There was much sewing this weekend, but there wasn't a heck of a lot of picture taking. The dress engineer did take this lovely picture, though. Does it not admirably demonstrate how very helpful the help is in my house? The one with the orange fur would be Dexter; the one with orange hair would be me. The Dex's dedication to putting his head on my fabric is a force to be reckoned with. I was cutting away, all the way up to the point of bumping him with the scissor tips as I cut the straps on a direct line towards his nose and he still didn't move. It required main force to remove his head from my new bodice. That's dedication. Or perhaps it's that the ugly pink fabric is leftover from his dog bed. It could be that too.
Oh. You didn't want a picture of my messy sewing room? Ok, here's the kirtle in all of its ugly brown drabness (ugly brown drabness was what I wanted my dear Niter, so you don't have to loyally comfort me this time!).
I am mostly pleased with it. I could pick it to bits for your benefit, but I won't bother because (1) it'll be covered anyway and (2) I still think it gives a decent effect.
Ok, I lied. Here are the major flaws:
1. The lacing rings suck. Suck suck suck. Some year, I'm going to learn that the quick fix doesn't work. Until that time, I'll blissfully sew in the lacing rings, humming to myself about all the time I'm saving. Then I'll lace it up and be cheesed off when I realize that I then have edges with nothing motivating them to lie flat. Nothing at all.
2. You can see my boning. This makes me a little cranky, since there are four layers in the bodice. I thought that would do it. Obviously not. This one I'm not going to fix though. It'll be mostly covered, and I'll just attempt to remember next time.
3. I should have gored the skirts. I didn't have much fabric, and I could have made better use of it. It's not like it's a narrow skirt by modern standards, but it's a little less flowy than I'm used to for not-modern stuff. I think this contributes to the side slits wanting to pull open a bit, even after I did some dress engineer-inspired alterations there.
4. You can't see it here, but the shoulders on the shift are off the shoulders by an inch or two. Obviously, I can't measure. That and I was a little paranoid about fitting into the shift, so I padded the measurements a bit. It's comfortable though. Oh yeah, which reminds me, I made the shift according to the Elizabethan Shift Pattern Generator, which is uber-handy.
On the plus side, I like the lack of separate corset, the poop-brown color, the feel of linen, the cute little v-neck in the back, that all visible stitching is by hand, and the fact that it only took me a day and a half to do this. I'm also pretty partial to the side lacing, since I can do it myself. Quickly. Without swearing.
2 comments:
I like it! Your linen has quite a sheen to it. Mine is dull and slubby--probaly cuz i boiled it for so long while dyeing, cuz it started off nice and crisp.
For the rings: I would suggest attaching them at 90 and 270 degrees as well. I did that after your warning, and it looks to lie a bit flatter (makes lacing harder, though).
For the skirt: Yeah, I'm self concious about mine being too narrow too, and kinda wishing I'd done gores. We'll remember this for next time--italian, perhaps?
For this time, yes, they're narrow, but they will be covered. I'll just try to make the outer dress skirt a little fuller.
Smock: My neckline is too big too. I didn't account for how much corsety lifts my boobies and shrinks my require neckline. Oopsie.
The shoulder seams/neckline are not the result of poor measuring or boobie-lifting. There's some error in the smock generator that creates a very, VERY large neck and consequently the low shoulder seams.
P.S. I am super jealous that the two of you have finished gowns. I can't ever seem to finish a gown, so instead I look at other peoples' online :-)
Post a Comment