Tag Archives: finished projects

November 16, 2025 · 6:36 am

A Little Black Corset

I really wanted to make a corset for Hallowe’en.

Of course, I was a wee bit occupied making the most psychotically intricate costumes for the twins, so…

I did not finish in time.

But, it is finished now.

There were a few things that prompted this. One is that I’ve wanted a black underbust corset for, basically, ever. Well, technically I have one. Two, even, if you count this little Swiss waist, which is perhaps more of a boned belt. And I do wear the first one quite a bit, but a) it’s very sequiny and 2) it really, really doesn’t have enough hip spring (and never did).

And I had had a corset in mind for this stripey upholstery brocade ever since I snagged a remnant of it back when I worked at Fabricland.

So this is basically an adaptation of my white underbust corset from not-quite-two-years-ago. Except that that one is currently a wee bit big on me, (fluctuating bodies are very annoying, by the way) so I shaved down the pattern by about 1/4” per piece.

Then panicked that that was a bit too much and sewed with slightly skimpy seam allowances. But it seems to have worked out all right as I have a comfy 3”-ish lacing gap fairly evenly down the back. So I should be ok if it stretches a bit, or if I get bigger again this winter.

I have finally gotten the hip shaping on this pattern just about perfect, I think, for my body at least. I had to tweak one side a tiny bit but I think that had more to do with imprecise sewing. I find I have more luck with corset fitting trying on the final version partly boned than I ever do fitting mockups.

I tried, roughly, to line up the stripes so that they met and diverged in pleasing ways, and were roughly symmetrical, though I did end up opposite on left and right sides.

I underlined the upholstery fabric with ticking, for a lightweight strength layer, and then added a whole nother layer of black broadcloth lining in the centre front and back panels, so the white ticking wouldn’t peek through. So it is a fairly heavy beast, definitely an outerwear as opposed to underwear corset. Making the holes for the grommets was a little brutal. Every once in a while I think about investing in a grommet press, but the part that drives me nuts is always making the holes, not hammering the grommets…

The busk is an old one salvaged from an early, non-wearable corset attempt, with a gunmetal finish, though that doesn’t really show in the pictures. I didn’t have any grommets to match so I used black ones, which I think were left over from the first time I used this busk, actually. I also used up almost all the boning tips I have in stash, so no more corsets until I can manage to order some more. Well, unless I just use plastic boning.

I added a waist stay, though the twill tape I used isn’t as aggressively stable as the grosgrain ribbon I prefer to use. It matched though.

I cut the hip higher on this version, aiming for a sharp point in the front. Perhaps I should’ve made the back sharper as well, but i find the lacing gap reduces this effect anyway so I didn’t bother.

I used a lightweight black (homemade) bias tape to bind the bottom, and some bias velveteen to bind the top, for a luxurious line. Not sure that I totally love it, as it adds more bulk at the top, but I didn’t have enough of the bottom tape for the whole corset. It is pretty and luxurious, though.

And that’s pretty much it. Quite happy with how it turned out. A very fun addition to the wardrobe. But now it’s time to get back to sewing leggings for the twins’ endlessly lengthening legs.

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July 19, 2025 · 6:58 am

Little white dresses (encore)

I have a long history of putting my kids in impractically white dresses (and other outfits).

It started with the older girls, but for brevity I’ll stick with the twins.

Apparently I have an unhealthy relationship with the laundry.

This isn’t even all of them.

Anyway, back when I made this dress, I had a wee bit of amazing border-lace fabric left over. I made it into a a little shirred-top sundress thinking it might fit my youngest niece, who was a very petite 13 at the time, but I neglected to add a lining, so the skirt portion was quite see-through, and the sizing was a bit optimistic, and it just never made it to her.

(Oh yeah, the twins got pink hair for the last week of school.)

Well, after a bout of housecleaning a little while ago, the twins found it. And, by some miracle, it actually fits Tris (who is at this point substantially taller than River), much to River’s dismay. So obviously I needed to make something similar for River.

Anyway, rather than do the rational thing and look for something suitable in stash, I found myself at Fabricland over a long weekend sale and succumbed to the lure of a whole new piece of border embroidered fabric. (Among other sins that will be spilled here eventually, I imagine.)

And I set about making another shirred dress.

The first dress had been made from a scrap, with very limited fabric. I only bought a metre and a half of the new fabric, but it had the border embroidery on both edges. So I cut off both of them to make a wide, extra-full ruffle for the bottom of the skirt. I also added a waist seam, thinking I would need to gather the skirt onto a smaller bodice piece… which I didn’t end up doing, so the seam is basically useless, but I should have done since the bodice ended up too big and I had to make a big pleat in the back… anyway.

Alas, I didn’t take any construction photos, as the process was very quick and also frequently interrupted. Once I had the outer dress constructed as a series of tiers, I sewed the lining to the top, flipped it to the inside, and started off the shirring with a row of regular stitching over stretched clear elastic to give the top a bit more stability.

I used my ruffler foot to gather the bottom tier. I once again experimented with using my coverstitch machine to do the shirring as a chain stitch, as I’ve seen this on many RTW shirred sundresses. As with the last time, it worked well when I wasn’t having odd issues with the elastic thread breaking. It is a nice technique because you don’t have to hand-wind the elastic onto a bobbin, and it’s easier to adjust the looper tension on the coverstitch than the bobbin tension on my machine. But it does use up significantly more elastic per shirred inch, and even though I had two spools of elastic thread, between the shirring and everything I lost to the initial testing and thread-breaking issues, I wound up running out before even this very short bodice was finished.

The breaking issues, this time at least, seemed to have more to do with my top thread getting tangled around the spool I was using, and then cutting through the elastic looper thread, rather than the elastic thread breaking spontaneously. Once I got the upper thread tangling sorted, I didn’t have any more issues, though I did try to keep my stitching pace measured. I was even able to tie on the thread of my second spool with a small knot and just keep going without a hitch, which was lovely. I still ran out about an inch and a half short of the waist seam, which was frustrating.

Then I remembered I had a bobbin wound with elastic (presumably left over from when I sewed up the first little dress since I haven’t done any other shirring since then). So I did the last several rows of shirring using that elastic. The tension isn’t identical but after a bit of steaming the difference isn’t noticeable, and not at all once the fabric is stretched.

Once I had the shirring done, I serged the edges, hemmed the lining side, and sewed up the back seam of the dress. Then I had to take a 2” chunk (so about 4” of shirring, probably at least twice that of actual flat fabric) out to make the bodice smaller. I left the skirt, so there’s a weird pleat at the bottom of the bodice in the back, but again with all the gathering it isn’t noticeable. I had just enough scraps of the fabric left to make little tie straps, although it’s such a soft, mushy fabric it did not work at all putting them through my bias binding folder, and I really didn’t want to fuss with stitching and turning them. Anyway they’re fine.

I will add that throughout this whole process, River was highly unenthusiastic and repeatedly told me that she would NOT wear the dress, and wanted the original one (which is too long for her, but then this one is pretty long too, I guess). The dress was “too fat,” which I guess meant full-skirted and ruffly? So when I first finished it, she wouldn’t even try it on. Fortunately, Tris is much more accommodating, and was happy to swap dresses. Unfortunately, once River saw it on Tris she came around and wanted it back, which led to a whole other round of bickering, and I finally told them that both dresses belonged to both of them and they had to share.

I did find a few moments, right before we took the pictures for this post, to add a very quick lining to the older dress. It meant I had to add a visible line of stitching in around the bottom row of the shirring, but again it’s not really noticeable at any distance and makes the dress so much more wearable.

And then we all threw on our dresses and had the quickest front yard photo shoot you could imagine. The twins insisted I join in the tiara wearing, by the way. And we won’t discuss how many times I’ve had to spot-wash catsup and chocolate milk out of the dresses this week, either. It’s sundress season, and we’re going to enjoy it!

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June 16, 2025 · 9:00 am

Long Stays

Back in the winter, I got inspired to try and update my long-neglected Regency period wear. In particular, certain world events have had a lot of us Canucks thinking about the War of 1812 a lot more than we ever had before… which got my little historical sewing group planning an 1812 picnic on August 24. First off, I wanted to make a new set of regency stays, since my old ones aren’t fitting quite how they used to. And I’ve always wanted a set of long stays, anyway.

I actually mostly finished these back in April, but I wasn’t quite satisfied with the fit. Recently, I finally made some tweaks that I think have saved them.

It’s the Redthreaded pattern, but my copy is from back in the day when they only came in single size, which is no longer the size I am. So I had added some width, but apparently I overdid it because it was lacing closed and not really doing what it needed to. This period of corset was aimed less at waist reduction and more at bust lifting (with a side of keeping a flatter tummy to look a little less pregnant in the high-waisted gowns), but at least at my age I need the underbust area to fit snugly, like a bra band, to get the proper support/lift. So, since I couldn’t quite bring myself to redo the binding, I just took a half-inch tuck right beside one of the boning channels at each side seam, all the way from top to bottom, so that my stitching was right on the seam line. The tuck is hidden on the inside and hopefully the tuck won’t be too irritating during periods of longer wear; I didn’t notice it at all while trying it on.

But let’s back up a bit. While sewing, I had a lot of regrets about my decisions with this project.

First, the materials. Corsets of this period are usually made of a double layer of cotton sateen (ticking would work in a pinch) with quilting, embroidery, and cording supplying a lot of the support. I could not for the life of me find my original digital pattern and instructions, so I was kinda winging it, just modifying my old printed version, and somehow I settled on single layer construction (so no cording or quilting) using the last of the grey coutil from Farthingales I used for this Edwardian corset. This stuff is beautiful and the finished corsets are great, but it’s stiff as cardboard, hard to sew even on a machine, and not even remotely accurate to the period in this case. I mean, my historical accuracy is never super high, but what was I thinking?

I didn’t have a lot of the coutil left, either, so when laying out my pattern it became obvious I would have to add a front seam. However, I seized on this opportunity to add some lacing in the upper front, similar to these transitional stays at the V&A:

Or the ones included in the Scroop Augusta Stays pattern. This detail really makes no sense in a pattern with bust gussets, at least for someone like me who has no space between their breasts, but I do think it’s a cute detail and I don’t really regret going for it.

Hand eyelets on the front. Not on the back however.

I did a LOT of hand stitching on these, and I regretted just about every moment of it, because this coutil is so dense and hard to stitch. I inserted the bust gussets by hand, including turning and stitching down the seam allowances on the inside. I love the look, but the process nearly killed me.

Detail of the V&A gusseted corset

I used a different technique for inserting the hip gussets, based on looking at some 1830s corsets on the V&A website. See how the point of the gusset is actually square, covered in a satin stitch? You get this if you cut your slit as a T, and the edges you fold under are the same width all along instead of tapering to nothing at the point. It was so much easier than trying to taper the seam allowances to a V point, especially when sewing by machine! I do still have to go back and do the satin stitch across, though.

The boning is a mix of spring steel, spiral steel, and a bit of plastic imitation baleen when I got lazy. I also added a pocket for a wooden busk in the front (aka a paint stir stick) although I had to make it a bit shorter due to the presence of the split section at the upper CF.

The binding is a coarse linen(?) type bias binding I originally made for this corset a billion years ago.

It’s been kicking around my overflowing bias tape box ever since. I really should go back and revamp that corset, actually….

The hip spring isn’t quite adequate (hence the flare out of the lacing gap at the bottom)—I should have tested that more closely, and enlarged the hip gussets as necessary. But for the moment I’m going to live with it. I also spiral-laced it, which is period appropriate but a pain to tighten up and I have no idea how to tie it off efficiently. More research needed. If you know the secret, please let me know!

But anyway, it’s done (however imperfectly), and I am excited to start work on my 1812 military-inspired riding habit….

(Inspiration from these guys)

Just not sure if I will manage the red sash or not…

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May 30, 2025 · 7:00 am

Black, basic, impossible to photograph

At some point in the last year (November of 2024 but I had to scroll back in my camera roll to co firm that because it feels like it’s always been there) I made a black linen version of the Wearing History 1900 skirt. My only change from my first go at the pattern was to make it button down the front, a not particularly historical detail that I enjoy because it gives me an optional slit and also lets a ruffled petticoat peek out.

It has become a workhorse in my wardrobe because it’s versatile and more basic than a lot of my skirts, which means I don’t try as hard to space out the wearing as I do with a lot of my more, um, striking makes.

Aside from the buttons up the front, I hemmed it with a bit of a sweep in the back, then realized that was really stupid for a skirt I wanted to wear on the regular, so I added a little button and loop to bustle it up just a couple of inches.

Just enough details to make it feel fun and fancy without being too much for regular use.

But, because it’s black, it’s basically impossible to get any good shots of the details without blowing everything out so the wrinkles and stray cat hairs make it look terrible.

Nonetheless, it’s been a workhorse over the winter (with the appropriate petticoats), and I’m hoping it will transition well to breezy linen summer wear.

Black blob.

And yes, it has a pocket, although as usual I wish it were a bit bigger. (And in case you’re wondering how often I wear it, all the actual modeled photos in this post are just the times I’ve worn it this month during Me Made May.)

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May 13, 2025 · 6:37 am

Coordination

After my precious linen Christmas blouse, I had a small but non-zero amount of fabric left. Not enough for another garment… but far too much to consign to the scraps bin. It was, however, just enough to make a generous amount of bias tape. And, I realized, it coordinated very well with the fabric I used for this skirt last winter.

Without thinking about it too much, I cut out a simple Swiss waist using my French Meadows draft as a starting place. My pink linen became the binding, as well as some rouleau for decoration. It might have taken forever, except that I wound up spending five or six hours with Syo in the ER after a medical scare that turned out to be probably nothing. Which was grueling, but I got a lot of hand-stitching done, so I was probably less frustrated at the end of the night than she was.

So that was fun. Although I kind of wish the shape was a bit more, well, shapely. But that’s what I get for only wanting a three piece pattern.

I liked the rouleau technique enough that I decided to apply it to the skirt, loosely inspired by trimmings I’ve seen in catalogue pictures.

Again, it took some time but not nearly as much as I would’ve thought. I’ve actually thought about doing something like this ever since I first finished the skirt, though I was thinking more black or darker purple. But in the end I really like the subtlety of the pink-on-purple, although it is a bit hard to photograph.

The result is almost a capsule wardrobe, which I’m enjoying very much. I still have some scraps of the light purple fabric, maybe enough for a little vest even…

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January 17, 2025 · 11:17 pm

What’s old is new (x2)

(Santa stuffed my stocking well this year, too)

Syo gave me some very lovely pink linen for Christmas, brought back from her trip to Australia this past fall. Only two metres, she apologized, because it was very expensive. I was, understandably, thrilled. I prewashed the fabric that very day.

But then I needed to pick a pattern as special as the fabric itself. After some faffing around, I managed to find Butterick 6206, an old pattern of my mom’s. It has the significance to me, though, of being the first commercial pattern I ever sewed with, back in 1998 or 1999, when I was about 18, and wanted a white outfit to wear clubbing at the local goth night. I made it from an old, sheer curtain, and into a crop top, and I was thoroughly delighted with myself except for one thing—I didn’t know to lengthen the sleeves. So they were always annoyingly just a little too short.

Anyway, this felt like a good time and place to revisit this pattern, with a couple of adjustments.

I added 2” to the sleeve length, just at the hem, since exaggerating that gorgeous bishop sleeve shape didn’t seem like a bad plan at all. And then when cutting the body pieces I scootched them in from the fold by about an inch each, for a total of 4” extra ease at the bust, which seemed about right for my current measurements. I don’t know if I strictly needed it for the bust but I definitely did at the hip. I also raised under the arms my usual 1/2”.

This was a great beginner pattern for me when I was a teenager because it really is as easy as it says it is, but revisiting it I also appreciated there is some really sophisticated drafting going on. The sleeve shape is lovely, and the neckline has some really subtle shaping as well. Much more subtle than the (similar era) Kwik Sew pattern I made recently.

I added a little slit at the front, since I liked how that had worked on the Kwik Sew pattern, and it makes it easy to finish the neckline with a drawstring, which I like.

And then I went a little crazy, and decided this (very simple) special pattern and special fabric needed entirely hand-finishing. I hand-felled all the seams. And then I decided I wanted a ruffle along the edge, so after I hand-hemmed the whole thing I went back over the neckline and sleeve hems and added another round of chainstitching. I should honestly have added two, one on each side of the elastic, as I’m really not sure how well my basic hemming will hold up when functioning as a casing, but this was already a two week project and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The chainstitching took by far the longest, although it seemed to go faster than the last time I attempted it, when it made me question my sanity. And you barely see it when it is all gathered up, although I like to think it adds a certain dimension and complexity to the simple design.

The only thing I’m not completely satisfied with is the drawstring I used, which is a piece of white cotton stay tape. Next time I have some avocado skins around I will try and dye it…

Then, because I was so happy with the pattern, I made it again.

Last summer, I attended a local sewist’s garden party, which included a fabric swap. I got this lovely piece of textured linen-rayon blend. It was, however, a very trendy chartreuse colour that I knew I would never wear. So I eventually managed to pick up some fabric dye and over-dye it with indigo blue. The result is a fairly dark, muted navy, still not one of my core colours but a lot closer than it had been before. However, there was only a metre of the fabric, and I was a bit stumped as to what to make, especially as I wasn’t in the mood for a tank top.

But when I had the Butterick 6206 pattern out, I realized that if I used the short sleeve pattern piece, I could just squeeze out the shirt, less about an inch of length, if I added a centre-front seam. I wasn’t able to add as much width to this version, but the fabric has a lot of give so I wasn’t too worried. And the CF seam made adding the little slit I like super easy.

This shirt was as quick and modern in its construction as the first one was painstaking. Overlocking and machine hems throughout. As a result it only took an afternoon to construct.

I do need to find a darker drawstring, though. Definitely not a fan of the white for this shirt.

Anyway, I think both of these will fit nicely into my existing wardrobe, drifting ever further in the whimsical direction as it is.

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December 24, 2024 · 9:00 am

(Historically inspired) Red Skirt

Don’t say Mrs. Claus

I got this fabric from a local sewing friend who’s been in a low-key destash mode over the last couple of years. It’s a gorgeous textured linen/cotton. I originally wanted a dress but the 2.5m length was a bit minimal for the long, flowing thing I was imagining. So then I decided to opt for a skirt… But to minimize cutting into the fabric in case I change my mind later, I went with a skirt style lightly inspired by eighteenth-century petticoats—two rectangular lengths pleated to a waistband.

Now, this is frankly an ageless method of skirt construction, and it’s one I have a fraught history with. I don’t usually like how gathered rectangles look on my body, above or below the waist. It worked ok for this dress here, but it’s generally not my favourite. I’ve attempted to rework this dress for post-maternity wear and I kinda hate it.

But, wearing over a corset lets me get away with some clothing shapes I haven’t usually been comfortable with, so I decided to give it a try in this case. With pleats, not gathers.

I left a flat space (maybe too wide) along the middle of the front, and then my pleats are closer together in the front, a bit more spaced out in the back.

The most common method of making 18th-century style petticoats seems to be leaving slits at the sides and putting separate ties on front and back. This works great and is highly adjustable, but I wasn’t too sure I wanted slits at the highly visible sides since I’m not likely to actually wear it with 18th century upper garments that often cover that area. So really this is more of a Victorian take on the idea, which I’m sure existed and I could probably find references and directions for if I dug.

Anyway, I decided to make a slit closure at the centre back, using the same slit in a pleat method I used on my flannel petticoat, though I didn’t do a good job of illustrating it in that post either. Basically you cut the slit; make a narrow hem (tapering to nothing at the end of the slit) for the underlay side, and fold in a big pleat to make the wide overlap side.

Stitch along the edge of the pleat that formed the overlap, and stitch across the pleat at the bottom of the slit portion to secure it in place, so above this line there is placket, and below it is pleat. Clear as mud? Thought so.

And that was the most complicated portion of the construction.

I got these gorgeous heavy-duty hook and eyes from Farthingales and they’re too pretty to hide inside.

Except…I knew I was pleating it a bit loose for my corseted waist. I kind of wanted to keep my options open for wearing without corsets (even though, as previously mentioned, I’m not likely to like this skirt shape on my body without a corset). But it’s a bit too too loose. So when actually worn the too-big overlap creates a fairly weird spot where the upper placket pulls awkwardly across several other pleats. On the other hand, it’s in the back so I can’t see it and pleats are always shifting around when you move anyway.

I definitely still prefer the flared look of a gored skirt, and I think undergarments—corset and gored petticoats—are going to be key to the wearability of this skirt, giving it the illusion of more volume at the bottom. Also, I need to go in and add real pocket. (I added one about a week later. ) But I’ll have to find a coordinating fabric for that because this was an absolutely zero-waste project, which is basically unheard of for me. Oh wait I lied…. There was a short piece of the narrow rectangle I used for the waistband left over. (Edit: I used that leftover rectangular bit to make matching pocket facings on my quilting-cotton pocket, it is now fully zero waste.)

But I am excited to have a red skirt. Considering red is what I usually call my favourite colour, I don’t wear it much. So I’m pretty happy to change that a bit. And it’s definitely the season.

Now if only I had a red cape to go with it…

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December 16, 2024 · 7:31 am

Corset remake

The first corset I ever made, back in 2015, has always been one of my favourites.

But, it’s also never really been wearable. Partly the fit wasn’t great, but the biggest glitch was my failure to properly bone the outer edge of the back lacing, which made it impossible to lace very tightly; it was also a bit big, though entering my 40s has fixed that problem for me. And as my bust has, ah, improved over the last few years, the upper edge went from not-quite-mid-bust to awkwardly low. There was nothing like enough hip or bust spring, either. So it’s been sadly awaiting a makeover for quite a long time.

I’m a bit between projects right now and a little too burnt out to tackle anything big, so I made myself start mindlessly seam ripping.

Fortunately I had the rest of the fabric still in stash, since I needed to add gussets to the hip and cut new binding for the top and bottom, as well as adding a casing to the lacing edge.

Lace flowers.

Removing the binding took the longest (well, except for adding the binding back on). I had to take off the lace along the top as well, and removed one of the carefully scatter of artful lace flowers that were pretty much my favourite feature of the corset, and I should probably reposition more of them, but we’ll see if that happens.

That being said, it really didn’t take nearly as much time as I thought it might. The original corset was layered over a white denim, but for the new additions I layered the fashion fabric over some bits of ticking, which is much more corset-appropriate. It’s a little thinner but this isn’t a big problem for the gussets.

Can you see where I added the hip gussets in?

Once I had the binding off I seam-ripped the bottom half of the side seam, drafted up a gusset shape to fill in that space, and marked where I thought the under bust curve should go. (I also ripped WAY up one side trying it on to get an idea of how big the hip gussets should be, and had to hand-stitch it back together, which worked surprisingly well. Here’s hoping if it works for 18th century stays it’ll work for me.

The result is a much curvier underbust corset—maybe not as historical, but it wasn’t really good at that anyway.

I think it’ll be much more useful as a cute outerwear piece than it was before.

And it was always a bit showy for underwear.

So yeah. Quick project. Very satisfying.

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December 9, 2024 · 7:22 am

Red velvet

This was a whim

A friend mentioned this pattern (off Etsy) and it was cheap and had that cottagecore/hobbit/dirndl look I’m all excited about these days, so I jumped on it.

And… it’s ok.

The sizing I would say was true. I was between two sizes and went with the larger, and I think it is a bit large, in that I might like to have a bit of lacing gap in the front, and it laces closed quite easily right now. Other than that I made only minor tweaks, shortening the shoulder straps and reducing their angle, and trimming a bit off the bottom of the back for my swayback; all typical for me.

The pattern has fairly detailed instructions for assembling the PDF if you printed at home… but no actual instructions for the sewing (on looking back at the Etsy listing now I see it mentions a video for sewing instructions. Where that video is I’m still not sure….) Now, it’s not a hard sew, but I’m always interested in the construction choices patternmakers suggest, for corset-type garments in particular. So I guess I should hunt down that video.

The fabric I picked was scraps of some kind of crushed red velvet upholstery fabric that’s been lurking in stash for aeons, I think a hand-me-down from someone else’s stash. I picked it because I wasn’t too attached if the project didn’t work out, and part of it was already blockfused to interfacing. (Other parts of the scraps are not… I suspect this fabric has its own fascinating story as the interfacing looks like it was applied industrially)

At any rate it made for a quick and easy way to test the pattern out. I allowed for some extra seam allowance in case of fitting issues but didn’t end up using it except for adding boning to the seams. The 1cm seam allowances the pattern comes with aren’t wide enough to put the boning in using the seam allowances, it’s designed to have boning channels added or have the channels stitched between two strength layers. (Not sure which because I didn’t see the instruction video)

I spent some time agonizing over the finishing, neutral silver grommets with red binding or vampiric black grommets and binding. In the end I went the neutral route, hoping for a more flexible garment, although it feels perhaps just a little Mrs Claus. It still pairs nicely with black so I’m mostly content though.

River was very helpful with the grommets.

Construction-wise I did a terrible, half-ass job with the binding, which may have coloured my original impressions of the product. I didn’t want to use the velvet for a self-binding as it’s quite thick, and since this was mostly a quick tester I went with commercial bias tape. The colour match is good but the material itself just didn’t spark joy and I did my second pass attaching it by machine which led to a fair bit of rippling. But it’s bothering me less as I get a bit more distance from it, though I might fix the ends at some point, especially at the front bottom where the angle isn’t at all right.

I might tweak a couple of things if I did it again, like lower the neckline a bit, maybe tweak the curve in the back to be a little wider, and maybe play with the princess seam curve at the bust. And take it in a wee bit. But, all in all, not a bad addition to the more frivolous side of my wardrobe.

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September 21, 2024 · 9:31 pm

Pretty basic

The first commercial pattern I ever sewed, the first thing I sewed for myself, in fact, was a peasant blouse. I’ve made the occasional one since then, usually for costume purposes, but none are in my wardrobe currently. But as soon as I made my corset-stays, I knew that was what I wanted to go under them; most of my other shirt necklines just weren’t quite right. So I dug out my stash of lightweight white linen, found a chunk left over from some other project (it actually might be the ramie left over from my Fiona dress, but visually it’s indistinguishable from the mass of featherlight linen I have hoarded over the years, just maybe not quite as soft in feel), and went to it.

The pattern I selected was the vintage Kwik Sew 898. Now, you will observe from the illustration that a) this is a dress, and 2) the illustration looks far more voluminous than my final result. The envelope I have only goes up to a size 12 (which I am larger than), but when I opened it up it turns out it was also cut, to a size 8 (which is not only smaller than my current size by about 10”, but is smaller than I’ve ever been as an adult.) So obviously some on-the-fly grading was in order.

However, I had pretty much decided I was only going to sacrifice the one remnant (not much over a metre) of fabric to this project, at least until the pattern was tested and I knew if I liked it. So, without thinking to hard about it, I cut the sleeves as is from the irregular “had another project cut out of it” end, and then fitted the front and back body pieces onto the remainder, opting for a back seam to minimize any fabric waste. I “graded” the body simply by putting the pieces as far from the edges of the folded fabric as I could, which probably got me an extra 4” or 5” over the width of the whole project. Enough that it’s not skin tight, at least, but not the full 10” I’m lacking. So the lack of volume probably has more to do with inadequate grading. Oh, I did raise the underarm seam about two cm, but that’s pretty much a habit for me.

Once the cutting was done, the construction was simple, although it didn’t get accomplished quickly as I didn’t have much time. I French seamed the seams, and overlocked and then folded over the sleeve hems.

My main departure from the pattern was adding a short slit to the front, which I hand-finished, including adding that little thread-bar near the bottom that you see in 18th century shirts. This let me avoid adding eyelets or buttonholes to the neckline channel to let my drawstring (my favourite 1/4” stay tape) through. I also folded the neckline down rather further than the 1cm the pattern suggested, to create a more open neckline.

I added elastic to the ends of the sleeves, and that, pretty much, is that.

The total shirt length I ended up with, dictated purely by the length of fabric I had, actually comes to about my knees, almost a chemise length. I have toyed with the idea of adding some gathered tiers to the bottom to create a built-in petticoat effect, but I feel like I might just be better off making a separate linen petticoat/skirt (something that has been on my mental list all summer, in fact). Either way, I have to work up the stamina to tackle gathered tiers.

But in the meantime, this was a fun quick little project, and I think the result will actually fit quite nicely into my wardrobe.

And it does seem to go well with the stays.

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