I know it's not Ren, but I'm making this pattern for the SF Dickens Faire in Dec. I thought I was doing fine on the skirt - I even followed the pattern directions instead of making up my own! But I went to try it on, after doing about 3+ hours of cartridge pleating, and the weird yoke it calls for at the back skirt opening did not fit at all. After removing the bustle the pattern calls for, I was able to get the waistband closed down through the yoke, and after I undid the basting of the pleats for the last few to the edge, the whole skirt opening can close, but I don't understand what made the pattern so weird. And clearly, making the bustle was time wasted, since there is no way this thing can fit over a bustle.
Has anyone ever worked with this pattern before, or has seen a waistband with a yoke in the back?
You can see what the yoke is supposed to look like here, though the pattern for it isn't even triangular, it's curved like a mini bustle
(http://images.patternreview.com/sewing/patterns/simplicity/3727/3727fb.gif)
I don't have that pattern but it according this this thread: http://thesewingacademy.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=ba919876ba4b7dfddeb1f9a4e8ccd91c&topic=1084.0 (http://thesewingacademy.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=ba919876ba4b7dfddeb1f9a4e8ccd91c&topic=1084.0) it is a reprint of this http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/patterns/1857promenade.html (http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/patterns/1857promenade.html) with more info on it here: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/patterns/1857promenadeinfo.html (http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/patterns/1857promenadeinfo.html)
I just did a quick flip through Patterns of Fashion 2 and all the gown skirts are on straight narrow waistbands.
I say leave the back roll off and see how it looks over your hoop and petticoats.
Two thoughts:
1. Usually the commercial patterns use too little fabric in the skirts. I won't say it is the case here, but the few times I've tried commercial patterns that's one issue who's always bugged be. So irritating.
2. For Dickens style you shouldn't use a bustle. It's well within the crinoline/hoop skirt era, which emphasize the width of the lower skirt and not the upper back. Would it help to change underpinnings?
One thing that might work, is to unpick the cartridge pleats and redistribute them. You could try lining the inside with a wool felt or similar, and re-gather the pleats. It would make them thicker, which would allow you to put them further apart, which would give you a bigger circumference in the waist (you'd probably need a new waistband, but that's the easiest part here...).
The hoop skirt fashion was a part of the "historism" of the 19th century. Every decade was inspired by past eras, and the hoop skirt fashion borrowed generously from the Baroque and Rococo style. Circular skirts and wide lower sleeves are elements borrowed from the past. The corseted, pointed bodices are also inspired by the past. You can see an example of it here: http://aneafiles.webs.com/private/romantikk.html
The bustle style also glanced to the past, but then to the narrower mantua style with an emphasis on the bum. Here's an extant early 18th century mantua, which could might as well be worn in the 19th century:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0k8aiRqwLnU/SplWoy2pxVI/AAAAAAAAACY/z-i-nYQwLQU/s1600-h/1708+Mantua+dress+British+back.jpg
So yeah, I would go for a hoop skirt and not a bustle under this style of dress.
I don't know about the yoke issue, but I can tell you that when I made my first cartridge pleated skirts (no pattern) this summer, for me and Milord's mum, they were BOTH too small in the waist, though by all rights they should have fit, since the measurements were correct. The problem was just as you describe, minus the yoke: They fit fine but the waistband wouldn't close in the back.
Here is the thread, and funnily enough, YOU actually had the best theory (IMO) of why things went wrong:
http://www.renaissancefestival.com/forums/index.php?topic=12765.0
Yeah, this is a little different, though. I think the biggest issue is that the yoke part is still the same width around as the waistband. But obviously, 3" below my waist is significantly bigger than my waist size. I don't think Simplicity took that into account, and especially didn't realize the bustle would make it bigger, too.
And Operafantomet, it calls for using both the hoop and a padded bustle. But I think it looks fine without the bustle, so that will be scrapped. I had already put canvas in the cartridge pleating area, so if those pleats were any thicker, they wouldn't fit onto the band at all. And it's not where the shirt meets the band that is the problem - I think maybe I pulled the 2nd row of cartridge stitching a little too tight.
Now that I've popped the threads out of the end, should I go back and restitch through those last pleats? It's still hanging in the pleats from the waistband.
And thanks for the link to that forum, Centuries!
Quote from: Lady Rebecca on November 17, 2010, 11:55:39 AM
And Operafantomet, it calls for using both the hoop and a padded bustle. But I think it looks fine without the bustle, so that will be scrapped. I had already put canvas in the cartridge pleating area, so if those pleats were any thicker, they wouldn't fit onto the band at all. And it's not where the shirt meets the band that is the problem - I think maybe I pulled the 2nd row of cartridge stitching a little too tight.
Ah, I see. I thought you wore it with a bustle only. It didn't sound quite right. But now I see!
The Dickens era is more the late 1830's to the mid 1950's.
Quote from: Lady Kathleen of Olmsted on November 20, 2010, 12:38:50 AM
The Dickens era is more the late 1830's to the mid 1950's.
I think you mean 1850s?
But yes, I've heard that this pattern is an 1850s style.
TYPO on my part! :o I meant the 1850's!!