MyFaireLady

So…the bodice…this was the trickiest bit of engineering I had ever conjured up (at the time, I think that the French Farthingale, which I made a year or more later, is actually trickier, but you can be the judge).

The tricky questions I had to figure out about the bodice were:

How am I supposed to draft a new pattern on myself, by myself? Do I make it boned or just rely on a corset for support? How do I deal with that huge opening in the front so that the corset doesn’t show? How to make the V-front line up right and not show the waistband? How are those darned sleeve ruffs attached? And how on Earth am I going to pack the thing in a stuffed suitcase and NOT have crinkled ruffs?

Well, I pondered and pondered and I decided it would make the most sense to start with a pattern that I knew fit me, and modify it from there. I drafted it onto muslin, and after many modifications, this is the basic pattern shape that I came up with:

But I’m getting ahead of myself…here are some pics of the intermediate steps:

Attaching the two layers of canvas that have been pre-sewn to accept cable ties for rigidity and support. There are 6 bones per side, and only in the front of the bodice. I had started out with just two bones on either side of the lacing ribbons with no canvas interlining, but I decided it needed more rigidity. I wound up having to rip out all the stitching in order to add the canvas you see in the picture.

Here are the markings on the ribbons which will be used to guide the lacing into that characteristic ladder style. Cheers to Jen Thompson for figuring out how to do it, and for letting the rest of us copy her technique!

And here you see the channels all stitched up and ready to go! The channels are sewn directly onto the muslin lining fabric.

I’ll show you how I added the shoulder treatment in a minute, so don’t fret. This is the only picture I had on the “sandwich” of all the layers in the front. From bottom to top they are: canvas boning channels, then the fashion fabric (right side up), followed by the lining fabric with lacing channels right side down. The shoulders are not attached at this point, I just had them pinned there to determine the correct placement. When it’s all stitched up (except for the armscye which is still unfinished) it looks like this:

Don’t forget to clip your seam allowances! Oh, and do you see how the edges are all curvy and distorted? That’s what it looked like before adding the canvas interlayer with the additional boning. After ripping out the seams, I decided to work on the shoulder treatments to give myself a break from the boning issues which is why the previous picture looks more “completed” than this one…in case anyone noticed…

So, about the shoulder treatment…remember my dilemma about those ruffs? First and foremost, the clothes I make have to be able to stand up to some pretty rough wear and tear, and making it through being stuffed in a suitcase and manhandled at the airport is only the beginning.

My solution was to make them detachable, BUT since I don’t have a set of real ladies-in-waiting to help me get dressed, I had to rig it so that they were easy to take on and off, and yet would look authentically styled to the audience from their vantage point only inches away. So, guess what I did? I used snap tape. You heard me, SNAP TAPE. The kind you put on kid’s clothes to make it easier to change their diapers.

But I’m getting ahead of myself again. First I have to show you how I made the dags. I wanted to center the design on each dag and the only way I could come up with was to cut out the shapes I wanted out of fusible interfacing, iron them onto the wrong side & cut them out after. Since the interfacing is kinda transparent, it’s an easy job of centering them just so.

Here are some pics to help me explain:

So, here you’ve seen a
progression from layout
(forgive the fuzzy photo,
it’s the only one I have),
to basting the trim by
hand, to sewing on the
lining fabric, trimming and
turning them right side out.

Aren’t they puuurty? See
how the design is aligned
to create a pleasing flow
along the armscye? It was
a bit of a PIA to do, but
worth it! I hope you agree.

And as far as the large “rolls” you see under the finished dags, they were made by sewing alternating strips of the green fabric (trimmed with cording of course) with some of the rust fabric. I purposely didn’t stuff them because of the packing issues I’ve mentioned earlier. It’s an easy job of adding a few stitches here and there to pouf them out when I want to wear the garment.

But anyway, now we get to the good stuff! Making and attaching those sleeve ruffs.

To start, you’ll remember that when we lined the bodice and turned it right-side out, we left the armscye unsewn and the straps unattached to the front of the bodice. There was a good reason for that: the need to attach the male and female snap tapes in such a way as to accept the ruffs. The ruffs had equivalent lengths of snap tape on both the right and wrong sides so that when the whole thing snaps together, no one will be the wiser to the construction, even at a very close distance. Here, let me show you:

This picture shows the lacing strip for the actual sleeves which will also be detachable. The lacing strip’s edges were concealed by turning under the edge of the large roll/pouf and handsewing it shut.

The snap tape was then attached (also handsewn) to the inside edge of the armscye both over the shoulder roll and under the dags.

This is what it looks like when finished.

Now you see it (snapped shut).

And now you don’t (with the dags down)!

Once the bodice was ready to receive the ruffs, they got the same care and attention, first measuring carefully and in my case, removing some extra snaps on either end of the tape that were in the way and unneeded.

I decided to use box pleats for the shoulder ruffs because I thought they looked best, and they make packing easier, since they lay flat. After making sure all 4 snap tapes lined up on each armscye perfectly, I pinned the ruffs up and machine sewed the snap tape onto both the right and wrong sides of the ruffs, making a kind of sandwich, which also served to finish off the raw edges of the ruff.

This is an edge-on view…nice little figure-8’s, no?

Here is a view from the front and…
…a view from the side.

Now, on to the standing ruff! I’m including it in this section because it’s such an integral part of the bodice/look. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger version.

The first “draft” of the ruff was reinforced with craft wire inside the seams along the top and sides, but it wasn’t stiff enough.

So I decided to add decorative wire spokes along the length to reinforce the whole thing. I used the tool you see in the bottom of the picture to help wind the wire around itself. A very useful gadget!

Muuuuuch better! The ruff stands up proudly now and I added some clusters of pearls at each end. The laces that you see hanging down are used to secure the ruff to the bodice on the lining side, and then tucked in out of the way so that no one will be the wiser.
The finished look!

So there you have it. You’ll have to wait to see pictures of the chemise, though, because I’m all updated-out for the time being. I will tell you this, though: we’re not talking just any old chemise pattern…the design of the thing was crucial to making the whole outfit a success…check back in a few weeks or so and you may find out why…