Simplicity 1777 Sew Along

Melissa and I and are doing a Retro Sew-along! For our first design we chose Simplicity 1777. Here is a picture of the pattern and the material I will be using. If anyone wants to join, let us know. The more the merrier!

1880's Chemise Finished.

Yes, I actually did finish this, almost *cough* a year later. I just used a simple white flat lace I already had to create the neckline casing for adjustment. It is a synthetic, so obviously not historically accurate, but it was what I had on hand. I would like to make another one of these from a light weight linen, so when I do I will get better trim.

Chemise being worn with gifted corset.

The simple ribbons through the top allows me to adjust the neckline as needed.

The gifted Victorian Corset & Bustle.

For my Bustle Dress, which is needed October 11th, I need an entire set of underpinnings. I never make myself anything which is why I always miss events, well that and illnesses, whether mine or the kids, so it was a great help when Mara offered me a corset she has made as a mock-up, and her old bustle! This has saved me so much time! I really do not think I would have had time with work to get all of this done, particuarly when these two things are so time consuming. The bustle works perfectly, and though the corset is a bit small, I will just allow it to have a bit more room in the back than it should until I can loose a few pounds.

I had been saving this cute little trim for when I made my corset, but now that I have something that will work for the time being (obviously I should have one made for my shape but its not going to happen for a while), I decided to go ahead and put it on the corset I was gifted. It took me a few hours to do the top and the bottom, but I really like how it looks with the lovely silk.

Here is the corset with its original trim. It was constructed from a muted fleshy-peach silk, with flat-steal boning. It is very well made, she did a wonderul job on it.

I pulled off the other trim and sewed this one on by hand. The busk comes up high enough that I really do not need the ribbon at the top--I don't think. If it turns out I do, I will just tack one in place. Because this trim is cream and the binding on the corset is white, I took a simple flat cream lace I had and bound the bottom edge as well, so it did not look so stark (not shown).

Here is a close-up of the corset over my chemise. I realy do love this trim, At one time I had enough to trim the top and bottom, which was my intent, but I cannot figure out what happened to the rest.

Side view of the corset, worn over my chemise, with the bustle Mara gave me. 

A little bit more on the 18th Century Corset.

I finally transfered these pics so I could uploads them, but admittedly not too much progress has happened. I have yet to make up my mind on what I am doing for the binding so I have seriously been stalling. I did however, get both linings basted in, and one half's grommet holes done. Not quite as neat as I would like but at least they are done. 

 

I had this nice piece of vntage cotton--lovely and soft--that I thought would make a nice lining.

I took the corset, and making certain the it was flat across the top and middle, pinned it to the lining. It is important that there is no wrinkles in the cotton when you do this. You want it perfectly flat all the way down to the waistline; from waist down I did it was done differently.

This is not the best picture to illustrate this, but I will try and explain. There is "give" in the shape of the corset from the waistline down, as the pieces move and spread to go over the hips, to make this work our correctly, once i had to top part pinned smooth, I flattened out the bottom pieces as much as I could to give that spread, then cut all the way around--from waistline on one side, around the bottom, to the waistline on the other side. One it was cut out, starting from the center back I started to pin the tabs, slicing straight up the middle between them so there was enough fabric to so spead out. The most difficult piece is where the side front/front meet, but I used this same process, moving and flattening the pieces as I went. You have to pin each piece really thoroughly or they will slip.

Once it was all pinned, I started to baste the lining to the silk by hand. I thought about doing it by machine but felt I had much better control if I did it this way instead. Now the top and bottom (including tabs) are basted on WITHOUT turning under or finishing the edges, this is because of the binding. At center front and center back the edges were turned under. I gave myself a good 1/2" inch for this, It not only made it easier to pin, it gaves it more heft for when I sewed in the grommet holes.

I trimmed all the excess away. I was sirprised at how neat it turned out to be.

It's that time again...

Yes, it is that time again; when I actually FINALLY get off my fanny and post to the blog, and plan out what may--or may not--get done for Halloween. After several custom costume transactions that turned out to be more of a pain then they were worth, I am taking a serious step back from it and concentrating on actually sewing some things for myself and my family. I have an event coming up a Bustle Era event coming up on October 11th, and then Halloween looming in front of me, so I need to get moving on the costumes for both. So I need to complete the following outfits:

1:Bustle Dress--including petticoat, chemise (I get to cheat on corset and Bustle because the lovely Mara gave me those), drawers (still not sure on these), Hat and ruticle. Hey no need to panic I still have 13 days??

2:Assasin Costume--My daughter saw a cool cape pattern from Simplicity and wants that for her costume. What the rest of the thing will entail we have yet to decide.

3:Link Costume--Can't remember which one my son said but I know it did not involve chainmail. Going to try and use more historic shapes and fabrics so he can use this for other things as well.

4:Anime Costume--Don't know which one this is. Making it for my son's friend.

5:Husband's Halloween Costume--this could end up being either Hagrid or the Jolly Green Giant.

6:Simplicity 1777--Almost forgot about this one! I am supposed to be doing a sew along for this dress with Melissa. Need to get going....

1880s Chemise

Just doubled fabric and cut out basic shape from muslin I had on hand. We will see how it turns out.

18th and 19th Century Corsets.

Though I am working on my 18th century stuff, an event came up for some 19th century bustle dress goodness, so now I need to get going on that as well. I don't have much time, and no money, to put out on the Victorian ensemble, so am having to go with whatever is in my ever dwindling stash.

I ironed down the edges on all the pieces of my 18th century corset and stitched them down. I saw this technique used on a couple blogs and thought I would try it, as I am hoping it will neaten up the finished product. Mt next step is to whip stitch the pieces together.

For the Victorian corset I did not want to waste time drafting, so I found a corset pattern with pieces close to the shape I wanted, then did some serious tweaking. I lengthened it, the reshaped the pieces over the hips and some at the tops. I used some beautiful fuschia Moire taffeta for the corset and cotton duck for the interface. Was just getting ready to start on it when I discovered I have no more corset busks! NOoooooo! Will have to hurry and order one tomorrow. Guess I will start on the chemise or something.