Much Ado progress (update post 11)

[gem]

Things are coming along nicely with the first half (women) of the "Much Ado About Nothing" garb! I have my MIL's skirt finished, except for hemming (Milord will take it up to her next weekend, and she'll hem it herself), and I am well on the way to being done with my skirt!  I am making really good progress on the Beatrice bodice and the Ursula jacket, but there's nothing "picture-worthy" to share of Ursula yet. I have the lining-slash-mockup finished, and when I'm finished testing out peplums, I'll be ready to cut the fashion fabric (eek! and yay!).

Here's where I am with the Beatrice bodice. I might be done with the mockup, pending answers to my question, below.



So I'm really pleased with how everything is looking, except the back looks sort of blocky to me, while in the movie, it seems to narrow visually a lot more at the waist:

 
And Hero:


You can't see it very well in the mockup pic, but I did add the back seaming you can see so well on Hero's bodice, and it seems to help *some,* but my version still looks very blocky and rectangular. It's not the fit; you can see that it fits me nicely, and my body definitely narrows at the waist! I am thinking of making the neckline a little more V-shaped, but there's not a lot of room for making the shoulder straps more widely set, b/c I have very narrow shoulders.

So. If you even understood the question, any ideas for how to make the back look a little narrower and conical, and a little less straight up and down?  

I think it looks OK now, and if we can't think of anything, I'll just go ahead as it is, but if there is a way to tweak it some, I'm all ears!

Gramercy!

[Valencia]

Gem, I think the movie version is wider at the shoulders, and the pleats at the small of the back (in the second picture) look longer than yours; I think both of those things give the bodice the V look.  On your bodice, the shoulder straps come in from the bottom of the armscye; in the movie version the are placed further outwards. I think it looks fantastic, you did an amazing job on it.

[Syrilla]

I will add that I think the movie v. has curved side back seams... maybe 2 sets, hard to tell.

[Kate XXXXXX]

I agree entirely.  I think the peplum on the original also has a shape to it.  Longer in the middle and shorter at the sides, in a nice curve, so maybe try that too...

It's amazing what can trick the eye on these details!

[Valencia]

I missed that, Kate. And I had no idea that was called a peplum. I love learning new things.

[gem]

Thanks, everyone!

I will add that I think the movie v. has curved side back seams... maybe 2 sets, hard to tell.

Mine has those; you just can't see them in the photo.

The pleats... Hero's are definitely longer in the middle (and overall), but Beatrice's are straighter across, with two shorter ones on the very ends, but I can't figure out how to do that. I am almost 100% certain that in the movie versions, that it is NOT an attached peplum, but pleats that are cut integral with the sections of the bodice (like in 18th C. jackets)... and that is beyond my drafting abilities, I'm afraid!

But I can fiddle with the shaping of the strip on mine and see if I can figure something out!

Valencia, can you explain what you mean here?

On your bodice, the shoulder straps come in from the bottom of the armscye; in the movie version the are placed further outwards.

[Valencia]

Valencia, can you explain what you mean here?

On your bodice, the shoulder straps come in from the bottom of the armscye; in the movie version the are placed further outwards.

Your bodice straps appear to curve inwards towards the neck. From the front, the neckline almost makes a circle as it goes up and around to the back of the neck. And from the back, the straps are set closer to the neck than to the shoulder.  In the movie picture, the straps are wider set, and appear to extend outward from the bodice, so that they sit at the very edge of the shoulder, vs the more of a wife-beater type shoulder fit... If you drew points on those pictures on the side seam of the waist, the the side seam under the armpit, and on the top outside edge of the shoulder strap, and drew lines connecting them, I think the movie bodice lines would make a straight line pointing in a V outwards.  Yours would make an angle. Does that make sense? But honestly, yours looks fantastic, if you are happy with the fit, I wouldn't make any changes. It really does look great.

[gem]

Thanks, Valencia! I got everything except "wife-beater."  LOL I think you're definitely right about the shape...  but I think part of what makes the straps look close to my neck in the back view is that I have my hands on my hips (so you can see the sides of the bodice!), so my shoulders are ever-so-slightly hunched upward. The other thing is that my shoulders are very narrow. They *look* perfectly normal in real life... until I start fitting things. Seriously--my shoulders are so narrow they are off the fitting chart for Margo's patterns (I think I calculated I'd be like a -2!  )! Anyway, so there's not a lot of real estate there to work with, as far as setting straps more widely (whenever I try, it looks kind of weird). I've tucked the straps as narrow as I can conceivably make them, and I'll see what I can do about tweaking the angle in back without changing the angle in front (which I don't want to do; I don't care for the very wide openings of underbust bodices; I think they make large busts--like mine--look even wider).
***

But honestly, yours looks fantastic, if you are happy with the fit, I wouldn't make any changes. It really does look great.

Thanks!  I am VERY pleased with how it's coming together, and would be perfectly satisfied as is (which is rare for me!), so if I can't figure this out in the next week or so, I'll happily go with what I have.  But you know how it is, you always think it can be that much more perfect... 

***
Thanks to my Google-fu, I have found pictures of what the pattern pieces for integral-pleated-peplum thingies should look like (thanks to Sewing Divas' review of Vogue 1132), so I think I can experiment with that some:



This will make four large, rounded pleats like the ones on Hero's bodice.

[irish]

Wow! How cute!
Great job!

[Valencia]

Oh, man, how ghetto do I look now?!? LOL! A wife-beater is a (usually) white tank top that men wear, usually for the gym or playing sports.

[operafantomet]

I made an integrated "peplum light" for a costume two years ago. You definitely need as wide bottom as the pattern picture you provided. I though I added lots of width for my bodice, but I would actually wish for even more curves. Here's the pattern flat (one panel is upside-down), plus the finished bodice:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/aminta/amintabodiceflat.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/aminta/amintabacken.jpg

Although I think your bodice look *smashing*, I can see what you mean about your back bodice appearing straighter than the movie ones. I think you should use the "entasis trick". It's hard to explain this expression... It's from classic Greek architecture, and it means to exaggerate lines to fool the eye. For example to make a column wider in the middle so that it will appear all straight from a distance. Had it been all straight it would appear to be slimmer in the middle. You see what I mean? The whole temple of Párthenon is constructed after this idea, with the colums being wider in the middle and leaning inwards, and with the floor bulging upwards - to fool the eye to believe everything is straight. This exaggerated drawing shows it well:
http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/lanar524/524STOREHOUSE06HD/Greece/Entasis2.jpg

How does this apply to sewing? Well, it's the same principle. In order to make the eye believe one thing, you exaggerate the lines. This means letting the back bodice drop just a bit in the middle, or making the skirt just a tad longer in the back than front, even though you don't want a train. I always use this as an example of a dress that would benefit from entasis - it's shorter in the back, which distorts the overall lines:
http://www.detnyteater.dk/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=uploads%2Fpics%2F_HSP8337_01.jpg&width=800&height=600m&bodyTag=%3Cbody%20style%3D%22margin%3A0%3B%20background%3A%23fff%3B%22%3E&wrap=%3Ca%20href%3D%22javascript%3Aclose%28%29%3B%22%3E%20%7C%20%3C%2Fa%3E&md5=ae7dda55d518910826c2fbb50731677c

To your bodice: the peplum pleats are different in the two versions, but the Emma Thompson one continues further out on the sides than yours (she has 6 pleats, you have 4). If you add this to your bodice, plus make it a tad longer in the back like the other version, I think you're getting there. It needn't be much longer, just enough to create an entasis.

As someone else pointed out, Thompson's bodice straps also appears to be set further out - more like a historical bodice, less like a waistcoat. But that is nitpicking, cause your bodice is seriously pretty!

[gem]

I have a couple new pictures to share. I have FINISHED the Ursula ensemble (except for the fasteners; I'm waiting for MIL to get here so that everything fits her):

The bodice still needs a good pressing, but it's a good approximation of Ursula's jacket (I know the peplum is a little longer in my version; MIL is tall and I wanted to be sure the peplum covered the skirt waistband):



We found this amazing cotton-blend chenille with the *identical* diagonal stripe texture, and got the whole lot for $3!

And I'm happy to report that I have solved the question of what the men will wear as pants:



That's Milord--doesn't he look FABULOUS?!  Those, believe it or not, are Dickies work pants. They are a great shade of blue, and they're not too baggy.

Compare:


He will (most likely) NOT be wearing that exact vest; that's a piece from his screen-used costume collection, and we don't want to risk turkey-leg drippings getting on it!    We also need a belt with more "presence," but mostly I think he's looking great!

Next step: Finish the two men's vests, finish up my skirt, and MAKE (eek!) my bodice. Happily, the mockup has been done for a couple of weeks; I just need to get started on the real thing.

We have two weeks!  I *think* I can make it, but I also wanted to work on my curved-front linen gown. Wish me luck!!

[Lady Rebecca]

Looks great! The edges of the Ursula bodice look so clean and nice!

[operafantomet]

Brava!!

[Genievea Brookstone]

That is looking amazing Gem!