I feel like I'm in the last quarter mile of a 5k here.

[mellymell]

I'm trying desperately to catch up on everything. I have no idea how I got this far behind in ALL THE THINGS, but I have and it's frustrating. I was over 200 entries behind on LJ reading. I know this because they won't let you go back farther than 200 entries on your friends list. I've got it down to under 80 now and still plugging away. If there's something that happened at the end of September or the beginning of October that you think I might have missed (i.e. beyond those 200 entries), do tell.

My velvet still isn't in. Impatient mellymel is impatient. ETA: In the time that I posted this, picked up Jonah from school and returned home, the box from Sy Fabrics was sitting on my doorstep. I guess I was expecting USPS for some reason, though I don't believe they specify. My first impressions of silk velvet are always underwhelming until it's been through at least one wash. Also, I think the red is too... red. The trim I wanted to use with it is a touch deeper, maybe a shade towards burgundy. So, I've got some burgundy dye on hand and though I cringe to think about it, I might try an overdye to darken it up a bit. The other option is overdyeing the trim. I just tested with a fabric paint marker and it makes a subtle but noticeable difference to the color of the red bullion and casts it more toward the blood red of the velvet. I don't know, I'll consult the bride first.

In the meantime, I'm trying really hard to get my mockup completely finished before the final fabric arrives. Would be nice to switch over and finish up Brandy's stuff while I ponder the mockup a wee bit more. I like some leeway before cutting and I know once that velvet arrives, I'm going to want to play with it. I still need to draft a skirt pattern for Brandy's stuff, too.

The very fitted look of this is growing on me. I have to remember the whole thing is going to look much more relaxed in silk velvet rather than the muslin I'm working with. Even still, there are a couple of areas I'm going to have to add to, and I'm considering adding an inch or two of length in the back. Also, for any number of reasons, my center back line is not matching up. I can only guess it's because women in the 30s did not have butts. I did figure out how to work with the ties. They will tie, but they'll only be decorative, not a method of fastening the dress (sticking with the side seam zipper idea). I feel like those unpleasant wrinkles across the real-life model's midsection were caused by the ties being used this way, not necessarily overfitting in the hips/underfitting in the waist.


Front side


Back


Back side


Front


Ties


ETA2: I've heard from the bride and she wholeheartedly approves of the color (or at least the best representation I could give of it in photos). So, full steam ahead and the 5 yards are in the wash now. I should have ordered more Synthrapol and Milsoft though. :/



That's still a touch more muted than it is in person. This is some seriously vivid, saturated color here! Think the color fresh blood. For my own piece of mind, I will do the "overdye" on the trim with the fabric paint marker. No one will probably notice but me, but that's enough for me to do it. It takes so little effort to do.


Just keep working, just keep working, just keep working...

Comments

[aranel13.livejournal.com]

Odd. Syfabrics has always shipped USPS Priority to me. UPS might be getting cheaper.

[mellymell.livejournal.com]

That's what I remembered too, but I haven't ordered from them in a long time, so I wasn't sure. I think USPS is getting more expensive and UPS might be getting cheaper. I know Priority is almost never the cheapest option at Dharma anymore.

[amaz0n-princess.livejournal.com]

You're better than me - I've given up trying to keep up!

[mellymell.livejournal.com]

I keep up with Twitter enough to know that there were some entries I wanted to see. So, I opted to at least go back and skim whatever I could to try and catch up. Normally, I'd just declare friends list bankruptcy, but for those entries...

[belluthien.livejournal.com]

Looking good my dear!

And as to keeping up, well... I seem to entirely fail at that. It has become hit and miss. (I have some on email notification if they post- even THAT's getting hard!)
y

[mellymell.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Well, it looks like I'm in good enough company not to sweat falling behind here so much. Now if I could catch up in every single other area of life...

[cleopatramwi.livejournal.com]

Oooh, pretty! Trying to keep up just sends me into a guilt spiral, I've given up and accepted that I'm just useless :)

[mellymell.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Ha! Meh, I don't know if you can call it useless. It's just hard to keep up with internet life when you're living a real life, I guess.

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

It's looking beautiful! I've been curious about evadress patterns, so it's cool to see one being made 'for real'.

I'm sure they had butts in the '30s ;-), but they weren't in fashion. Your dress is from the period that they were just starting to move away from the boyish straight figure of the '20s to acknowledging some curves, but they were nowhere near the hourglass silhouette as yet.

So, the corset/girdle of the time concentrated on making the waist and hips into a narrow column and the bra (if worn at all) wouldn't give a lot of lift, just a bit of separation and support.

I wouldn't be surprised if the dress was meant to blouse a little over the waist (more like in the made-sample than the drawing on the pattern), and the hips are probably meant to be the most fitted part of the dress.

I'm only mentioning this stuff because maybe it will help with understanding where the pattern is coming from - I *love* what you are doing with the fitting and alterations!

[mellymell.livejournal.com]

I have very few complaints about it, thus far! I've never done a vintage pattern, so I don't know if these are her instructions or the ones from the original pattern. I love how every notch is numbered and you just sew seams in numerical order, rather than having to try to decipher modern pattern steps. That mess was what made me start draping/drafting my own.

I'm so glad you're here. ;)

A lot of what you say here echoes my own contemplations on what I think the shape/fitting was meant to be. Knowing that does help to understand why it is the way it is and to change it to what I want it to be. I don't know much about the period, so I wasn't sure. I felt like I was making a choice between the illustration that made me love the design and the real-life way the dress was supposed to be.

Thanks for the insight and vintage expertise! :)

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

You can go back more than 200 entries! This one was in the 230s!

Also, pretty dress!

[mellymell.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's a paid feature? Once I got to 200, I couldn't go further. Would return an error that it couldn't return more entries. I could probably filter it and go back further, but considering I haven't reduced the backlog a single bit since posting this... yeah.

Holy cow! 230s! That's dedication.

Thanks! :)

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

OH. Maybe that's it. Someone else on my f-list was complaining about that, and I've always been able to do it. But I didn't think about paid vs unpaid. Oh well.

Yeah - I think I actually went back to 270. :-)

When it's that many, I skim except for my closer friends. :-)