Drafted my first sloper!

Last night I got to work on my planned beige and burgundy plaid skirt idea. valleyviolet cautioned me against a wrap style, so I searched around for simple directions on the Internet to making a basic skirt. I came across a really excellent BurdaStyle tutorial for drafting your own basic skirt sloper. It's very cool, teaching you how to use your measurements to draft two pattern pieces that reflects the front and back of your body by quarters, which are then cut on the fold to make two halves.

Due to only having a fourteen-inch-wide piece of fabric, that required me to shorten the length of the skirt from eighteen inches, and I prefer wearing my skirts at hip-height anyway. So in order to alter it to my purposes, for the front I did not include any shaping, such as darts, that would not come down to my high hip line, and I moved the waist curve down. For the back I drafted it according to the directions in order to get the side shaping right, again moved the waist curve down, and then just cut off everything that came above the high hip.

It was fun and precise, I enjoyed doing it a lot. I used my French drafting curve for the firs time making the side and waist shaping! I was really impressed at how meticulous and well-though-out this design was for even a simple skirt sloper. Fit is one of the most challenging aspects of garment making, so this level of precision with the use of measurements is really great.

The last thing I did was cut the fabric. I added a one-inch seam allowance instead of a half-inch to give myself a wider margin for error. When I held the pieces up to myself they seem to have come out right, like they will take on the shaping they're intended for. And I really love this print.

I need to get a beige zipper before I sew it. I am going to be super careful, since going slow and following the directions precisely has served me up to this point. I really hope I can maintain the really good fit that I think I achieved on the sloper.

Atonement dress

As some of you may have noticed, Tuesday was my twenty-fifth birthday. I am officially on the wrong side of twenty-five. I really don't like celebrating birthdays, but to console myself I decided I could get myself a little present. So I wandered around on eBay, my retail poison of choice.

Though I haven't seen the movie, in my opinion probably the most gorgeous dress to come out of film in the last ten years is the one worn by Keira Knightley in Atonement. It is green, bias-cut silk charmeuse with gorgeous details like a hip swag in front, complicated braiding effect in the rear, with an unusual mostly-bare back but with slim straps.

I'm crazy about it. I would say this dress is the primary inspiration for the design of Bethany's gown in Tailor of Riddling Way. Though since I have moved its creation to 1917 or so, it's even less period-appropriate, but I don't care.

Surfing around, I came across a listing for a prom dress that someone had commissioned but didn't want to keep anymore that had been styled after the Atonement dress. It was not very expensive and it was in my size, so what the hell, I decided to go for it. Here is what it looked like on the listing.

As you can see, far from a perfect copy. The color's not quite that vivid poison green (though that could be the camera) and that awesome strange randomly intertwining fabric effect on the rear is simplified to what appears to be rouching. Still, it captures a lot of what I like about the dress and even fixes the one thing I don't-- the bodice is kind of whatever on the original. I don't know why they went with laser cutting instead of beading on it, and emphasizes the boniness of Keira Knightley's chest. I have more going on up top anyway, so the more structured bodice of the version I bought will look better on me.

Probably someday, once my sewing skills are adequate to the task, I will make my own version of the dress. Charmeuse is a difficult, slippery material to sew with. But I bought the pattern that Gertie recommended as a good base for emulating it, Vintage Vogue 2859, just to have it for when that time comes.

Though it occurs to me that when I get to that point, what I may really want to do would be to make the Bethany dress, something similar except in cornflower blue with a nicer bodice. ;-) That would be a lot of fun.

Anyway, the dress I bought is scheduled to be mailed on Friday, so I expect it will arrive in the middle of next week. If so, it might be an option for my costume for Jesriah at Festival. It's ostensibly from the period I was told to emulate with my look. :-)

Finished key necklace!

The brass tone chain I ordered came and I could put together my key necklace!

The chain matches the metal of the key perfectly, the length allows it to fall exactly where I hoped it would, and despite my concerns the gauge is just heavy enough to not feel cheap. I am very pleased with it. It has kind of a Victorian feel, so it would be great with a costume, but I will also enjoy wearing it with regular clothes.