Sunday 16 June 2013

Despite all of that ... the toile wasn't too awful!

Having made that atrocity of a toile which didn't give me any meaningful information about the fit ... I redid it. Or at least the front section! And it isn't really too bad:


Excuse the red bra. The pleats are nice, but don't feature in the finished design. I could have left them out at this stage!

 













I went ahead and cut the lining - a satin duchesse which quite a lot of weight to it (more than the silk certainly).



I don't have many pictures from this bit of the construction. I think I was excited and basically cutting and doing the seams went surprisingly quickly.  It's difficult to see here, but I edged all the pieces with cream bias binding!

And so:

 The lining came together quickly and quite painlessly. I've noticed that when you put boning in a curve (you can just see the seams) it doesn't conform to the curve until you've attached it to another curve.  Funny that.



This is the silk: I used as much of the remainder to make a train and then trimmed it down. To do this I had to photocopy the 2 different side pattern pieces, add another eight pieces of A4 or so and make the pieces as wide as I could - within the width of the fabric.

Then I had to extend the same angle that the side pieces were going at at the centre back so that the train came out diagonally from the bum area and still touched the ground. Then the hem angle had to meet the centre back line so that it met the ground all the way along.  Hard to explain, will be easier to see in later pictures maybe.


 This is the trimmed version: still quite long!

This is the silk from the front. At this stage I have made the straps (folded four times and stitched along the open side).
They are just pinned on at the moment to get the length right, hanging all around my armpits. Actually it still wasn't right!
And there is the peachy sash that is going to go on later - like in the original dress.

The tricky bits are done by this stage! IE the fit. Actually in this picture the bust still doesn't look quite right; it needed stitching in the ditch along the bust seams to get the silk to sit smoothly and tightly over the shape of the bust. I had a phone disaster and I think I have lost these photos!