Dramatic Threads: Morning Dress

Showing posts with label Morning Dress. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #1

For this challenge I didn't want to buy suspenders, so I made do with stash stuff!

The Challenge: Make Do and Mend

Fabric: Cotton belting, Leather

Pattern: http://www.autostraddle.com/this-is-a-holdup-make-your-own-suspenders-51549/
http://manmadediy.com/users/chris/posts/190-how-to-make-your-own-suspenders
Year: 1920
Notions: Metal U rings, suspender clips

How historically accurate is it? About as good as I can get.

Hours to complete: 2

First worn: Arisia 2014

Total cost: Stash except suspender clips, so $4

Monday, January 13, 2014

Monday Progress Update: January 13th

Arisia's so soon and I still have so much to do!

Here's what I've done this week:

I made most of my Morning Coat:

It needs its sleeves and lining, and the vents need to be done. Not a lot of work, really!

This is what the innards of the front pieces look like. Each front is lined in hair canvas, the shoulder is reinforced with another layer of hair canvas, the left front has a welt pocket, then the lapels are padstitched and the roll line is coverd in stay tape. After this the whole canvas got covered in stay tape before the pieces were sewn together and the lapels were sewn on.

This is the collar. Like the lapels it is padstiched like whoa, then steamed into this shape. So pretty!

Next up: to finish the vest. I had a gorgeous silk brocade picked out months ago for this project:

Unfortunately I only bought a yard of 22" wide fabric, and the store I bought it from searched but they are all out! So I got this instead:

Not as pretty as the original, but still very nice. I'll be working hard on this tomorrow.

I also almost finished Holo this week:

I started with the shirt. It is a highly modified button-down shirt pattern, changed to have a zip up the back and added cuffs to the sleeves and put on a neck facing instead of a collar. The skirt is a 3/4 circle with an elastic waist band. The fur was cut to shape so it curves nicely with the fabric. The vest is based on the same pattern the shirt is only a size bigger with a front opening and neck and armhole facings. The collar was freehanded based on the neckline. The waist scarf is just a long length of silky fabric satin-stitched around the edges. The hanging thingee is a hoop from a small embroidery hoop spraypainted silver and attached to three strips of quilting cotton that are braided. It doesn't have the same look in the picture as it does in person, I may fix that later on. The necklace is just a circle tucked around some cloth scraps and tied with a length of leather cord, and the neck tab is cotton duck cut to shape and satin stitched. It looks pretty crappy, though, so I'll probably replace it.

Here are the leg warmer things she wears over her booties. They're felt cut to my calf shape then boned with plastic boning. The grey fleece is pinned over the felt and turned over at the top and bottom and a separating grey zipper is installed on the inside calf. The fur trim is pinned on right now, I hope to hand-stitch it on tomorrow.

Also started Wonder Woman. Got her corset cut out and pinned. Not a lot, but it's a start!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Monday Progress Update: January 6th

Beatrice almost complete. I haven't worked on her this week, still waiting on the bias to come in, but I got a picture of the almost-done:

I hope to get the bias in soon so I can finish this.

I also finished my pants. This pic has only one leg hemmed, but since then both legs have gotten done.

This is where we last left the shirt. Since I've put buttons and hand buttonholes up the front and added a collar stand. Eventually I'll be getting a paper collar and collar studs which will need their own holes, but I'm not sure of the size and position yet.

This is where we left my Morning Coat yesterday. Since then I've refined it, cutting the pattern and doing two mock ups.

So here's where Morning Dress is:

Pants and shirt with suspenders. Pants are hemmed a little high, as was the style in the early 1920's.

Current coat mockup. I think the front armscye is too large, and the back suffers from a horrid static cling, but otherwise I'm hopeful it's good.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Patterning

In working on my Morning Coat I was faced with a dilemma. There really are no Morning Coat patterns out there commercially. I could take a suit coat pattern and modify it, but it would need heavy modification and I didn't want to take the time. Then I found this pattern in a 1920's German tailoring manual available online.

It was perfect, but I didn't want to take the time to draft it all up to my size. Enlarging patterns is time consuming. So instead I took it to Fed Ex and had them enlarge it and print it up on their printer. I didn't waste a lot of time trying to get it exactly the right size. Instead I concentrated on the length, knowing it would be easier to adjust the width. The printout cost less than $10, so it was comparable to a commercial pattern.

Once I got it home I cut it apart and worked on making it my size. My preferred method of enlarging a pattern like this is slash-and-spread. Trying to keep the length and shoulder seams the same size, I slashed the width of the pieces and taped them back together when they matched my measurements.

There are tons of books and tutorials that can teach you how to do this, maybe I'll look for some good online resources later this week. To end, though, I cut the pieces, adding seam allowance, out of my mock-up fabric. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my coat fitted and start on the real one!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Hand Sewn Buttonholes

I spent the day finishing up my pants. All that remains is buttons and hemming.

I did a lot of hand-buttonholes today, what with the two closure buttons and five fly buttons.

Hand buttonholes are really easy and they don't really take that long. It's rather relaxing once you get the rhythm of it. Here are some links to tutorials on how to do hand buttonholes:

http://www.craftstylish.com/item/42556/how-to-hand-sew-a-buttonhole/page/all

http://bygumbygolly.com/2013/09/buttonholes-by-hand-vintage-sewing/

http://www.afashionablestitch.com/2011/inspiring_me/how-to-make-hand-worked-buttonholes/

http://oldfashionedbastards.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/hand-stitching-tutorial-buttonholes/

Friday, January 3, 2014

Welt Pockets

Working on my Morning Dress today. I made two pretty wicked welt pockets on the backs, with matching welts and everything. I'm super proud of them:

Want to know how I did it? Here are the links I used, along with the instructions in Vogue 2383, which is the pant pattern I'm using (although I've heavily modified it, it's almost unrecognizable now).

http://www.palmerpletsch.com/handouts/No-FailDoubleWeltPocket.pdf

http://www.ikatbag.com/2010/12/pockets-xxii-double-welt-pockets.html

http://www.fashionsewingblog.com/sewing-easy-double-welt-pockets/

Monday, December 30, 2013

Monday Progress Update: December 30th

I didn't get quite as much done this week as I wanted, but I did get stuff done:

Beatrice is almost complete. I had to mail order a last spool of gold bias, but otherwise she's finished:

I also got started on my Morning Dress. I made a pair of suspenders:

And a dress shirt is almost done. I was especially proud of the topstitching on the patch pocket:

And here's the shirt, with hand buttonholes on the french cuffs but no buttonholes on the center placket. It also still needs a collar stand:

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Morning Dress Shirts, French Cuffs

I'm sorry to those of you that are bored by my linkspam, but I find this a very convenient way of organizing my findings and keeping links where I can locate them.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Morning Dress Pants

I started on my pants for the Morning Dress outfit today. I thought pants were simple, but these suit pants have facings and welts and sticky outy bits everywhere! There were 18 pattern pieces!

Here's the pattern I used, Vogue 2383: