Totally forgot you existed!
Nahh not really, I've just been super duper busy.
I FINISHED MY DRESS!!!!
I finished it, well it held together and there was trim and it stayed on me and it had sleeves and everything! I still needs finishing, and a better attachment of the trim.
So, there were many drama's with my dress. First of all I cut out the velvet pieces and had an extra 3 inches or so in there so when I worked out if there would be an issues with so many extra layers in the dress I wouldn't have an issue with the hooks and eyes not meeting.
I made the inside section separately. I just took some canvas and black cotton and hand sewed boning onto it. I redesigned this staged, like a lot before I actually ended up with a finished product. I toyed with the idea of just having internal lacing and no extra flap section. Also thought about having it sew into the back/side seems, but thought that was too much stretch and worried about it. then I realised that the bottom half (the point) would have absolutely no structural integrity and not be doing anything. I'm pretty sure in fact I threw several tanties at my fabric and mental designing ability before I said, fuck it I'll just do it this way and see what happens. It ended up being like an internal panel sewn about 3 inches in from the seem. It worked ok, but I think it needed more... strengthening.
Ok so fabric cut out all nice and stuff, I sewed up all the seems and into the bodice. I managed to attach the pieces into a bodice shape! yay! then I realised I would need some sort of interlining. I think from memory, I used canvas again. I also sewed in some boning and lined it with black cotton.This is what the bodice looked like when I was sewing in the interlining and boning.
I then tried it on, it seemed like the originally drawn line was perfect and I was all WOO HOO I'm amazing *CHOPs off excess* and then lo and behold, it didn't fit. I refused to believe something in my measuring had gone wrong and it looked like I had gained 3 INCHES of weight someone around my everything. I cursed my boobs. If it wasn't for one particularly amazing friend who I cried at I would have probably given up right there and then! At this stage it was around a week or two till the event I wanted to wear my dress to.
Here is what I thought It looked like when I pinned it closed before I cut it:
This is what It looked like, you can see why I panicked...
After about an hour or two of my rage quit I realised I could just add a piece down the middle and it would be covered up totally by the trim. I was a genius! so, I did that, fixed it up and then after about a whole day of what felt like a step back, I tried it on. It was too big. There was some epic grumps here and mad un-stitching and I realised the original was maybe a cm too small, but what the hell I would MAKE it work. Back on track to the original plan. I think what I actually forgot is that I'm going to have it laced shut, which will hopefully stretch it closed tight enough.
See this ----->
That part that Im pulling in where my finger is? That is the piece I added, and that was how much it was too large after *face-palm*
I fixed up the edged and sewed in the hooks and eyes, and finally I positioned the lacing under panels to line up with the boning in each bodice panel so they didn't double up. Of course, I did have boning down the line where the middle join was origination measured.
* Moment of Truth*
It fit. Perfect. There was a lot of happy dance.
Here is what My bodice looked like from the side, I don't know why I only have the one pic at this stage, but just ignore the fact the second image has sleeves.
OK so now I think it was T-Minus 7 nights till Midwinter Feast and I had no skirt. I still wanted to do a shaped skirt so that it didn't have a lot of fabric gathered up around my waist and made me look fatter. I did a little bit of research, and asked around and read Jane Arnold's Patterns Of Fashion and how they said it do it. I was pretty sure I didn't have enough fabric. OOH THE DRAMAS. I could go to the place tomorrow and buy more... but there was definitely enough for a skirt if I just pleated it all in. I have never done a shaped skirt and figured, after about an hour of worry (and calm words from a friend) that I should stick to what I know right now, because It's simple, its cheaper, its less stressful and I could do it then. Box pleated the whole thing and whip stitched it on. Oh by the way, I missed out all the drama's I thought I had because I could no work out how to attach it with the point, at one stage I thought It wasn't long enough... Anyway. I eventually worked it out.
Next, Sleeves!
I think at this stage I was running out of time and decided to completely skip having random roll puff sleeves and just skipped that and decided to go with over sized sleeves, so they were not tight around my arms and looked a little puffy and cute. There>>
is a pic of me with my sleeves, so happy at this stage!
Here is how it looks doing up, with the under lacing panel:
T-Minus 2 nights till Midwinter Feast. I attached the trim along the bodice. I had to re-cut it out because I needed the design to match up on each side. Because I'm pedantic like that! !
Here is the trim. However, this is it just pinned on, you can see how un even it is =/
I spent all Friday night hemming my skirt and attaching trim to the dam 3 meters of stupid skirt, and still I spent most of Saturday morning attaching more. By the time I got there I was still one sleeve short of trim and tacked that on in the bathroom before hand. I was dressed and I was lovely and I had ALL the trim in the right places Saturday night. I thought I looked DAM AMAZING. and then, the first doorway I walked through in my stupid fathingale... bloody ripped my trim off and my hem. SO NOT HAPPY. Thank goodness I was going to see the Baroness and she was all, here let me safety pin this for you. I avoided doorways all night! *Glares at doorways*. I still havn't gotten any pictures for you of me in my dress.... I might do that soon. Probably after exams though.
Oh, I almost forgot. I the front of too much cleavage, The bodice ended up being almost too high and covered up most of my cleavage. I looked decent.
Here is the only Picture I have at the moment, hopefully I will take more later, probably after exams...
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