So after drooling over Laura's gorgeous new Italian gown-in-progress, I am desperate to try out a curved-front-opening bodice/gown of my own (to the point I'm ready to shove aside the Much Ado project to try it!!). Jen Thompson has some great images on her site (http://www.festiveattyre.com/research/workdiary/page1.html) of doing the test fittings, and I have a plan for draping on myself... but my ultimate goal would be a corded bodice on a dress, and I'm wondering how you do the cording channels along that curved opening. ??? Can you sew a curved channel? And then what? I saw one dress (http://www.hartwoodcastle.com/16th_century_italian_working_class_gown.html) where she whipstitched a double row of cording along the curved opening, but the rest of the bodice wasn't corded at all.
I have read the Cotte Simple method (http://www.cottesimple.com/fem_silhouette/curved/curved_1.html) gads of times, but for this I'm going with the technique of draping my bodice block on myself (thanks, Centuries Sewing, for the suggestion!).
Any other tips or suggestions appreciated! I have 4 yards of coral colored linen + chocolate brown for guards, and they are SCREAMING at me. ;D
I have no advice, but that is a really cool gown! I love the shape of it. I can't wait to see your progress.
Well, I've just cut out the mockup pieces of the bodice block and will sew them together tomorrow (I hope). It's a little too late (1:52 am LOL) to fire up the SM tonight.
Hoping I just figure this out as I go along!
(This is becoming almost like a blog! Ha!)
So I draped my bodice block tonight and marked the curved front opening line, and it looks a little different than I expected (the curve is much less dramatic than I expected, given how very curvy I am IRL, and the neckline is on this *crazy* angle), but I'm going to go ahead and move on to the next mockup.
I still haven't figured out exactly how I'm supposed to lace it up, let alone cord it! Do I need a set of curved-front lacing strips? ??? Jen Thompson posted a pic of her bodice with lacing strips basted on (http://www.festiveattyre.com/research/workdiary/images/fit2.jpg), but I can't tell what's going on in it.
Haven't completely decided what Mockup II will consist of. Just muslin again? Move on to canvas? I know the back needs some definite tweaking (it needs to be longer, and for some reason the shoulder seams pulled forward, so I have to make the straps a little longer and re-fit those). I also want to see what I can do about making the straps more widely set (possibly not much; I have very narrow shoulders, so there's not a lot of real estate to work with up there!). I don't know at what point I go ahead and cut the curved line out. Oh! Brainstorm: Maybe I'll do a curved canvas version with machine eyelets! That's easy enough!
Tomorrow is more Much Ado stuff, but I hope to get started on the second mockup for this.
Quote from: gem on August 04, 2010, 01:16:36 AM
(This is becoming almost like a blog! Ha!)
So I draped my bodice block tonight and marked the curved front opening line, and it looks a little different than I expected (the curve is much less dramatic than I expected, given how very curvy I am IRL, and the neckline is on this *crazy* angle), but I'm going to go ahead and move on to the next mockup.
I still haven't figured out exactly how I'm supposed to lace it up, let alone cord it! Do I need a set of curved-front lacing strips? ??? Jen Thompson posted a pic of her bodice with lacing strips basted on (http://www.festiveattyre.com/research/workdiary/images/fit2.jpg), but I can't tell what's going on in it.
I think she only used those strips for her mockups and half-finished bodices, so she could lace them up before completing them. I know she used it for her pink Florentine dress, which later had integrated lacing.
And I've long wanted to answer your question, but truth is that I don't quite understand it... You wonder how to lace up a bodice in front which is narrow in the waist and wider over the bust?
Hee! Thanks, Anea!
No, I was merely wondering how to lace up a curve using straight temporary lacing strips! I thought they'd buckle or behave strangely, or something. But since I've decided to just integrate eyelets into the mockups themselves, I think I've actually solved that silly little hurdle.
The real question is about cording it. How do you bone/cord a curved edge? Can you sew curved boning channels (I'm guessing the answer here is yes, and that the hemp cord will accommodate the curve)? And then how do you go from the curved channel at the opening, to the rest of the channels, which will be straight?
I suspect I'm actually worrying about something that's not a real problem (I do this a lot!).