totchipanda

Side track: I mentioned my possibly inactive yeast in the last post - I check the jar, and it was best before around the time that the kittens were born, and they are almost 2 years old (laugh-crying emoji)

Around this time last year I was ankle deep in stay-making, so to continue the theme this year, I am once again ankle deep in stay making.

Regency stays

Cut the mock-up of the long stays in size M. The fabric is a thick twilled cotton something, I think actually too heavy for stays. I used the pink thread I'd sewed the short stays with, and it blended in so well that it was really hard to see. I left the front gusset seams open and cut the side gusset slit open. Stitched on my lacing strips and got laced in (rather poorly, my cord wasn't nearly long enough) and tucked the paint stick down the front to mimic the busk.

Needs more room in the back hip and across the front belly. I laced down tightly to get an even gap and that was not ideal. The first gusset area didn't gap much, though the side gusset did. The front got a big ol' wrinkle right at the waist. The bust dug into my belly and though it wasn't uncomfortable for the few minutes I wore it, I can't imagine it will be at all fine when I've been wearing it for a few hours.

Victorian Corset

Put this one back on to test the length again, and it is good. I will be dropping the upper edge half an inch, tested by removing the pokey boning and moving my arm with the edge as-is and with it tucked under, and I preferred it tucked under. I think I still need a little room in the hip, as the side-back waist area was a little wrinkly. I knew this was a problem before, and I was considering adding a gore there. My seams have already been cut, so I was thinking of putting in a gore/gusset.

Edwardian Corset

Tried this one on too for assessment. Hard to tie up as the cord was extremely slippery and by then Calcifer was "helping". The bust is SO big but the waist is snug and the hips need more room, so this needs further thought. I can use the Victorian corset or even the Rilla corset in the mean time (you know, for all of that Edwardian costuming i'm about to do (eyeroll)) This is the Black Snail pattern, so I need to assess if I can adjust this any way, or go for a different one entirely.

Not even gonna talk about last week. I wrote it in my paper diary, that I've been very bad these last few days about keeping up, in order to practice with writing with a drugstore fountain pen. (OK i bought it at Michael's, but you know what I mean, yes?)

STAYS PART 2

After the previous entry's noodling about stays, I decided to go back to my Redthreaded pair that I started uhhhh some time last year. I spent most of the first weekend of January on them, and finished them. Prepare for info!

Large size
Lengthened 1" all around (this is important)
Added an extra tab to the back piece
Forgot to stitch the horizontal channel on the body pieces

Uhhh I guess that's all I did for alterations. I'd cut all the pieces and stitched the fronts and sides together, as well as the backs, and done boning channels on the stomacher and fronts (but not the sides). After my frustrations with Augusta, ktlovely suggested RT, which had been laying on top of my serger in an unfinished state for months.

OK, time to go then. I finished all of the channels, boned them, set a couple grommets, forgot how my die worked overnight and tried to set like 6 upside down, stitched one grommet hole by hand, remembered how the die worked, boned, and bound the stays.

They are not even a fraction as pretty as RT's ready made stays are. But they work. Mostly.

I'm overall VERY happy with the fit. I can get an even gap across the front, and it's just the right amount of "hug". But there are some changes I need to make before I can be 100% happy.

Back is too long. It's sitting ON my hips and tries to collapse into my back the second I let my posture slip, and since it's lightly boned with plastic, it can do this rather easily and very uncomfortably. Temporary fix - Add a wedge at the side seams, hope for the best.

More permanent fix: remove the inch I added, and engineer the side seams to accommodate at the length needed at the front.

Side front panel and corresponding boning channel too high under my arm. This one will be tricksy since I have already bound the stays and all, and I hate the idea of pulling it back to fix it, but it needs doing.

Shoulder straps not angled correctly. Undo the stitching and reangle. Maybe need to be narrowed to prevent being seen at straps of outwear.

I have also considered remaking the stays. Aside from not wanting to redo any binding (the tabs were a bear!), I also need more boning material.

AMALIA JACKET

Everyone and their dog is making one, so of course I am too! (Also bc my friend is using this as a basis for one of her big projects, and we have been unintentionally twinning for years now so I have a matching gown planned, and it's a good idea, so) I decided to make it with my single black Waverly curtain panel.

Traced off and cut size 40 with no adjustments
Bit too large at the bust
Too narrow at the waist, which I expected
Straps maybe need to be reangled, they sat over the point of my shoulder and not behind the socket
Other than that, the fit is decent!

I took my traced-off pattern and did a fully belly adjustment the "proper" way, by marking and cutting an L shape from the side seam and the hem, leaving a hinge around the bust point. Ish. Rotated it out an inch to give 2" total at the front only, and then lengthened the centre front by 1" only. I chose to connect the hemlines back up, forgetting that the rotation caused a 5/8" shortening at the seam.

I've also been trying to remember that most patterns, even indie patterns, are drafted on a B-cup block, so I should at least choose my bust size based on my underbust, assuming the boobs were said cup size (They are not), which would be a 36. So I also cut down my front armscye to a size 36, which reangled the straps enough to keep them from hanging out so far over my shoulder.

The fit was really good - really good. I was really happy with this one. If I pulled the neckline down into place, then the body looks really weird, but if I let the waist sit where it likes, it suddenly looks perfect, if too tall at the neck, even for this pattern. Adding the extra inch at CF was absolutely worth it. I did not need to add length anywhere else - the back and sides were sitting perfectly a little above my rump.

So, it was on to sleeves. I cut out a size 42 based on my bicep measurement + ease (I can always make it smaller). It was likely to be far too long in the sleeve head, but that be fitted out. After I stitched, i turned it right side out and attempt to attach to the jacket. Gosh, it just doesn't fit! I was told this was the best sleeve that hadn't been cut on the body, why was it so bad for me?

Pro tip. Attach the sleeve to the correct armhole.

After attaching it to the RIGHT armscye... It was really good. Except it pulled a little when I lifted my arm. I can my arms to about shoulder height with no pulling, which is already great. But to go further, the hem comes up a little. It was decided that this means the armscye is too low, so next experiment will be to adjust the side seams there to bring them in, and if that doesn't work, raising the armscye. That's a Wednesday problem now.

PETTICOAT

On the weekend I started sewing a petticoat from some green silk I bought in LA after CoCo 2017 to no real purpose. It's such a dream, the colour is giving me LIFE. I was gonna make it from the rest of my red silk, but I don't have any pieces long enough. I set it on a waistband last night, and intended to sew it to the band, but I got hit with the sleepys, so I will sew it tonight. (I hope. I was sleepy and so I was in bed by 9:30, but I woke up at 4am for no damn reason.)

And in work news, I'm working on a large print job. Today my production printer jammed, and the last few sheets it had printed were horribly discoloured and mis-printed. When I finally located all of the jammed paper, the reason it failed is because a belt over the heated fuser had ripped and we all laughed as we looked at it. It cannot be fixed by us, so I have a service call in. It won't be fixed today, but this project is very large, and it can't be fully started yet since one part of it had to be outsourced and its not in yet.

At one point I was kneeling on some of the unfused paper, so now the entire shin of my black jeans is covered in yellow toner. Whee! I needed to do laundry tonight anyway, but now I REALLY need to.

I had to go back into my archive and tag some old posts* so I could find them when it inevitably takes me many many months or years to get back to a project. Now that I've decided to finish the stays before the dress, and I want the dress for summer, I'm eager to work on them. But of course it's been so long since I started that I couldn't quite remember what the heck was happening with them. I remembered that I wasn't happy with the fit, largely due to it being overall too large (I thought), but wasn't quite sure how to proceed. That was back in September.

So I started by googling other makes and seeing a lot of similarities to my pattern (drafted from a custom body block that I made with Stays & Corsets by Mandy Barrington). I borrowed the book from a friend and returned it at the end of last year, and I didn't think to document the patterning process (nor did I finish the hip portions of the block) so I'm trying to remember as best as I can.

Things I know I did:

- used a bit more than the book's recommended reduction of 2cm. 2cm is less than an inch, and even though I took a bit more off, they ended up fitting more like a fitted t-shirt than a support garment. Ideally I would like to take off something more like 10-14cm and redraft, but without the book it's not possible at this time.

- while I initially thought adding 1" of seam allowance was ridiculous, it's not especially bad for stays, BUT, only if they're drafted as a support garment in the first place. If I just use my drafted pattern as though it includes .5" seams, it might be OK.

- I thought I'd taken in my back pieces 2" to make the edges "meet" but it turns out it's more like 1.75". That measly .25" extra is not enough to make the stays fit comfortably.

- I think I need a bit more room in the bust? Without boning or proper lacing/sizing, and just pinning the mock-up closed (made from a somewhat thin but firm-handed poly/cotton), I get muffin-top boobs. Not especially attractive, or comfortable. I think that would work, but again, once I get the sizing right.

- I think my front might not be long enough. It comes down right about to the point of where my belly sticks out the farthest, which is probably not terrible all things considered (looking at you, Victorian corsets with your sticky-outtie busks). I suspect I will have to make a boned sample to make a final decision.

- Looking into maybe a closed back with no lacing. I found a couple examples and while it's certainly not the norm, it would make my life a lot easier. If I go that route, I will probably do tape straps.

- What do I make them out of?? I have some mid-weight linen I could use, or some IKEA fabric that I bought for a dress but it's much too heavy for clothing, but not so heavy that it would be unsuitable for stays. (Hat-tip to Asa for that tidbit, as she used IKEA fabric for a corset mock-up). I would probably want to cover it though, and that would also mean lining it.

In conclusion... I think I'm over-thinking this way too much. Tonight was the only night this week I had to work on stuff and instead I read 3 weeks of blog posts I missed during the transition period last month. Ah well. It's done now.

*I tagged them on DW but I don't believe it carried over to LJ.

I finished drafting my stays pattern! Now I'm having the "should I cut this apart or retrace it?" moment. I don't know if any changes I need to make will require redrafting it or what D:



Also haven't decided how I want to construct it. I don't think I have the patience to do boning channels by hand, but how modernly do I feel like constructing it? Hard questions for a Friday night >.>