Next Episode

While I think on the Akari, I should start thinking about a couple other projects. Or, I should just do one and think about the other. Mother's Day is coming up and I still have this pile of fabric I was supposed to make pillowcases out of for my mother's Shriner's group. They make pillowcases for the hospital and someone's mother realized her son had an industrial sewing machine and 8,000,000 yards of thread. I hope these kids are young enough or not too cool to appreciate that there's wizards on this fabric.

I didn't notice that rhymes

 

I think this is the way it's going to go, with wizards on the main part and lizards on the band. Need to check the yardage and see which one I have more of and proceed accordingly.

For Project #4, I decided to amp up the nerditry. I've had a length of Chanel boucle in the closet for a while. I think it was a remnant from a 2009 or 2010 collection. What would a person making a recreation of Grace Kelly's wedding dress and wizard and lizard pillowcases do with Chanel fabric? What would Susan Khalje do? If she was a geek. She would (pending verification that she had enough fabric) make a version of Misato Katsuragi's jacket. What a great idea!

This comes off as charcoal, though it's more black when I look at it. Just looking at it, I can tell "raveling" may not be adequate to describe what this will be like to work with. I already have a limited amount to work with and it will have to be laid out like a patterned fabric but what might kill this project is if it completely disappears one wooly thread at a time. It might start out cut to fit Lucy and end up sized for an action figure.

Is this the right side?

What are you asking me for?

Back to the drawing board

Having decided to just extend the bottom of the bodice pattern pieces into the skirt/attachment point for the tiers, I decided to redraft the back sections into one piece. This might be wrong, since it doesn't match the picture and probably won't carry over to the Grace Kelly either. Of course, the original separate pieces could be extended also, but we'll see. I probably get closer fitting with the separate pieces too.

While thinking about that, I got to thinking about the real construction of the bodice. This will be lined with steel boning and all that good stuff. I had it vaguely in mind to fold over the top edge as a sort of facing and use that to attach to the lining. But I have the darts at the top edge rather than separate seams as on the average corset. This is in keeping with my previous ruling on how to follow the book on the Grace Kelly. I need to puzzle out how I want to get that top edge folded over and darted and not a bulky mess at those points. For now, I will assume there will be a few muslin samples going in the trash first...

Probably didn't need this

Filed under Duh

After I remembered that the Akari is going to be constructed based on the structure of the Grace Kelly, I realized I could just take the bodice piece and extend it down to get something to put the ruffles on. The bottom edge of the piece was already past the wide point of the hips, so there's no shaping necessary for the stuff that is going to just be a place to put ruffles.

It's like a rectangle or something.

Another big sheet of paper traced on later, it hits me that you don't need the top half to draft the bottom section. Hell, you don't even need to draft the bottom section at all! On the plus side, I remembered to construct it like this before I went too far with the separate skirt. It doesn't matter that much on the front, but the back has to replicate the front opening of the underbodice/slip section of the Grace Kelly and it will matter when I start putting that together.

That time of year

All the cherry trees around here just popped. Two days ago, a few bloomed and the next day, pow!, the rest of them.

Back On

I saved the ruffled sections from before and went ahead and pinned them back on to think about those attachment locations and widths that I should have made some notes on before. I still think the top tier needs to be wider. Once that is done, then I assume #2 or probably #3 will need some adjustment for my eye. With no legs, I can't say 100% the bottom hem should go, but I'll just pick something and go with that since no one's going to wear it anyway.

Pin Up

The quick look, since the ruffler is a bit of bother to take off, is something like this. Ideally, when this is made up of the real stuff, with boning and whatnot, it will look a lot less wrinkly than pinning up this muslin like this. Really, I could pin and repin and repin to make it look smoother, but this was supposed to get sewn on to the other pieces I traced out again first anyway. But in the meantime, I wanted to see how close it was. I started by pinning the top side seam corners on both sides and then the side seams down. Then I worked the various darts and did some repinning all around to even it out, but close enough. This is kind of why I say I don't care about the seam allowances, just the seam lines, cause they can be lined up on the seam lines on the dress form's cover and fit checked that way.

Pattern Pieces

As a test, I figure I will take some of these parts, make "real"-ish pattern pieces and make up some more muslin samples. (Yes, muslin pieces copied to paper copied back to muslin and sewn together. It makes sense to me anyway.) I already have the front bodice piece and took off the side/back pieces and transferred them to paper.

There's a marudai under there somewhere...

Cut off a piece of paper and then trace the muslin parts and clean up with a square and curves. I'll assume this is the butcher paper from ULINE, since it's either that or freezer paper, and their freezer paper has a poly coating on one side. A roll of this stuff lasts a while. The vertical stand makes it a lot easier to find a convenient spot for it in the house.  This is the 36" roll and stand and while I think it would be cool to have the 48", I don't know how much practical benefit it would be. I'd have to buy a new lamp for that corner.

In the past I've drawn seam allowances around as well, but as long as you realize these are the sewing lines, what's the point? Seam allowance can be whatever.

You can see where this is going. Imagine the darts darted up/

Who left the ruffler on again?

And back to muslin...

Butter

I got into the ol' treasure chest looking for pattern pieces again. Here's the 4 ply silk crepe that was bought and ended up being set aside for the Akari.

I found a slip pattern piece for the Grace Kelly that I'll try copying and cutting up for the tier bases. Then I was reminded why I should hang these things and not roll them up. Cheesus Crust it would not stop rolling itself back up! Finally it sort of gave it up and a hole was added so it could go on a hook.

What's that?

Oh yeah, behind one door, there's a roll of silk mikado. Behind this door...

Not from the bridal section

Some day I will think of a project suitable for this treasure!

Skirt

I don't know where the skirt blocks I draped off Lucy went, and the paper patterns hanging in the closet were just something I made up to standard measurements once upon a time. In between bouts of spring cleaning, I draped up some quick front and back skirt pieces. They may not have been too exact, but after transferring them to paper and using them to make up some longer pattern pieces, we'll see if it isn't functional. How much benefit is there to getting these things as tight as her muslin cover anyway? You're going to need a little ease to actually get the garment on anyway. I should probably come up with a post label that translates into "This is the first pass, so don't be surprised when I say 'close enough' and then re-do it right on next time'." Oh wait, I think this is the second post in a row where I claimed that, but only the first time when I'd actually done something so technically I'm correct.

It always looks like a mess at this point, even when it's right...

After the fact

Thinking I was going to work up some new test pattern pieces for the tiered skirt, I pulled all the tiers and the draped on "skirt" section off Lucy. The plan was to follow this draping book idea, and actually draft a skirt block, and whack it up into sections that the ruffles would be ruffled on to. I had skimmed over the book before and knowing generally how it was going to work, I just took everything of the form so new stuff could be added later. Well... after it was off, the now-obvious question came up, where were those ruffles located so the new pattern pieces could be made to match? Duh...

Naturally, the thing to in this case was to take that big chunk of fabric from the "skirt"and press it out and use it to drape out something else I saw in the book, totally unrelated to the Akari project. At least I now have some nice sections of muslin cut offs for testing ruffler adjustments and whatnot. Tomorrow I'll dig up the skirt drafts and make a few copies and start again. I theoretically have enough real materials to make the Grace Kelly twice, and that's good since I'm following my usual rule of really doing it up right, the second time.

Kilting and Minishing

"Up and down to adjust the firmly screw, you will find the different deepness of kilted." Is it poetry or philosophy? It's a ruffler.

A marks the firmly screw

Unfirmly the screw and adjust the arm up and down to deeply or undeeply kilt. On the left, there is a section of arm up kilting and on the right, arm down kilting.

In case the picture isn't clear, here's a drawing of what's what.

Arm up, Arm down

"Acording to this direction to adust, You will increase the pull of the blade, Contrarily the pull will be minished." It's been a long time since I was in iaido, but dig it.

B the minish

This must be to adjust the strength with which the blade falls, for lighter or heavier fabrics I suppose.

And some industrial strength kilting action...

The Garden of Words!

Oh snap! Yesasia has Kotonoha No Niwa / The Garden of Words up for pre-order! I placed my order before I posted this so I would be in line ahead of you. I'm sure that was totally necessary.

Practice Makes Practice

I keep saying I should practice with this scroll hemmer foot so I actually did it. After the fact I realized you can't see the finished edge that well, but there are already some pictures of that here. For this video though, you can see the magic scrolling action in action.

Back Again

I've made back pieces before, and should have them in the box o' fabric, but I tried pinning on some more. After I put them on, I went back and looked at the drawing, and noticed the back line is higher than I was thinking. Well, I can always bring it up later. Probably will bring it around more on line with that corner of the back side piece that sticks up above the tape line.

Related News Update

Update to the update, I think these videos are better.

Maybe

Okay, I adjusted the third tier so it appears shorter. Then I took the "skirt" that was on Lucy when I started pinning on these tiers and hiked it up and pinned it to the bottom of the form. This gives it a little poof and looking at it now, I'm not sure it's not going to work. From the manga photo, I think Tier 1 needs a little more length and all of them need more gathering.

The ruffler has cams for every-4-stitches or every-8 stitches and I'm pretty sure the 4 stitch is already in there. So I guess I have two options, one to shorten the stitch length so four stitches comes sooner or two, to minish the pull of the kilting. Number two is probably better, but when I tried it before, I pretty much got all or none. I bet I can crank that thing up though, so I'll try that first. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I don't think I want to use stitch length for this.

I didn't originally think of this as a short wedding dress, given that this was meant to be as much a version of the Grace Kelly as anything, but now I don't think I'm going any longer on this one.

Getting there

No flash photography please

Maybe it's the muslin, maybe it's the lack of underlaying poof, but I'm not taking a picture of this. I suppose it was educational though. Depending on the length, it's got to be one or two of the 15" (or whatever shorter length) tiers for #3 and maybe a #4. I'll guess it's going to be a 3 tier short number.

The pleats on the wider tiers don't carry down to the hem to give the same effect they do on the first tier, which I bet also gets made wider. Who knows. I need to adjust the minishment or something and think about it some more. I'm not sure the flared and puffed up tiers wasn't the right idea at the moment. But I'm not taking a picture of this even if it might make me make some sense!

By accident, I found a roll hemmer foot article in an old magazine. Next time I think I will take their advice about sewing across the leading corner and using the thread tails to help get things started. The fabric was really not wanting to get started though once it did, I was able to control the feeding much better and adjust for the not 100% straight edge. I do have a stash of rotary cutter blades from a previous Black Friday, and I was thinking about the fact that I don't have a cutting mat while I was trying to hem.

Not this weekend again

I cut some sections of 10" wide for Tier 2 and then tried to decide if I should go to 15 or 20 inches for Tier 3. I thought that two 15" sections (adding a Tier 4) might make a good overall length, but for now, I just made 20" sections, figuring I can move it up higher under Tier 2 to simulate the shorter section. Then everything got all busy and now it looks like it will be Monday before I have a chance to roll n ruffle these.

After cutting three each of the 10 and 20 inch sections, I realized that makes about 3 yards of muslin for testing just that bit. I buy the whole 25 yard bolts, but still, Coupon Commotion is this week so I thought maybe I should add to the stash. Fortunately I got busy, since I looked in the other closet and found like 5 extra bolts and realized I either have to cut a lot more samples or I'll be in danger of getting on one of those hoarder shows. But in 2025, when I start on the Grace Kelly in earnest, I'll be totally happy to have that much!

Experimental Tier

For today's trial, I used the 3/16" scroll hemmer foot to hem one side of a couple 36" wide strips of muslin to be used on the first tier. Still getting a feel for how to feed the fabric into the foot. Once you get past a certain point of rolling over to the left (and a picture would probably be good here), you can get a roll that gets rolled over and makes a sort of filled hem, that feels sort of like piping. Anyway, I got enough done to a usable point and switched back to the ruffler.

No, I didn't press it.

Especially as the tiers get larger and require multiple strips to make the circumference, I think I'll have to somehow baste the ends together. I got to the end of the first strip and then realized I didn't know how I was going to get the next piece in the slot. It can be tricky loading the first end, since the kilting blade got teeth.

The fabric was ruffled to the ribbon so that when it was turned back over the stitching, the hem is to the underside. I've been thinking about ways to use this for construction. On the actual dress, the ribbon won't be dark green. And while I didn't make a lot of effort to mold this sample to the skirt and form, I still think it will be better with the more moldable petersham than this grosgrain ribbon.

I forgot to put the arm back on at the time, but have now and this seems like a drawing appropriate length for Tier 1. I started with about 5" wide strips, but haven't measured what kind of seam allowance we're talking here since it was just for testing. I might want to add a little length since I expect to puff it up with stuff underneath and then you need the length to fall back down over that longer distance.

Also, I wonder about ruffling in different directions from the front center so that the pleats are mirrored side to side rather than just running around the body one way. I wonder if that is a stupid idea, given my current skill with the ruffler. Well these plans aren't about what I can do now anyway!

In Related News

This was in my mailbox today. I don't know how much use I have for this, but I just like to look at these. It goes on similarly to the ruffler and since the needle can only go up and down, it moves the work piece instead. Might have to take a video of this one. This isn't really for my dress projects, but come on, look at this thing!

Whenever I saw these online, I always thought it looked like they were engine turned on the sides. Turns out it's just this basketweavish look, which is nice too, but if it was engine turned, I would put a little shelf up on the wall just so I could look at it every day.

Try, try again

The continued testing of the scroll hemmer feet got off to a poor start once I decided to go down from 1/4". I've just been tearing off pieces of muslin, pulling off any stray raveling threads and going at it. The fringey edge seems to have trouble getting along with the scroll, and maybe it's operator error, but the thing keeps wanting to turn back in the wrong direction. At best, this gives a twice folded edge with the raw edge showing. Not as messy looking as you would think, but of course, not acceptable.

I took my sample strips and cut them longways with the 12" shears. The cut edges were much more cooperative and that let me focus more on how to hold and feed the fabric. The 1/8" foot now seems possible, though the verdict is still out on the 1/16". However, if I decide to use this method, I'll have to practice every day until I can think this won't turn out to be a waste of some 4-ply silk crepe.

1/4" top, 1/8" as noted

Feel Good Hit of the Summer

Mark your calendar for 5/31, the trailer for Shinkai's next movie is out and it looks like some 5 Centimeter style goodness. What I really need to know is when the blu-ray will be out and whether it will be subtitled by whomever did Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below (good) or the global edition 5 Centimeters Per Second (made me learn how to create custom subtitles and transcribe the DVD).

If at first you don't succeed

I've been interested in the 1/16" hemmer foot since I want to make keep things as less visible as possible, but I decided to start with the 1/8" foot just to make testing easy.

Uh...

Okay, how about a 1/4" foot? That's starting to look more like it. This may be why I've heard it suggested to press a hem appropriate section at the start to feed first. I'll have to practice just a little more and think about a presentable way to start and end these sections. Fortunately, the bobbin thread finally gave out.

The nice thing about the industrial machine is the affordable thread. I may or may not have a dozen cones in a box that I may or may not get to use too soon.

While we're rethreading, maybe we should have more than one of these on standby...

So I only did four, the black one was already there.

I also learned how to set the motor to run in the opposite direction. I had to crank it back up from the ruffler speed to wind the bobbins in a timely manner and when I had to go to the FM, I learned what some more of the codes and settings are on here.

This is not a picture of the motor.

Ribbon

So I ended up spending way more time than I thought I would working on a spare parts computer for someone. I did get to make one run at ruffling on ribbon, which went about as expected. The main thing I learned was, it works a lot better when you put the presser foot lever back down before you hit the gas. Tomorrow maybe we'll get the attachment back off and set up for regular feet again and try the hemmers.

Okay, I didn't want to have to say I accomplished nothing all weekend...

Did I say this weekend?

Yeah, this weekend. I got a list here, didn't find or get new ribbon, power went out, blah blah blah. This weekend I guess I will take the ruffler back off and see if the hemmer feet work as seen on TV.

This just in

Not sure what became of my petersham stash, but I did get these in the mail today to try out. Scroll hemmer feet in 1/16" - 5/16" sizes. It came as a set of 5, so I'll just be testing with the 1/16" and 1/8" feet for now.

Attachments

Looks like I will spend the week thinking about stuff I might try over the weekend. For the attachment of the tiers, two things came to mind to consider. One, my sewing machine is in a flat table, so no free arm but then two, it's not like you can baste down the ruffled layer so I expect it will be easier to do that flat. I came up with a theory to test, and that is, to sew the tier sections to petersham/grosgrain ribbon (pick your favorite term, the formable one) then pressing up and over. The ribbon would then be sewn to the corset/underskirt.

This seems like it will be easier to apply and provide some support to the tiers. The long center back opening construction is then independent of the ruffling, more or less. Getting back to the snap on layer of the Grace Kelly, I have the possibly stupid thought that the fourth tier can have some sort of removable attachment to the underskirt for when Akari gets divorced and wants to get some use out of it as a party dress.

Construction

In order to make this carry over to the other project, rather than making the skirt section separate, I've been thinking about good ways to make it of a piece. The old make a bodice, pull a skirt over it and sew right sides together isn't going to get it here though. I've considered making the skirt attachable like the outer layer of the Grace Kelly, which would require matching up the openings on the back carefully to make them look like one piece. I'd have to think of an alternate closure method, since I wouldn't be able to have a common zipper.

But what I'm thinking about trying is the fact that while the bodice is corsetish, it's still underneath the skirt on the bottom. So I'll extend the bodice draft down into an underskirt section that the tiers can be built on. Below the ruffle line, I guess it can be made of something else, but I need to make some decisions about what each part is going to be made of. The top section will be 4 ply crepe, seeing as that's what I bought five yards of cause it was the same as the Grace Kelly. If I had been able to find more of the taffeta from the other dress, I probably wouldn't be making this one, so I can't assume just yet that I'll be able to get more of the same crepe either.

I have some other 4 ply crepe that I bought somewhere on clearance. I should try that out to see how it likes hanging 4 tiers of ruffles off it plus whatever I use to puff the layers. (Looking at pictures, I'm guessing it will be four tiers). Tier 1, probably Tier 2, will likely be attached to the part of the top that has the most underlying structure so the underskirt wouldn't have to support as much weight as what rests on the hips, bones, and all that, or so I think.

Hemming

It occurred to me that the tiers of this skirt, contrarily to the petticoats of the Grace Kelly, will be the outermost layer, and thus visible. My first thought it to use the scroll hemmer foot to make some narrow rolled hems on the sections, before they get ruffled onto the skirt base. I think I can go down to 1/16" hem with those, and if the silk thread for the real garment blends in like "they" claim, maybe that will be okay. Ideally though, I want something that can't be seen from the right side of the garment.

If the tiers are underlined with silk organza, like they probably will, then it becomes easier to turn up something light and stitch to the underlining. I haven't decided on the whole underlying structure of the skirt so I don't know how relatively stiff I want in the tiers. My first reaction is I want to keep these light and puff them up with layers underneath, but then since it's the visible layer, I think the smoother, more polished look of the underlined and somewhat controlled sections will look better in the end. I'm sure I'll think of ten ways to do it twice before I get around to having to do it for real in silk.

Testing, testing

"Contrarily, the pull will be minished." I knew what they meant, and now I see how it minishes. The screw at A locks the knob at B in place, which is connected to C by a spring.

Turning B while A is loose adjusts the tension on the spring. The spring then drives the blade when it falls.

I couldn't get much change from trying to turn it in the unminishing direction, but without the minimum tension on it, all you get is this.

Another adjustment for the kilted is the screw at A below. Loosen it up and depending on where you lock it back down in that curved slot, you allow the blade to push that much farther. At one end, you get minimal kilted, like on the left end of the sample above. At the other end, I got a mess when it tried to push to much, or maybe too far, or both. Translating the instructions, I think this thin muslin needs less pull and if I tried heavier fabrics, then I would want to set it back to the unminished end.

Photo crop

Got a couple passes through the machine today with some muslin and got a feel for a few things. First, turn the speed way down. I think I tried starting with a "20" and then went down to "10" when it looked like that was still a little fast for it. Second, unlike normal sewing, you can't hold both layers since every fourth stitch, that metal blade drops and pulls the top layer with it. Of course, I knew that going in, but industrial motor plus duh equals let's not photograph that.

 With the width of the area actively being pleated by the machine, I think that once I set it up for wider pleat sections and get it all attached, that visually it will have the same effect as flared tiers. That is, a puffed up effect, but without the real obvious pleats I don't want this to have.

It's on!

Only took a few tries to get all the pieces attached in the right places. The fabric was a small pleated section and I put it underneath for now since I was reminded that the toothed blade is released every four stitches with this cam. Not 100% certain I won't have to thread the needle, then install it, but it's in place for now.

Do the math

The instructions for the ruffler call for the machine to run at 600-900 stitches per minute. With the motor on my DDL-8700, I had to read the manuals to see if I could get that low. For a minute I thought I might have to do calculus, since the documentation shows everything in RPM. But then a pencil mark on the hand wheel and belt cover said, hey dummy, it's 1:1.

The motor manual says "34" = 4500 RPM and each step down on the speed setting is 100 RPM less. Starting from 34, that sounds like a problem. I happened to look at the motor and when I couldn't see the pulley inside the guard, I remembered I had put on the smaller 50mm pulley. The 4500 RPM being based on a 90mm pulley, I should now have plenty of room to go down to 900 or less.

It's almost Friday so I guess my weekend will include setting this thing up for the first time and running some samples with the various cams and knobs to see what it really does on fabric. The instructions are like poetry. "Up and down to adjust the firmly screw, you will find the different deepness of kilted." I shall meditate upon it.

Tier 1

Following the guideline of using 1.5x the width of each successive measurement, I'll give these sizes a try first. Taking a waistish measurement of 28" to start, Tier 1 will be 42", then #2 will be 63" and #3 will be 94.5". Grainline is to run with the warp so assuming 44" material at most, Tier 1 might make it in one piece but the others will have to be two or more. I don't like the thought of those seams, but since these are ruffled tiers over some sort of underlying skirt, I will try attaching them with the ends finished and overlapping. Hopefully this will be less obvious than a bunch of seams in the silk that will be used on the actual dress. I'll have to read the ruffler instructions to calculate the settings to get 42" to equal 28" and on down.

Ruffler

I'm not sure if I should go with ruffled tiers or flared tiers, with something underneath to puff them up, but I have this industrial ruffler attachment to try at some point so I guess Ima go with that first. The instructions don't seem to say why there is a piece of fabric stuck in it, but maybe it will make sense when trying to install it on the machine. When I took it out of the plastic bag, it didn't smell like burlap like I expected.

The Leaning Tower

In trying to come up with a height, I just tried a few things until I thought she would be not quite as tall as me. A good height seemed to come with the muslin just touching the floor, or 44" from the top of the waist line. It seems like that might be handy somehow, but most of my muslin stash is 36" so I'm probably just making that up. 44 inches seemed high to me but I can lean on her shoulder like, hey bud, how are you set for insurance?

There's no room in here for a bookcase, but they're not in the way like you'd think.

To figure the width of the tiers, I noticed in the picture that the second tier comes down to just below the wrist. Lucy has arms so I put one on and decided the measurement would be 9 inches. Lucy and Akari have some differences in where their elbows are and whatnot, but this ain't science so Tier 1 is 3" and Tier 2 is 6" until I try it and it looks bad. That makes the bottom section a little less than 35" since the whole thing starts below the waistline, but the 36" muslin should work fine for the first pass.

The Akari Project

It's been so long since I made any progress on the Grace Kelly (or any other) project, that more vouchers have come and gone. (Two posts in 2012? I'm sure I did more than that...) Given the level of work that will go into that one, I put the left over money into some materials to make an intermediate project first. This one should be similar from a construction standpoint, but just not as much. No resewn lace bodice or any of that, but utilizing the underbodice pattern and tiered petticoats.

The design is taken from Akari's wedding dress from the manga version of 5 Centimeters Per Second.

To make the bodice, I just make the front underbodice piece from the other dress double-wide and make it close in the back instead of the front. I assume the visible part at the center back will be cosmetic with some sort of actual closure underneath. To make it carry over to the Grace Kelly, it will probably be some sort of zippered arrangement that continues into the skirt so a person could theoretically step into it.

For the tiered skirt section, I still need to decide on a height for Lucy so I can calculate the length of each section. Up til now, I've been getting by just draping on stuff and letting it fall wherever while I focused on the waist area. The picture doesn't show how many tiers this has, or the relative lengths of the unseen portion(s), so once I pick an overall length, I can make at least 3 levels, look at them and decide what looks best.

And the winner is...

The official selection to stand in for silk faille is silk mikado. I think it will be a nice choice, and anyway, I bought 17 yards of it. Before going to the store, I came up with that number somehow, and it turned out that was exactly what was on the roll, so I took it tube and all.

Due to an error, that purchase used up all my vouchers, but then the extra was refunded to me in store credit. I''ll use that to add to the taffeta stockpile when they get the specific one back in inventory.

Coming Soon

The production process recommences soon, assuming the trip to Atlantic City goes well and I'm not forced to sell off my fancy lace for $20 at an AC pawn shop.

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.