French Darts

Yesterday, I spent my sewing time making a muslin for the French dart. I had 30 minutes to make it in and forgot to take a picture of the fabric pieces with the darts drawn in. 

The bodice fits Kit like the others do and when stacked together, they are the same size. I am pleased with the results. 

I did a bit of research on French darts and found they were used in men's clothing in the 19th century. I found no mention of them in women's clothing at that time. I did find that French darts were popular in women's clothing in the 1950's and 1960's. 

Here is a picture of the three bodices I have made to date. 

The next dart manipulation is moving the dart from the waist to the neckline. I am looking forward to making this one and see how it looks and fits on the doll. 

Happy Doll Sewing........................................................................

Playing With Slopers

 I am nearing the end of the Renaissance dress and will be happy to have it finished. It is a very labour intensive project. I will post pictures of it when it is completed. 

I have decided to do Pixie Faire's Pattern Academy for the second time. This time I will be using the American Girl slopers rather than the smaller doll's sloper. I used it the first time which gave me a good understanding of how to move 2 darts. The American Girl sloper has one dart so I have to think a bit more before I move the darts. I have also decided to make muslins for each lesson. This allow me to see the item actually made up for fit and further ideas. 

I made a muslin of the original bodice sloper adding side, shoulder and back seams. I cut it out of left over fabric from the Renaissance dress lining. It is a base for the fit on the doll. 

It fits Kit quite well. From there, I did the first lesson moving the dart from the waist to the shoulder seam on both the front and back slopers. 

This muslin fits the doll exactly the same as the basic sloper. When I laid them on top of each other, they are exactly the same in fit. 

So far, this has been fun. I draft upstairs at the table and then take the pattern pieces downstairs to cut, mark the darts, and sew when I have a few spare minutes. These are also simple exercises to do when I need to wake up my brain to sew on the Renaissance dress. 

The next bodice is French darts. I have it ready to cut out the muslin to sew together. 

One of my goals is to make a bodice pattern for the Gotz girls. I will give it another go. I have a couple of ideas to try but will need to set aside an afternoon to work on it. My brain isn't quite ready to do it as it is labour intensive. 

I will keep you posted on the Renaissance dress and the progress on how I am doing with the pattern manipulation I am doing. 

Happy Doll Sewing............................................................

The Outer Bodice Is Complete

 I am still working on the outer dress. It is coming together faster than I thought it would. The bodice is now finished and has 24 pieces. That was a lot of sewing and a few of the pieces were tiny. I pinned and hand basted a lot of the pieces together so I could sew accurately. When I was done doing the hand sewing, not one raw edge could be seen. 

I am very happy with how it looks when put over the kirtle. 

I still have the eyelets to put in the outer and kirtle bodices. I will do that before I sew the skirt onto the outer bodice. The last item to be made is the front panel that covers the lacing. Then on to the embellishments. Still hoping to have it done by mid May. We wait and see on that. 

What will I do when this is done? I have to make Kit's pyjamas. They will be easy to make. I would love to make her overalls but they may not be made until late summer. I have a quilt to finish, bags to make, and I want to play with pattern design. This means doing Pattern Academy again with a twist. A bit at a time as I want to apply new ideas I have. I am looking forward to playing again when it is too hot to be outside doing yard work. 

At the moment, I am focused on getting this dress completed and enjoying a day or two of sewing something quick and easy. 

Happy Doll Sewing.........................................................................

Working On The Renaissance Era Outfit

 I am making progress on the Renaissance outfit. I have changed the buttons on the chemise (hemd) to fancy ones. They may come off and I may do a ribbon closure to make it more historically correct. 

The kirtle is complete. It seem to take forever to make as I was learning so much and trying to make it historically correct. I should never have put in the boning but what is done is done. I did do cartridge pleats and whip stitched them to the bodice. All I need to do it add the eyelets to the back and decorate the bodice and finish the rhinestones on the skirt. I need to buy both of them. 

Both pieces are historically correct but may never have been worn together. The hemd is German and I can find no trace of it being worn by the upper class in England. The working class yes as it made it easy to get on and off by yourself. The upper class would have worn a lower neckline chemise under the kirtle and a partlet with a ruffle at the neckline. The sleeves of the chemise may have had a ruffled cuff or partial sleeves would have been attached to the outer dress sleeves. 

The outer dress bodice has been started. So far I have sewn 16 pieces of fabric and still have about 9 more to go.  The pieces are small and fiddly but I am taking my time. 

I am ready to cut out the outer sleeves and sew them together. Then it will be sewing the sleeves and lining before attaching it to the outer bodice piece. I think this could be a bit stressful once I sew the side seams of the bodice together and turn it right side out. A lot of fabric to turn which isn't always fun to do. I will work slowly and carefully. 

At the speed the outer dress is going together, I may be done by mid May. My goal is the end of May but finishing sooner will be nice. 

Happy Doll Sewing.............................................................

Renaissance Era Gown

 I have been remiss on posting a picture of the finish hemd. I was so happy to have it done and then got side tracked to do another project for daughter. 

The smocking on the hemd was time consuming. Add to it I chose to do the wrong stitches, it took longer than anticipated. In actual fact, I made a mistake on the sleeves but I like the look and won't be fixing it. 

I doubt if I will make this pattern again. In actual fact, I put the pattern into recycling. This is a once made outfit. 

The dress has been started. The kirtle (underdress) skirt is ready to have the cartridge pleats gathered. 

The front of the kirtle is the wrong side of satin I've had in the stash for 10 years or more. The back of the skirt (and all lining pieces) are from a cotton print that matches the satin to perfection. 

I have started the kirtle bodice front. I was a bit confused to start with but got it figured out. The outer fabric has been marked for the boning channels and is pinned to interfaced lining fabric. 

Once that is sewn, I can then sew rows of padding stitching to the front. Then I can move on to finishing the bodice. A lot of work for such a tiny item. 

I will try to keep you posted on the progress of this outfit. I have 5 weeks to finish it in and it will take that long. There is an enormous amount of hand sewing on this part of the outfit. Repeat for the gown that goes over it. 

Happy Doll Sewing....................................................................

The Gussets Are Sewn In and Fabric Found

 Progress has been made on the doll's chemise (hemd). I allocated time to get the gussets in. I spent quite a bit of time making sure the seams were drawn in so I could do a good match job, I managed to sew up one seam wrong and have half a gusset showing. After a good laugh, I fixed it. 

The second gusset went in much easier and I just need to sew the underarm and side seam. I ran out of time as I had to work on another project. 

I did look in the doll's stash for fabric and trim. I did find fabric I had forgotten about. Satin that looks like silk on the wrong side. This was left over from a rodeo queen top I made in 2011. Underneath it was overlay fabric I had bought and never used. I must have bought it for a top that never materialized. 

Ideas were forming very quickly in my head. I am going to cut out the piece that is lying flat and use it. The flowers on each side of the center will be trimmed off. The center piece will be at the bottom of the dress with the flowers above it. All will be hand appliquéd onto the satin. I will dig out hot fix rhinestones and add them to the front along with the neckline. I am thinking yellow and clear stones. 

I am still waiting to see if the pattern will be offered for the course or if I have to buy it. I am okay waiting as I have to finish the chemise. The goal is to have it done by Sunday afternoon. 

Today, I would like to get the remaining seams sewn and the pleats pulled ready to smock. It all depends on how I feel after having an osteopathy treatment this morning. Some days I am fine, others I have to apply heat which requires me to sit. I may take Tylenol when I get home to see if I can sew this afternoon and apply heat when I have to hand sew the binding on the quilt. I will keep you posted. 

Happy Doll Sewing......................................................................

Ready To Finish the Doll's Chemise

 The neckline to the doll's chemise is finished.

The sleeves were hemmed and pleated. 

I put it aside while I finished up a quilt. I am ready to start again as it is time to get this finished and the dress started. I will keep you updated as I work on the chemise.

The dress we are to make in April is another labour intensive project. The dress is suppose to be done in a solid fabric as prints were nonexistent in the Renaissance era. Prints were hand embroidered onto the fabric. My fabric choice is a print so I am thinking how I want to do the dress. 

The skirt front is suppose to be either "pinked" or hand embroidered. Pinked is cutting small slits on the bias so the lining will show through. The hand embroidery is shown using gold floss. No to both of these. My thoughts are:

    * Cross hatch the front of the skirt and apply hot fix rhinestones where the lines cross. 

    *Machine embroider a strip down the front of the skirt using a design I have on hand. I can add hot fix rhinestones to the dress.

    *Hand appliqué lace to the front of the skirt. I would have to think about this long and hard as I dig in the doll's stash. 

At the moment, all I can do is think and look at what I have in the stash. I know I will not finish this project until late May as I will be working on other projects in the sewing room and outside in the yard. 

Happy Doll Sewing.................................................................