Renaissance costume making
Well, after my last entry got sidetracked into rambling about the Fantastic Four, I'm now actually writing an entry about costuming.
So, I've started making the peach linen Italian Renaissance dress.
The bodice fits perfectly, except for under the arms, which are too big, so I'm putting in openings with lacings there, which I've seen people do before, and it seems to work pretty well. Mum insists on lining AND interfacing the bodice, which I'm a bit afraid of, since the last bodice we used the fusible interfacing on was really stiff, and actually kind of ugly. But Mum insists the skirt will be too heavy for such a small bodice if we don't. I honestly don't think it will, because we made the skirt about twenty inches less wide than the pattern calls for it be, but Mum's doing the actual sewing, so I have no choice but to defer to her in such matters.
The skirt though, is proving problematic, because we just gathered it, and it's really puffy, which is bad, because this is a high-waisted dress, and it's supposed to have a slim silhouette. I'm thinking pleats would have worked better, but I'm a bit wary of asking Mum to re-do the skirt after she made such a big to-do of how hard it was to do those gathers.
Le sigh.
And we didn't go to the fabric store when they had the sale on black trim, and we don't have anything even remotely useful for this at home, so I have no idea what I'm going to use to trim this dress.
Le sigh again.
At least it's just a simple dress with only a skirt and a bodice; I'm glad I already made the chemise last year. Hopefully we'll get it done this week, if the sewing machine doesn't give out, or if Mum doesn't bash it with a baseball bat to punish it for all the trouble it gives us.
But on the whole, the making of this dress is actually going more smoothly than usual. (knock on wood!)
So, I've started making the peach linen Italian Renaissance dress.
The bodice fits perfectly, except for under the arms, which are too big, so I'm putting in openings with lacings there, which I've seen people do before, and it seems to work pretty well. Mum insists on lining AND interfacing the bodice, which I'm a bit afraid of, since the last bodice we used the fusible interfacing on was really stiff, and actually kind of ugly. But Mum insists the skirt will be too heavy for such a small bodice if we don't. I honestly don't think it will, because we made the skirt about twenty inches less wide than the pattern calls for it be, but Mum's doing the actual sewing, so I have no choice but to defer to her in such matters.
The skirt though, is proving problematic, because we just gathered it, and it's really puffy, which is bad, because this is a high-waisted dress, and it's supposed to have a slim silhouette. I'm thinking pleats would have worked better, but I'm a bit wary of asking Mum to re-do the skirt after she made such a big to-do of how hard it was to do those gathers.
Le sigh.
And we didn't go to the fabric store when they had the sale on black trim, and we don't have anything even remotely useful for this at home, so I have no idea what I'm going to use to trim this dress.
Le sigh again.
At least it's just a simple dress with only a skirt and a bodice; I'm glad I already made the chemise last year. Hopefully we'll get it done this week, if the sewing machine doesn't give out, or if Mum doesn't bash it with a baseball bat to punish it for all the trouble it gives us.
But on the whole, the making of this dress is actually going more smoothly than usual. (knock on wood!)