Phew! That was a long day of sewing! But for once I achieved what I hoped to achieve :)

I worked some more on the petticoat - I'm now happy with the volume at the bottom, but made a silly miscalculation with the net which means its not wide enough 1/3 of the way down, so that need to be unpicked. I also need to replace the curtain lining with white lining fabric, but the top half is the final product.

I finished the mockup, including marking necklines and adding sleeves. I foolishly didn't take pictures before I cut it apart to use as a pattern. Oh well! I then adjusted a couple of pieces to line up with the scalloped edges properly - I need the points to fall on seam lines to meet up with the lace which will cover the seamlines.

Last but by no means least, I cut out: 2 layers of tulle, a layer of silk, a layer of lining fabric and interlining - dress net for below the waist and cotton lawn for above the waist. My back is gonna ache tomorrow!

Progress check:
Mockups
Before anything else, complete as many mock-ups as necessary to make sure the pattern design and fit is perfect.  DONE
Calculate yardages required using perfected mockup DONE (ok, mockups not finished but its close enough)
After purchasing lace, adjust pattern if necessary to place points of scallops over seams. DONE

Shopping
Foundation materials
-White Coutil (Purchased, www.fabricland.co.uk)
-Wide Plastic Boning (Purchased, fabricland)
-Narrow Plastic Boning (Purchased, Fabricland)
-Power Net (Purchased, fabricland)
-Hook and Eye tape (Purchased, Fabricland)
-Silk Dupion for lining (Purchased, Silk Baron)

Interior Fabrics
-Polyester lining (Purchased, Fabricland)
-Dress net to interline Skirt (Purchased, fabricland)
-Cotton Lawn to interline bodice (Purchased, fabricland)
-Horsehair Braid for hem (Purchased, fabricland)

Outer Fabrics
-Power woven White silk Dupion or Duchesse Satin (Purchased, Silk Baron)
-Tulle (Purchased, Fabricland)
-Lace (Purchased, Carrington Bridal)
  – must have a Scalloped edge, between 6” and 10” deep, the deeper the better
  - Must have (or be pieced to) long strips, 2-3" wide, which can be used for        covering seams.
  - Must have motifs which can be used to decorate skirt panels - about 7" long, more than one design would be great
   - Must be able to peice together to completely cover bodice and sleeves
Narrow Piping cord for Roleux loop (Purchased, Fabricland)
Cover buttons (Purchased, Fabricland)
Zip (Purchased, Fabricland)

Inner structure
Cut out coutil DONE
Cut out Power Net DONE
Cut out lining DONE
Assemble Mostly done - bottom edge left unfinished in case adjustments are required.
Add Boning DONE
Add Hooks and Eyes DONE

Petticoat
Draft Pattern DONE
Cot out and assemble
Add net
Add detachable train support

Lining
Cut out lining DONE
Assemble lining
Attach Lining
Attach zip
Attach inner structure to lining at side seams

Dress
Cut out Fabric DONE
Cut out interlining DONE
Cut out Net DONE
Hand tack interlining to fabric
Hand tack lace to fabric to Godet level, front and back seams
Stitch seams to Godet level, front and back seams
Apply Godet to net
Apply godet to fabric
Stitch and Trim side seams in net
Stitch side seams in fabric
Make and apply rolleaux button loops
Cover Buttons DONE
Stitch on buttons
Make sleeves
Attach sleeves
Cut skirt facing strips
Apply facing and horsehair to hem of skirt

Trimming
Cut out lace
Pin on lace
Allow to stretch and reposition
Attach lace

So now I'm officially engaged I've booked myself 4 sewing days over the next 4 weeks, and today is the first one.
Its lunchtime so I'm taking a break to collect my thoughts, and then going to collect me new sewing machine :) So what've I done today? So far, I've worked on the foundation garments and the fit of the mockup.
I basically took apart the underbodice that I'd made and reassembled it, using white hook and eye tape, replacing the boning (which had got rather bent up form being stored in a box), and replacing the powernet with a slightly larger panels and with a nice neat, seams on the inside finish. Its not finished off but I'm happy with the fit and shape now.
The second foundation garment I've realized I need is a petticoat. I used left over powernet to make the top section of the petticoat, darting it at the waist and using wide elastic as a waistband. This will be worn under the underbodice so hopefully it wont show through. The bottom section isn't wide enough yet, I plan to add two more panels and angle the panel more to keep it the same at the top. I think I'll add an extra row of steel at the bottom to make it a little stronger, and then net over the top to stop any lines showing.

The other thing I've done is work on the fit of the bodice. I fixed one problem a week ago - the fact that it was just too tight on the bust. It didn't actually look bad but it felt bad, and I discovered when I tried it on with the seams over the bust unstitched that the problem was that the curve of the bust started too low down, so my boobs were being squashed down. I pinned it with it on and redrew the seam lines, feel much better now!
The remaining problem was an annoying wrinkle under my boobs which appeared whenever I stood less than perfectly straight. With the help of my mum, I figured out that it was due to the front being too long (now I write this I realise its probably related to the problem above), an we fixed it with a 1cm horizontal tuck across the front.

And finally, a couple of pictures of the skirt over the hoop, trying out bustleing.

So this is the second mock up. The bodice still needs fitting adjustments, but I'm happy with the skirt :) In this version, I've stitched horsehair braid around the bottom to get an idea of how it might end up looking. Its looks great on the dummy, but only after I drape it how I want it! Conclusion: I need to add a petticoat to hold things in the shape I want!
I'm thinking one like the bottom left on this page, with a hoop, net over the top to hide the lines and then a removable train supporting section. I want to dance at my reception so this seems like the most practical combination.
And now i'm up to date with all the things I've done in the past and all the photos on my camera!

So this is my first attempt at the underbodice - I was actually surprised with how effective it was, it really did flatten my tummy without feeling too uncomfortable.
The pattern ws made by drawing in underbust and low hip cutting lines on the pattern I came up with below, cutting the coutil exactly to this pattern and the powernet about half this size.
The instructions I followed are here
However, I do think its a little too tight - its difficult to do up, and even more difficult to swivel round after I've done it up at the front. I think the coutil section is fine, its the powernet that needs more space - I guess since powernet comes in different strengths this is something that probably just comes down to trial and error.
It also needs boning added at the back to keep it from bunching up vertically, and I need to find white lingery elastic to finish the edges of the powernet.

So this is my first mockup, using the patten drafted above. Its made from cheap curtain lining with a zip bunged in (since you can't pin things on your own back!) I've discovered a camera with timer and tripod are invaluable when trying to fit things on yourself - you can get shots from all angles without having to twist round to point the camera at the mirror. For this first bit i was most interested in making the bodice fit right - I (mostly) like my curves, and my boyfriend loves them, so what I'm aiming for is something that fits like a glove but doesn't smoosh.

So what do we think of this first mock up?
1. Yuck my tummy sticks out! Plan for this is an underbodice from hip to underbust level, made of coutil at the front and power net at the back, fastening with hooks and eyes and lightly boned with rigeline.
2. Top back is too wide - plan is to move the shoulders out to deal with this, which will probably mean I need to trim the arm holes
3. On the subject of armholes, these need filling in at the front as this is going to be a dress with sleeves (counterintuitively larger than neccessary armholes make itdifficult to move your arms)
4. The zip needs to be a bit longer - I had to wiggle to get in!
5. Its too tight across the bust, so I'm going to add about 1cm to the curve on the side front pieces.
6. I want to bring the front side seams in, co the center front panel is narrower - just to keep nice lines when it comes to adding the godet and lace.

The other thing I did was work out the proportions for the godet - I printed out a couple of shots of the dress and guesstimated things like what proportion of the total height was taken up by the godet, where they fell in relation to knees, waist etc. This let me draft rough patterns - basicly segments of circles with radius equal to the length of the gap in the side front seams for the front godets, and the same but with a big extension for the train and making it as wide as the fabric would allow for the back.
Its tricky to get the effect cos the fabric just hangs but I think I'm on the right track.

This bit was done months ago, but I want to show the whole process so into the blog it goes!
The first thing I did was to look through my pattern box to see what I could find with approximately the right shapes. I settled on Butterick 6583 for the top, which I made many moons ago and and which had a really nice fit, and has shoulders (although unfortunatly not sleeves). In fact, thats probably the first serious bit of dressmaking I did. The other pattern I used was Butterick 6533, which has the kind of shape to the skirt I nee to start with - straight at the front and slightly trained at the back. The fishtail shape will come from godets inserted into the side front and center back seams.
I traced out the pieces from each pattern and overlayed them, matching the waistlines marked on the patterns. There are 3 parts - front, side front and back. I combined the two back pieces of 6583 into one, and raised the necklines at both front and back - since I don't know yet where the neckline will be I'm starting as high as possible - you can always take off excess fabric but never add on fabric you haven't got!