Stays!

So, I have discovered that my Butterick pattern 4484 is the same set of stays as Butterick 4254. Thanks to American Duchess! So I am going to move forward with this project.

On the right is the silk noil that I purchased for the outer layer, and left is a linen for the foundation layers. I was going to line the stays with the linen as well, but I've seen a few examples of reversible stays in my internetting, so I'm going to rummage through my stash to see if I have something cute to use as lining, even though it will probably be poly-cotton.

I am still undecided on whether or not to have visible boning channels. On one hand, all the existant examples that I have looked at (thanks to 18th Century Stays and their list of images online). On the other hand, I could do up the foundation layers and fit them without even cutting the silk, and then cover the foundation. But maybe that would make it a 'boned bodice' rather then 'stays'.

I originally had these grand ideas of hand stitching the whole thing. After my adventures in Yowie-land, I've given up on this plan. I'm sure I will find more then enough hand stitching in the construction process to statisfy my urges for period accuracy. I'm not sure about using linen thread. That was part of the grand original plan as well, but I'm not sure if I can run linen thread through my machine, or how it will hold up compared to good old polyester thread. I will do thread-bound lacing holes! To make up for giving up on hand sewing.

I was also going to order plastic whale bone from Farthingales, but American Duchess got me thinking about zip-ties instead. Cost effectiveness is key.

Basically, I have no idea what I'm doing. Except that I do. I'm going to make a factory cotton mock up, with zip-tie boning, and fit that. And go from there.

Crazy slowly going am I...

I'm hallucinating a pattern. I swear there was a main stream (Butterick/Simplicity etc) pattern for a late Victorian bustle dress, that pictured a woman in a pink dress on the envelope. I think she may've had her foot up, possibly on the running board of an old timey car, but I also might be confusing it with the pattern that is out there for 'driving jackets'. The dress in the picture looked fairly poorly made, and the pattern over-simplified, which is why I never bought it, but now I am wishing for it because I want a pattern to manipulate into something I want. Can't find hide nor hair of it on the internet, in or out of print, so I guess I must be crazy.


I want to make the 'jacket' of this dress, and I want a pattern to start me off for the bodice. I'm fairly confident that I can drape the skirt, but not confident in my ability to drape/draft the bodice. Much more sure of my ability to manipulate an existing pattern. I will find another pattern to work off of, but its bugging me that I can 'see' the pattern I want so clearly in my mind's eye, and not find it anywhere.

Stays...

I was going through my box of patterns, and came across a discontinued Butterick pattern that I must've grabbed from the discard box in my Fabricland days. The pattern envelope does not date the stays, but the inclusion of panniers and some googling confirm that its probably late 18th century. I don't want front lacings, but I imagine that that would be a fairly straight forward alteration.


What concerns me is I can't find many reviews about it online. And I'm not sure enough to start cutting up my silk noil for something that's less then accurate.

P.S. Is it more accurate to stitch your boning casings through all 4 layers, having visible casings, or to only stitch the casings through the two foundation layers, or foundation layers and lining?

Boring post

Well, I survived 25 hours off travel, and I'm now back in Vancouver. No interesting sewing will be happening for a few days, but I will be stocking up on supplies for some project I want to work on over the summer, and trying to convince my (former) teacher that she should loan me a dress form for the summer.

An 18th century pair of stays (part of a larger project, eventually), a non-specific boned bodice and skirt for a princess costume, felt fruits, veg, and other play food, a Jedi robe, ..., ..., are all on my to-do list for the summer. Stay tuned! I have my eye on some gorgeous silk noil for the outer layer of my stays, which would theoretically become part of a Queen of Hearts costume based on a polonaise dress. (I worked at a fabric store before I went away, and am hoping they still have the fabric I am refering to. Also, this really fun floral print that I want to make high-waisted sailor front shorts out of.)

Fail blog.

So, after my success with the yowie face, I had these grand plans of making monster gloves as well. I painstakingly hand stitched together a very basic glove - a blown up tracing of my boyfriend's had, two layers, stitch around the outside. I didn't want to do a proper glove because I wanted to minimize the seams, and theoretically make my life easier. The stitching was painful. The only leather needle I could find was in a package of "repair needles", and the one that was labeled 'leather' was not sharp enough to go through the hide. There was one labeled 'Tent/Deck Chair/Canvas' (sure, whatever) that had a sharp end in the triangle shape that I think of a leather needle, and that went pretty well for the thumb and the index finger, and then the eye broke. So I tried the 'Sacks/Packing' needle which had the same type of end, but was much larger. To big, and the eye would barely go through the holes it made. The 'Bookbinding/Sailmakers' needle bent. In an act of desperation, I went to my book of regular old hand stitching needles and found that the regular old sharp needles went through the leather just find. After a while, I developed a system of piercing holes with the broken leather needle, and then stitching through them with the sharp. I still broke 6 sharps while stitch the one glove, and my fingers were so sore I had to use pliers to pull the needle through after the middle finger. Totally lame.


So finally finish sewing the glove, looks alright, I know from a prior experiment that the leather is too stiff to turn when its dry, so I get it wet and begin the painstaking process of turning the fingers right side out. Much use of the pliers was needed to make this happen. Anyway, finally get it turned (mostly) and my boyfriend tries it on. He can get it on his hand, but all the 'loose-ness' I was hoping to have to wrinkle and texture does not exist. It fits, quite literally, like a glove. And at this point it is about 9 pm on Thursday, and I am leaving Brisbane for good early Saturday morning. I still have to do pesky things like pack. So we made the executive decision to buy some monster hands instead. Credit card to the rescue!

In this picture, the mask is still being held on by elastic bands. Its been upgraded to a proper elastic behind the head now. It is going to be enhanced with some paint, but I won't be around to do that. I'm pretty pleased with it, considering I've never done this before.


P.S. The boyfriend is much better looking withough the mask.

Mask time

Pretty, right? :p I think I'll leave it like this. Actually, this is my test drive for the actual mask. I got a hide of vegetable tanned leather, and I'm going to make the mask, and gloves, out of it. Vegetable tanned leather can be molded and shaped when it is wet, and when it dries, it keeps its shape. We had an opportunity to play with it once when I was at school. The film doesn't have a make-up artist on board yet, and they weren't sure if they would be able to get someone with special effect experience who could do a creature face. Veg tan leather is used for venetian masks, and boiled leather armor etc. I have never made a mask with it before, let alone a creature mask. But no one really knows what a yowie looks like, so no one can tell me I got it wrong.
I did some tests on a piece of the leather to figure out some techniques to add texture to the face. I'm taking my inspiration from this.


So, here is the first draft of the Yowie Mask. Not as much texture as I originally imagine, but I decided to stop for now, rather then take it to far. Once it has dried, I'm going to put it on the boyfriend's face and see how that effects it, and go from there. Looking at the Planet of the Apes picture again, I'm wishing I had done the nose more like that.

Giant fur one-sie

Thanks the director of photography's mom's sewing room, I whipped up the Yowie in a couple of hours. I have to spend some time picking the fur out of the seams so they aren't so obvious, but everyone is pleased with the out come, and boyfriend says he's going to wear it for Halloween, and possibly as pyjamas on cold nights :p

The assembly went very smoothly, nothing interesting to report. There were two adorable dachshunds who kept me company while I put it together, and wanted to sleep on the fur.

I pieced together the hood, and didn't realize til after I had cut it out that the side panels have the nap going up like the body, and the top piece goes down. That's what happens when I rush. I didn't have a lot of options - all the scrap yowie bits fit in a grocery bag, and none of them are very large. I want to sort out a collar to attach to the hood still, and spat-ish foot coverings. Its going to be interesting.