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Making Progress
Nov. 18th, 2007 09:15 pmWell, I started with the Patterns of History pattern. I cut it out of muslin last night and thought I'd fit it. Granted, the sale pattern I bought is a size 14. I don't think the pattern is bad (the pieces fit together ok). It just was too much of a transition to fit to my figure. So, I ended up hauling out more muslin, draping and drafting a whole new pattern. My inspiration came from a dress from the Henry Ford Museum website, seen here. The armscye was the hardest part to drape. The original garment--and all the others I could find from the period--had extremely dropped shoulders. All that made getting it to fit under the arm really kind of fiddly. The result was a very tight curve under the shoulder, towards the front. I thought it was really weird, until I pinned the muslin to a tee shirt and tried it on. It worked and fit just like the photo. Sheesh.
So, I added on seam allowances, cut out a master pattern, then cut out a paper pattern. I had some vintage glazed black cotton stashed away, so I used about a yard to cut out the pattern. Then I sewed down the darts and faced my real decision: what fabric to use. The photo in my earlier post influenced me. I had a dress cut of an old repo roller print cotton--one of the early set of Sturbridge Village document prints cottons (Pockets and Housewives for Kent Avery) that were made about 6 years ago. I love this fabric, it's been one that's been waiting for the right project for many years (when I fell in love with it about 4 years ago, I went on a failed internet search for it, then ended up finding it on the sale rack at the local fabric store). The cool thing is that for me, it captures--though without the same great color variation--the feel of the cotton print in the photo my previous entry.
So, I measured the shoulder length and the distance of the tip of the front point from the furthest distance of the top shoulder seam. Then I cut out two rectangles of my fashion fabric with those dimensions. Then I mounted it on my lining fabric by sewing a very close seam (one that will fall well within the seam allowance when I finalize this.
Next, I have to guage several rows of the front bodice. It should be fun stuff, a pleasurable interlude. Once I have that down, I can flat line the rest of the bodice, sew piping and fix it all down. Then there are the sleeves. I want to play with gathering there, a la Hunnisett...
So, I added on seam allowances, cut out a master pattern, then cut out a paper pattern. I had some vintage glazed black cotton stashed away, so I used about a yard to cut out the pattern. Then I sewed down the darts and faced my real decision: what fabric to use. The photo in my earlier post influenced me. I had a dress cut of an old repo roller print cotton--one of the early set of Sturbridge Village document prints cottons (Pockets and Housewives for Kent Avery) that were made about 6 years ago. I love this fabric, it's been one that's been waiting for the right project for many years (when I fell in love with it about 4 years ago, I went on a failed internet search for it, then ended up finding it on the sale rack at the local fabric store). The cool thing is that for me, it captures--though without the same great color variation--the feel of the cotton print in the photo my previous entry.
So, I measured the shoulder length and the distance of the tip of the front point from the furthest distance of the top shoulder seam. Then I cut out two rectangles of my fashion fabric with those dimensions. Then I mounted it on my lining fabric by sewing a very close seam (one that will fall well within the seam allowance when I finalize this.
Next, I have to guage several rows of the front bodice. It should be fun stuff, a pleasurable interlude. Once I have that down, I can flat line the rest of the bodice, sew piping and fix it all down. Then there are the sleeves. I want to play with gathering there, a la Hunnisett...
