Stays (pattern and cutting)

Last Friday, I started making the stays, after I enlarged the pattern.
I made a mock-up of the unaltered pattern, as it seemed almost right!


The gap on my back was too large and the tabs were just a little too high in the waist, so I had to alter the pattern, as expected. I ripped out of the mock-up haha :P


I was too lazy to add bones, the measurements could be done without them too...
If the final stays are not like they're supposed to be, I will take that back and make a proper mock-up the next time, hehe.

I laid out the pattern pieces on the table and cut them horizontally at the waist.
There had to be 3 cm extra for the tabs to be at the right place.


Unfortunately I found out that I had to redraft (almost) the whole thing, because when I shifted the pieces, the boning channels didn't match any more...
2 cm was added at the back at the lacing holes, some redrafting followed again.

I laid some transparant paper on top of the pattern (taped together) and drafted the new pattern on top of the old one. You can see the 3 cm gap at the waist.

The pieces were cut in three layers: pure dupioni silk, coutil and a stiff cotton.

Robe a la polonaise and stays

So, I decided the dress is going to be a robe a la polonaise.
But that means I don't need paniers, so those have to wait for a little while.
I haven't got much time left anyway...

But first, I'll need some stays! These will be my first!
I already scaled up the pattern, it's from Corsets & Crinolines (Norah Waugh)
I hope I can finish them this week...

This weekend I'm going to buy new fabric for the dress, exciting!
After I finish the stays, I'll start making a mock-up. The pattern is from Patterns of Fashion (Janet Arnold)

Paniers (making boning channels)

Yesterday I started making the boning channels for the paniers.
They're not really boning channels, I just sewed on some pieces of ribbon...
Because of that, I can remove the boning whenever I want and dump the paniers in the washing machine :)

Paniers

I decided to make a 18th century dress, but I haven't finished my design yet...

But! I need paniers anyway, so I started on them this week! :)

First, I scaled the pattern from Corsets & Crinolines, by Norah Waugh. (http://www.amazon.com/Corsets-Crinolines-Norah-Waugh/dp/0878305262)
I wanted to transfer the pattern on a large piece of paper, but that took too much time and annoyed the hell out of me!
So I just scanned the pattern, enlarged it in Photoshop, broke the image down in A4 sized images and printed them. I placed some marks on the images, so when I printed them, I could easily match the pieces.

I measured the width and waist. Because it's not a tight fitted garment and the measurements sounded okay to me, I didn't alter the pattern.

The side and front pieces were cut out of thick cotton. A little too thick, because I already noticed the top pieces were to stiff to properly gather at the waist.
First I decided to start all over with poplin cotton. But I ended up only cutting and sewing the top pieces again, from poplin cotton. That saved me some time, and it's nice that the rest of the paniers is still thick cotton. I cut some facing, turned, pressed and made the channels for the drawstring out of that. Not really historical accurate, but I serged all the edges.
These are my first paniers and go beneath the dress, so it doesn't matter to me anyway.

Now all that's left are the boning channels, cutting and putting in the boning and maybe add a ruffle...

Here some pictures of my work up till today: