Today was VERY challenging
Apr. 10th, 2014 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chocolatepotI've got to do the really important pieces to justify why I'm doing this (but tbh they weren't giving me anything else to do, and were paying me to sit around and work on the presentation I DO NOT want to give tomorrow), so the first thing I brought down today was a family-that-owned-the-house 1896 wedding dress, which went pretty well. I thought it would be tricky, but it's very simply cut - photo and photo of the woman in it. (I'll have to be sure to mention the trim that's in the photo and not on the dress anymore.) The skirt's so simple, all straight lines. So I decided I would go further afield for the next dress, and also find something more colorful and a little harder.
WELL. I went with an 1878 dark purple wedding dress that I barely remembered because it was in a box very high up. The color would make a nice contrast with the others, it's from a different time period, etc. If a dress is in a box it's in too bad shape to hang, which makes me feel even better about patterning it because it can never be put on a mannequin and this is the only way anyone's going to get a decent look at it. BUT HERE'S THE THING. It was the most complicated thing I've ever patterned.
First off, it only buttons to a little way down the waist, and then a big tablier drape is sewn across the front to hold it. There's kind of an apron half-underskirt that gets in the way for examining the back from the inside fully, so I have to figure out all the darts and seams from the outside, where the fabric is much darker and the grain way harder to make out. Then the center back seam is split apart with a full-width panel of silk pleated at the top and put over, then sewn into the seam. On the way down, there are triangular gores inserted between this CB panel and the seam that used to be CB. Then all of this is covered by a drape that's pleated down the length and just kind of twisted around, tacked to the skirt here and there so it can't be flipped out of the way. Everything is tacked to awkward places so you can't look at seams.
Looking at Janet Arnold, I guess it's not too far out of the ordinary for the style, but no wonder it didn't last very long, that's all I can say.
... I want to make it now.
Tomorrow I might do this dress, but I'm not sure because would anyone want that pattern? It would be simple, too. But we also have the dress in this picture, and in this one (and check out her dishy husband). I'm also considering patterning these slippers because, well, they're sewable.
I finally got around to asking for the activation email for the Sewing Academy forum (it never sent - I signed up in January) and the mod sent it immediately. Today I went to change my password from the temporary one, and I don't know if I accidentally typed in the wrong fields (it was on my phone) and changed my email address to a password and will never come to me, or if verification emails always go out for password changes, but I think I'm going to have to ask again.
WELL. I went with an 1878 dark purple wedding dress that I barely remembered because it was in a box very high up. The color would make a nice contrast with the others, it's from a different time period, etc. If a dress is in a box it's in too bad shape to hang, which makes me feel even better about patterning it because it can never be put on a mannequin and this is the only way anyone's going to get a decent look at it. BUT HERE'S THE THING. It was the most complicated thing I've ever patterned.
First off, it only buttons to a little way down the waist, and then a big tablier drape is sewn across the front to hold it. There's kind of an apron half-underskirt that gets in the way for examining the back from the inside fully, so I have to figure out all the darts and seams from the outside, where the fabric is much darker and the grain way harder to make out. Then the center back seam is split apart with a full-width panel of silk pleated at the top and put over, then sewn into the seam. On the way down, there are triangular gores inserted between this CB panel and the seam that used to be CB. Then all of this is covered by a drape that's pleated down the length and just kind of twisted around, tacked to the skirt here and there so it can't be flipped out of the way. Everything is tacked to awkward places so you can't look at seams.
Looking at Janet Arnold, I guess it's not too far out of the ordinary for the style, but no wonder it didn't last very long, that's all I can say.
... I want to make it now.
Tomorrow I might do this dress, but I'm not sure because would anyone want that pattern? It would be simple, too. But we also have the dress in this picture, and in this one (and check out her dishy husband). I'm also considering patterning these slippers because, well, they're sewable.
I finally got around to asking for the activation email for the Sewing Academy forum (it never sent - I signed up in January) and the mod sent it immediately. Today I went to change my password from the temporary one, and I don't know if I accidentally typed in the wrong fields (it was on my phone) and changed my email address to a password and will never come to me, or if verification emails always go out for password changes, but I think I'm going to have to ask again.
