All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

A ribbon corset

I took a break from serious sewing and whipped up a ribbon corset. And I do mean whipped up – despite the very lackluster pattern and directions, and ribbon that wasn’t the same width as the original, it was super easy to do. The corset was based on a pattern from Jill Salen’s ‘Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques’. It dates to 1900. The original is in the Fashion Museum, Bath. The ribbon is a 3″ wide vintage ribbon from Nana’s stash. Without any planning or forethought, I managed to match the pattern perfectly across the centre front. Whoohoo for coincidental wins! The pattern is a little busy and overwhelming, but I rather like the OTTness of it. The inside of the corset is not quite as beautiful as my corsets usually are, but it’s still pretty. I have a confession to make though. I finished the backsides of the ribbon with iron-on interfacing, and just trimmed off the edges. I know. Naughty, naughty me! Next time I’ll be good and use real fabric and sew …

Carolyn’s dress: the first toile

Published by The Dreamstress

After, many, many toiles of the bodice, I was ready to do the first toile of the full dress for Carolyn’s wedding dress. Of course, it was at this point that I discovered that all of the discardable toile fabrics that I could fine in my stash were in weird patterned colours, which is fine for my own mock ups, but not ideal for bridal mock ups as I want the brides to be able to get an idea of what the final dress will look like. So I did something rather stupid. I used one of my ugly patterned fabrics, and then I flat over-lined it in very thin white sheeting (too thin for a proper toile on its own) I do not recommend this for toiles! It was tricky to work with, and made fitting difficult. Of course, immediately after going to all the trouble to cut out every pattern piece twice, and flat line them, and sew them all together, and having sent the toile off to Carolyn, I discovered an entire …

Carolyn’s dress: Bodice Making

Published by The Dreamstress

You will have noticed that Carolyn’s dress has lots and lots of curving lines, and consequently, will need lots and lots of pattern pieces. This is how I drafted the bodice pattern: Working on Isabelle, I used classic pinch draping (rather than my slightly unorthodox cut draping method) to fit a length of fabric to the bodice, and to get a rough idea of the lines needed. All of those extra seams were a pain to drape, but they do give wonderful shaping over the bust and around the waist. With the front half of the bodice draped, I cut away all the extra fabric, and suddenly you could really see the shape of the bodice emerge. With the front done, I did a similar drape for the back, but neglected to photograph it. For both front and back, I marked all of the seam lines with pencil, took the drape off Isabelle, and cut out all of the pattern pieces (being careful to number them and mark tops and bottoms, as there is so …