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nuranarStar dress pictures!
The fabrics. White silk taffeta, and blue silk taffeta - white or silver one way, teal the other way. I think it's what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
koshka_the_cat used for her Marie Antoinette dress, and it's gorgeous. I only got 2 yards, and I'm afraid to look to see if they have more. I absolutely don't need a stash of silk taffeta (Expense! Money! Ahhh!) but man.
Cutting out the bodice lining - cream sateen from my stash. See this weird-shaped already-used end?
Couldn't be better for laying out my pieces. :) That's what's interesting about this project. Everything for the 1915 dress seemed to have obstacles, but this one has just cruised along. Even fitting a bodice over a new corset.
Trying my new bum pad.
Over the cage? Umm... don't think so.
Under is much better. Just pull up a couple tapes at the waist to re-balance the hoops.
Incidentally, Dad measured this petticoat for me to figure out my skirt lengths - or more accurately, how much longer the back and sides need to be than the front. That striped petticoat is round all around. So with the cage balanced, all he had to do was measure from the hem of the petticoat to the bottom of the cage. Yay for Dad!
Drafting a base sleeve pattern from Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaker's Guide, then drafting the Star sleeve. This is just getting the sleeve curve right, since it's split at the top of the shoulder, where neither seam nor pattern fold are.
Incidentally, with my latest order of Do-Sew from Clotilde, I also snagged a $7 roll of tracing paper. It's awesome for making temporary patterns that I don't mind cutting up, or templates like this one for the head of the Star sleeve.
Back to the skirts. Here is the organza overskirt, seams sewn and hem rolled.
The plain gathering might have been wasted effort. Even washed, organza is so boofy that none of my nicely-lined up stitches showed. Even stroked gathers might not have been visible. I did use cotton organza for the waistband on this one.
Finished and hung. (Needs a hook and eye at the waist, and of course looping up and trimming. Will be done later.) I promise it's actually well-balanced to go over the cage.
This is the entire taffeta skirt, seams and hem sewn. It's unreal what a neat and small (but solid) packet it folded into.
Pleats all pinned in!
Detail of pinned pleats. The opening is in the center back. On the left is an underlap that will be sewn down to the waistband. On the right is another unpleated inch of fabric that will be wrapped around behind the pleats, matching the underlap on the other side.
And the inside front. 4" folded down in front, as opposed to 1" in back.
I took a few detail shots, in case anyone is curious about how mid-nineteenth-century skirts are set.
Here I'm basting the pleats together, left to right. (Southpaw ahoy!)
The waistband is a separate strip of material, commonly a finished flat tube of fabric, or a sturdy ribbon. Here I am using 1" wide cream-colored Petersham ribbon. (Petersham is grosgrain ribbon without a woven edge; it is used often for millinery, because the lack of the edge means that it can be ironed into a curve to wrap smoothly around the crown of a hat.) The ribbon is whipped securely edge-to-edge with the pleats. This is on the inside, showing the layers of fabric.
Outside.
Oh, and this is an official costume project: I've bled on it!
Finished! (The deep hem is because I want to be able to use this skirt for other occasions.)
Back to the bodice, which took a fair amount of sewing (flat lining, darts, and boning casings) but is still pretty simple.
Inside, showing the darts and sewn boning casings, inside darts to the left, and tape sewn to the center front of the lining.
Whew! Enough for now. I hope to finish sewing on the strip of blue to the white taffeta skirt tonight.
The fabrics. White silk taffeta, and blue silk taffeta - white or silver one way, teal the other way. I think it's what
koshka_the_cat used for her Marie Antoinette dress, and it's gorgeous. I only got 2 yards, and I'm afraid to look to see if they have more. I absolutely don't need a stash of silk taffeta (Expense! Money! Ahhh!) but man. Cutting out the bodice lining - cream sateen from my stash. See this weird-shaped already-used end?
Couldn't be better for laying out my pieces. :) That's what's interesting about this project. Everything for the 1915 dress seemed to have obstacles, but this one has just cruised along. Even fitting a bodice over a new corset.
Trying my new bum pad.
Over the cage? Umm... don't think so.
Under is much better. Just pull up a couple tapes at the waist to re-balance the hoops.
Incidentally, Dad measured this petticoat for me to figure out my skirt lengths - or more accurately, how much longer the back and sides need to be than the front. That striped petticoat is round all around. So with the cage balanced, all he had to do was measure from the hem of the petticoat to the bottom of the cage. Yay for Dad!
Drafting a base sleeve pattern from Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaker's Guide, then drafting the Star sleeve. This is just getting the sleeve curve right, since it's split at the top of the shoulder, where neither seam nor pattern fold are.
Incidentally, with my latest order of Do-Sew from Clotilde, I also snagged a $7 roll of tracing paper. It's awesome for making temporary patterns that I don't mind cutting up, or templates like this one for the head of the Star sleeve.
Back to the skirts. Here is the organza overskirt, seams sewn and hem rolled.
The plain gathering might have been wasted effort. Even washed, organza is so boofy that none of my nicely-lined up stitches showed. Even stroked gathers might not have been visible. I did use cotton organza for the waistband on this one.
Finished and hung. (Needs a hook and eye at the waist, and of course looping up and trimming. Will be done later.) I promise it's actually well-balanced to go over the cage.
This is the entire taffeta skirt, seams and hem sewn. It's unreal what a neat and small (but solid) packet it folded into.
Pleats all pinned in!
Detail of pinned pleats. The opening is in the center back. On the left is an underlap that will be sewn down to the waistband. On the right is another unpleated inch of fabric that will be wrapped around behind the pleats, matching the underlap on the other side.
And the inside front. 4" folded down in front, as opposed to 1" in back.
I took a few detail shots, in case anyone is curious about how mid-nineteenth-century skirts are set.
Here I'm basting the pleats together, left to right. (Southpaw ahoy!)
The waistband is a separate strip of material, commonly a finished flat tube of fabric, or a sturdy ribbon. Here I am using 1" wide cream-colored Petersham ribbon. (Petersham is grosgrain ribbon without a woven edge; it is used often for millinery, because the lack of the edge means that it can be ironed into a curve to wrap smoothly around the crown of a hat.) The ribbon is whipped securely edge-to-edge with the pleats. This is on the inside, showing the layers of fabric.
Outside.
Oh, and this is an official costume project: I've bled on it!
Finished! (The deep hem is because I want to be able to use this skirt for other occasions.)
Back to the bodice, which took a fair amount of sewing (flat lining, darts, and boning casings) but is still pretty simple.
Inside, showing the darts and sewn boning casings, inside darts to the left, and tape sewn to the center front of the lining.
Whew! Enough for now. I hope to finish sewing on the strip of blue to the white taffeta skirt tonight.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-13 10:19 pm (UTC)And don't you love short skirts over hoops? So adorable!
And I saw the picture on Flickr earlier and thought it looked like the same fabric. Isn't it gorgeous? It's also the wrinkliest silk taffeta ever. But that only brings out the color :)
Be careful though--if any water spots get on it, they're permanent and look like grease stains. I have a few on the Marie Antoinette dress.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-13 11:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-14 01:56 am (UTC)The fabric was horribly creased and I wet it. Big mistake. Most of the spots faded pretty well, but there's one spot that's awful. Fortunately, it's next to a skirt seam and hard to find even when you're looking for it!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-14 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-14 02:08 pm (UTC)SO wrinkly. I haven't worked with a lot of taffetas, so it's nice to be reassured. Even the white isn't anything like as wrinkly, although it does have some fold creases.
I did figure that out about the spots, too. I was being super-careful with the iron, but it does spit occasionally. They do look just like grease stains! That does motivate me not to go get more fabric.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-14 07:58 pm (UTC)But don't let this taffeta fool you--it's nothing like anything else I've ever used, including other fabrics from Pure Silks. In fact, the sunrise dress is going to be made out of fabric I bought for them that was totally the wrong color for Marie Antionette--a blue and yellow shot that reads more yellow.
The first "grease stain" I found on this I assumed I set something on it and tried to clean it with cornstarch. Then I sprayed it to get creases out, and lots of little grease stains. Weirdest taffeta ever!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-14 09:37 pm (UTC)That is Very Good to know. There will always be more taffeta, and I'd much rather have non-wrinkly non-spotty stuff. I'm fortunate in this case, since the only blue is the band on the skirt and the bodice itself, and neither will really have a chance to wrinkle.
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