costume diary!

[dragonlady7]

I've never done a costume diary. I started one for the red kirtle I made while at my mother's house, but it got into the really long digressions I'm prone to while composing offline. So I gave up for now. Also it's not a very interesting garment and I didn't do it right at all.
But I'm feeling the need to put my thoughts in order with writing. I don't know if this will work, but I think it might. Pardon if I'm a wordy Posty McPostypants lately, but I really do collect my thoughts by writing, and yet it's not working.
So instead I'm going to do a costume diary of the cord-boned pair of bodies I'm doing as a sort of emergency option for under my Pennsic garb. I've been keeping some notes on random pieces of scrap paper, and taking pictures, but I hadn't looked at the pictures until just now. I'm at a stopping point right now-- not because of the garment itself, but because my fingertips are so raw I simply can't sew at the moment. I need to find that fucking thimble, or go and just buy another one, because this is getting stupid.
But anyway. I got them done enough to safety-pin them on (I tried doing so while they were still in muslin and it's too flimsy to be meaningful, so now that they've got the linen at least pinned on, I could), gingerly with straight pins poking me everywhere, and they more or less fit, so I am pleased at that at least.

So, on to my first attempt at a costume diary!



I mentioned earlier in my journal how I tried drafting a pattern and wound up with a series of dots and lines that were not even close to being body shaped. Obviously drafting is not something I've got aptitude for, though I like to think that had the directions been in coherent English I'd've done better.
I also have mentioned that I lack a capable assistant who is close by and at my beck and call. Neither have I a dress dummy. So draping a pattern is also so difficult as to be impossible, at least until I've found a way to see it done somewhere to get the general idea.

That leaves me with a third option: Copy something you have.
I own the farbiest of farby Renn Faire corsets, which I purchased while a college student, at the Stirling Renaissance Festival. It is burgundy corduroy on one side, and reverses to a blue moons-and-stars print on the other side. It is farby as hell, and steel-boned with big old metal grommets at front and sides. It's vaguely Elizabethan, with a long straight front, and very much of the lift-and-compress school of thought as regards the bust. I love the hell out of it, but have outgrown it to the point that I really can't be seen in public in it. It's now an underbust corset, and puts my tits up about level with my chin. Yeah...



But OK, it's the right diameter at the waist, and it's a damn sight better than a load of unconnected dots on a piece of paper when it comes to being similar to my body. So I laid the corset on a cut-open brown paper bag, traced around it, and made notes all over it. The top is about three inches too low, and there's a gap of about three inches at the waist (distributed around through three lacing closures-- front and sides-- and I think I will keep that layout at the moment just in the interests of also having that kind of forgiveness if I screw up my tailoring). The shoulder straps are set too wide and fall down constantly. (I had them shortened when I bought it, and that still wasn't enough-- they're just not where my shoulders actually are. I have freakishly small shoulders, it seems.)

I opted to not bother with straps until the end-- how to cut them in one piece just confused me too much, and i know I'd have to slice them off anyway and add them back somewhere else. So I'll make the whole thing, then stuff the straps in at the end.
I sliced off the five inch point in the front of the old corset, in favor of bringing the front up somewhat. I also moved the side seams back two inches and the back neckline down half an inch. I messed about with adding inches; cutting it out in muslin and trying the pieces on told me that I really didn't know what the hell I was doing.
It's really not possible to try on a muslin. You can pin it to hell, it's still muslin, which means it's flimsy and wrinkles and is impossible to manhandle. I called it close enough and went to cut out a second set, but then realized that cording takes up room so I'd have to make the second set bigger. So I went for it, figuring if one layer is too small, as long as the second layer is big enough it'll still go around me. The first, too-small layer can be the interlining.





I got the two panels of muslin and sewed a bunch of cording channels. To make the whole process more interesting, I used the bobbins that had come with my sewing machine. (I got the sewing machine by the miraculous process of finding it in my attic, whence my boyfriend's Great-Aunt Matilda had left it when she'd, well, died.) There were a dozen bobbins, all wound with several different colors of thread in intriguing layers. In an archaeological experiment, my pair of bodies now has channels that are stitched in white for the upper thread, and the lower threads are... pink, teal, scarlet, and yellow. I flipped it on alternate seams to alternate the colors as well, because it helped me pay attention to what I was doing. (It's the same theory as how I'm a better driver with a manual transmission. Maybe I've got ADD or something.) I spaced the channels with the presser foot, except that the sole presser foot I possess is uneven-- one side narrower than the other-- and so in all my flipping around, I had to kind of eyeball how far from the edge of the presser foot things should be. It was all very seat-of-the-pants but it seems not to have mattered all that much, even when I was drunk.


I couldn't find hemp cord. I know. I found some really expensive hemp... thread at the craft store-- seriously, it was so thin and fine, it might as well have been embroidery floss. Instead I bought some cheap-as-hell 3-ply jute twine on sale at the hardware store and went to town. Mangling a wire hanger and snapping it in half yielded a reasonable threading tool with a loop at one end. I did a bunch of channels where I just put two cords in, but realized that if I doubled a double strand, I could pull four through just as easily and get more support from each channel. So most of one half of the front is double-corded, and the other half is quadruple-corded. I am going to have one boob saggier than the other, but I'm not overly fussed-- it's all experimental anyway. And yeah, one of them is saggier, so whatever. (That goddamn left tit. They say to fit the larger breast when buying bras. In theory, yes, but in practice, the larger breast behaves itself while you're trying on, and it's only after you've ripped the tags off that you notice that it's trying to escape and now you've got a brand new $100 non-returnable bra that doesn't fit. Little bastard.)

I got pretty hammered and that gave me the motivation to finish sewing the cording channels. For future reference, substance abuse is totally the way to go when you're trying to just blast through something that doesn't require a ton of hand-eye coordination. I wound up with one cording channel too narrow to fit the cording tool through-- and out of like fifty, that's not so bad. I just stuck a plastic cable tie in there instead. (Shh.)
Chita Rivera, my small cat, was of invaluable assistance in supervision. (She also has been assiduously patrolling the backyard throughout the process, making sure that no songbirds came to interrupt my work.)

I didn't fully bone the back, but put the bones in according to a layout I'd seen... somewhere on the Internet. (Shoot, I have it as a sketch on a piece of paper, which I obviously drew in response to seeing something online, but I don't know where now-- I've just gone through all my open tabs and it's none of them. I've just kinda seen it around. I'm terrible with sources. I know, no really? There's a reason I didn't go on to grad school.


Somehow I don't think I'm going to wind up one of those people who has 100% historically accurate garb that's 100% documented. ... Now that I think about it, I may have gotten that boning pattern from the back of my mom's 18th-C. corset that I was looking at while I was at home... Hmm... Jeez, I dunno. A researcher I obviously ain't.

Once I had all the boning in, I did a quiet little happy dance, got out my linen, which is a textured kinda twill-lookin' linen with some cotton blended in, and laid the pieces on it. I started with the back, figuring if I screwed it up at least I wouldn't have to screw up another piece in the name of symmetry. I put the panel onto the fabric, added an inch all around, traced it with a pencil, and then cut on the pencil lines. In retrospect I should've added more than an inch, given that the selvedge was pretty fuzzy, and oh yeah, the panel is quite stretchy what with the jute boning making it not lie quite flat.
I pinned all into place, stuck a length of cotton cord at the very edge all around and sewed a very tight channel around it in place to make the very edge be round, and then tacked down the rest of the excess fabric on the inside. There was a neat little space for the eyelets, between the last jute bone and the cotton cord edge. Unable to resist, I took the back panel outside with my awl, my needle, my thread, my scissors, and my cat, and sat in the hammock in the sun and taught myself how to hand-bind eyelets. It is easy. It is relaxing. Somehow I knew I'd like doing it. I don't even have to be drunk! I love handsewing but I tend to stab the crap out of myself while doing it. Eyelets, not so much-- there's a really big hole you can see the needle coming through, so you've got time to get out of the way.




I then had to sew the linen to the two front panels, but my Zen break with the eyelets had improved my outlook. I had a momentary setback when I realized I'd pinned everything to the wrong side of one panel, so I had two left fronts. But it was easy enough to unpin it and flip it. Except, of course, there's a right and wrong side to the fabric. Oh well! I have plenty-- I'll use the backwards front to make the straps out of. Heh, I still haven't made the straps.

But I got everything pinned into place, and safety-pinned the whole thing together to try it on. This was a very exciting process-- there were straight pins all throughout the sides and front of the thing, and the safety pins didn't exactly like the whole concept of supporting a, you know, corset. So it was nerve-wracking, especially when I decided to try to get a picture. I lay on my back to get it fastened properly, then had my boyfriend reach into my shirt and unfasten my bra for me-- it was impossible for me to reach it, with all the pins poking me and my shirt still on, and there was NO WAY I was taking the shirt off with the thing still so full of straight pins. Moment of truth-- will this thing hold up Ye Jugges of Terrore?



... Well, not really, but if there were straps, yes. It holds them, it just doesn't hold them still.

So I have to make straps. But I can go forth and do the last few bits of work-- which is just hours and hours of fiddly hand-sewing to get the front seams done (sewing boning in place next to where the eyelets will be, which is much too fiddly for a machine, at least the way I use machines-- i.e. drunkenly, whether I'm actually drunk or not) and the eyelets set and so on and so forth-- in the secure knowledge that when I'm done, I'll have something I can actually wear.

As an aside on modern fashion, I know those brown trousers I'm wearing in that pic fit me horribly, and show off my "muffin top" because they ride down. They also show my underpants over the back. They're awful. I don't leave the house in them. But I was reading here a guide for re-enactors at a specific site, and it mentioned that your petticoat should never be longer than your skirt-- "The visible petticoat look is as much of a no-no as a thong showing over low-rise jeans in my book, and about as attractive."-- well, given that my first attempt at garb, the red kirtle I was making at my mother's, needs a panel put on to lengthen it, then I can safely say that today I was two for two in the Looking Trashy competition.
Given that I only own one thong, that took some mighty stars aligning ("aw man, I did laundry but I left all my underwear in the basket in the basement... hmm... what's still in the drawer?") and I just think I should go for it. My Pennsic persona is officially White Trash.
The red kirtle, which needs only the front closure and the length extension before it's Finished:




It would be a better costume diary if I had the thing finished. But I don't, and I wanted to write about it and get it kinda out of my head. I will probably just post a picture when I'm done. I might try to take a few more detailed process pictures, so I can later remember how I did the damn thing, but I'm just too mentally scattered at the moment to properly assess.

Comments

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, I've been reading about your costuming with total fascination.

[greenworldgirl.livejournal.com]

Yes it will be interesting to see how the hemp cording works. I think I've pretty safely outfattened my old bodice, but I did love the metal ribbing. I figured it was the only thing that would keep my boobs in line. But if yours works then maybe I must reconsider.

And as for your bf having to undo your bra- My sister used to work at a renn fair clothing shop....which sold bodices. She was adjusting people's boobs and bras ALL day. She eventually got amazingly deft at it, able to go nipping in there before they even knew what hit them. It's a lost skill I tell you.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

The hemp cording won't be anything like as sturdy as the metal boning. A good substitute I've seen listed for metal boning is to use heavy-duty cable ties with the blocky end snipped off. I haven't been able to find any cable ties longer than 14", but I did nab some and have used them in this corset at the lacing edges, just for additional support and to keep it from buckling. I will try a 100% hemp one at some point... when I can find some hemp. (Jute was mentioned on various of the online sources I consulted about this as a "softer" alternative, which doesn't best please me, but I gotta do what I gotta do.)

The cable ties aren't as rigid as the metal, but that's why I could use them and not have them show.

I don't think this will look at all like a metal-boned corset would. There will definitely be... curves. Hopefully, however, the curves will be kept in some kind of control. I'm going for an early-period silhouette, in the era before corsets are known to have been used, which is why I'm trying something so soft. If I were doing Elizabethan with its straight-fronted silhouette, which is much more trendy nowadays, I'd pretty much have to use steel boning.

Heh, you'd have to get pretty good with boobs at a Renn Faire clothing shop. My little sister used to be a bra fitter at a department store. But she had nothing on the fitters at Rigby & Peller. That woman was insanely good at boobs.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's remotely interesting at all-- I know I've been going on about it kind of a lot.
I have been meaning to learn to sew for literally a decade now, possibly longer, so I'm just really pleased with myself for finally doing something about it. Having this SCA event was a great excuse to start, because if something historical-ish turns out wonky, that's not a big deal-- I mean, everyone's dressed funny, so it doesn't matter-- but ideally I'd like to be able to make everyday clothes too, because even when I *am* sizes you can find in the mall, I hate everything that fits me.
But I think something you're going to wear to your mother-not-in-law's house for dinner has to be a little more skillfully made than something you're wearing to an event of 20,000 costumed weirdos. (Especially since in my case, the mother-not-in-law is a former professional seamstress who did alterations for Gladys Knight lo these many moons ago. I am intimidated as hell around her. She's out of town all summer, though, so I don't have to worry about her seeing any of my sartorial attempts until I've had a bit more practice. And, bonus, I can borrow her sewing machine if I have to try something fancy.)

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

asking for her advice and help could become a bounding thing, too, no?

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Probably, but I'd rather ask more advanced things. :) I've asked her some basic-basic stuff in the past, and actually I had her sister help me make a garment, but I feel like I shouldn't go to either of them again until I've done something to build on the knowledge a bit. It's undoubtedly tedious to be asked for almost the same advice repeatedly.

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

Well, kudos to you for actually DOING it. I would like to learn to sew as well - with my plus-sized body, custom clothing would be great. I can only sew a straight line (mostly) with the machine, and I get impatient with the pinning.

I'd also like to learn to knit and to crochet, but I haven't done anything about those yet either...

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I can only sew straight lines too. Anything that has involved a great amount of precision, I've done by hand-- it's nice that I'm doing a historic thing so I can get bonus points by doing it by hand, but I think I'd probably do stuff by hand anyway, just because to be honest I'm afraid of the machine.
I don't make things that aren't almost all straight lines anyway. Even the corset-- all straight lines.

I definitely feel like I've kind of run out of store-bought options for clothes at this point-- I'm just not a size that anyone has on their rack!

My mom has taught two of my sisters to knit and I just somehow missed it every time. The little one just learned to knit socks! It's pretty cool. Mom's more serious about knitting than sewing, and she's faster too. But I think it helps that she has found a knitting circle to go to on Tuesday nights. I really can't make myself do crafts just for me-- there's got to be either a recipient or an audience.

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

See, knitting sox - that'd be useful. And mittens. And hats!

And what about SELLING them? That'd be cool too. If I knew how.

[greenworldgirl.livejournal.com]

Not to be a nosy nose, but what size are you? You really don't look like you'd be too big for store clothes, if they were plus sized. I often end up having to shop at outlet malls and places with unusual sizes because I need talls. What I've found is that outlet malls will sometimes have talls or larger sizes (16-18) on brand clothes like GAP. Places like Ross will usually have a petite section (although everyplace seems to have huge petite sections, curse those little people and their significant population of littleness) and a rather large plus section. I go there for bras, (I'm officially in the MOOOOO sizes) although hunting through stuff trying to find talls is much worse. They really don't have that much.

Anyhoo, my point is that there are places like http://www.torrid.com/torrid/index.jsp that have sizes up to 4x and Lane Bryant that carry sizes above a 16 and have decent clothes. Torrid is usually in the regular mall, but their price seems comparable to other mall stuff. The other stuff, if you can get it from a place like a Ross or an outlet, it's a lot cheaper then having to pay the prices you find at specialty shops.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Ha, I fall squarely between a straight 14 and a plus 14. Those are two different sizes, technically! I know, I thought that was crazy too.

Straight 16 fits, but nobody carries it reliably. Plus 16 does *not* fit.
I am what's technically termed an "inbetweenie", and I live up to it absolutely perfectly: I fall into the crack between what's carried in regular stores, and what's carried in plus stores. There's overlap, sure, but you have to hunt for it, try on everything, scour every rack ("Oh, I think we got a couple sixteens in... let me look in the stock room... uh maybe they're on the rack... Yay here's one!... Oh, it doesn't fit. No, we have nothing in this store that will fit you, have a nice day.") and I got literally laughed out of Lane Bryant once. I swear to God. (I guess the lady though it was OK to laugh at someone for *not* being fat, but honestly it was nicer when the lady from Express simply apologized for not having any larger sizes, on that same shopping trip.)

Some of Torrid's stuff more or less fits me. Old Navy used to be ideal, because they had both straight and plusses, and their straights went up to 18; but then they moved their plusses to online-only, and took their straight 16s and 18s with them. There's an Old Navy Outlet nearby, but I don't think they kept their plusses in the store when Corporate took them online-only.
I can sometimes shop at women's stores like Ann Taylor or J. Jill, but I don't really like dressing like I'm in my mid-40s, and even a plain old t-shirt is like $40. Big department stores have things to fit me, but again with the middle-aged look, and it takes me an hour to even find the section where they have, say, pants. I can't find my way around a Macy's to save my goddamn life.

If I'm going to spend hours finding a dress, I might as well just spend hours making it, and have it be what I really wanted, y'know?

Added to that, my bust is 32J-- I have narrow shoulders and a small ribcage, but a whole lotta boob. If I find something stretchy in misses' sizes, I can wear it, but anything plus is going to fit approximately like a two-man survival tent.
(And don't get me started on bras. They don't exist, for all intents and purposes. Like the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, they're theoretically out there, but nobody living has ever seen one. A *specialty* store tried to sell me one that didn't fit so I could alter it myself-- know what, I'll get one from Wal-Mart if I'm going to just have to alter it, thanks.)

I read fatshionista and drool over the fab plus styles, but everything is always either too big or too small.

It's not that I can't find *anything* in stores, it's just that it takes me a really long time and a lot of heartbreak, and I have other things I'd really rather be doing with my life. I'm not a very typical woman; I don't enjoy the thrill of the hunt when it comes to shopping. My little sister does, so once every couple of years I go shopping with her, but other than that, I just don't shop. It's too upsetting, mostly.

[(Anonymous)]

Ha ha, ok. I can understand that. I was thinking you didn't look that big. I seem to fall into a weird inbetween place too, shapewise. Chestwise I usually end up wearing a 40-42 DD, but that's probably not a perfect size, just what I can make work without getting something specialty. The thing is though, that I'm about 5'9 and I have broad shoulders. So while my boobs aren't totally out of whack proportional to the rest of me, between that and shoulders things that are in any way fitted or tailored really don't fit me well at all. And if I try to get larger things in the pluses, then the shape is ALSO wrong for me and I end up having it loose in the armpits (in a totally unattractive, you can see my bra kind of way) and then still fitting my boobs wrong...like the part where your boobs are supposed to be in the shirt is too far apart or in the wrong place and it falls open and totally doesn't cover my boobs right. Sometimes if something is on sale I get it larger thinking I will alter it down to something that fits....realistically though I never do this. And I also HATE shopping. I end up wearing a lot of tshirts, but I'd actually like to wear more tailored girl shirts. I wish I could sew well enough to make something, but I'm really not that good at sewing. My sewing skills are kind of at the quilting level, I don't do well with complex shapes. And material that looks like actual clothing material is usually expensive. I'm trying to get inspired watching you and sweetpea sew it up!

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I've bought things expecting to alter them too, and never have. Hopefully I'll get up the nerve and inclination to start doing that, after all the sewing I've been up to.

I'm a bit of an evangelist for well-fitting bras. bustingout and thirty_twod are two communities I frequent-- the former is more aimed at big boobs in general, the latter for the niche of those with small band sizes.
Your band size is probably much smaller than you think. I have a 39" waist, and yet I wear a 32 band. Large, heavy breasts mean that you need a tighter band, and the bra manufacturer's blithe instructions to "add four or five inches" to your actual measurement are no longer anything like useful. (Slender women with small breasts might need the ease, but those of us who really need our bras to do some heavy lifting absolutely don't. If your elastic cuts into you and is uncomfortable, it's probably too loose.)

Anyway. It pisses me off to be a "specialty" size. Yes, it's weird that I have no fat on my ribcage. But I still maintain, I'm not exactly a freak of nature over here.
Oh well.

It's very, very hard to tailor existing garments, though. Modern tailoring has a lot of darts and things. I once had an experienced seamstress alter a pattern for me, which was awesome. But it wasn't easy, and I would have no idea how to do the same to another pattern.
I'm going to have to just dress weird, if I'm going to make my own clothes.

Material *is* expensive-- I spent over $200 just buying plain, un-patterned cotton and linen to sew for Pennsic. Even plain old unbleached muslin is several dollars a yard! I have got to find me some cheap fabric sources.

But it's well-known by now-- you can't save money making your own clothes. I've started wandering through thrift stores looking at blankets, drapes, and XXXL shirts. But it's hard if you actually care about the fiber content of the fabrics-- I'm trying, at least for Pennsic, to have all natural fibers so they'll breathe.

sweetpea_grubb has way more sewing skillz than me. I wish she'd post more detailed construction notes...

I hope my weird costume flailings are inspirational. I don't know what I'll wind up with, or whether I'll get laughed at, but my goal is a humble one: to not be naked. :)

[greenworldgirl.livejournal.com]

Hmmm maybe. My ribcage...I think when I measured it, it came out that I should be wearing a 38 band, but with that I'd need an E or above to fit the rest of the way. And I know the band is too loose, the part with the buckles always rides WAY up, and the shoulder straps are actually usually not tight enough either, but I've always been leery of trying to order something online that cost upwards of $50. I figured if it was the difference between a 38 E or F and a 40 DD then I could just suck it up for the money and pain in the ass of trying to find one spared. So that's interesting. I don't know if an even smaller band would fit better.

And as for your costume flailings, I'm not laughing and you're not naked so I think it's all good.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I wore 38DDD for a long time, and thought I was doing OK, but really, it's made a lot of difference to own *one* decent bra that really fits. I've never had problems with my back or shoulders hurting or anything like that-- other women complain that large boobs are too heavy, but mine must not be that heavy, or else I'm just magically buff and strong.
But having a bra that really fits just makes everything else look so much better-- I look 20-30 pounds lighter in a bra that fits properly.

Unfortunately I keep changing size, and it's very tricky ordering online. I would highly recommend figleaves.com, however-- they often offer free shipping, and sometimes free returns as well, so what I do is order three or four of the same bra, in slightly different sizes (38E, 38F, 36F, 36G), try them all on, and send back the two that don't fit, and keep the one that does. Then I know my size. Though it's important to realize that different brands have different sizing, slightly, and different cuts (plunge, balconette, full-cup) will fit differently, and some cuts won't work on you *at all*, etc. I can't wear plunge bras in any size, for example-- my boobs fall out of them. (I'll be wearing one tomorrow. Stay tuned for impending accounts of wardrobe disaster! My last appearance in this dress, which only works with a plunge bra, involved me showing the father of the bride my entire left breast during an ill-advised dance move. Go me!)

I really think it makes a difference. But I say that while sitting here wearing a 7-year-old sports bra held shut with safety pins, so, take it with a grain of salt.

> costume flailings

Well... I have 15 days of event to get through without resorting to nudity, so we'll see how I do. I only have one dress so far! I need like... five more. I have a couple of skirts that will do if nobody's looking too closely... but I really do need at least three more dresses and with that I'll be counting on a chance to do laundry.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm really impressed. It looks good, and there were *so many* channels in the thing! You haven't considered using plastic 'whalebone'?

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

No, I have a corset with plastic whalebone and after wearing it for two hours, my boobs bent the plastic permanently in half. I wasn't much impressed by it.

I decided to try hemp cording because a) it's cheaper, and b) it's natural material so theoretically breathes better in the heat. And c) it's arguably period, which doesn't really matter but sort of does, to me, in that I find that kind of thing interesting. It's not documentable for the period I want, but it is for later, though not in precisely this manner.

But mostly, a) it's cheaper. Fifty cents for 200 feet of it, and I used all 200 feet for just the front panels of the bodice. (Good thing it was two for a dollar, so I had enough to do the back.)

I'm probably going to do another version to be stitched in to the lining of the bodice of the next kirtle I make, with fewer channels and better fitting, but I figured this first version, I'd better make freestanding and as sturdy as possible just for experimentation purposes.

[mother2012.livejournal.com]

I think you did amazingly well for someone who claims to be a beginner. It looks like it's really going to work.

As for the 'visible petticoat look' - I expect that depended on a number of factors, such as whether the family could afford enough cloth to cover the underdress, and whether the the girl was feeling flirtatious (maybe it *was* 'trashy') as well as the obvious variations in fashion.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

A large part of my success is probably due to the fact that before the 17th-18th century tailoring was based on straight seams because shears couldn't really cut curved pieces. So the really elaborate construction methods with tiny curvy bits that require insane amounts of precision and completely defeat me when I try to do modern sewing don't exist.

I hope the corset works. If it doesn't totally work, all is not lost-- using a Roman method of breast-binding, I can get my boobs to stay mostly in place as long as I don't bend over or move too much. If I do that plus this corset, then I ought to be able to have a normal range of motion and be reasonably supported.
I'll still be looking for other options, though.

I am hoping to finish the straps and get the thing at least roughly finished today, so I can try it on (I'll use a carpet needle to lace myself into it before I do all the hand-bound eyelets) and start fitting the bodices of the dresses I still have to make/finish so I won't be naked at Pennsic.

I know I'll have a few 'trashy' aspects to my garb from time to time-- and I also know I won't be alone, a lot of girls go as belly-dancers or harem girls especially on the hottest days. But I think I will at least try to make the hem reasonable on the red one. I'm just deciding if I want to do it in the same fabric or if I want a contrasting-colored 'flounce' at the bottom. My choices are dark blue, medium blue, black, or off-white... The off-white would just look like my shift was hanging out, though.

Great article thanks|

[(Anonymous)]

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