Success! A little bit at a time

We had a Sewing Day yesterday.  Our plan was to work on Elizabethan corsets.  We also had some odds and ends that needed both brains.  It was a resounding success.  Corsets are hard.  Especially if you are not already thin and firm.  The goal of a corset is to nudge your shape into the 'fashionable' form of the relevant period.  In order for your 'out' to 'fit' you need the inner 'you' to be shoved into shape.  In this case, it's Elizabethan.  We have most of our underthings made, but cannot progress on finishing until we know what our corseted shapes will be.  In addition, we can't move on to our dresses for the same reason.

In my case (Lisa), not only am I bigger than average, I'm also much squishier.  This makes it difficult to know if the pinned corset is actually correct.  In fact pinning the corset on me is quite a chore.  Robin is a bit easier, but it's still not easy.  Aside from basic fit, there's also a lot of decisions around what kind of fabric to use, and how many layers.  We each made a muslin for fitting.  Muslin stretches.  Once we each got a muslin that fit, after at least three iterations, we needed to use the muslin as a pattern to make sure that we accounted for stretching.  We also wanted to keep the layers to a minimum.  We expect to wear these costumes in very warm weather.  We ended up with coutil and linen.  It feels amazing.  The picture at top is Lisa's corset, with both layers cut and the first bone in it's channel.  That's what we wanted to accomplish, and we did.
Here are a couple fitting pictures to illustrate the challenges of fitting:

In the top picture the fit looks like a traditional corset fit.  WRONG.  The instruction clearly state that there should be a 2 to 4 inch gap of the same width all the way down the back.  Do-over!  the lower picture shows a 2.5 inch gap all the way down.  This is the correct fit.  It also demonstrates how hard it is to pin correctly.  As soon as I let go to take the picture, the back slid down, distorting the view.  Also, if I didn't pin very closely, there were nasty pulls that made the the fit look wrong even though it was actually really good.

Wearing our gowns - Titanic Luncheon

I couldn't find a way to disguise my knee walker!

Lisa in front of the Palace Hotel entrance

 Lisa and I signed up for a Tour of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco with a luncheon following.  This was put on by Vintage Days which we found on Facebook through the PEERS group.  Everyone showed up in wonderful outfits, some hand made, many vintage found, but all beautiful.  Here are some photos of the event.  We even made some new friends! If you want more pics, Jeanine has them up  on her event site:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2849015795703.2110612.1568717895&type=3

Do you think we'll all survive the voyage?

Jeanine, Shannon, Lisa and ?

The Garden Court as seen from the "Ladies Room", not a restroom, but a room where ladies could take off their corsets and relax for a bit.

OK, so I'm REALLY proud of the hat I made for Lisa.  I think it is better than mine.  I guess I used all my creativity on hers and hat nothing left!

Photography is catching on during Edwardian Times!

Architectural detail above Garden Court

A bit more architectural detail.  This is truly a lovely hotel well restored to almost its original glory.

Are we heading for the life boats?  No, just lunch....

Renaissance Farthingale - Robin

I finished the Renaissance farthingale as much as possible.  Until I can stand up on two feet, AND have the corset made, this is it.  The tubing is the same plastic stuff as Lisa used.  I had a difficult time inserting it until I realized that tighter is NOT better.  The tighter I pushed it, the more it wanted to twist.  Once I let the tubing have some ease in the casing, it responded well.

Here's  a close-up of the casing, made with twill tape.  I made the ends cross over, thinking I'd be able to maneuver the ends out to join them.  WRONG!  I ended up undoing some stitches about 3 inches in length to be able to join the tubes.

And just because I am proud of it, here is my first flat felled seam ever.  I used flat felled seams so the tubing wouldn't catch on anything while inserting it and to enclose all the seams.  All seams on Renaissance underwear were enclosed due to the abuse the garments took from washing.  I'm sure my farthingale will be icky grubby from dragging in the dirt at the Renaissance Faire!

Next up for us both is the Ren Corset, which promises to be a fitting nightmare!

1912 Tea Dress - Robin

Here's a shot of Lisa's 1912 Tea Dress after we got most of it together on our Sewing Bee.  Now on to what I did!

I mad a vest for my boyfriend for the PEERS Titanic Ball.  Here are a few shots. Sadly for me, but not for him, he lost weight between fittings and the vest is now a little too big for him.   Why does that never happen to me???

Back view of the vest.  The front material of polyester brocade raveled like crazy, even though I finished all the edges before I sewed the pieces together.  That's why I decided to topstitch the whole thing, for added strength.  That also meant that when I found out it was too large for him, it was an "Oh, well....." moment.  I'm not taking the topstitching out.

I made an evening head dress out of some leftover sash material (that pesky Silkessence that Lisa and I love to hate) and added some beading, recalling the Oriental influence at the time.  Here it is posed on my Gibson Girl wig, not quite the perfect time period, but close enough for my purposes.

Here's the dress, completed.  I went through several iterations of trim before I settled for "simpler is better". To me, it STILL looks like a bad Mother of the Bride dress.  I liked Lisa's take on the dress much better than mine.

I had my boyfriend try to level the hem, but he had a difficult time, as I am in a cast and had to stand on one leg for him to pin. It took him forever and it was still uneven because I kept hiking my hip to support my weight on one leg.  I'll fix that as soon as I can stand on two legs again!

I added some cheap ribbon and even cheaper flowers that I cut off of fake ones from Michaels.  Lisa bought a bunch of different flowers when they were having a 50% off sale. Yay!

We'll get better pics of both our day outfits at the Titanic luncheon, hats included.
This week is taxes and the hat, neither of which is guaranteed to be finished on time.

All in all, I hated working on this dress.  I found the bodice difficult to fit properly if one has anything over a B cup.  Of course, after finishing, I came across a tutorial on how to fit an "all-in-one bodice".  Too late for me now, but at least I'll know what to do next time....if there ever IS a next time for this pattern.

Project Update and Housecleaning - L

While Robin struggles to get back online and get some pictures posted of all the work she's been doing, I'm sharing a phone pic of us at the Titanic dance (where I injured myself dancing).  Rob is wearing a cast and I had taken off my gloves for the evening (too hot!).  In addition, my carefully curled hair had drooped badly.  BUT here are our dresses! We will have better pictures after this weekend when we tour the Palace hotel and have lunch for the Titanic anniversary.

Now that my dress and hat are done, I am taking a few days to clean up my sewing room.  It seems my 'sewing room' has spread like mold to encompass my bedroom and dining room, with outposts in the laundry, kitchen and entryway.  As I'm organizing, I'm trying to prioritize upcoming projects and remember why I bought some of my fabric.  I'm also sorting my yarn because I got a new loom and both a sock knitting book and a sock knitting board for Christmas.  And of course I went out and bought a TON of new yarn.  I took a quick picture of my 3 large yarn baskets (what was I thinking?) And a bag with fabric for two dress that I bought because...well...it was on sale!
Here's what I have on my plate:
Finish the men's frock coat (1/3 done)
Make a renaissance corset.
Finish the rest of the renaissance outfit (need the corset first)
  ('finish the rest' just sounds so easy)
Re-do the muslin for the steampunk Maleficent bodice.
Make the lace bustle for Maleficent.
Make the metal bustle that I no longer need but desperately want.
Shorten the black skirt and petticoat that I recently made.
Make a 1910's day dress (can be used for everyday).
Make a 1940's wrap dress (can be used for everyday).
Make a steampunk military styled jacket.
Make a Dickens day dress.
Whatever the 1912 Project throws at us!
and this is just what I can remember....

I've got 1 grocery bag and 3 bins of fabric plus a box of large remnants.  Oh, and also three 10 yard +  rolls.  And who knows what else I will find while I tidy my space.  I've been doing this for less than a year and it's taken over all my spare time and space.  And I'm not upset about it at all!

Titanic Tea Dress - bad photos - Lisa

As I mentioned, I'm wearing this dress to the PEERS dance on April 6th.  I'm also leaving on vacation tomorrow and won't be back until the afternoon of the 6th.  I'm getting off the plane and getting dressed for dancing.  I might be too old for these shenanigans.  Time will tell!

I propped the hat on the dress form but this pictures doesn't do it justice.  There are more pictures below, and better pictures in the prior post.

I made net under-sleeves  and still have modest hopes of adding some lace or ribbon the the ends of them.  But I may be out of time.  I also have to do my taxes, laundry and packing....all before tomorrow.

I love the dress but it was a huge time sink. Partly because my sewing machine was broken for two weeks so I did a lot of it by hand.  Then, it turned out that a lot of the finishing had to be done by hand too.

Here's a tour....   The back is not QUITE done.  I need to press/steam it to get pin marks out and the sash isn't totally sewn down. I really like the little chiffon rosette at top of the back (hides the top of the zipper).  The pretty lace layer that hangs down was originally planned to be tucked into the sash but Robin suggested it look better hanging.  And she is right.

Here is the best view of the hat and another view of the net sleeves.

And finally, the whole thing, from the side.

You can see the big feather on the hat (along with my knitting baskets, paper shredder, a hanging petticoat and my son's math homework).

If I don't get anything else done, this will, at least, be wearable. Again, apologies for the dim any blurry pictures.  Took these at 4am with my phone before I left for work.

Sewing day - Crippling progress - L

Sorry for the bad pun....Robin broke her foot.  Badly.  Like, need a cast and isn't weight bearing...
No dancing for her.
Instead, we worked on our titanic dresses.  This was my last chance to get help with fitting since I'm leaving on vacation on Friday and won't be back until THE DAY I'm wearing the dress for the first time.  Ouch.

Robin needed help to make her layers level. This was made all the more difficult by the fact that I had to stand on one leg and "be level!". Not easy.  And we brainstormed about ideas to jazz up her dress which is just not working for her.  (It's a horrid Mother-of-the-Bride Dress gone dreadfully wrong. )It's possible that her fit problem is related to the slant of her shoulders.  She can't change that, and kimono sleeves have no shoulder seams to adjust.

Robin decided to make my hat so I would have it with me.  She really has a talent for this.  Left on my own, I would have ended up with a gull feather Stonehenge surrounded by origami cranes.  Instead, I have a lovely garden tilted at a rakish angle.
Lisa doesn't understand that a gull feather Stonehenge surrounded by origami cranes would be awesome (in a different environment or for a different purpose than we have here). [really?  I can't imagine where, except in my brain where it does, in fact, seem awesome] My talent is taking a crappy looking decorative hat, shaping it so a human could wear it, and decorating the heck out of it so that not much of the ugliness is left to show. I do like my "rakish angle", though. Somewhat inspired, given the exactly round hat shape I started with and the fact that Lisa DOES have a difficult-to-fit head.  Since we cannot have matching hats, mine will just have to be MORE AWESOME than hers! If I get around to it.....

And we did the final fit on my dress, whereupon I sewed up the remaining machine seams, added a period incorrect zipper and pinned the sash.  Now I have to sew the final hem, tack down the lining inside the bodice, tack the sash in place and decorate.  And by that, I mean any additional tucks and tassels along with the sash ends that hang down the back.  And a little something to hide the zipper since the zip totally shows.

I love the way Lisa has mixed her fabrics.  I love her colors and I love the way she's taken off with this simple pattern and made it her own. When we started, we were worried that we'd be too "twinsy", but there's no way that's gonna happen now.