Costuming My Bliss

Ahem.  Fist let me apologize for my crappy drawing.  An artist, I am not. 

As I have been decidedly unproductive of late, not to mention being sick to death of looking at my still unfinished corset, I thought a quick and easy project was in order.   So began the split drawers.  This pattern was drafted up from Fashions of the Guilded Age.  The pattern was originally printed in 1883.

I started by embroidering the knee bands with a shamrock motif.  

Next, I added the lace and narrow pink ribbon trim.

I hand finished all the seams, flat felling where appropriate, and turning under and hand stitching the allowance when not.

Next up was the waistband.  True to form, it gave me all sorts of grief.  I just couldn't get the giant waist of the drawers to  pleat into the waistband evenly.  After a sleepless night of mulling the problem over, I gave up and just gathered the suckers.  

Here's the finished project.  Sorry about the bad photos, they were taken in the bathroom mirror, in artificial light, sans flash.

                                           Front
                                              Back

 I had someone ask me if these were indeed split.  The answer is yes.  I know it sounds risque to our modern sensibilities, but there was a very important reason they were left open.  Imagine being a Victorian lady, wearing drawers and a corset.  Where would the waistband to said drawers be?  Tucked under the corset. Trying to get it back there after using the loo, would be pretty difficult without getting completely undressed!  So, they came up with this ingenious solution!  

Discretion being the better part of valor, these photos were taken over a pair of long johns.  

1/13/2010

I spent yesterday drafting up the pattern from Fashions of the Gilded Age.  Went smoothly and I was able to get a mock up cut out and sewn together.  I thought it would be to small, but turns out, it was huge!  I pinned about 3" out of each side and was able to pinch another 2-3 out of the back. I also shortened the straps by 1/2 and inch.

My camera battery is pleading exhaustion, but as soon as it's ready to go, I'll post pics of it's current state.  Won't have a chance to work on it tonight, so hopefully I'll get back to it tomorow eavening.

The camera has revived it's self, so I now have pictures of the super-sized chemise.

Here's the front view.  See how the neckline dips a bit below the bust line?  Not good.  Also, the armscye is too high, and it is just waaaay to big.  

I was concerned I had done something wrong in the drafting, so I went back and double checked my measurements.  They were just what they were supposed to be.  So the next step was to measure the apportioning scale. (apportioning scales are units of measure used by different drafting systems in place of regular units.  For this particular system, you use the one that corresponds to your half bust measurement.)  Each unit was equal to 1/3 of an inch, so when I measured the pattern, both front and back were 19".  that's 3" larger than my 1/2 bust.  Multiply that by 4, and you get 68"!  What?  You could seriously fit 2 of me in the thing!

Now I was worried that there was a fundamental flaw in the whole system.  I started converting apportioning units for other garments and found that they were what they should be.  So the flaw is definitely in this pattern.  

I sat down withe the pattern today, and removed 3' from each seam line.  I also lowered the armscye, although that may go down a little more when I get to the finishing stage.

A much better fit, and you can no longer fit me and my twin inside!

Next up, I'll bind the neckline, then get started on the "real" one made of tissue linen.  After that, I guess I'll no longer have an excuse to put off the corset.

I've completely finished the cotton mock up of this one.  I decided not to bind the neckline as originally planned.   Instead, I used the scalloped stitch on my sewing machine, and went round all raw edges.  I also hand felled all the seams.

You can see the scallop stitching a bit better in this shot.

I'll be making this again in a tissue linen with pink scallop.