Back to work

Here's the thing. When I'm working with taffeta lined whatever (faille alternative not yet identified), I'm going to have to work a little harder to figure out how to work 44" (or more likely 54") material down into a 6-1/2" quarter of waist. With this muslin, I just worked my way over with deep pleats from CB to the side seam and then realized I had more than enough to go right back to the back.

The other thing is eventually I'm going to have to work in a different room too. This is only one side of the train and the front part of the skirt looks like it will be almost as wide as it is tall.

It seems obvious

Testing, testing... If you make one long vertical dart and one short vertical dart and put them together, you get something that works a lot like princess seams. Given the way the final piece will actually fit, this should be a winner. The half-fast press job makes them look a little longer than they are, but the important thing is it gets the right fit with only one piece.

Option 4, Draft 1

Or Drape 1. Rather than try to draft it and hope for the darts to end up located just so, I ripped off another piece of my 1,000 yards of muslin and went to the dress form. I should probably think about how skin tight to fit this outer piece since there's going to be boning and lining and stuff at some point. It needs to be tightly fitted but I've been trying to get it painted-on smooth and that likely won't get it when there's layers to this thing.

Part 2

As rumored, the voucher deal came back, so now I am signed up to plan part 2 of this hairbrained scheme.

Underbodice Options

Okay, I put some pictures together and here are the four options. The book just says "double vertical darts" and I know what that means in everyday sewing talk, but the book is hardly complete so...


Option 1 - Letter of the Law - Two vertical fisheye darts in standard configuration. In this picture, I took the photo from my test piece and put a red X on x-tra dart.

Pro - This is all the book says. Con - All the shaping is down there below the bust.

Option 2 - Plus 1 - This leaves in the side dart, which would need to be adjusted.

Pro - Gives shaping above the bust and around under the arm. Con - The book doesn't mention it.

Option 3 - Parallel Darts - Convert the side and bottom dart of a standard bodice piece into to steep, parallel side darts, then add the "skirt" portion to the bottom of that. I'm probably not going to do this, so there's no picture.

Pro - Incorporates shaping from side dart. Con - Steep, as in not quite vertical darts.

Option 4 - Rules Lawyer - Saw this idea on a bustier patternmaking section of one of the big books and said, that is two vertical darts. Take the point of a large shoulder dart and use that to shape above the bust and use one fisheye dart below for that shaping and I bet I will like this one best. The sketch shows the overall bodice shape with the line marked where the actual top of the piece would go. The section with the dashed dart lines would not exist on the final piece but the darting below would provide shape. The drawing is just to illustrate the principle, thank you.

Pro - I bet this works pretty good. Con - If the underbodice fits, you must acquit.

Just thinking

So I haven't had a chance to think about double vertical darts enough lately, but I am on the edge of having some ideas. I put the first test piece back on the form and moved it around, checking the changes in fit based on where I moved each dart, or rather where I moved them to point relative to the apex of the bust, where all darts theoretically go. The test pattern was flat drafted from the (a) book and the fabric on the dress form wasn't exactly located "by the numbers". Still, it was good enough to be used for educational purposes.

I went back to the pattern drafting books trying to find some theory on the messing around with of double fisheye darts. Maybe I dreamed it, but I could swear I saw a picture that held the key for a moment and no matter how many times I look, I can't find it again. The upside is I came up with at least two more options for double vertical darts that would cause a pattern piece to fit corsetishly. Pictures to follow of cheesy drawings to explain each one (there will be four) and then probably at least two will get drafted and made up for testing.

Double vertical darts

A quick test in muslin of the new underbodice front piece draft. The draft worked out okay, in the sense of it being correct for the kind of style it's supposed to be, but it's not fitted enough to be corsetish for what I'm doing. The side isn't completely pinned down here, but when it is, it's still loose below the bust down through the waist and hips.

I was reading an article about altering these standard double vertical darts and will have to check it out again before I redraft this. The other issue is the side dart, which doesn't look like it will work for where the top of the underbodice should run.

Five or nine pieces

I draped out the underbodice for yardage purposes as your general corset style job, with princess seams and ending up with seven pieces. The book says the outside of the underbodice is five pieces. Two fronts with double vertical darts, two side backs and a center back. The lining is nine pieces but it doesn't say what they are so I will keep thinking on that.

I drafted one of these dress fronts with the vertical darts. After making it up in muslin, I'll figure if I can then cut it down to make corset-like fronts. It should work but I'll probably have to do something about that side dart.

Bones

Got two rolls of spiral steel boning and some tips in the mail and the only reasonably sized (for this) bolt cutters they had at the store. Now I can figure out what width of silk ribbon I want to use to make casings for the bones.

Skirt support B

I drafted another version of the skirt support. This muslin version won't stand out, but it should work once all the boning is added to the real thing. Besides that for shaping, I wonder if I won't have to add something else as a foundation to the foundation to make sure everything remains cool when I add four tiers of buckram to it. Oh and I guess I put it on backwards since everything opens on the front of this thing, but I'm just checking the basic sizing.

Other stuff

Here's the lace for the hem of the slip.

And the lace for the bodice. Does this look like the real thing? I'm going to say no, but I had to use the vouchers so I had to pick something from the store.

Drafting

And I've done some drafting, but just to get yardages for now. That's close enough to a sleeve on top.

For future reference

Thinking about parts of Part 2. Have some ivory silk dupioni I will mock the skirt and cummerbund up out whenever Part 1 is finished, then find some faille. For now, I don't have any vouchers left, but I do have arms.

Skirt support placeholder

Should be a picture here, but there isn't. Maybe next time.

And a cummerbund

I didn't know that was the correct spelling, but I'm a retired spelling bee champion so I'm not in top shape. Needs reshaping, but this is just to figure out yardage and Part 2 isn't coming up anytime soon.

Then you got yer bodice

I got enough vouchers for Part 1

Which I can figure out after I start making up some basic pieces. Here's some work on the underbodice. Ignore my wrinkles. I just put all this stuff back on quick for pictures.

It comes with instructions

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This makes sense

So I was reading this book.