Monday, August 14, 2017

Bodice fitting

Let me just say that trying to fit a bodice by yourself is not an easy task. I decided to do spiral lacing up the back, and trying to explain to my 10-year old son how to tighten the lacing, plus the accompanying moans and groans at having to help mom out, was not so much fun. 

The bodice is the same satin as the under skirt, flat-lined with some super cute cotton butterfly fabric. I decided to couch all the eyelets so they would look like hand-made eyelets - I do not hand sew well enough to do hand-made eyelets. It took forever to stitch 31 eyelets (odd number since I'm spiral lacing) but I think it came out pretty good.  

I knew that the mockup was a bit big. I decided to go ahead and make the bodice and fit it afterwards, since I will be finishing my inside seams (and covering with boning channels). I knew the armhole needed to be a tad bit bigger so stitched my shoulder seams at a lower seam allowance, and that worked out perfectly. The back over the butt/hips was too big but I think I figured out where to take it in. The bustline also gapes in the front, so that will be taken in (the pattern notes this seems to be a common issue). I am seriously considering putting in a hidden front opening of some kind though, as the spiral lacing is a major PITA to get in an out of. I put in 5 yards of ribbon, which is too much, but regardless it needs to be long enough to loosen it to get on/off, then you have a lot of extra ribbon hanging down. Here is the pinned bodice, back and front (doesn't that train just look delicious in the back? OMG I love it.). Yes, I should not have been standing in front of the window when taking these, but it's enough for me to see that the fit looks pretty decent now, so I just need to adjust the seams and try it on again.



The sleeves will be a lovely pale green silk chiffon, and I am going to do some kind of draping of chiffon at the neckline. I intend to bead it and bought a beautiful mix of seed beads in an ocean color theme mix. I am going to bind the upper and lower edges with self-made bias in the same fabric.

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