Over skirt progress

I got the ruffle pinned and sewed to the over skirt last night. This skirt is roughly 144" wide by 60" long at its longest point, so even cutting it out was a chore. I had 3 6-yard strips of black taffeta left over from my bat dress, and estimated that would be perfect. I gathered all 18 yards and started pinning. I got really lucky and did not break a single gathering thread! When I sewed it onto the skirt I was obsessively checking my bobbin every few pins to make sure it wouldn't run out - there is nothing worse than running out of bobbin after you've already pulled pins. Luckily the bobbin held. This is only half of the finished piece, I couldn't get the whole thing in the camera! I wanted to attach the ruffle before doing all the pleating. I am not sure this is historically accurate, but I'm okay with it. I am planning to sew the lining to the skirt right sides together and flip it, then baste across the top edge before doing all the pleating, as I want it to be semi-reversible for the underside of my butterfly wings. I am happy with how this looks so far, and can't wait to get the skirt pleated up and attached to a waistband! I want to do some kind of white spots on the black, and will probably use the fabric paint I used on the underside.

The corset is done!

The corset is finally done! Boy do I hate flossing. It took several sessions and a lot of stabbing myself before I finished it. And the fashion fabric started to fray a bit on one of my boning channels, so I had to fix that. Overall I am happy with this corset. The fit is nice. I noticed in the photos of the back that it looks like the boning is buckling a bit. The flat steels that I am currently using seem pretty flimsy, and I probably should have doubled up on the bones. I am not sure if I will fix it or not, as that will also require removing the flossing and redoing that too. Ugh. I also did not do the lacing properly so I need to fix that. 

Weekend progress

I got a lot done the past few days. I have finished flossing about 75% of the corset. I hate hand sewing, and am not good at it. Flossing is hard work requiring use of the thimble to work the thread through multiple layers of fabric. I was supposed to do a different design on the back panels but that was beyond my sewing skills, so opted for the same all around. Here is the half that is finished:

I also spent time cutting out the over skirt panels. Working with a pattern piece that is 80x60" was not fun, especially with the cats "helping". I also made some weird mistake cutting out the second piece of two, and it was a bit smaller at the bottom edge, but I decided just to trim them even and have the train a couple inches shorter. No biggie. I was thinking of trying to add a piece to it and covering with trim but I'm not positive how I want to do the trim yet.

I used the fabric paint I bought (Jacquard textile paint) to do the eye spots on the lining layer of the over skirt, which will be the reverse side of the butterfly wings. I am not sure this will ever be seen, or if I will make it fully reversible, but I wanted to do it anyhow. I spent a lot of time fiddling around with circular objects to make precise templates, then decided it looked better in a more organic shape and less precision. 

And last but not least, I needed a new chemise, as the one I have has too high of a neckline to wear with an evening bodice. My mother recently sent me a ton of old table linens that belonged to my grandmother and great-grandmother. I found a perfect tablecloth to turn into a chemise, and took advantage of the lace edge so that I didn't have to hem it! I used my Laughing Moon #100 Victorian undergarments pattern. I think it came out nice!

Corset is almost finished

Last night I got the boning channels and upper binding done on one side. I was hoping to use my lovely new set of bias tape makers for the boning channels, but with the thick duck canvas I used they would not fit into the bias tape maker. Sigh. So I had to measure each one as I was ironing it. Even though I used my 1/8" sewing foot, my sewing on some of the boning channels is still crooked or too far from the edge. I am not sure if I should rip it out and redo it, since it will leave holes in the silk. But the one in this photo really bothers me, see how far away from the edge it got?

Hopefully tonight I will get the other half done and can get the boning cut and put in. This corset uses a 1/2" bone next to the busk (which is good because the busk I bought seems pretty flimsy). Then I just need to bind the lower edge and do all the flossing. Almost there!

Phase I: The Corset

I am currently working on the corset. I am making this corset from Jill Salen's book "Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques".

I found a lovely tan silk embroidered with butterflies, dragonflies, and flies for the fashion fabric, and have white coutil for the strength layer. After measuring the pattern in the book, I figured it was pretty close to my measurements, so I scanned it to PDF and enlarged to 200%, then traced out and added 1/2" seam allowance. The mockup was a bit big on me, particularly in the under bust, but I am treating this as a single layer corset by fusing the silk to the coutil, so I went ahead and made it up. I took in the 1/2" seams to 5/8" instead, and it was still too large in the under bust, so I took in the top few inches of each seam a tad bit more, and now it fits. This was my first attempt at cording, and it came out decent. Not perfect, but okay for a first try.

Last night I fused more silk to some cotton duck and cut strips for the external boning channels, and cut bias strips for binding out of the silk only. I have the grommets inserted and the corset is ready for boning channels.

Welcome and Inspiration

Welcome to my blog, where I will be posting about the 1880s butterfly gown I am creating for the Foundations Revealed 2018 Competition.

The competition theme this year is insects. I have always been inspired by butterflies for many reasons, so decided on a butterfly gown. When browsing for inspiration, I came across photos of the blue morpho butterfly, and knew this was what I wanted to shoot for.

I wanted to do a late 1880s trained gown. I was inspired by one of the many beautiful Worth gowns out there, but couldn't find suitable fabric to attempt a reproduction, and it didn't fit the theme for the competition. I also wanted to make a ball gown for a local winter ball coming up this fall, so thought I could kill two birds with one stone.

My vision for the gown is an under skirt and evening bodice in a sort of lime/apple green, which is the color of the chrysalis form of the morpho butterfly. I haven't yet found the right color fabric but I will get there. I want to do sleeves and trim on the upper part of the bodice in a silk chiffon, that I plan to bead. The bodice pattern is Ageless Patterns #1442. The under skirt and trained over skirt are from Ageless Patterns #1213. The trained skirt is going to be bright blue on the outside, with black ruffled trim, to look like the butterfly. The underside of the trained skirt (lining layer) is going to look like the brown underside of the butterfly. I plan to sew ribbon around the edges and use fabric paint for the eye spots. I bought moire fabric in bright blue and brown.