The LBD, pictures from the ball

It doesn't look half bad my LBD :o)

Plans? Pah! ;o)

The irony of writing about planning my work, and my work having other ideas about that, is not lost on me!  Now instead I can write about the importance of a final fit, especially when working on a tailor's dummy.  Oh, and also about "painstaking: (n) the application of careful and attentive effort", it was the word of the day yesterday.  

The Dinner Jacket:

I decided on a ruffle round the neckline and down the front closure of the jacket, using the twill of the skirt.  I do not like the collar suggested in the pattern.  I cut two lengths of twill, approx 32" by 4", gathered them lightly and pinned them to the jacket. 

Although very roughly pinned, on Miss G (if not in the picture maybe!) this looked lovely and suitably Victorian.

So, off we trotted upstairs to attempt to get into everything - I am now a certified contortionist! - had a "final fit" and learnt four things:

1) what looks good on Miss G, definitely doesn't look good on me; instead of the ruffles looking stately Victorian, it was more a case of girl dressing up in her mum's clothes;

2) Miss G has far broader shoulders than me; I knew this already, but in a jacket with this much detail and so little "give" it was very quickly apparent that more adjusting to the shoulder seams (and therefore the armholes) was required as the back of the neck stood proud from my body and there was bunching at the front;

3) I'm slimmer than Miss G, and a little more flexible/adjustable!  Finally the jacket had bosoms that fit instead of puckering at the top of the boning, however the centre front edges would have be trimmed back by about 1/2" each side, otherwise the overlap would be too great;

A natural light photo, to give a truer indication of the colour of the fabric.

4) and the neckline also would need to be adjusted; the pattern mentions an Evening Neckline, I would interpret that to suit.

So, new work to do: the shoulder seam needs to be taken in by 3/4" at the neck, tapering to the armhole, the armholes need to be adjusted by a few millimetres along the back seam, and the neckline will be less rectangular and more V-shaped, a detail that both matches historical images and suits the adjustments to the front panels.  It all then needs to be repeated on the lining.

As points 2-4 of my plan didn't go quite as hoped, and I was an hour or so behind schedule, there was no time to get the jacket fit and lined; my one step further on before moving onto the LBD.  Not to say that I was disappointed, I like the changes to the jacket and it will fit very nicely when it's done, but I had to move onto the LBD if I stood any chance of wearing it the same evening.

The LBD:

Earlier in the week I recycled some of the spare taffeta from the 10yr old's Halloween costume onto the LBD.  I had removed the old skirt, but it was too short, the taffeta served to lengthen it and offered a nice tonal and textural contrast to the raw silk.  I gathered the fabric and pinned it to the bodice, keeping the same empire line that I had used with the tulle.

I then cut a "belt" 30" long, 4" wide, sewed the length, pressed and turned it.  I pinned it in place, below the bust detailing. 

Everything was handstitched in place.

I then hemmed the skirt, handstitching for an invisible finish, ironed it all and it was done - with 20 minutes to spare!  With hair and makeup done, my lovely satin mules, Cinderella (the dress that is, not me!) did go to the ball!  Lots of photos were taken; hopefully there will be one that I can post.

The plan for today

I have occasionally been accused of being scatty (who me!) and this week a couple of people have commented on the amount of things that I have going on at once.  I do, I always do.  I like to think through a project for as long as it takes to feel right, so I like to juggle a number at once.  But it's not without structure or planning; it's just that I don't often talk about it.  So, today, here's the plan:

1. Clean
2. Work on the detailing of the Dinner Jacket
3. Final fit the Dinner Jacket
4. Sew in the ruffle and lining of the Dinner Jacket
5. Redress Miss G in the LBD
6. Fit the new skirt design to the LBD and final fit 
7. Finish the LBD (please!! fingers firmly crossed that this skirt works...)
8. Put the Victorian costume back onto Miss G for continued work... if I have time.

Optional extras include starting the bodice of the 10yr old's costume and the ruffle for the Overskirt.

The cleaning is done; the detailing is done, now off to fit... there's only one slight problem; the boyf has gone to do the shopping and I've never tried to dress myself Victorian stylie without help before!

It feels like a wasted week

Yuck, have I been ill this week!  The first cold of the season, thanks to the good folk in my office.  Unexpectedly, and in hindsight how silly of me to be surprised, it effected the thyroid and I've had four days of nausea, retching and lots of other luverly stuff on top of the sniffles, snuffles and bunged up ears.  Plus the lovely boyf was in Stuttgart, so the dobe and the 10yr old did their best to nurse me better, which mainly involved Pepsi Max, the Karate Kid and lots of slobbery kisses!  Gotta love them.

Now, cold kicked mostly into touch and thyroid back behaving, I am itching to get cracking again.  I had a day off yesterday to take the 10yr old on a couple of secondary school tours for next September; we picked the one where she walked round with her eyes on stalks as opposed to the one where she was bored in the first 10 minutes...  In the gap in between I put the second sleeve on the Dinner Jacket; it fit first time, the right length and everything - this makes me nervous! :o)   At the end of the day, the 10yr old helped me to pin and cut the pattern pieces for her Halloween dress.  Finally, at 6am this morning (sleep having eluded me for nearly an hour and the dobe's attentions proving a bit too much) I decided to play with yet another idea for the LBD as I really would quite like to wear it tomorrow night; if I can get it to work.

All a bit scatty and no photos taken, but I will do better tomorrow... maybe ;o)

Good Lord! It's October already!

It's left me in a bit of a panic... our Halloween party is now only 20 odd days away.  We have so much to sort for the party; I have the 10yr old's costume to make; the Dinner Jacket has me sufficiently nervous that I keep putting it off, but I don't have enough time left to do that any more; and the LBD may not have made it to one party, but I have the Charity Ball on the 15th for which it would be good and it is now so firmly on my internal to do list, it will be a distraction till it's done.

So, tonight I got busy... randomly so, but I'm going with something being better than nothing! :o)

I have taken the skirt off of the LBD; it is now back to a bodice and I have more fabric to play with.

I then moved on to the Dinner Jacket.  Taking measurements from the mock-up I have placed an order for the boning and some white boning tape.  Hopefully this will be with me mid-week.

I amended, and trimmed, the necessary pieces from the Dinner Jacket, based on the pinned mock-up that the lovely Mrs B and I produced.

I then cut out the lining pieces, I've picked a cream cotton; the same colour as the twill skirt.

After the lining was all cut, I started to mark out the pieces on the interlining.  I am using the left-over canvas from the Corset project.  I am marking out the pieces as the top fabric will be basted to it before I start to construct the jacket and as the canvas will be the main structure of the jacket, I want this to be as accurate as possible. 

Finally, I decided on a name for Dolly - who sits by the sewing machine happily watching me fuss - she is called Fryda, from "fryd" the Norwegian for "joy".   

At 9.30pm I called it a day.  More tomorrow.

The LBD Shelf Bust Build

Sometimes you have to listen to the voice, even when its saying "Get Up and Sew" at 6.30am on a Saturday morning!  And that is how I found myself cutting strips out of the last 1/4 yd of black faux silk and doing what I love, playing with fabric!

A simple waistband/belt was not good enough, a cummerbund a little less so... I really wanted to replicate those beautiful 50's bodices with the curved waistband detailing.

Somewhere in the back of the brain I'd got a plan and so this morning, green tea in hand and the Rugby World Cup on the TV, I cut and pinned and sewed.

The tulle skirt keeps getting further up the skirt!  I left it in place to use as a marker pinned individual 2" wide (4" unfolded) strips into place, following the curve of the bust.

Three layers later, I hand stitched these very lightly in place, a stitch every 2-3 inches and as hidden as possible.

The final layer was triangular, at the top of the bust it covers the other pieces, tiding them up.  At the front it crosses over, rather like a waistcoat would; and at the base it will line up with the belt which runs under the rest of the bodice.

Three hours (and we won the rugby) later and I have a finished bodice.  I just have to figure out the skirt now.  There is, however, a little nag at the back of my mind... the tulle.  The more I do, the more I think about a full silk skirt.  Problem is, the boyf keeps saying the same thing too - he just doesn't like tulle! - and whilst I will sometimes ignore myself, I can not ignore the both of us.  I have a feeling this dress is going to go through a great deal more before I'm done with it.  

It wasn't going to happen before tonight though, so as penance for his seeds of doubt, the boyf took me dress shopping!

Rebuilding the LBD

Having procrastinated long enough (this is becoming a habit!) I started dismantling the LBD last night; late last night so no chance of pics, not in our little, atmospherically lit cottage.

The first job was to sew the gathered tulle onto some bias tape, it is now ready to then be stitched onto the taffeta later.

Unpicking the bodice and trimming the boning went far easier than I expected.  I have left the black chiffon in as the lining is gold and I didn't want it to show.  It is instead covered by the chiffon which I handstitched in place.  The boyf was right, it looks lovely.

Following that success, I unpicked the skirt from the bodice, where it had been gathered into a rosette, and stitched it back so that it hangs straight and the hem is now all even.  I now have a completely blank canvas for the tulle skirt and new waistband/belt.  That's tonight's job, after a quick dinner in the pub :o)

The LBD, a 50's restyle

 Before I do too much permanent damage to the LBD (!) I decided last night to pin an idea together and get the only opinions that really count, the boyfs and the 10yr olds  ;o)

After dinner, pesto pasta – an obsession of mine, the boyf and the 10yr old helped me fold my several yards of tulle onto thirds, which I quickly pinned together… as the 10yr olds arms were threatening to “fall off!”

I hand gathered the full length of the tulle (I’ve tried machine gathering in the past with mixed results as it can sometimes catch and tear) and loosely pinned it in place at the waist of the dress.  It was immediately apparent that waist height was too low, so I moved it up to a low empire-line.

After a great deal of fussing with a piece of leftover taffeta; I decided, for now, on a simple, wide waistband.  It could look good with a cummerbund front; or, if I can find a pattern, I may look at the curved 50s style waistbands.

Left to hang straight, the tulle didn’t look right (the boyf was right on this one!) so I pinned it in rosettes at various points along the dress hem.  I will have to rework the original skirt; it’s handstitched onto the bust to create shape and an uneven hem; this will all have to be unpicked and the hem shortened.

Boyf also thinks that the bustline should be simpler, and my pinning of the existing chiffon is not simple enough!  This could be tricky to sort in the timeframe though; I am going to have to do a lot of very careful unpicking, remove some more boning (without compromising the rest of the bust) and I have a sneaking suspicion that I may regret it all!  Investigating further is tonight’s job…

One half up, one half down... I think the boyfs right, but it's going to be tricky.

As it is, once it was on with a very cute pair of bow-front satin heels, it looked like a definite possibility.  Far more so than the prospect of spending my lunch hours and most of next Saturday trawling dress shops and feeling grumpy!  As it is, I have till Friday night, and then I can still trawl on Saturday if needs be.

The emergency LBD

This should have been the post I wrote last night, if I hadn't been for the equally beautiful and horrifying Water For Elephants.  I am now officially in love with an elephant called Rosie and 1930s evening gowns.

* * * * *

That aside, upon the doorstep have recently landed more invites to Black Tie dinners than we would normally receive in a couple of years and after much debate and procrastination, we have accepted the kind invitations.  So yesterday, a quick Google and 30 minutes shopping later, the boyf emerged from a changing room looking impossibly dapper and happily parted with some cash.  I on the other hand am slightly panicked.  I have not, in the past, done well in store bought dresses; hence my love of vintage, which fits me so much better.  But I do not have the time at the moment to find something and wait for it to be posted from the States; so I pulled out of the cupboard my emergency LBD.

I made this dress a couple of years ago, it was made in an emergency dress for a Black Tie birthday party.  Lined and boned, it was the first dress I'd made in a good few years and it was the catalyst for the projects that I've done since.  Sadly, at the time I didn't know enough about boning to realise that plastic boning is just no good, or that long lengths of boning really need to be spiral boning.  The boning bent outwards when I sat down - luckily it was a stand up and sip champagne party - and the dress went back in the cupboard when I got home.

If I could remove the boning, it may be possible to rework the dress.  Luckily, the boning was zigzag stitched onto the lining: a quick-unpick loosened them and they could be pulled through a small opening at the bottom of the lining and trimmed.  

The other problem now is that the dress is now also a little too large for me and bunches badly at the waist.  It is a pretty safe design but the original plan for the dress included a tulle skirt; when I made it I ran out time and skill!  I still have the tulle so am thinking that perhaps I could keep the bodice and revisit the original plans for the skirt. 

I would also like to rework the bustline; I wasn't as confident a couple of years ago and as soon as I'd made a dress that was strapless and didn't cover my shoulders, I promptly covered everything up again with lots of chiffon and a cardigan!  This picture was taken once the boning had been trimmed, I kept the boning in the bust; it's definitely the best part of the dress.  I'm thinking I will tuck and sew in the chiffon; create a shelf-bodice style waist band and add a tulle overskirt.  Inspiration looks something like this:

I don't have much time for this.  I've just started resizing the pattern pieces for my Victorian Jacket so that I can start on the lining and get the boning ordered; I have the 10yr old's costume to start; Dolly sitting naked and looking at me! and I have Christmas projects to start thinking on...  I will have to find a safe spot for the Victorian Costume, stick this dress on Miss G and get something sorted quickly... the first party is next week!