A Cage Bustle Petticoat (Marcon Prep) and a few other things

As mentioned yesterday, I cleaned my sewing area last night. The table is now mostly clear except for a few current projects, my actual sewing machine table is clear of all the little stuff that was cluttering it up, pattern pieces are back in their envelopes and patterns are back in their boxes, left over fabric is all put away into plastic bins and things I think I may need soon are easily accessible.

With that done, I sat down and took in my Think Pink skirt and my purple knit tunic, both of which were a little big. The skirt needs a bit of hand sewing, just to tack down the facing and I think the tunic needs taken in more after I tried it on this morning.

I then packed a bag for my slumber party at Miss Bobbie's this evening. I have my Ottoman vest, my beau's Joker coat and my Think Pink skirt all ready for me to work on this evening. I thought about taking muslin to make strips for ruffles on my new bustle petticoat, but decided I had enough to work on.

With all this finished, and not in the mood for hand sewing, I started on my cage bustle petticoat. I was going for something similar to these bustles from Fashions of the Ages -

Or to Truly Victorian 101 -


But my petticoat needed to be shorter to be worn with Diamonds are Forever (aka steampunk Harley Quinn). I really thought about buying the TV pattern (I've been dying to try some of their patterns), but the cost was just a little too dear for me to pay with how tight my finances have been. So I decided to try my hand at making one on my own, using tried and true patterns and a tutorial or two.

I pulled out my trusty Simplicity 5457 (out of print, but its my go to pattern for most of my steampunk sewing), got the underskirt pieces and proceeded to cut them out of the white muslin I bought recently. The pattern needed to be shortened to be about 27" long (the length of the Harley Quinn underskirt and petticoat) so I did that by measuring and then folding the pattern. I cut out the five gores - three narrow gores for the front, two wider gores for the back, then pinned and sewed them together. I decided to leave one side seam unsewn so I could put in the boning channels easier.

I started laying out the boning channels. I used quilt binding for the channels.



Then decided to check my tutorial (found on My Silly Blue Hippo on blogspot). I needed three channels, not two, and the top one needed to be higher. I sewed part of the back opening together so I could put in another channel about two inches above the top one in the above picture, and moved that channel about two inches lower. And all the channels had to be moved to the other side of the petticoat, as they're supposed to go on the outside not the inside.

With the channels all pinned on, I stitched them down, then stitched the inside channels - a short channel in the middle of the top boning channel and two pocket-ish channels on the sides. The inside bone fits into the pockets and passes through the middle bit in a curve. Then I put the boning in -


I realized that it wasn't laying exactly right, and that the bones needed to be shortened. So I took them out and proceeded to put the waistband on. Then I redid the bones, shortening all of them. I measured the top channel to see how short I thought the top bone needed to be when you allow for the channel to gather over it and decided on 24". I cut that bone, and the other two are longer (for now). I'm sure I'll change the boning length when I can work on it again.

Here's a picture showing the gathering at the top -

And a side shot showing how well it collapses -


And here it is with me holding it up by the waistband -


It still needs some work. I plan to stitch along the top boning channel to keep the gathers in place. And the second channel may need gathered as well, we'll see. Then I'll need to sew the boning channels closed and put in the ties, which go underneath to really give it the right shape. And of course, there's the hem. I'd like to add a ruffled overlay as seen in the first pictures posted above.

I definitely need to try it on before I really do much else though. Probably should've done that last night. All in all, I'm pleased with my progress and that I managed to make a cage bustle petticoat without using a pattern.

In retrospect, I would leave both side seams unsewn then put in the boning channels. I would also change how the waistband closes, probably to a front or side closure, and alter the shape of the back, particularly at the top, so it wouldn't have to gather. If I make another one, I'll definitely change a few things.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

In Me Made March news...

I'm wearing a brown / black / gold plaid skirt today. I paired it with black flats, pink tights, a black tank top and a pink cardigan.

I made the skirt several years ago. If I remember correctly, I took a Vogue 50s-esque dress pattern and used only the skirt pieces from the dress and made my own waistband pattern. It's one of my favorite skirts and I wear it a lot during the colder months. Soon it'll be too warm for a brown and black plaid skirt to be appropriate.

I think I'm going to clean my sewing area this evening after work. It's gotten rather out of hand and that is putting it mildly. Since my projects (aka the Joker) are coming along so nicely, I feel like I have the time to spare to clean up my sewing area. Plus, a clean sewing area means I'll be able to work more efficiently.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J. Wilde

The Joker 3

It took two nights after working both jobs but I got the zipper put in. I took out the old stitching then followed a tutorial on converting a button fly to a zipper. I had to re do the crotch seam because it wasn't laying properly. I hope the seam holds, I had to make the seam allowance rather tiny at one spot to make the fly lay correctly.

The tutorial was on Cyber Seams - http://cyberseams.com/article/105117/clothes/pants_and_trousers_attaching_a_zipper_tutorial_part_1.html

The zipper looks rather well, I used a white nine inch zipper. I had a purple zipper, but it was only seven inches and I was worried that would be too short. I went ahead and pinned the next step -- sewing the back and front legs together at the side seams, but stopped short of sewing them considering how late it is. I'll need to finish the seams, as the fabric looks to be raveling, and my beau will definitely need to try on the trousers, as they look a little large. But I think that the most difficult part is already finished with the zipper being done.

I'm off to bed, my darling readers.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

Corset Commission 6 and the Joker 2

Corset Commission - Tonight we had a fitting and decided that more boning was not necessary. So I finished the top edge of the corset, put in the eyelets and laced it.

The front of the corset:
The back of the corset:
I think it turned out rather well, don't you? And I believe I could use the pattern to make an underbust for Miss Dashwood with a few alterations. So that's a nice bonus.

As for the Joker, I finished underlining the fabric last night and started putting the trousers together. Of course, I looked up how to convert the button fly to a zipper fly after I had already started sewing as if I was doing a button fly, so there will be some ripping of stitches tomorrow. However, I think the conversion will be relatively easy. I hope. And the pants seem relatively easy to construct so hopefully I'll have them done soon and then its on to the vest.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

Corset Commission 2 - Starring Bob!!

I was supposed to work my part time job last night, but they called and told me not to come in. While I'll miss the money, its always nice not to work a 13 to 14 hour day. Since I was unexpectedly off work, I let Bob know that we could do his fitting last night instead of waiting for today.

As expected, the corset was a bit large. We decided to remove the back panel completely to allow for better lacing. We also decided to split the side back and side front panels in half to allow for more shaping and more structure once the boning is put in. The corset also needed to be lengthened (which did not surprise me at all. I probably should have lengthened it more originally) so we decided to add enough to the top of the corset to reach the top of the zipper, which was overhanging by at least two inches.

With all this decided, Bob headed home and I set to work. I took apart the corset, separating the side panels into two and ripping out all the seams. I left one half intact because I didn't need it for the new pattern. Next I started adding to the top of each piece. Using the piece of muslin that had been pinned to the top of the front piece during our fitting and the zipper as a guide, I pinned scraps of muslin to the top of each pattern piece. I made sure that the curves of the pattern matched up as I did this. In the end, I had a nice muslin pattern for the corset. Granted I probably should've sewn the extensions onto the original pieces, but that just seemed like extra unnecessary work.

Here's what the completed pattern looked like --


I went ahead and cut it out of the pleather as well. I just laid the pieces down and held them into place -- I don't like leaving pin holes in pleather. Plus, pleather is rather difficult to even get a pin through so... When cutting out I added a little to the top and bottom of each piece to allow for turning under once everything is finished.

I'm planning to get this stitched together tonight. Then we plan to have another fitting before I start adding boning and eyelets for lacing. I'll probably just baste in the zipper for the fitting.

In other news, I submitted my photos for my 501st application. *fingers crossed*

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

PS I updated my most recent completed projects post with a photo of my Kermit pajama pants!

Update on my Imperial Officers Uniform

The jacket is mostly finished and passed my beau's inspection. You've all seen the basic pattern, military style jacket with a front overlap.

Changes I made
1. Length. The original pattern gives a waist length (too short) and a knee length (too long) so I held the pattern up to myself and cut it off at about hip length.
2. Code cylinder pockets. This was pretty easy. I just cut the side front pieces about halfway down the armhole, separated them by about 7 inches and cut out the pieces. Then I folded the piece so it was back to the original size, but now with pockets. Stitched the pockets together and down so the piece functioned as one and moved on.
3. Front. I cut the center front on the fold because the original only went to the shoulder on one side and I needed it to go to the shoulder on both sides. I also cut three of them out -- the left, the right and the facing.
4. Overlap. The original laps right over left, the standard in female garments. But the IO uniform laps left over right (the masculine standard), so my uniform had to lap left over right.

What I have left to do
1. Stitch the facings in place
2. Hem the jacket and the sleeves
3. Sew in hooks and eyes on the collar to hold it closed
4. Sew in snaps to hold the right and left fronts in place

I should be able to finish it this week. I can do hand sewing (which most of this will be) while at work if I don't have any actual work to do and I have Tuesday evening and Friday evening free to work on it. I do not foresee any reason that this will not be done by Saturday.

Also, a word to the wise, Burda pattern instructions make little to no sense. One of my fellow Archonites also experienced this issue on another Burda pattern so I know its not just me. I honestly ceased to follow them when I could not decipher what they were telling me to do. By now, I know enough that I don't really need the instructions anyways. However, understandable instructions are always nice to turn to if you have issues.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde