Peek-a-boo, I see you!

I had what I hope will be my last fitting for the winter bustle outfit yesterday.  We had just a few (fixable) issues.

1. As I was getting dressed, I noticed that the shorter length of my underskirt now reveals the front of my bustle petticoat skirt.  Thankfully, the back is fine.  (It would have been a nightmare trying to adjust the length of the back.)  I’m really not sure what happened with the front.  I need to check to make sure the bottom flounce is on straight.  It could also be that the two bottom hoops, when they are in the bustle  (which they are not right now), push the front out a bit to even the back and front.  Or, maybe the issue really is with the back…that because I have such a…um…generous bum, the bustle is lifted a bit higher than the pattern intends.

Either way, the front is longer than the back, and is simply too long by about two inches.  I could pull things apart and straighten the hem out, but I think for now I’m just going to take some tucks in the front as a quick fix and deal with the front length issue when I decide to make an early bustle dress and need the extra skirt support of those bottom hoops.

2. The waist of the bodice was quite a bit too big.  As I recall, we left some room in the waist of the final mock up, so it shouldn’t be surprising that once I added ease back into the pattern, the waist still has too much room.

Thankfully, fixing this is just a matter of taking in a few seams.  (This is also why I haven’t whip stitched my seam allowance yet.  So glad I had that foresight.)

3. There is way too much overlap at the center front.  There is a full inch on either side, which means the overlap is two inches.  Yikes!

This fix is going to be a little more involved.  I need to take out the front panels, resew the lining to the fashion fabric at the center front in order to bring each side in by half an inch, and then reattach those panels.

4. We also did a sleeve fitting.  I always have issues with sleeves, and thankfully, Bridget has the exact same issues, so she has a pretty good idea of what fixes to use.

As usual, the sleeve head was too long, even for the slightly puffed cap I’m going for in this bodice.  Strangely enough, the underarm was a little too short, making the overall length a little on the short side.  Finally, the overall sleeve was just a little too wide.

Overall, not a bad fitting.  All the issues seem fairly minor, and I’m now ready for the final push to get this thing done.

Oh, and worked on the underskirt flounce this weekend as well.  It is going to take FOREVER!  But I love it.  I’m using the design in the fabric to make box pleats that I’m ironing in all the way down the flounce and tacking from behind to hold them in place.

So the process is: fold, pin, press, tack in two places.  After an hour and a half of work, I’ve only pleated one quarter of the flounce.

The good news is that the flounce should be just long enough.

January 24, 2011 · ithilwyn · No Comments
Tags:  Â· Posted in: Victorian

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