2nd mock ups and sewing the final iteration

Today I went to the sewing guild and took along a few essentials. My 2nd toile of the bodice for catelyn's dress and the 2nd toile of the hobbit bodice.  Usually I take more things than I can possibly hope for, but today it was only what had to be done.  Oh, forgot the 3 bra-laundry-bags that needed the zips replaced. That was a quick win to spur me on.

If the hobbit worked I was going to use it as a strength layer, but it didn't. I need to rotate the dart from the armhole, and I forgot to move the shoulder seam back. Lastly I need to insert a hulking hip gusset on the middle of the back panels and take the same amount from the hip side seam. Volume in the wrong place is still the wrong volume. Seeing as this gusset is going to be below the waist and thus under the skirts, it's not a biggie. I put the zip in the CB seam, or I'd pop it on & take a photo to show what I'm blethering on about.  I don't want the bodice to finish at waist line, cos that can be uncomfy with the boning, an there's a risk of gaping if the skirts drop at the back. It was making my quick & dirty oktoberfest costume a couple or 3 years ago that brings this to mind (it happens with that bodice & skirt).

Foolishly I didn't get pix of myself in any of the toiles.  The first dress mockup indicated that it needed to be taken in 3cm at the centre back seam, same at centre front seam, and a FBA done to compensate for the loss of frontage + a little extra. Also my standard 1.5cm sway back alteration.

And that half the FBA needed to be done on each of the two front bodice pieces. Oh Joy. NOT.   So I did that and cut out a 2nd toile & packed it into my sewing tote for today's group.


The 2nd toile needed 1 alteration, it gaped on the neckline so I had to fold that out of the pattern (18mm on the neckline!) I can tinker with the shoulder seam a little when the body is completely assembled & before I insert the sleeves. Then my brain melted a little when I remembered that I'd have to cut each panel into 2, as Catelyn as a 16 panel dress. I was winging the hem volume as I did went. I had to fit the pattern to the cloth as I only had just over 6 metres of fabric. It shrank in length & width in the dyepot.  No pix of the cutting & chalking proccess. I'd like to have much more width in the hem, but it is what it is. 6.4m of 140cm is a crazy amount to need more of. I may have cut longer than needed, but I knew that I was better off having to cut of an inch or so than need that inch.

I got half the seams sewn before it was time to pack up, and most of the rest once I got home. I flip flopped and dithered and felt obliged have the back seam lace closed, but I just wouldn't be able to dress myself if I do that. So after much angsting and consulting a couple of valued friends I decided that an invisible zip will be just the thing. I'm not aiming for screen accurate, just close enough to be recognisable.

So I've got 12 of the 16 body panels together and the other 4 in pairs. I'll insert the invis zip on the CB seam and then join the back 4 pieces to the rest. Stitch the shoulder seams and see if there's any tweaking to be done.  This looks like the fit is rubbish, cos it's being held up at the wrong level.


I was feeling so stressed this morning - over both work and costume deadlines and a day of sewing helped me decompress.

Hobbit bodice - shifting the front dart

So I stopped at the library on the way home to use one of their large tables. Here's I moved half the underbust dart to the side seam, and half off the side front of the centre front panel seam. I'm going to cut off the bodice 3" below the waist ... in the movie the skirts tie over the bodice, so I'm glad I marked the waistline. I'll leave the armscye dart in place & stitch it.

photo catchup - have them at last

ugh, the interwebs just ate my post as I went to post. Lets see what I can remember ...

Here's the blue fabric I'm going to make into a short gown for my 1806 female working class persona.  It's lightweight and the warp stripes are (by thread numbers): *2 white, 2 light blue, 1 dark blue, 2 light blue* repeat at about 8 per inch/2.5cm.  It's a greyer blue than this photo would suggest.


The hobbit bodice - it fitted reasonably well in the back, apart from the shoulder straps being 3.5-4cm too long (overall not just in the back shoulder strap). My torso is short between underarm and shoulder so I'm not all surprised by this. I was thinking of moving the shoulder seam towards the back as in historical clothing so marked a line on the toile, but decided against it as the screencaps of women's clothing don't have that.


With the front, the central panel seamline is drawn on the reverse so you can't see it in the mockup.  I'm going to see if taking half the underbust dart from that seamline and the other half from the side seam sits ok, but first I'm going to rotate the underarm dart to the underbust.



As I anticipate wearing this to the next couple of movies as well as this June's Supanova I want to do a reasonably good job of it.  I'll do a 2nd mockup to see if my changes work effectively, and I'll cut the back & side front pieces on the bias just to see how that works.

Oh and I nearly forgot that I got the dye for Catelyn tonight.  I guestimate that I'd need 2 bottles or 4 packets of RIT.  I'd checked my dye-stash on Sunday night and amongst them is a dark green and a grey but there wasn't a teal which I thought was in there.  So once I discovered the bottles would cost $38 for 2, well I balked at that.  So instead I got 1 bottle and a packet of dark blue - on the theory that dark blue+dark green+teal+grey would hopefully get me a dark teal

unfitted mockup of the hobbit bodice, and other small chores

Today at the sewing guild I took lots of little things in case the spare sewing machine wasn't available/working.

I seperated the chemise-blouse pattern pieces from the corset & pantalettes in the burda envelope, and cut out my size in the paper pattern. Leaving the fabric until the last minute this week (so I can hopefully including in a stashbusting comp).

I can tick off some zips that had to be unpicked from discarded skirts. I'd alreading cut a skirt margin around the zips as the skirts were stained or damaged.

My hobbit bodice pattern to trace and get the initial mockup done. I didn't cut the pattern out as it's on heavy paper, and I'd rather leave the multisizing intact. I'm using the Tailor's Guild pattern, cutting it off at waist level. I cut it out in midweight cotton twill using long stitches and putting an upside down zip on the front edge ... it's the waist that needs to be wider to get on, not the neckline.  When I make the real hobbit, I'll cut the front on the fold and have a 2" gap in the back that laces closed. I'm hoping to get help fitting this tomorrow.

I've just popped it over my speedy fish T to see how close it is, as it's going over a chemise-blouse not too far removed from a T. The fit is closer than I expected but longer shoulder straps (I'm short between shoulder and underarm. A bit loose below the bust of course. I'm going to bone between the base layers, with the "fashion" layer floating on top of them.  An incredibly poor quality photo, but meh, the past couple of days are saying "just keep moving forward" so I'm not going to have another go. You should see the photo attempts I deleted!


I took 6 pieces of fabric to give away, and only had to bring 2 of the smaller pieces home. I'll take them to the Fabric Cave next Sunday.  Plus some others I didn't take with me today.

3rd task i tackled was the UFO nightie I cut out last year and didn't get done. At the time I hadn't enough fabric to cut out the keyhole neck facing such as the one in this version I made *cough* years ago. So when I took El Pres fabric shopping a month ago on her flying visit from Adelaide I grabbed half a metre of the similar but smaller/bluer fabric in Marrickville. The same place I got my hobbit apron yardage. And yesterday got the Catelyn fabric.


So today I planned to cut out the keyhole facing. Except when I opened up the project bag there were no sleeves. None.  And for once I tossed the scraps. So I must have flicked the sleeves by mistake when I cut it out back in July or August - it was before my August holiday. The half yard of tiny print wasn't enough for both sleeves and the neck facing. And I was there YESTERDAY and they still had the fabric, but I just knew that if I cut a sleeve and neckband that when I got back there it would be all gone and I'd have to cut them again. So I grumped to anyone who'd listen.  Mainly cos the timing of it all.

The grumps put me off a little.

Next I got out the dress pattern for Catelyn & found the right pieces for the mockup, but was too grumpy to do an FBA on the bodice, so I packed up a tiny bit early and came home.

At least 2 of my extensive UFO list are scratched off it. I just wish the nightie was going to join them soon.
- replacement curtains for my main room, with block out lining - cut out
- Hobbit, 2 skirts cut out