Playing catch-up... soon

Steamcon fast approaches, and I've been working.... but not blogging.  Lesson learned:  post within 24 hours, and post after every major session or it doesn't get done!  I now have about a billion photos to process and try to remember what they were taken to document as I've worked.

I will catch you all up on my progress, but not tonight.  It's already been a monstrous long day, but for now, here's just a few to give you an idea of what I've accomplished so far:

The corset back, finished

The cropped jacket, mocked up in muslin

The cut jacket yoke and collar, embroidered

Workroom Session #16: Cutting a jacket muslin

Tonight I stopped of at Byrnie Utz and picked up a hat.  I had one I liked online, but didn't know what my hat size was - so I was going to stop in to the local fancy hat shop and find out and then order it.  However, they had a nice hat that I liked on hand for about the same price.  It's not so much a gambler with that distinctive pencil roll edge, but it suits just fine.  I'll take pictures tomorrow when my mother's here to help check the corset and jacket fits.

I also prepped the jacket pattern.  I am using Simplicity 2344 as a base; it's just a princess-seam, band collar jacket, but it is in my size and it should be easy to make the changes I am looking to make.  This particular pattern is nice in that it contains separate patterns for different bust sizes!  It did mean that there are a LOT of pieces on the tissue.  It took me a bit to hunt down all the pieces, cut out, and press them.  I have cut out the collar, fronts, backs, and one sleeve, but it was late enough that I did not want to start the Mercury.  stitching the parts together will not take long. 

Short post tonight, it's late.  See you all soon!

Workroom Sessions 14 & 15: Back facings, setting eyelets

I have been a bit remiss, and I am behind on my timeline.  I am VERY glad I set an early deadline because I now do not believe I will make completion for Halloween.  I do still think I have time to make good for SteamCon, though!  I worked a bit on the 7th, and in little bits and pieces between now and then; I put in another very good, very productive session tonight.

Last Thursday I prepared the back pieces. I took photos of the gussets, but that is old hat - they are just more of the same, so I will spare you the bandwith and not upload those.  However, the center back pieces do have a bit that is different.  They have facings that run up the edges.  I cut strips to use for this when I cut the garment, and even fused them with some mid-weight interfacing.  Now it was finally time to apply them.

Unlike the bone casings at the center front and sides, the facings go to the inside.  I suppose I could have turned them to the outside, but chose not to for... not sure.  It doesn't matter.  I pinned the strips on to the shell pieces and stitched them.  I did not trim the 1/2" seam allowances, as I knew they would be fully encased and would only serve to add body and structure to the area that takes the most stress.

Center back facing, pinned to the shell

More after the cut...

Workroom Session #13: Gussets and casings

I started out tonight with the intent of preparing the four back gussets - but plans change!  I did sew in the gussets on each of the middle back pieces.  I noted that I didn't catch the top edge of the slash on the body, but that's OK - the structural nature of the flat felled seams made it a non-issue (although I did have to spend a moment or two mentally reminding myself, "it's just a costume!").

Detail of casing stitchlines crossing gusset point, right side

 Continued behind the cut.....

Workroom Sessions #10, 11, 12: Construction

Well.... I have let myself get behind.  Every so often I get bogged down with a bit of existential angst.  I had about a week where I got very little done in my day to day life, let alone the project at hand.  I worked on Saturday (the 18th) a bit, but had plans for the entirety of the 19th that turned out to be both extremely fun and a little stressful.  That stress was very difficult to recover from - and the costume project probably contributed.  I had not been eating well, and the strict schedule of work left me feeling a little isolated and a little pressured.  Once I had gotten off schedule, I had a difficult time getting back on.

Also, I had not blogged the work I had done on Saturday.  Now, more than a week later, I am going through the pictures and kind of scratching my head.  What exactly did I do each day?  What was my process?  Lesson learned - write after EACH sewing session!  As it is, I have that session, some work from Tuesday, and now tonight's workroom session to talk about.  This post will be big!  To help keep things a little more manageable, I will split the work sessions up.

Session #10:  Joining the first pieces

Saturday I started the process of connecting the pieces.  Since the whole project will be worked from the center front outwards, I took the next pieces out and prepared them.  In this case, that means I needed to sew boning casings to the inside of the middle front pieces.  I rolled off lengths from the packaged featherlite boning and cut the pieces including the plastic bone.  The bones themselves will be cut down to fit post-binding.  I marked each plastic bone and each piece of casing with one dot at the top edge, and removed the cut plastic bone from the premade casing.  This was pinned onto the muslin side of each piece at the top notch, following the stripe.  I stitched down the casing following its stitchlines; technically this is bottomstitching, since it was done from the wrong side of the finished garment.  The casings went on quite nicely.

Continued after the cut.....

Workroom Session #9: Preparing the pieces

 I started out tonight by cutting the remaining pieces and preparing some auxiliary bits.  I plan on a triple bone at center front since there is no  busk, and double bones up the sides.  These will be slipped into cases made of the shell fabric, stitched to the exterior of the  corset.  I also prepared facings for the center back and fused them with a little bit of interfacing to help prevent raveling around the grommets.  There will also be a modesty panel inserted under the lacing gap, but I need to wait to prepare it until after I have trimmed the top edge.  I will also be cutting each gore piece to match its stripe just  before it is inserted.

Back facings, prepared with fusible interfacing

The plan is to start at the center of the front and work outwards.  To this end, the very first thing to be done is sew down the boning case at the center front.  I took the strip I had cut and trimmed it to length, and lined it up with the clips at the center front.  I marked where the stitch lines would need to be with little dots (the lines are straight and don't need to be drawn since there are stripes to follow).  I pressed under the edges and pinned the strip onto the body piece.  I also used a few pins to hold the muslin interlining secure to the ticking.  I don't use a whole lot of pins, but they definitely have their place.

Workroom Session #8: Cutting, accessories, and a little history

I started out by digging through my fabric stash for something "right" to jump out at me to use as the interlining for the corset, as I feel the ticking is actually a little bit stretchy.  I found a piece of shirting, but it wasn't enough sturdier than regular white muslin to justify cutting so nice a piece of cotton.  I briefly considered a piece of caramel colored vintage linen; the color would be lovely, but I was concerned that the age of the fabric could compromise its strength, and that the surface is a little rough to be worn against the skin.

Cutting the muslin interlining

So muslin it is... but I cut on the cross-grain.  The muslin was cut on the double (folded selvage to selvage), and the peices arranged perpendicular to the fold.  This is 90 degrees off of how you would usually arrange the pieces on the fabric, but normally you want the vertical length, along the warp threads, to stretch the least.  I wanted that touch of extra beefiness to run horizontally instead.