Saturday, April 23, 2011

This skirt makes my butt look big

Finally, a productive day on one of my own projects!
A few days ago, I bought the muslin for my new bustle petticoat, and the taffeta for the black gown. They sat around and stared at me while I finished commissions, and now they are finally getting put to good use!
I started up on the petticoat this morning. I didn't work off of a pattern, just sort of eyeballed the sketch of the petticoat and fiddled with the fabric until it worked. Things were going along swimmingly.
Then, I ran out of thread. Usually not a big deal, except that I'm absolutely determined not to leave the house this weekend...I've used far too much gas this past week, running back and forth delivering commissions, going to school, and buying books for class. Too much gas. So, I'm trying to stay in to let my wallet rest for a bit.
This also means, no new thread until Monday, when I can pick it up on the way home from class. So, that's as far as I got on the petticoat...the butt ruffles. There are still two more butt ruffles to add, and I need to finish the front of the skirt and add the waistband, but it's far enough along that I can pin it to my bustle to approximate how the gown itself will lay over my undies.
So, with white thread gone, I decided to move on to the gown itself, and started cutting out skirt pieces. The skirt itself went together super quickly, and is now ready to be trimmed.
I can already tell that this gown is going to EAT fabric. The skirt itself took just about as much fabric as I expected, but the trim, the TRIM! I cut out seven 7" wide strips of fabric, using the entire width of the fabric. Sewn all together, this gives me a strip of fabric about 8 1/2 yards long! But, once I pleated it, the strip didn't even make it around the hem of the skirt; I'm going to need one more panel to complete the first line of trim! Oi.
Anyway, despite how it's eating fabric, I'm quite enjoying making the trim. Thankfully, the ironing board has a squishy, padded cover on it that I can stick pins directly into, which makes the whole thing a bunch easier. I just pinned the pleats, ironed them flat, and then sewed it down along one edge. It took forever, but The Doctor kept me company while I toiled away.
Well, the first line of trim is now pinned to the hem of the skirt, and tomorrow I'll cut out another panel, pleat it, and finish it off. I could do it tonight, but, I don't wanna. :p
I may have been a little optimistic about finishing this skirt this weekend, but if I can manage to get it to 75% done, then I'll be satisfied. I'm absurdly pleased with how this trim is looking, though. I have a love affair with pleats. I can't resist them. So, I shall pleat more fabric, and the skirt will be awesome. Stay tuned for more pleats.

2 comments:

  1. in a few month i like to sew the same black ruffle bustele dress ;-)......i like your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I'm sure it will be wonderful. :D I hope that you share some pictures when it's finished! :)

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