Mashira's dress diary

Skirt and tie finished!

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:01:00 +0000

Last Saturday was the wedding (a cousin of my boyfriend got married)

I finished the skirt and tie in time.
Here some pics:

The bride and groom liked it ^_^

Stays (binding in progress)

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:57:00 +0000

I'm currently busy with hand (for the most part) binding my stays.
It's a lot of work, but it pays off :)
The binding will be pressed afterwards, so it'll look less wonky.

Here some pictures:

Silks from Silkbaron.com

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:51:00 +0000

The fabric I used for the stays are 100% dupioni silk, bought from www.silkbaron.com
I can really recommend them!

They have an ENORMOUS selection of colours!! Splendid quality too!
Dupioni, velvets, charmeuse, chiffon, satin, taffeta etc. etc.

The colour used for the stays are "rustic red"

The stays in "rustic red"

I also ordered some new fabric from them yesterday.
We're going to a wedding next month and they asked the guests to wear something orange.
I'm going to make a tie for my boyfriend, a hat and a skirt for myself in the colour "juicy orange"
Isn't it pretty??

Juicy Orange

I also ordered some "Aquamarine"

Aquamarine

Stays (binding finished)

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:22:00 +0000

After making some horribly small bias binding, I finally made a decision what to do next.
I wanted to save some fabric (because I have other plans for the same colour) so I had to order new fabric for more bias binding.

I thought "hey, if I am to order new fabric for binding, why not a contrasting colour?". I couldn't decide on the colour (white and crème somehow seemed ugly) and couldn't wait so long for the fabric to arrive anyway :P
So I did use the rest of the fabric after all. I'll order more if it's really necessary

The bigger new tape maker was put to good use. I even cut the fabric 5mm wider than it should have been. That was a good idea! It wasn't too wide at all... After sewing the strips together and looooooots of ironing, the binding is done!

My tip for today: always cut your binding wider than you want too :P

5 meters of silk dupioni binding finished

My corset making history

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:47:00 +0000

May I bore you with some old pictures?
These are all the corsets I made in the past. Yes all, although I'm ashamed of most of them.
The first one is from 2005 and the last from 2008 (2008! I should really finish my stays and get on to the next)

I can't believe how much I improved! But at the same time, it looks like there's no improvement at all!
Sooo much left to learn :)

Pattern made from an online pattern generator. Rigilene and two layers of polyester taffeta

First self-drafted overbust. Two layers of the most hideous polyester lining fabric (yes, lining)
This was the first time I used steel boning. The pattern wasn't even THAT bad for a first time.

My first self-drafted underbust. And the first time I used a busk. Two layers with steel boning (sandwich method)

Self-drafted underbust of polyester satin. Two layers with the steel boning in the seam allowance of the lining (bad idea -_-)

Self-drafted overbust (men, I must really like pattern drafting! :S)
Not the best pic, but it gives a really nice silhouette, without lacing very tight. I like the bust part. It contains spiral boning and cups the breasts nicely. Two layers (sandwich method) with steel and spiral.

Again, self-drafted and the first time I used coutil! Two layers with steel and spiral boning. Used internal boning channels (also a first time!), that's what also caused the huge wrinkling. But I kept it that way, because it gives a funny effect up front.

Well, I'm a perfectionist, so I thought to myself: why shouldn't I use a commercial pattern for a change? I couldn't be satisfied with my own drafts, so that looked like a good idea.
I used the Laughing Moon pattern. Even after two (I usually do one) mock-ups, this is the result. I'm not really satisfied, it looks cheap! And it's my only corset that has the outside layer made of silk! I have to lace like crazy to get a nice shape and then it's still not really what I like.

Oh well, it's more comfortable than my black overbust. Let's research the reason for that a little more for my next overbust :)

So, that's my history of corset making! I probably make a cincher after this to wear regularly and a nice overbust to fit my Victorian dress better.
Of course I'll make some in progress pics of that :)

Stays (boning finished!)

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:00:00 +0000

I finally finished measuring, cutting, filing and dipping all the bones :)
It took a long time, I know.

The spring steel was filed with a dremel tool and dipped with white nail polish.
Hm I should buy myself some plastidip some time.

And let's not forget the busk!
The busk was cut and carved out of a thick plate of plastic (thanks again, dad!!!)
Does the job very well and ofcourse it fits perfectly!

The boned stays with the white plastic busk on top

Now on to making my own bias tape!

Stays (boning)

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:12:00 +0000

The boning is starting to work on my nerves!
It's taking forever and I don't seem to have enough boning.
I have some in another size, fortunately the difference is very small.

Well, the boning is mixed up now anyway, so I'm using both :)

The tabs and back are now boned, so now on to the front!

Stays (basting and boning channels)

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:10:00 +0000

Last week I sewed together all three layers.
First the dupioni and coutil layers were basted at the edge to prevent shifting and after that, the layer was sewn to the cotton lining.

All layers sewn together

I was afraid when stitching the boning channels, the layers would shift, so I basted them again, spread over the fabric.
I now have sewn all the boning channels.

Lots of straight stitching: all boning channels finished!

So now the boning, binding and eyelets are left!

Stays (pattern and cutting)

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:31:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:51:00 +0000

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)

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:05:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mashira) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:31:00 +0000

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: