Bustle - Cutting Out and Embroidery

When we last left off, I had finished the flat pattern work and was ready to cut everything out.  I prefer to use a rotary cutter for cutting as much as possible, it's much faster.  I have a set of weights that I use to hold down the fabric instead of having to pin it.

Since I had already used this fabric for my corset, I had to be very careful to get everything out and also make sure that I had enough left on the far end, which is already cut at a 45 angle to do bias strips, to get the bias strips out for this.  I managed it, carefully.  I also made sure to leave a strip at the top for the waistband, since the pattern has that made out of ribbon, there isn't a pattern piece for it.  This will be done to match the corset, so I also cut the main pieces out of the cotton organdy (which I acquired from Puresilks.us and it came from India, so shipping took a bit, but it was totally worth it):

The piece closest to the back of the table is the one that will be getting embroidered, so I didn't cut that one out, I only traced around the bottom of the pattern and then left it whole:

It turned out to be a very good thing that I didn't cut this any farther to begin with, as you will see in a minute.  I traced around the bottom of the pattern on both pieces of fabric so that I had a right and a left.  I used my new favorite pen to do this, the FriXion pen, which is amazing for quite a few applications, though it doesn't work well on dark fabrics.

The next bit was interesting, I picked the hoop for my embroidery machine that fit this section the best and looked at where the curve was hitting.  I then used my embroidery software, Embird, to make a curved version of the designs I have been working with, which are from Martha Pullen's Kent State Museum bundle.

As you can see, my first attempt at getting the curve right didn't work, I didn't curve it enough.  I changed the design, moved the hoop up a little and tried again.

It is a very subtle change, but it was enough to get it to fit nicely in the bottom.  I then flipped the design around and did the second side.  Here they are finished and ready for assembly:

New Bustle

It occurred to me today as I was talking to a friend in our local costume guild who is new to sewing, that it might be helpful if I got back to doing a blog on my sewing projects, so here I am!

I am in the middle of a new set of Victorian Underwear, and I don't have progress pictures of the first 4 pieces, but I can at least document from here in the hopes that it is helpful for someone (either generally, or since I know at least 2 people who are planning on using this same pattern themselves).  I will also get to document the chemise, since I am planning to re-do it in the near future with the new Truly Victorian chemise pattern, instead of the old one.  So far I have chemise, drawers, corset and under petticoat (not pictured, it was finished after this was taken) finished:

The next part is the bustle.  I will be using the Laughing Moon #112 Hoops and Bustles pattern, View D:

After determining by my hip measurement I need a size 20.  The pattern has both waist and hip charts for the size but since I am going to cut a waistband that will fit my waist with my corset on, and since the front isn't attached to anything it really doesn't matter how big the waistband is, what matters is that the bustle fits my hips.

Reading through the instructions, which is always a good idea before you do anything with a new pattern, I noticed that there is a typo with the pieces, on the view to pattern piece guide it has 14, 15, 16, 17 but when I look at the beginning of the section of instructions for View D, I noticed that I also need piece 12.  My pattern was purchased many years ago and I am sure it is corrected in the newer versions:

I don't like to cut pattern tissue for multi-size patterns, partly because I like to be able to use them again later and partly because the pattern tissue survives better when left intact, so I trace off what I need, after ironing the tissue flat with the lowest iron setting and the steam off.  To trace I use rolls of tracing paper from the craft store (it doesn't have to be heavy, just something that's easy to see through).

I transfer all the markings, including the clips for alignment, grain line and in this case steel bone casing marks.  When I do the alignment clips, I never make them diamonds like they are on the pattern, I just use the half that's inside the pattern and then I just make a single clip to the middle for each one, really that's all you need and it's much faster.  I label the pattern piece with everything to know where it came from, which piece it is and what size I traced. 

After tracing all the pieces that I will need I put the pattern in a new manila envelope.  I have never been successful getting patterns back into the half size envelopes they come in, so I gave up and store them like this instead.

Next, before I cut the traced pieces out, I will make any adjustments that I need to make.  In this case I will be deviating from the pattern in several ways.  I will be making this to match my corset, which is purple twill with a cotton organdy sheer overlay.  Instead of the 1/4" hem allowance in the original pattern, I will be doing a 1/2" bias binding on the edges, to make this work, I am going to go ahead and add 1/2" to the bottom of all 3 of the main pieces, that will give me space for the bottom steel casing and the binding:

The other big changes that I will be making are that I will be putting the casings on before I put the main parts (15 & 16) together, and they will be pieced instead of a whole bias strip.  This is so that the sewing lines for the steel casings won't show on the outside.  (Why yes, I am being fancy :P some day I will hopefully get to wear this to the Underwear Breakfast at Costume College).  I will also be doing some embroidery to match the design on the corset and I will be making a waistband out of the twill instead of using a ribbon. 

After making the adjustments, I cut the pattern out of the tracing paper and am ready to cut fabric.  I pre cut the tracing paper because my preferred method of cutting fabric is rotary cutter and it tends to snag and tear the paper if I don't.

Finishing up and starting new

I haven't posted in awhile, but I have been somewhat busy. I finally finished one of the knitting projects I have been working on, a ribbed scarf for my mother in law for Christmas:

Now, I can finally start knitting baby things, I just started a bootie, this is the first time I have done circular knitting and it took a bit to figure it out, but it's looking good so far:
This is the practice pair, I have some really beautiful yarn to do another pair with a matching hat too.

On the sewing side, I am working on making fitted cloth diapers and doublers:Still need to make lots more of these....I am also planning on making flannel wipes, and I have a bunch of other plans too, we'll see how much I get done!

Knitting Progress Update

I have been slowly working on my sweater, I started with the back and am working my way up:

I have also been working on a striped scarf out of the yarn that I got to practice for the sweater:
I should have an actual sewing update later today, I finished the tailored blouse I was working on and am starting a bunch of linen trousers and short for the summer.

Finished Victorian Collars

I finally finished the 2 collars for my dad's Victorian shirts, I am quite happy with the Pro-Woven interfacing that I used, it is a light weight, yet stiff interfacing, specifically for things like collars and cuffs. I am consistently amazed that when the proper ingredients are used to make things, the results are usually superior.

Scarf Photo

My cousin, who received the scarf that was my first knitting project as a Christmas gift, was kind enough to take this beautiful picture of it.

Finished 2nd knitting project

This is supposed to be my sewing blog, but somehow more knitting than sewing has been getting done recently, I hope to rectify that this weekend. However, in the mean time, I finished my second sewing project and this time I actually have a picture!

This was a good project after the plain scarf, I had to increase, decrease and figure out how to read a pattern. Now on to the reason for all of this yarn madness - the sweater! My goal is to finish this by next Christmas (I am planning on making it red) so that I can wear it to my husband's family Christmas gathering! I have managed to wear the same thing both of the last 2 years (totally by accident, I swear) and I plan to be wearing something different in 2010!

Sewing around the house

I have a few little functional projects before I get back to sewing clothes. We decided that we really needed something to keep the cat dishes from scratching the floor, hence cat dish pillows!!

Collar Band Draft

I did finally finish the scarf, even in time to wrap it up for the "Garage Sale" gift exchange at our family's Christmas celebration... unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it. That's ok, the second knitting project will be in the works as soon as I learn to read the pattern better! The pattern is from Dovetail Designs:


In the mean time I am working on some small sewing projects, starting with a set of Victorian collars for my dad. These collars literally button onto the shirt, which has a band already attached. I tried this a few years ago without success; however, since then I have learned to draft collars, so I am hoping that this will be a better experience. This morning I got the pattern out that I had been using, and the measurement of the band was not all that different from what I was drafting to, so I decided to make a muslin (mockup) of both:

The upper one is the one that I drafted using Kenneth King's method, and the bottom one is the one from the Buckaroo Bobbins pattern, we'll see which one works better.

Actual Sewing!

I finally get to post some sewing on my sewing blog! Here are the 2 messenger bags that I completed as gifts for friends:

These were done using the Mischievous Gnome Messenger Bag from Sew Liberated

I also finished the tree skirt for my parents, however I forgot to take pictures of it. Now onto doing some Victorian collars for my dad and a tree skirt for my in-laws! Hopefully during all of this, I will have time to finish the wool pants I cut out several weeks ago...

New Beginnings

As I went to continue on my scarf tonight, I discovered that I had managed to somehow create what looked to be a very large hole. It was not a dropped stitch exactly, but since it was a much larger mess than the first hole I had and it wasn't knitting back together well...I decided to start over! Pulling everything out was actually much more fun than ripping out a seam when sewing at least, and when I was done I had a huge pile of a cat toy on the floor! I then started over with a much cleaner stockinette stitch, and without the "decorative" rows from the previous attempt, but that's ok, the point here is to practice!

Blog Name

"Liz's Sewing Blog" is less than....well, creative.....so if you have a suggestion for a better name, let me know!

New Blog

Welcome to my (mostly) sewing blog! At the moment all of my sewing is for Christmas presents, so no pictures yet. However, I am learning how to knit, so there will be pictures of that at least. Having no sweaters currently in my wardrobe (ok, one short sleeve one, which really doesn't count during winter...) my husband suggested that I should learn to knit and make my own. At first I said that was crazy, and then I found this sweater pattern from Coco Knits

So, with that as my goal, I started looking for a good way to learn. I found a DVD on Amazon, The Complete Beginner's Guide to Knitting, by Nici McNally, which has been really good so far. I am now part way through making a scarf, that seems to also be my place to experiment. It's supposed to be just stockinette stitch, however I managed to reverse it a couple of time on accident and then did it on purpose to see what would happen, so now I have a few stripes.

Plan now is to finish off the scarf in stockinette and then decide what else I need to work on and practice (I think increasing and decreasing is going to be a big deal for doing a sweater) before I actually start it. While working on this I also tried several different materials for the needles and found that I like bamboo the best.