Friday 15 July 2011

1861-63 Bodice


This is the Bodice from Patterns of Fashion 1 by Janet Arnold which I intend to cut on a stand.






Before Calico
I didn’t have the right corset to work as understructure so I padded up the stand to resemble the very short type of corset that Nora Waugh describes in `Corset and Crinolines` for the 1860´s

- Padding up.
It would of course have been preferable to have the right corset, but for the purpose of this project, -learning how to cut on a stand, and further an understanding of the 19th century´s silhouettes, I thought that doing a bit of practice on this necessary prep-work and try to copy a particular shape was a good idea.
 




First cut 
The cut of this jacket was less complicated than I expected. Only the little tail was difficult to work out and will have to be altered when I take the pattern of and make a whole jacket toil.
I made the same mistake again and trimmed too much into the armhole. The bodices of this time had very wide shoulders. -the shoulder seems is 20 cm.



















Reference pictures
I am confused about a difference in the illustration and the diagram
The Illustration shows CF to buttoned up all the way down and the pattern leaves a 4” opening. See the research Label, Title: Janet Arnold for the pictures.

First Toil

The neckline needs a little pinch (about 5 mm) in order to sit nicely and not flap open. -don`t know if I should let it stay in, it will be hidden under all the trimmings or try to work it in the pattern. If the neck line had been round it could have been held tight by a narrow cotton tape maybe this could also work with this neckline.
The back seem needed adjusting, the side piece wasn`t lying smooth.
The tail which I could get to work in first attempt was easier to work with when the pieces were sewn up. I still don’t understand how it has worked in the original. If this short box pleat - which it in a way is, is suppose to spread like it does in the illustration of the back view it has an excess of fabric CB in the waist, and if I make it lay folded in like it is in the wonderfully detailed illustration looking inside of the bodice, the tail will not spread out. hmm.....
I have decided to make it spread.

Sleeve.

Drawing up the sleeve was very quick. Just counting out inches from Janet Arnold`s diagram, and adjusting the head of the sleeve to the measurement of my armhole.
I am doing something wrong with the armhole because the original dress has an armhole of 44 cm and this dress is smaller size than the one I am cutting which has an armhole of 40 cm, but I but if I make `my` armhole bigger I think it looks wrong. I extended the width of the shoulder about 5 mm this brought it closer to the reference but it didn`t alter the armhole measurement.


Last toil

The under sleeve is made by the pattern given in the book (17" x 13") but it lacks some of the volume in the illustration, which looks like it is made up by almost double the width.For the pattern I will add 10 cm 
The toil doesn’t have bones. it should have had, as the final bodice will have a bone by each of the four darts in the front, and one CB. This might be more important if the fitting was on a real person.
The upper body of the stand is much longer than the lady who would have worn this dress.
The original dress is 10,5" from shoulder point in neckline to the top point of the darts and this dress is 11,5. I think this is why the curve and length of the ribbon and pleats are so different between the two


I couldn`t get the tail to look like the illustrated. It is not as soft and lush, that could have something to do with, too little fabric build in to it and also the nature of calico. The shape CB should be a little more rounded and I can adjust that when I put the pattern on paper.
The text describes the pleats on the tail to be 3/4" but in the illustration it is drawn as it is a least as wide as the pleats around neckline which is 1" Though I would guess Janet Arnold`s measuring is more accurate than her drawing is liked the wider version better and made the pleated ribbon 1" wide.


Janet Arnold writes very thorough sewing and detail instructions width this pattern. But if I should make this dress for someone and accuracy was important I would like to see the original dress with my own eyes.

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