For years I've wanted to attend a victorian ball. Well, I'm still not getting to go as finances are too stretched at the moment (tickets yes, tickets plus hotel plus fabric for my dress plus something for the hubby to wear, unfortunatley not). But I am determined I'm going at some point this year, so I've started work on a dress.

Since a good percentage of the potential balls are Dickensian rather than victorian, I decided this one needed to be an 1860s ballgown. After a bit of googling I found it - pink, not too frilly but frilly enough. I love the moire effect on the expanse of skirt, the unique lace drape at the bottom of the skirt and the chiffon puffs on the bertha. Its just yummy!

Unfortunately I couldn't find the original source of this pic, just a few couples on tumblr. I'm trying to do better with my referencing, and since I started trying I've realised just how bad the internet community is for 'stealing' images.

Using my shiny new dress form, I started by marking out the lines for the bodice. I used the diagram for a similar dress from the same era given in Janet Arnolds Patterns of Fashion 2 to determine where the seam lines should be, as I couldn't really see them on the picture. I marked the lines with ribbon, not forgetting to make sure the bust seam actually goes over the bust point.

 I marked the grain lines on four pieces of scrap fabric, and refered to Patterns of Fashion again to make sure the grain of each piece was aligned correctlyy. I then pinned the piece in place along that grain line before smoothing out to the ribbon lines and pinning. The last step was to mark the seam lines in pen before going to the next piece.

Once you've done all the pieces, mark notches on each seam line before you unpin and use the resulting pieces as the pattern to cut the toile.

Next stage is to cut and sew the toile. I always put a zip in my toiles as my hubby is not the best with pins - I think he's so scared of sticking me that they end up barely in at all. All good untill I decided to try it on with my corset, at which point I realised my corset is MUCH to small for me now. It just about does up but does very unattractive things to my bust! So I'll be coming back to the bodice fitting as soon as I can get a new corset made. Since this was my day off, I decided to just push on and figure out the skirt and trimming in toile form.
The skirt turned out to be very simple - I checked the total circumference of the ball gown in patterns of fashion, which converniently also tells you what size hoop it was worn over. My hoop is a bit bigger, so I added a bit of extra for that and ended up with 3 lengths of 60" wide fabric in my skirt. I quartered the fabric and the waist, and attached at those points, then added 4" pleats at each side of those points.  Because I wanted to hide the seams, I started with the back seam hidden inside one of the pleats.
I then took the fabric that was left, matched middle to middle on each of the 4 quarters and pleated to fit. This almost worked out but not quite - I ended up with one visible seam. Fortunately when I went to the fabric shop, there was a 45" wide fabric option I liked - 4 lengths of 45" wide will give me the same circumference as the 3 lengths of 60", but will allow me to hide all my seams perfect.

Yes, thats my messy kitchen - I took the day off to sew and I was determined that it would be a day of sewing, and cleaning could wait till the evening!
I think thats enough for one post, so I'll show you my trimming experiments next time.

This has been a long time coming but was finally triggered by the awful  nightdress in the previous post- all the fitting problems were in the back and  seeing what's going on with your own back is tricky enough, actually pinning in  alterations is impossible. 
 
So, in order to fix it i needed a dress form that at looks like me.  I  padded mine out years ago but my shape has changed dramatically since then, so  it was time to do it again.  I followed instructions from various blogs so I'm not gonna do a full  tutorial, just a quick description and my favourite tips.
 
Step 1 Make up a simple princess seam dress pattern in non stretch scrap  fabric. Add a zip at centre back. 
 
Step 2 Put the dress on and fit the heck out of it.  Seriously,  we're aiming for skin tight here, and if it's too tight to move that's fine. It's worth trying to get your seams straight too, as you may want to use them to line up future projects. 
 
Step 3 make up your super fitted version in sturdy (upholstery weight) 100% cotton fabric
 
Step 4 place the cover on the form. Start padding the form in layer,  working on the bottom by flipping the cover and the top by opening the zip.  In most cases you'll want to start with the dummy smaller than your measurements,  as this gives you the chance to adjust vertically,  and to add any lumps and bumps. Use pins to attatch the padding but make sure they're not gonna get you later. 
 
Top tip: after adding a layer of padding,  try wrapping in cling film.  This squashes everything down and gives a lovely firm base for the next layer. 
Top tip: use a well fitting bra or purchased bra cups to help get the right shape for your boobs
Top tip: when your all done, spray lightly with water till damp not dripping.  The heavy cotton will shrink slightly and give you a lovely snug fitting cover.
What not to do: as you may have noticed, I forgot to take into account how much length would be taken up by the width, and ended up with a cover that's a little too short. 
 
An interesting thing to note is that my dummy has lost almost all its neck - I've always found the distance from shoulder to bust to be much too short, so I'm actually pretty happy about this. I do need to figure out how to finish the raw bit around the neck though.

So here's the reason for the lack of updates - a nightgown and dressing gown set. For some reason this project was an absolute nightmare, leaving me completely demotivated and unable to get myself off the sofa and to the sewing machine in the evenings. I'm determined to finish  what I start, and to destash as much as possible before we move flats in a few weeks, but maybe I should have shoved this one in a bag and left it to stew!

The dressing gown wasn't too bad - I'm happier with the finish than on my previous version, although I still have some drag lines down the center front. I need to figure out how to solve that because i rather fancy making some of these in real silk to sell on Etsy - I love the elegance of a fitted robe, and it doesn't seem to be available to buy unless you're willing to pay £500 plus. I've used buttons to fasten this time, as I found the satin belt on the satin robe just kept slipping undone. Apart from that and a bit of extra hand finishing its the same pattern as before.

I think the nightgown is where it really went wrong! I used a lekala pattern, and while the front was sort of OK the back was awful - one piece cut on the grain, which ended up tight across my bum but baggy and creased at my waist. To be fair to the pattern it suggested a stretch net as the fabric, but I'm not convinced the result would have been much better.

I recut the back on the bias and took the side seams in just a smidge, which improved things immensely. It's still not great though, as you can see from the side view below - tipping way towards the back.

All that gripping done, I still like this design - I think the lace section at the front is really clever (stash lace I bought about 3 years ago for bra making by the way - told you I was destashing! One day, when I've recovered, I might try to draft my own version and get it right!

Anyway, its all done and my Mojo is back! More posts about what I've been doing with my mojo tomorrow :)

Long time no post! (I'll tell you a little about why in my next post) Anyway, this is my update on what I did over the easter weekend - all written at the time but I had one picture I needed to take and just didn't have the motivation until now!

First and most significant, I finished my quilt! Phew! After breezing through the assembly of the patchwork, it all slowed down to a crawl when it came to quilting the layers together. My attempt at machine quilting was a disaster, there was just too much fabric to get it under the arm of the machine and still be able to control. Rather than mess up something that was turning out rather gorgeous, I decided to hand quilt it :) many hours in front of the TV later, here it is!
I'm super pleased with it :) there's a couple of creases in the backing, but no one's going to see that but me :) next time, I'll be taping the backing flat to the table or floor before putting the wadding and top on - didn't know that trick for this one and getting all 3 flat and lined up was a nightmare!

Project number 2 was a remake of the red wool lekala dress :) the original accidently went in the machine at the wrong temperature, and shrank too much for me to wear it :( it will be going to the charity shop for the benefit of someone slimer who wears their skirts shorter!
The new version is the same fabric, but prewashed on 40 so its much thicker and slightly felted. It's lost the slinkiness, which I'm two ways about- the fineness was beautiful, but it did mean that it clung to bits of me that I don't think are beautiful (tummy!) Overall I'm glad I did it as I've ended up with a more wearable, washable dress!

Project 3 was a super quick and easy slip - thin black satin sewn into a tube with an elastic waist band. Hopefully this will prevent some of the static cling I've had going on with a couple of my dresses :)