1/28/04: “Vanity preying on a weak mind causes every sort of mischief” Ok, the next time anyone hears me say “I think I’ll make my under things pretty, too.” has my permission to slap me silly! I’ve spent 4 days on this corset and it’s a much bigger pain than I ever imagined it would be, but it’s finally done. Yeah!  The bias strip is a pain to get turned around inside corners and I’m not completely satisfied with how I did it, but I must move on to something else. The top edge was much easier, of course. Oh yeah, Led Zeppelin II is fantastic hand sewing music. It was all worth it because the corset is lovely. I love the front closing busk and the colors are very nice. Even after I added the boning I didn’t need to add a lacing in the back, which made me happy. After all the headache and bleeding fingers, I ended up with, I think, my finest corset yet. It’s very comfortable, too, and will probably be my main corset for the next couple of years (assuming I stay the same size!). With the style and decade of Venetian dress I’ve chosen, it should work under my English clothes, too. These pics also show me that I'll need to remember to take my nose ring out and make a partlet to cover the tattoo. hurm... A word about boning materials… I was one of those people who used only ½” coated steel for my corsets. I didn’t like any other material I tried as well as I liked that. After hearing all the good things about cable ties I tried them and I am converted! They really can’t be beat for ease of use (scissors, nail clippers and a metal file), they are very inexpensive and readily available, they can’t rust, and they provide very good support if you use enough of them. The only advantage I can see to steel is that they are thinner. The cable ties will take up a wee bit more room in the fabric channels than steel, but I found the effect to be minimal and well worth the other advantages it gives me. If you haven’t used these yet, give it a try. You won’t be disappointed! I made some headway on the underskirt. The panels are all sewn together and roll pleated into the waistband. I also decided to pipe the edges of the taffeta strips to give the skirt some stiffness rather than make another corded petticoat, and because washed dupioni looses all its stiffness. When the piped edge is up against the sand dupioni it blends in too well because that satin stripe in the taffeta weave is the same sand color. So, I’ll make another strip of piping in probably red or wine silk since I used up all the orange shot left over on the corset edge. I also put a thin stripe of linen velvet on the bottom edge to give it more weight and to increase its longevity. The colors are so scrummy that I think I’ll be using this as an underskirt for my next English, too, so I want it to be sturdy. Well, I only get to sew when the baby’s asleep so that’s all I got done in the last few days. Now I’m off to the fabric store again to look for a good red silk to make piping from. Ok, back from the store. I love it when a plan comes together. Instead of having to buy silk and piping cord and bias cut and sew, blah blah blah, I found pre-made piping in exactly the red I’m using. How lucky am I? Now I can try to finish up my underskirt tonight. 2/6/04: Somebody Shoot Me! For the last several days I’ve been smocking, Smocking SMOCKING! This is why I don’t take on handwork… I get sick of it. *sigh* Well, at least it’s looking pretty cool. The linen I used for the camica is a looser weave than the linen I’ll be using for my bloomers, and more to the point, for the test square of smocking I tried. The little stitches I pull for the smocking are pulling the linen threads out of the fabric so I’m having to take a little catch stitch knot on each gather. It’s doubling the time it takes me to do this, and it makes the whole thing look a little messy. I’m going to try the next section with a white stabilizing thread, like I were going to cartridge pleat it. I think if I put that in it will keep the pleats more uniform and keep the looseness of the weave from pulling on the decorative stitches. I sure hope I don’t have to redo the sections I’ve done so far. Ugh. Another setback. The linen velvet strip I put on the bottom of the underskirt is all wonky. I sewed it down in one direction, turned the fabric over and sewed it from the opposite direction. This caused a very apparent “twist” like defect in the strip since (even though the fabric is cut on the straight) there is a wee bit of bias stretch that happens as I hold the fabric down to sew it. Sewing from the opposite direction caused the shift all along the strip so it is offset just enough to make it look really weird. So, I got that ripped out and actually used pins *gasp* to get it on straight. I did make some real progress on this dress during the morning nap time. I got the bodice pattern correctly draped over the corset & underskirt. I’ve also decide to go with my original 1550’s design with the ladder laced open front. Now that I’m ready to cut into the nice stuff, I’m getting nervous! 2/13/04: Dead in the Water - Rescued by a Side Project! Well, I'm so sick of dealing with my camica, and it's not looking as good as I wanted it to, that I'm not inspired to work on it at all. I'm not even motivated to work on another part. So, I've started a side project just to get my creative juices flowing again, and I'll get going back on the Italian in a few days. 3/1/04: Slow Going Let's see, what has happened in the last 2 weeks? Hardly anything. I had to make some progress somewhere so I made up my linen drawers. I had previously cut them out and done a simple blanket stitch to hand-hem them. I flat-felled all seams for strength, and I like it better than French seams - less bulky. For comfort and ease I used 1-1/2" wide elastic for the waist and I also made them "low-rise." I don't know about you, but I can't stand trying to tuck my drawers back up under my corset after using the loo. So, the "waist" is very low slung around my hips, which is very comfortable. Not period, but comfortable. I am gearing up to work on the Venetian again. I can feel it in my bones. HA! I've been sweating about cutting into my nice fabric so I've been scouring my "Patterns Of Fashion" by Janet Arnold and various websites to see how other people handled cutting the skirts with such a large pattern repeat. In POF, I saw many cutting diagrams laid out like Alcega; basically, straight front & back panels with gores on each side. I really like the way skirts cut like this fall and it gives a really nice drape with extra fabric at the hem. Unfortunately, if I use a gored pattern my fabric design will get a wonky dip at the bias seams and interrupt the design as it goes around the skirt. I also noticed that the Eleanora of Toledo dress in POF uses a non-gored design so it is period to do that as well and will maintain the integrity of the fabric pattern. Decisions, decisions. Jennifer Thompson discusses this same problem in her Diary of a 1480's Florentine Gown. I read through that carefully and also paid close attention to Jwlhyfer de Winter's diary of a 1570's Venetian Courtesan, and Jessamyn's diary of a 1560's Italian gown. Jessamyn seems to have attacked the problem most successfully by changing the bias angle to bisect the fabric design, but that still doesn't keep the pattern from drooping at the bias seams, and it also puts me in the position of having to sew bias seams together at the side gores, rather than keeping bias edges to selvage edges to keep it from stretching at those seams. AARRRGGGHH!! There just doesn't seem to be an easy way out of this. Although it seems that the gored pattern was more common despite the large repeat of fabrics, I think I'll probably stick with Eleanora of Toledo and keep my design in tact. Also, I had to rip out the piping I did on the trim taffeta for the underskirt. I sewed the red bias piping to the sand silk and because I had already piped the trim fabric I couldn't get it to butt up against the red piping closely enough. Not to mention, the piping was sloppy in the first place and I wasn't happy with it. I've also come to realize that the piping is not stiff enough to keep the underskirt out like a corded petticoat. It does add a significant amount of body to the underskirt, but it really just flows into sweeping curved pleats to the floor rather than maintaining any kind of distance from my legs. So I wasn't too hurt to pull out the extra piping. This will allow me to hand stitch it down next to the red piping and make it nice and neat. Hopefully I'll get to that tonight. On the camica front. I am totally unhappy with the smocking attempt. It's actually coming out ok but I'm really not liking the way it will look overall especially since the kind of smocking I'm doing is not fully supportable by the evidence. A this point I am mentally switching from a gathered edge camica worn over the corset (wherein I would have still had to make some kind of linen layer to wear under the corset) to a smooth edge camica worn under the corset with a false front placket under the bodice lacing. Part of this is also because I found some really nice, very sheer silk organza that would make a lovely partlet, and I don't want to deal with the bulk of wearing a partlet over a gathered edge camica. As usual, the plan changes as I trundle along and I probably won't decide for sure until after the main gown in made and I can see how it will flow. 3/3/04: Finally, Some Progress! I've finally finished the underskirt! It worked much better to sew the separate red piping down next to the un-piped trim fabric. I could actually do it by machine with having any top stitching showing so that made me happy. So, the corset & petticoat are finally done. Now I have no excuse to put off cutting into the fancy fabric. I'm starting to sweat again. Oh yeah, the colors of the fabrics in the skirt picture are closest to reality. Then again, all I can really think about when I look at this picture is how much I really need a haircut... 3/10/04: Plodding along In the last few days I have finally cut into my fancy fabric. I cut the front and back skirt panels and linings in linen, and then measured, planned and cut two linen gores so I could place them on the fancy stuff to plan out the pattern and leave enough for the bodice and sleeves. Well, I just couldn't get past that drooping pattern problem so I posed the question to the Courtesan group on Yahoo. For the most part, they used straight panels and bolstered their choices with Vecellio's woodcuts. Bella was right; with the way the skirts fall, they seem too full at the waist to have been gored. I am greatly relieved to not have to gore this lovely patterned fabric. But wait! I offset the pattern on the front and back panels so they would roughly match up with the gores! If I cut the two side panels as half the width of the fabric, the design will be half a repeat off! ARRGGHH!!! Well, it looks like God is smiling on me again. When I cut the side panels as about 2/5 wide each, that will make the repeat match for both front and back, and leave me enough fabric to cut the rest of my pieces. If I had cut three whole skirt panels I wouldn't have had enough to cut sleeves. *whew* The next thing to do was to draft my sleeves. I did the old trace-your-own-arm trick and it came out beautifully. I think I'm going with the paned top sleeves like in Titian's Girl with a Basket of Fruits. I like the simple design and the way the camica puffs through it. So, I now have all my sleeve and bodice pattern pieces drafted. No excuse not to cut them out! *sweating bullets* I don't usually go through these kinds of nerves. Really. I don't. 3/12/04: Snip! Snip! Well, I have a terrible cold and sound like an old man who's smoked 3 packs a day for 40 years. Luckily for me, it kept me from going back to bed yesterday because my sinuses hurt too much to lay down. I had no choice but to tackle cutting the bodice and sleeve pieces from what's left of the silk/cotton. I had cut all my interlinings the night before so I had all the pieces exactly as I like them. Tip: never try to work while watching a movie you really like. You'll never get anything done. I laid my fabric on the floor and played with them like a puzzle until I got exactly the motifs I wanted on each piece. This wasn't easy since I had so little of the fabric left. I was unable to keep the shoulder straps integrated on the bodice, but piecing is period, so off they came. The things that were most important to me were getting a good central motif on the back, getting an interesting mirrored motif on the 2 front pieces, and having matched mirrored patterns on the sleeves. The pattern is so bold that anything that wasn't mirrored would completely unbalance the whole dress. I finally managed to get everything I wanted but only after several placement attempts and by cutting the front bodice pieces on a slight bias. This actually gave me the main flower motif on both sides of the center lacing, but angled in, which should look very flattering when on. As for worrying about bias stretch on those pieces, I cut 2 layers of interlining which should take care of that. One is completely on the grain, the second is on the bias to I don't get a stretch at the waist points in front and back. This also allows me to keep my seam lines in different places to they don't bulk up one area. I'll have to see how this goes when I get the interlinings sewn together with their boning channels. It's possible I need the bias stretch for the front and back waist points. Who knows? More thoughts on design and wear. There seems to be an ongoing argument over whether Italians wore any corsetry under their dresses or not. For most decades, the fashions clearly show more natural curves than what the English, French, or Spanish were doing at the time, and I am inclined to agree with the no corset approach to those styles. However, in the portraits of Venetian clothes in the 1550's, the style is very conical, almost the same silhouette as the English. Even on larger women they don't show natural curves in the bust on the front-laced gowns, which I believe is from corseting, even if it was a short lived fad. The more I work on this dress, considering the layers of interlining, and that I'll have to bone the lacing area in front and the pointed waist in back, I'm not so sure I'll need a corset to obtain the right silhouette. Experience from the Saxon dress has shown me that attaching the skirt to the bodice goes a long way in keeping everything in place without a lot of boning. Not having a corset will also make the debate over false front vs. camica over corset go away. And it will be one to two layers less than before. Things are looking up! I think I'll approach it as if I will not be wearing a corset and if I end up needing it I can still wear it. Good thing I can use it under my English clothes after all that work! 3/15/04: "The best things in life are free, but you can feed it to the birds and bees. Now, give me money! That's what I want." I haven't gotten much done in the last few days but a friend of mine came to visit and was drooling over my fabrics and design so she'll be paying me to make her one when I'm done with mine. Ah, the paying client. What a rare gift! I also bought the cold water dyes to take care of the baby pink silk for my side project. I've never used it before so that should be fun, too! 3/22/04: SOMEBODY SLAP ME!!! Ok, I've started another side project inspired by some very unnatural fabric in my stash... I got a lot done on it last night while Claire slept but it didn't further the Venetian along at all. I have GOT to make some headway on THIS dress. This is the only one I have a deadline on so naturally I can't bring myself to touch it. Harumph. 3/24/04: Bad luck strikes again. My machine is broken. I get it back on Friday. tthhptptptptptptptptptpt! 3/29/04: TTTHPPTPTPTPTPTPTPTPTPT! Well, I got it back but with a sick hubby and the baby all to myself, I haven't had time to plug it in. I hope to sew again tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow. I'm starting to have withdrawals... 4/5/04: Pilgrim's Progress Ahhhhhhhh, a freshly serviced machine is a joy to sew with. :-) I've finally gotten back to it and gotten quite a bit done on the bodice. Let's se if I can get this down in order... Because of limited fabric I had to piece the straps separately when I cut out the bodice. Cotton duck is very stiff and I don't like the way it gets so bulky at the seams, so I decided that with two layers of duck and one of the brocade I'd never get a clean edge without topstitching. I cut the duck layers without seam allowances and the brocade with a large enough seam allowance to turn over the edge and stitch down. Originally I thought I'd be able to do this by machine but it wouldn't be precise enough nor would the corners be clean. So, I stitched all the boning channels, quilted the areas in-between, then cut and filed all my cable-tie boning. It's pretty heavily boned - 5 channels in back, 3 at each side front opening, and 3 diagonals from armseye to front boning. Hopefully I won't need a corset with this. Next, to test my turned edge idea, I quilted the two duck layers of the curved straps and pinned the brocade on top. I turned the edges under, tucked in the raw edge, then whip stitched them down to the duck. The straps came out beautifully! They are flat and smooth with no stitching visible on the outer layer at all. I rolled the top edge of the bodice brocade and stitched it down just like on the straps, lifted up the brocade and stitched the straps onto the duck base, then pinned the brocade back down on top of the base. This way the straps are securely attached to the heavy base fabric but again, no stitches show on the outside. I will have to whipstitch the join in the brocade at some later point. I also got one front edge turned and stitched under, and used a heavy button thread and a backstitch to close the bottom of the boning channels before I turn under that edge. At this point I've started thinking about how I'm going to get the right curve from the top of the skirt. You can't pleat a straight skirt to a curved bodice line without getting strange bumps and weird hangs, so I need a way to gauge the small bodice curve to the big skirt waist, and I have to do it in the front and the back because of the pointed back in Venetian styles. Continued on Pg.3 | 
