Pet en l'air - Part five - fifth bodice fitting

I tried the new sleeve on last Friday and I think that I'll settle with this one. It's not perfect but it will have to do. I will cut the real fabrics with a bigger seam allowance so I can do some last minute fiddling with them.
This is what we got (boobs ahoy):

Front


Front with arm down


Back


In the pictures I have turned the hem and pinned my engagente to the sleeve instead of the chemise and it feels and looks much better. I'm still pondering if I should take out some of the fullness from the chemise sleeves. I like the little puff but it's not practical under the tight sleeve. And since I'm getting more and more into the look of 1780- to 90's the sleeves will get even more unforgiving for puffing chemises.

I hope I will manage to cut the lining and sleeve lining tomorrow. I'm starting to get a bit stressed about this outfit, I really want to have it finished in time for new years eve since we are goin to a really big fetish event.

/L

Done some shoppping

Today I was in Stockholm and did some shopping, my main reason for going was the fact that one big fabric store are closing this Sunday and they had 50% off on everything in the store. I was hoping to score some twill to use as corset linings for my corset line (my day job is a designer and producer of my own fetish brand) but all the twill had already gone. I'm not surprised, they started their sale a couple of weeks ago.
I did however score a perfect fabric for making myself a cute bum roll and it cost me only 15 SEK :)

I also visited Old Touch, a fabulous vintage store and got some very pretty embellishments. I finally ended my journey at IKEA and bought 2,85 m of the now infamous ANNELI fabric. Well, enough with boring text now and on with the pictures ;)


In the front we have a sturdy cotton fabric. It's a herringbone twill weawe and the stripes are also wowen. It's pure white and red, the light was not so good when I took the picture. In the background whe have ANNELI in black, I will use it as lining in the red velvet pierrot I have plans for.

Next are a couple of silk roses who need a little steam to get back in shape, they're a bit crusched from lying in a big pot in the store. I have not decied wich goes where yet but one or two of them will go on the wide brimmed straw hat that I've made as soon as I get it covered with fabric.




And last we have these ostrich plumes. There are two pink ones and one purple. I'm not so fond of the purple and the pink stuck together so I will take it a part and use them on different hats. The pink ones will probably end up on my tricorn and I think that the little jewelled buckle will serve as a front decoration on it.


I'm very pleased with todays haul. Over and out.

/L

Pet en l'air - Part four - fourth bodice fitting

You are not going to see any pictures from my third fitting, because that fitting was horrible and I deleted all the pictures out of pure anger. (Geesh, I really should work on my costumeing temper.)

Last Sunday I was at a "syjunta" (a swedish word that means " a sewing get togheter" held by Gustaf's Skål.
E, the writer behind Isiswardrobe, helped me fit my much hated sleeve and this is how it
looks now:



I'm almost there now, but I need to add 1,5 cm at the back of the sleeve because now it was too small for the armhole there, I think I'll add it at the sleeve seam. I think those 1,5 cm will make the sleeve large enough to fit comfortably over my chemise sleeve too. So hopefully, the next sleeve toile are the last one...

The poking at the front near the armhole is my stays that are protruding a bit, lovely boyfriend M accidentally laced me a bit too hard. It wasn't his fault my body quickly adopts to being laced so every time I do a fitting the gape in the back gets smaller and smaller...

I've also decided to baste my engagentes to the pet en l'air sleeves instead of my chemise because I think it will look and feel much better. Perhaps I should loose the cuff and puff on the chemise too?

/L

Pet en l'air - Part three - Second bodice fitting

I HATE SLEEVES!
There I said it. My bodice fit me fine without sleeves but when I put them in, they create havoc with the fit.
Now I need your help to figure out what to do. Lets start with some pictures of the misery, shall we?

Here you can see how the sleeves drag my shoulder straps of my shoulder.
And a closeup:


My thoughts goes as follows:
The overarm width feels OK, they are snug but not overly tight but I think I need to add at least 1,5 cm since muslin stretches and damask and stiff linen will not.
I think that I need to make the sleeve head higher, when I move it feels like the top of my shoulder doesn't have enough room to move around and drags the bodice down over my shoulder.
I don't know, maybe I should make the armhole a bit bigger in the front too? Or will that make my problem worse?

Oh, I really want this to fit so I can start with the fun part. I've already stitched together the back panels so as soon as the lining is finished I can just cut and work.

/L

Pet en l'air - Part two - Bodice fitting

Today during my tea break I stitched together the mock up for the bodice and the sleeves. I was skeptic to the sleeves the minute they were in. They looked like they might be too tight and the pleating was not nice at all. I also discovered that my tries to eliminate the need of darts in the shoulder strap area failed a bit, there was still a bit to much fabric there.
*le big sigh*
I know that a dart in that area is period, I've seen it in PoF but I really want to have a smooth inner bodice so there will be at least one more bodice mock up.
So this is how the bodice looks like on Vermont:

Front

Sleeve

Back

Tonight the Fantastic M, (my lovely boyfriend), helped me to lace up and then helped me to fit the back of the bodice. I have to take quite a bit away at the top CB. I think it's because my body mass are at the front while Vermont has his on his back ;)

Apart from the gap in the top CB, the bodice fit me fine. The sleeves did not. At all. The length was right but the width over my forearm was too tight. I need to add at least 3 cm there. I'm also playing with the idea to make the sleeve head rounded at the top not square because I think it will be easier to set in. I've seen both versions in PoF so I think it's safe.

Since it was so dark when we did the fitting on me, there are no pictures. But to comfort you here are piece of muslin that I've tested my pinking skills on. I think it looks nice and I will use this technique on the bottom frill for my petticoat. The strip is 23 cm wide and I marked both edges in 2,5 cm intervalls. Then I used those marks as guies for the pinking shapes when I cut with my shears.

The rounded shapes will be the head, I think.

The shopping finger is itching again...

I'm contemplating on buying these pair of shoes and redress them to look something like this:

(I found these pretties over at Fuschias blog)
Or maybe like those fabulous 1780's shoes that are in the end of 17th&18 th century fashion in detail *drool*

/L

Pet en l'air - Part one - Adventures in pattern draping

I've finally pulled myself together and started to work on my pet en l'air.
Today I made my first try ever at pattern draping. I'm used to do flat drafting but it is so darn hard with 18th century garments. So I decidedt o give it a go and damn it was fun and quick!

Please allow me to introduce to you my dress dummy, monsieur Valmont. He is a strange thing, it is like something between a man and a woman in body shape. But he has my measurements (although he has the most of his body mass in his back muscles and I have mine in my boobs). I'm going to make him a companion that are my exact body double but until I actually get around doing it, Valmont will have to stand being a cross dresser.

Anyway I put my stays on Valmont and tighten them to the measurements I know is comfortable for me. Then I pinned some muslin to the stays and started pinning, smoothing and pinning and drawing. Here are the result:

Front:


And back:


I made a slanted line at CB so I can make a lacing there. The first 4-5 cm will be stitched close and the rest will be open. I think I will put some synthetic whale bone around the opening to strengthen it a bit.

Tomorrow night I aim at taking the pieces of Valmont and clean up all lines and to make a full bodice mock up. If the bodice fits I can start on the sleeves.

/L

A queen bee?

I really have enough 18th century projects to work on already but I need to write this one down so I don't forget it.

I'm a bit in love with this cute fabric (a close up):


And a approximately 22x22" piece of the fabric:


It is a silk/rayon brocade and the bee are in dfferent nuances of gold from thaisilks.com

I want to make this pierrot from 1790:


Or perhaps this caraco from 1780 (with trim made of matching taffeta):


I think both will look really cute in that fabric.

/L

Trinkets for the Trinket box

This is a pair of earrings that I whipped together in ten minutes or so. I bought two pairs of earrings ,one pair had the bow part and one pair had the pearl drop. I cut the drops loose and put them on a new pair of hat pins that I attached to the bows.
I think they look cute and a bit Marie Antoinetteish. And they cost me only 50 SEK ( about 7$) since the earrings were on sale :D

In the background you can see a glimpse of my engagentes that are made of a very fine cotton lace. I attached them to my chemise sleeves with very big whip stitches so they are easy to take of if I need to.

/L