bustier
I spent this past weekend in a 2-day 9-5 frenzy of bustier construction over at Canada College.
Tiring, but fun and interesting. I'm pretty happy with how it's gone so far.Making this sucker is like engineering a bridge -- so many bits and pieces and measurements to make sure everything stays up and in the right place. Especially as failure is disastrous.
They're made of 4! kinds of fabric that make 2 structural layers.
Outside layer = fashion fabric (lovely plum silk brocade with cream/chartreuse/black chrysanthemum pattern) underlined in flannel/wool felt
Inside layer = lining (chartruese silk charmeuse) underlined in twill
Thai silks is awesome. I'm so glad it's close by. $12/yd for silk brocade! $12/yd for charmeuse!
Half of Saturday was spent tweaking the commercial pattern to 1. fit me and 2. alter things here and there to ensure everything stays in the proper spot. The rest of Saturday was spent cutting cutting cutting cutting each of the 10 shapes out of the 4 fabrics.
The classrooms are pretty nice -- oodles of space and big empty tables to put your junk all over.
Once everything was cut, staystitched, ironed, I pinned and checked the fit.
Then I started sewing the pieces together.
And sewed and sewed.
And sewed.
The boning channels (double-layer silk organza) were especially tedious.
Time invested to date: ~24 hours
manly jacket 1/3
Manly jacket is plodding along. Pockets are hard. They take a long time. I've made 3 out of 5 of them (outside front pockets with flaps, outside hanky pocket).
Left to do: all lining, collar, lapel, super-secret inside pockets, sleeves