I’m really, really proud of myself.

I’ve gotten tons more done since last I blogged. Finished flatlining…

…and moved on to assembling the back piece. Lots of hand-basting, which I actually really enjoy. Especially since I got some new basting needles which are long and sharp.

Once the side pleats are basted, the top gets pleated onto a piece of twill tape.

Then you sew it to the back pieces. The above picture is actually just the pleating, not the attaching, and it’s kind of a mess now with all the stitching, but it’ll be pretty strong. The trick is to attach it only to the interlining, not the outer fashion fabric. Tricky indeed.

Here’s how it looks after I sewed the back pieces together:

Makes a lovely chair cover!

I sewed up the new darts, being an expert at this point at darts. The new ones between bust and shoulder are nearly perfect and I am so much happier with the fit. The original bust-waist-hip darts ended up a tad smaller than I wanted, but A.) that’s OK because I had to guess a little on them and try to flow the new width back into the same vertical points and B.) I’ve lost some weight between now and when I started, so a “perfect” fit will never be achieved, but I’ve gotten damned close.

On to 1.0! The copper fabric is beautiful, but it curls and shreds like a bitch. This realization may have been the point at which I made the decision that if a well-made, on-sale formal gown were to dangle itself tantalizingly in front of my face, that I would indeed buy it to save myself from having to do this a third time. Ann Taylor had a sale. The gods were listening! I picked up a nice cocktail length medium sky blue dress with beautiful details for about $100, which is probably how much I would have paid for materials for a third polonaise. So I am concentrating on headwear and warm clothes for the November wedding now. Whew!

For this problem, I have the solution. Eventually. I’m not cutting out the pieces with the pinking shears because I think it would add to the complexity of the sewing, and I am definitely in keep-it-simple mode. I think it’ll be a good seam finish though.

Again, my trusty team of pattern weights are on parade.

No, as a matter of fact, there isn’t anything left in the cupboards. Thank you for asking.

See? I know how to mark darts now! The fabric really is pretty.

The saving grace for the fabric will be the interlining that gets sewn to each piece before I sew them together. I’m just going to use some tightly woven cotton, or that bedsheet I saved but who knows where. A lot of sewing with bedsheets is going on at the Truly Victorian forums. I love reading the posts there.

So, I expect there’ll be a lot more cutting tonight with the cotton interlining, and hopefully some flatlining (Sewing the copper to the cotton. Not having heart attacks. Knock on wood.). I swear two thirds of sewing is cutting and ironing. They should really tell you that when you first start.

Darts! I marked them very carefully (while watching The Corpse Bride, fun movie to sew along with) and then sewed them veeerrrrrrryyyy sllllooooowwwwlllyyyy. Started toward the middle and continued out toward the point, then broke the thread and went back from the middle in the other direction, as I learned from The YouTube Videos. This intarwebs thing is pretty cool!

So then I tried it on, first just over my shirt, then over my corset+shirt:

You can totally see the difference. Kate was absolutely right and I never questioned her, but I was very curious to see the difference for myself. The corset kind of turns that part of you into a dressform and you don’t need ease there. I sat down in it and nothing changed. Verrry interesting.

There’s even a bit of extra room! You can see I’m quite pleased with myself. I’m probably going to turn the neckline just like that for a simple lapel look.

One of the big problems is the extra fabric above the bust. As B put it, I do not have a “shelf” even wearing the corset. Here’s the solution I finally came up with when we got it all pinned for the actual fitting:

I extended the frontmost darts all the way up and over the bust to take in the extra bulk between bust and shoulder. The instructions call for dart adjustments to be made equally from the same point on all 4 darts, but there was nothing to help with the extra bulk up top. It’s still overing above my chest, but I can’t get it to lay flat and it looks kind of dramatic, which is always a plus.

ETA: I just realized that we pinned the front closed improperly – it should be 1″ stitching line against 1″ stitching line, rather than against the edge. Because of the buttons. So back to the fitting process I shall go next time around. This is all good stuff to mess up in the mockup phase, before I go nuts and shred the nice fabric. Speaking of which…

And one more before I go. Just a little teaser pic of the fabric and trim for version 1.0.

So, I patched the dart holes, re-sewed them, and just for fun, tried it on without my corset.

Yeah, one of the patched darts pulled out, so it wasn’t going to be much of a fitting. I could pull it shut, but they call for a one-inch seam allowance to allow for button overlap. That just wasn’t happening.

But do notice how nicely it fits across the back! It’s very much like the two cassocks I sewed for B, except for these effing weird front darts. One of the pitfalls of historical costuming.

So, OK. Lessons learned:

1. I don’t know how to handle a dart, CLEARLY.
2. I should try it on over my corset.

So I laced up ye olde corset, exactly the same as when we took measurements, and LO! It fit even worse. It pushed my front up a bit, but added extra bulk in the small of my back. I can comfortably slide a finger between my back and the laces. I still haven’t decided what to do about that, because…

I realized that I had used the wrong seam allowance. I can’t believe I’m blogging this because it is such a rookie mistake, but in the interest of journalistic integrity, I will. With approx 10 seams sewn at 5/8 instead of 1/2, I estimate that by re-sewing all the seams I regained an inch or two.

Having fixed that problem, I went straight to YouTube and found all the videos on sewing darts (with a few DIY dart gun videos thrown in, interesting) and learned some tips on getting darts right. Also determined that these darts are not normal and I should not feel TOO bad.

Then I re-cut the front pieces to re-do the darts. I’ll post about that tomorrow, because it was a bit more successful, the darts look much smaller and more precise, but I haven’t yet tried it on over my corset. Which I finally found this morning, neatly rolled up and placed in a laundry basket. Why? Maybe because I was tired and it was near the bed. Lack of oxygen can really do some weird stuff to you.

Stay tuned for 0.2, now with added corset!