Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Regency Bodice Mock-up

According to my new rules for fabric-buying, I have to use my first purchase of fabric in over a year - this lovely remnant of royal blue velveteen - by February 8.


I also have an upcoming event on February 9, for which I would like to wear something new.  I have very little fabric to work with, so I can't afford to make any mistakes.  With this in mind, I started drafting a pattern for a Regency bodice.

I'm going for something like this.
I draped muslin over my blue day dress on the dress form, pinned it in place and drew on it with a fabric marker to mark the seams of the dress.


Then I drew diagonal lines to create the diamond-shaped back I desired, and draped another piece of muslin across the front, over the top of the shoulder, and under the arm to overlap both seam lines.  I did a bit of shaping in the form of a dart at the front of the armhole.



I used the muslin pieces as my pattern to cut the mock-up bodice from sacrificial fabric - in this case an old lavender sheet.  Since I had only marked the seams and the neckline and waistline, I added a 5/8" seam allowance all the way around, and sewed the mock-up together.



I made some adjustments to the positioning of the back side seams after trying the mock-up on my dress form and myself.


If my revisions are successful I will use the same pattern for a planned open robe from sari fabric.  And now that the lavender sheet fabric is on my radar, I totally want to make a pelisse out of it!  So this is now three projects in the works.  Am I being an over-achiever?  :p

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