  One of the problems I've encountered is that, depending on what printer you use will give you a different result on the colors that print out. I tried to use the Thread Exchange on their site, but trying to actually BUY a specific thread color is ridiculous. I will just make do with what I've already got. Add to that the fact that I can hardly tell which design is which once it makes it from the embroidery card to my machine and that makes for all sorts of problems. I thought I could just start it and let it stitch while I sewed other parts, but I keep having problems.  Last night, right in the middle of a design, I developed massive thread nests and had to stop mid-design and take the machine apart. Sheesh! I've re-hooped, changed needles, changed tension (resulting in a nest of thread, thank you) and all this after stitching a perfect test pattern. Argghhh! This is going to take forever. Here's a pic of what I've done so far:

February Sunday Sewing Bee or Finessing the Fitting - L&R

Lisa and I have scheduled a sewing day once a month for this year.  So far, we are sticking to it because we have so many projects going and so much fitting to do. Normally, we have two machines going, but I'm taking Lisa's in to the shop (the dealer is closer to me) and my other machine was set up for embroidery, so we made do with one. We turned the dining room into a factory and set to.




 First up, we worked on our Titanic Tea Dress muslins.  The pattern is from Sense and Sensibility and looks easy on the surface, but fitting the bodice is NOT easy. The front and back are all of a piece so adjustments often come with some unexpected side effects elsewhere. For mine, I tried to increase bust and lengthen it, but the way I did it gave me too much material under the kimono sleeve. We ended up using the original muslin with no FBA and adding length to the bottom, the easiest solution for me.

Lisa, in attempting to have enough material for her full bust, cut a size too large for her shoulders, but had a great fit for the FBA.  Instead of recutting, we glued fabric on to the muslin to get a shoulder line that wouldn't fall off her VERY small shoulders.  This is the beginning of the Franken-bodice.

My problem was that I had to add a lot of room for bust coverage plus length in the torso.  I ended up adding too much in the bust area so after angling the bust line and not having success, I removed a chunk of length and added it UNDER the bust.  You can see the glue lines and the vast difference this fitting made.  
Now we are ready to cut in to the fashion materiel - but not today.  Today is for fitting.
Actually we had cutting the fabric on our list of 'to do' but we just didn't have time.  We don't need each other's help to cut.  But we do solve problems together much better than alone.  L.

Material and pattern pieces adorned every surface. We had bolts of muslin and scraps, our Titanic fabrics, the Frock Coat Lisa is making for her S.O., a 1940's muslin, a Ren Corset and Lisa's 1912 lace-insertion slip (needed button holes and my machine is the resident button hole master.

Rob plays with fabric.

I made 12 buttonholes, sewed on 12 buttons.  I sewed together enough of the frock coat to be able to fit the shoulders and back-side seams.  I fit my Titanic bodice (about 6 times with cutting and gluing between each fitting) and then cut a final version.  And I did a first 'look' at a renaissance corset (see below). L.

Ugh!  I cut this out according to the measurements listed on the envelope and this muslin is just... big. Lisa keeps reminding me that envelope information is only a suggestion.


I love the intricacies of the draping but the only place to alter is on the sides and in the back.  Lisa gave me deeper back darts and took the sides in about 4 inches total. We wondered why it looked so dumpy and Lisa was considering even fitting alterations when we had an epiphany - We hadn't accounted for shoulder pads!!! Argghhh!

Now, I have pretty "strait across' shoulders, but this design, without shoulder pads, makes me look slope-shouldered. Below you'll see a shot of the pattern envelope and the solution.

Notice how the fit changes on the left (to viewer) side once the
wadded-up T-shirt stands in for a shoulder pad? It gave the shoulders
much needed form.  I'm still not the same shape as the fashion
rendering, but it makes the dress less dumpy on me. Hopefully,
the polka dots of the fashion fabric will fool the eye around the tummy area even more than the draping!

We also fit a muslin for Lisa's Renaissance corset and decided that she needed to cut a size 6 back and try to mate it to the existing size 20 front - those dang narrow shoulders actually are part of a very narrow back!  We redrew the offending back pieces.  Once Lisa gets the muslin pieces somewhere in the correct size territory, she'll cut out a new muslin of canvass or something that won't stretch to test the final fit before using fashion fabric.  In the meantime, I've decided to make "fitting lacings" where you have lacing grommets on a twill tape that can be stitched to whatever corset you are trying to fit.  I think we can both use this and it beats the heck out of trying to guess where it'll end up.
I'm just going to take a second to whine.  I really have the oddest shape.  It is really hard to fit.  Even when I was very thin, I couldn't find clothes that fit.  Now that I'm heavy, it's insane.  My weight is not evenly distributed.  But to end on a positive note, I am forced to learn a lot about modifying patterns.

All in all, a most productive day after which we were, again, both exhausted.