Version of a Fitted English Gown, Part 1
This is the first of three entries about my making a fitted english gown from the book the tudor tailor (3 entries because I don't want to type it all out all at once). I've already made it but have not typed much this month due to RSI so I have lots of stuff back logged! (Did you know everything I want to do aggravates the RSI? That in itself is aggravating.)
Hopefully this makes enough sense, I posted it already to a sewing community, who will mostly know what I am talking about.
So anyway, the "fitted English gown" is kind of like a cross between a coat and a dress, with a fitted bodice with a kind of built-up neckline, a flared skirt and either puffy sleeves or those with an extended cap. I am doing long sleeves.
It's a mixture of hand and machine sewing, a mixture of 16th century techniques and modern/those I made up. It is non-authentic materials -
?olive? cotton drill lining because I had 10m just lying around, as you do, and it was a good colour I thought. The outer layer is a plaid in blue and green mainly, that the seller said was wool (but they did not say whether it was 100% wool) which I chose because the purpose of it is to keep me warm, and this was the only wool I had (and wool is damn expensive, but this was bought online on an auction so it was cheap).
This post is about the mockup stage. Well, actually I am slightly past the mockup in these pictures. I made a mockup, then made changes to the pattern and cut it in the lining material, since I had a lot of it and I could always cut more pieces if I had to.
The front and back. The white lines are seamlines.
I don't really understand how you can fit a bodice without any darts. If you have a cut-out neckline, you can transfer some of the excess material into the area that is cut out, thus, since it is now imaginary excess, it doesn't gape. You can transfer some of the excess/darts to the side seam, making more of a slant here. However, you just can't fit a flat piece of material over the bust, it is impossible. So I don't get it. Luckily I don't have too much bust. I considered that maybe, those with larger busts wore this kind of garment open from the bust up, which would reduce the problem as it wouldn't have to close. I cut the arm-scye larger than it would be on a normal garment, to reduce gaping in that area (since the material wouldn't be there to gape).
I also mocked up a sleeve in some ugly mockup material.
See how the sleeve hangs forward? Isn't that amazing? I don't know how come it's doing that, but that's how sleeves are supposed to behave.
From my perspective as the creator however, this is like magic! It is a straight sleeve. I did not think until later that I would actually have preferred a bent sleeve.
After looking at everything longer, I decided that the larger arm scye was a bad idea, so I made a new front mockup, and compared it with the original (new side is the ugly pink and yellow side).
See how the new side does not look any different? I decided to go with what I already had.
I wanted to have the skirt gathered at the back (you could have it gathered or just flat) because I thought this seemed more 16th Century. So I tried pinning the material to the dressform in a gathered way, with the lining underneath too like it would be when I made it up.
I decided my bum should not look that big, so I decided not to gather it.
That is all for now! (except, I already posted this on live journal two days ago, so I have already done part two, which shall be up in 5 minutes)
Hopefully this makes enough sense, I posted it already to a sewing community, who will mostly know what I am talking about.
So anyway, the "fitted English gown" is kind of like a cross between a coat and a dress, with a fitted bodice with a kind of built-up neckline, a flared skirt and either puffy sleeves or those with an extended cap. I am doing long sleeves.
It's a mixture of hand and machine sewing, a mixture of 16th century techniques and modern/those I made up. It is non-authentic materials -
?olive? cotton drill lining because I had 10m just lying around, as you do, and it was a good colour I thought. The outer layer is a plaid in blue and green mainly, that the seller said was wool (but they did not say whether it was 100% wool) which I chose because the purpose of it is to keep me warm, and this was the only wool I had (and wool is damn expensive, but this was bought online on an auction so it was cheap).
This post is about the mockup stage. Well, actually I am slightly past the mockup in these pictures. I made a mockup, then made changes to the pattern and cut it in the lining material, since I had a lot of it and I could always cut more pieces if I had to.
The front and back. The white lines are seamlines.
I don't really understand how you can fit a bodice without any darts. If you have a cut-out neckline, you can transfer some of the excess material into the area that is cut out, thus, since it is now imaginary excess, it doesn't gape. You can transfer some of the excess/darts to the side seam, making more of a slant here. However, you just can't fit a flat piece of material over the bust, it is impossible. So I don't get it. Luckily I don't have too much bust. I considered that maybe, those with larger busts wore this kind of garment open from the bust up, which would reduce the problem as it wouldn't have to close. I cut the arm-scye larger than it would be on a normal garment, to reduce gaping in that area (since the material wouldn't be there to gape).
I also mocked up a sleeve in some ugly mockup material.
See how the sleeve hangs forward? Isn't that amazing? I don't know how come it's doing that, but that's how sleeves are supposed to behave.
From my perspective as the creator however, this is like magic! It is a straight sleeve. I did not think until later that I would actually have preferred a bent sleeve.
After looking at everything longer, I decided that the larger arm scye was a bad idea, so I made a new front mockup, and compared it with the original (new side is the ugly pink and yellow side).
See how the new side does not look any different? I decided to go with what I already had.
I wanted to have the skirt gathered at the back (you could have it gathered or just flat) because I thought this seemed more 16th Century. So I tried pinning the material to the dressform in a gathered way, with the lining underneath too like it would be when I made it up.
I decided my bum should not look that big, so I decided not to gather it.
That is all for now! (except, I already posted this on live journal two days ago, so I have already done part two, which shall be up in 5 minutes)
Comments