Vaguely 1880's Blueish Grey Corset

It has been far too long since I've made anything for the Historical Sew Fortnightly.
This was a school project, so it technically wasn't made for the HSF, but I finished it recently and it fits this fortnight's challenge.

Here is the pattern. We started with the basic bodice, had a fitting and took the corset pattern from it, then mocked that up in canvas and had another fitting. I tried to base my pattern on an 1880'a corset, but due to all the guidelines of the project it didn't turn out very historically accurate.

The CB is on the left and the CF is on the right.

I didn't bring my camera to school, so I don't have photos of the entire process. I suppose that's just as well, because the method we had to use wasn't a particularly nice one. We had to put piping in all the seams.

The two ticking layers with the boning channels drawn on them.

The corset is made of two layers of ticking, one layer of flannel, and one of fabric. There is an outrageous amount of stitching holding the two ticking layers together.

Lots of tedious laminating.

All the seam allowances are folded in and stitched to the ticking, which is fairly difficult to push a needle through.
There are two boning channels on each CF and CB edge, and one on either side of each seam. The ones on the seams are spiral bones and the ones on the edges are plain spring steel. The flannel layer goes in between the ticking sandwich and the outside fabric to hide all the ridges.

The CF edge.

It was so nice to put eyelets in with a machine instead of hammering them in.

My fabric is a cotton print that I got several years ago. I wish I had gotten more of it because it's one of the most gorgeous quilting cottons I've ever seen. The piping is silk that I got at my college store.

We had to finish the top and bottom edges with piping instead of binding them.

Here is the outside.

And the inside.

I am disappointed in the fit. Even though I shaved a considerable amount off the middle of the seams, it doesn't change my waist measurements at all. At least the fabric is pretty.

The front looks so awkward.

At least the back half looks nice.

The Challenge: # 12, Shape And Support

Fabric: Flannel, quilting cotton, cotton ticking, silk satin.

Pattern: Drafted by me.

Year: 1880's, sort of? It did not turn out the way I pictured it.

Notions: Cord, grommets, spiral bones, coated spring steel bones.

How historically accurate is it? Unfortunately it is not very accurate. The fiber content is, but not much else. I really wish the assignment didn't have such rigid guidelines, but it did. Oh well.

Hours to complete: 46:05

First worn: June 4th, 2014

Total cost: About $ 20, for the fabric. Most of the notions were provided by the school, but we'll have to pay for our own next year.

Some day I might pick this corset apart, take in the seams and put it back together without the piping. Maybe then it would have a more 1880's shape. For now I'm just glad to be finished with it.

In other news, I gave my liripipe hood away because I will most likely never wear it. It just doesn't go with the sort of clothes I want to wear at all.

Updates on Various Things

Dear me, it's been far too long since I posted anything. I've been working on things, just not blogging about them. A lot of the things I've been sewing were for school, which ended just a couple of weeks ago.
Anyhow, here are some updates on various projects.

The frock coat has sleeves, pockets and pocket flaps and I'm working on interfacing the lining.

 I started making a hand sewn linen shirt.

And I'm also working on a nightgown using this lovely linen that came with an embroidered border.

I have received three extant Edwardian garments, which I will be doing individual posts on.

I've worked on the black linen waistcoat some more. Here is one of the facings being attached to the lining.

And I made a corset for my corseting class, which I don't have any pictures of because it's still at school. The above picture is the fabric I used, isn't it gorgeous?

I've made another version of the pants pattern too, which I'm very excited to sew up, but I haven't started on it yet because I'd like to finish at least one other garment first. I'm absolutely terrible about starting projects and not finishing them.
I think that's about it for now. I haven't been very productive with my own sewing projects lately. There are some new portraits on my DeviantART page though.

Pants With Buttons

I made pants!

Pants have been on my to- do list for a very long time. I was down to two pairs of store bought pants, because I didn't want to buy new ones knowing they wouldn't fit. Last year I had four pairs, but two have since worn out, so sewing pants was something I couldn't put off any longer.

I made the pattern using the basic pant draft from school. I gave it a waistband, a fall front, and pockets.
I really like the fact that the waistband of this pattern is actually at the waist. I can't stand low cut pants.

For the fall front I made two plackets, like you might find on a modern shirt cuff.

I didn't do a great job on them, but they work.

One is a little wider than the other. The pieces aren't sewn
together in this picture.

I did not take many pictures of the construction because I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing and consequently messed a few things up. I will go into more detail in a later pair of pants, once I have things figured out.
Here are the completed pants.

 They fasten with ten buttons, and there are two welt pockets in the front.

The fabric is a cotton blend that I got on clearance. I think it was one of those 97% cotton, 3% spandex ones. It has a bit of stretch and a sort of nubbly texture. I made the inside of the waistband out of black denim, so I didn't have to interface it. The pocket bags are plain, tightly woven cotton.

The seams are all machine sewn (which is why the welts and plackets are rather uneven) and the raw edges are serged.

I hemmed it by hand with a slipstitch.
I cut flaps for the inside of the fall front, but didn't put them in because the under side of the placket went where they should have gone. Next time I will have thought things through more thoroughly.

I really like them. They fit, and they have buttons!
I much prefer buttons to zippers.

The Beginnings of a Frock Coat

I am finally making a coat! It will be a late 1780's style frock coat.
The pattern is based on this one.

Young Officer in a Zebra Coat, calling someone to give an account of his services. Galerie des Modes, 1789. (source)

And here is an extant example of a very similarly patterned coat.

Man's suit, c. 1790- 95. Bunka Gakuen.

(I'm so sorry that I couldn't send a link to the page with the suit. Their museum database is insanely frustrating to navigate.)

It has the same seams, as well as the large rectangular pockets placed very far back.
My pattern is roughly based on a couple of the ones from The Cut of Men's Clothes: 1600-1900.

I started by tracing around one of my waistcoat patterns. I moved the side seams further back, took a few measurements, and drew the coat pattern around it.

I drafted the collar with the mandarin collar drafting method we learned in school. The sleeves are the sleeve pieces from my drawstring jacket, but widened a bit, and with a less pointed elbow. No sense in drafting a whole new shaped sleeve.
It worked better than I expected. The first mockup had a great many fit problems, but they were pretty easy to fix.
Here are three terrible pictures of the second mockup.

I was a bit concerned by the diagonal wrinkles on the sides and the puckers at the back of the sleeve caps, but I looked at some extant coats and they wrinkled in the exact same way.

The finished pattern.
It doesn't stand out very well against the concrete floor.

For the outward stuff I'm using a nice black denim. I'm not aiming for historical accuracy with this coat.
This denim is really nice because the dye actually goes all the way through, so it won't get pale spots when it wears.

The lining is linen. It was an icky brown when I got it, but I dyed some of it black. It came out dark grey, but that's fine.

The brown doesn't look too bad here, but it's a really icky shade in person.

I'm sewing a lot of it by machine using heavy thread. I sewed the pocket flaps by machine on the bottom three sides, then turned them and finished the top edge by hand.

I folded the front edge up a bit higher, so it will hide the back edge.

I have flat-lined the sleeves using the same method that worked so well with the drawstring jacket sleeves.

I pinned the lining pieces onto their corresponding outer pieces. Rather than use a running stitch, I sewed up the sides by machine, using regular thread.
Before turning them I marked the stitching lines with white basting on the denim layer only. Afterwards I marked those lines again with red basting, going through both layers. In this manner I kept the stitching line visible on the right side of the lining, which will be useful when I sew the sleeves on.

I whip stitched the sides of the sleeves together, stopping about 4 inches short of the cuff. This is because I haven't trimmed the cuff to length and I don't want to risk cutting through my stitching.

The sleeve seam from the outside.

 That's as far as I've gotten. I basted one of the sleeves in to make sure the notch is in the correct place.

You can see that I will have to trim a fair amount off of the cuff.

The sides are wrinkling a bit more than they would normally because the wool waistcoat is very bulky.

I can't wait until it's finished! I love the swallow tail shape of these coats.
If my stripey stockings look a little odd here, it's because I am wearing 2 layers of ripped tights over them.

I don't know if I will get much time to work on this over the next couple of weeks.
I have to do a challenge piece for the school fashion show. This year the challenge is rope. I have to make an outfit that is at least 80% rope on the outside by March 12th.
I have all the pieces cut out for my Fairytale challenge, but it is highly unlikely that they will be sewn together by the deadline.