Period sewing techniques suck! So insanely slow and looks much more crappy than modern tricks — specifically, only flat-lining instead of flat-lining for strength and bag-lining for tidiness. Gah, the inside of this gown looks like hell and took all day to “finish,” such as it is. This masquerade costume is full of stuff I’m
Got the answer to some questions I asked of the Masquerade Directors, FYI. First, is about our Winterhalter — yes, his costume needs to go through workmanship judging, even though he’s really a ‘prop’ for the presentation and what we’d planned for him to wear is more theatrical than documentably historical. Kendra, Sarah, and I
Out of skirtland! That monster is done! Well, I need to put hooks on it, but that waits until I’m all corseted, and there’s no-one around who can tight-lace me right now. But I’m calling the skirt DONE anyway 🙂 Picture with obligatory crappy flash is in my folder on the Y!Group. Now on to
Ok, back to the salt mines of my masquerade costume. Ugh. Trim. I usually love trim. But frickin’ rows of ribbon are BORING and TEDIOUS and my back is KILLING me from sitting at the machine. Of course, the next thing after that is hand-sewing, not any better. Whee! <— note facetiousness.
*wibble* Insert tiny moment of Costume-Con panic here. About, well, everything.
You mean I’m hand-sewing something and that others are *not*? Wow, the planets must be out of alignment 😉 I’m 3/4ths of the way through hand-sewing the hem of the base skirt. A lot of my skirt will be hand-sewn actually, because the thing’s so giant. So far, only the panel seams have been machined.
I have my base skirt assembled with the 2 tiers of black lace. I realize my lace is rather heavier than in the original, but ah well, it *is* a lovely embroidered lace and the pattern. I think, overall, my gown is going to be darker than the original. My purple is darker, my lace
It’s a real costume now — I earned my first wound. Last night, I stabbed a needle under the quick of my right thumb (because I’m incapable of using thimbles). Didn’t bleed *on* the fabric, thank the gods. But blood has officially been shed, so it’s real. Y’know, like Velveteen Rabbit “real.” And, oh the
I started my bodice outer layer… Oopsie, I forgot to baste the silk to another layer; it’s not as flimsy as I thought and I was just on a roll and went straight to sewing. I’d hate to rip all that out and weaken the material. Will only 2 layers in the bodice be horrible?
I’m staring and staring, and I really think there are 2 full layers of black lace that go all the way up to the waistband. There are falling lines, folds, indicating drape in the lower, longer tier that show *under* the shorter layer. You can see the longer layer of black lace folded under the
I started my skirt this weekend, but I have a bunch of probably dumb questions… First, any recommendations for pleating into the waistband? I have a lot of fabric (maybe too much — about 5 yards, iirc) and several layers. Cartridge-pleating, box pleating, knife pleating? Other? Combo? Also, should the waistband be shaped somehow (dip
Katherine and Kendra, thanks for both of your opinions! I do like the shape of the petticoat — hard to tell in the fabrics picture, but when I floofed it all around, the skirt looked like it will have a really good shape, well-domed, true enough to the period, imo. Which was the whole point
I’ve actually sewed something! But it causes more problems than it’s worth 😉 Since my hoop is an ugly generic black bridal hoop, I made a ruffled petticoat to go over it, lest the cheezy boning show through. I suspect this is of highly questionable historical accuracy since the extant hoops have lots of closely
Add to questions about historical accuracy: Trystan’s hoop is store-bought and corset is general Victorian, not specific to the year, so take that as you will (but I did make it myself, Laughing Moon pattern, y’all know the one). I haven’t contacted the Masquerade Directors yet (Shelley Monson and Ellie Farrell, btw), been totally distracted
Didn’t someone suggest that the shorties (like, ehem, Sarah and me) wear a little bit of a heel? If so, I have simple black pumps with louie heels that would work. I’ll also keep trolling my thriftstore for white that I can dye to match my gown, but there’s enough black lace on mine that