Vogue 8543 Skirt and Jacket. A Tale Of Two Dogwoods

The third black skirt and final white flower project.

This is more of a formal skirt pattern with what Vogue calls "Divine Details".  Now this means, topstitching, pleating,  and curved and form fitting panels on the back side of the skirt.  The invisible zipper is on the left front on this pattern.

Now, when multiple curved panels are part of the pattern, one way of increasing the aestetics and quality of your work is to be precise on your cutting and match seams and topstitching from front to back.  Makes a lot of sense, and I have seen lesser quality from store bought items and at least you can notice these things and be aware.

Now, as usual, I always glam it up a little bit more by adding that extra dimension of fancy and cute combined.  I have had these pictures in my repetoire since 2004 and I finally have enough time and money to get these long thought out plans accomplished.

So, in my collection of subjects on my list, I first got pictures of Cornus x ' Eddie's White Wonder' at a friends house and its parent Cornus nuttalii from Cultas Lake (Crown land).  As it was explained to me back in the day, Cornus nuttalii was more prone to disease and crossing it with Cornus florida has provided the hybrid (Eddie's white wonder)with more longevity.  Although, mature Cornus nuttalii trees in the wild tend to do okay and it is the provincial emblem.

Also, let's be precise about this.  The white blooms of Dogwoods are not flower petals!  They are bracts.  Just like poinsettas at Christmas they are not flowers, but the bracts are specialized coloured leaves.
So, for this project I decided to do Cornus nuttalii and Eddie's white wonder bracts on the front of the skirt with bark and leaves.

Pictures of Dogwood subjects



Cornus x 'Eddie's White Wonder'



Cornus nuttalii at Cultas Lake

 Cultus Lake off in the distance.  This photo was taken atop
Elk Mountain (est elevation 1500m) facing South west

Anyway, from my pictures, it seems as though C. nuttalii is a lot whiter than the hybrid.  It doesn't matter really, but something to note.

Yes, this is project is all of my own.  I got these pictures, traced and created my own template.  The only back drop is the size of the subjects.  They are huge!  High def pictures from a digital camera are really big here so I used ones that were a manageable size.  I also love the green in the leaf colour.


Cornus canadensis taken at Lindemann Lake near Chilliwack lake



Lindemann Lake facing mostly North



Anyway, in showing Cornus canadensis, I am planning on putting this specimen on the jacket that comes with this pattern.  I really think the jacket from this pattern is really neat because of the peplum. 

Also, C. canadensis is a groundcover.  I thought it would be a good idea to put this species on the jacket front because of the compact size.  Okay, maybe it's tacky, but I like to at least try these things and see if they work, and, I can mix and match because these garments are black and they should go with anything.

I also know that the dogwood needs to go on the right front lower part of the jacket.  Seems reasonable since womens garments always have the buttonholes on the right side.  This means that it will overlap the left, so, if I put my subject on the left, it will get covered up which is what we don't want. (mental note...)

****Sorry about the lake and nature photos.  I find it more fun to get inspired this way****


Now, here is the start of the skirt and jacket pictures:

The finished look

OK, OK this was a mass produced major TYPO from the factory of Vogue Patterns but it is not a "Oh whoa is me-the world is coming to an end" issue, but one of the skirt panels was mislabelled as a jacket piece and in the instructions the centre back piece was mismatched with something that didn't work.  Here is the corrections if someone out there is beating themselves up over it.
Now, I hope this problem doesn't exist for every pattern, but these were the corrections I had to make to mine

This is how the skirt panels should be joined [side back(13)-centre back(14)-side back(13)]

Piece 13 is NOT a jacket piece

Drawing of 4 dogwood bracts on skirt, yes, they are all there!

Bottom 2 dogwood bracts of skirt



Bottom 2 bracts finished



Top 2 bracts completed.  Based on Cornus nuttalii from local forest



Completed skirt.  Needs ironing.

Wearing it from the  front view.  I sewed it but feels baggy

 

Right front of jacket with C. canadensis trace

Near completion

Finished...needs ironing!

Once the embroidery is done, and this can take a couple of weeks or longer, putting it together is all just busy work and here is the finished jacket

Finished Jacket.  Fully Lined

Lining on the inside.  It may not show it but it is a mossy green

28 mm buttons. It specified 25 mm size but I didn't like the selections.  It couldn't really focus
well, but the best I could do

Now, here is something that I did that the instructions didn't do.  I attached the lining sleeves instead of slipstitching it after I sew the lining to the fashion fabric.  It worked it's just that I had to pull the jacket through a smaller opening.  It squeezed through fine.
I then handstitched the sleeve lining to the cuff lining by way of whipstitch.  Now if anyone finds this method "crude and ugly" to each their own, I personally don't have a problem with it. 

Once again, the camera wasn't cooperating

It took me a month to complete this project between work schedules, but in the end, although I sewed everything correctly with the correct size 18, the skirt didn't really work out 100% as I would have liked. It feels like a large size 18 with some puffiness,  however the jacket was the winner here! I love this jacket!  It fits fabulous for me and I will be wearing this with other coordinates!
And, I should invest in a garment steamer! 

Until next project...

Karin

Laughing Moon 100 Victorian Corset

Older project:


As the summer drones on and I have been posting my projects past and present, I think it's a good idea to put them on my blog in case my hard drives crash again and therefore I can store my images here.

Well, I did this project back in 2008.  As it was in those days I was a couple of pattern sizes larger than the present day and this corset is probably too big for me right now, so I would have to start again from scratch as corsets are a HUGE pain to alter.

Anyway, prior to making a Victorian style corset, I have made 3 others that includes two 18th century stays and a Regency (Jane Austen era) stay all courtesy of the Corsets and Crinolines book.

Now, as a beginner, my first set of 18th century stays were not that pleasing to look at.  It takes a lot of patience to get the channels sewn in straight lines and hand sewing the binding also trys your patience.  But with 18th century stays, the heavily 'whaleboned body' shape was en vogue and a heck of a lot of channels to sew.

Here is a general guide line for supplies that I used for my projects:

18th century stays( ca1730-1789):

1. Purchase plastic whalebone 6mm wide 2.5 mm thick from Farthingales
2. Use 2 layers of fabric.  Be authentic as possible.  I use silk taffeta or heavy cotton twill and linen lining
3. Sew channels 9 mm wide to accomadate the Wissner boning (6 x 2.5) square mm
4. Purchase up to 40 m of boning depending on the pattern
5. Single laced spiral zig-zag (offset) lacing holes were common
6. Hand sew eyelets in the back for authenticity using overcast stitch

!8th century heavily whaleboned body shape with whale baleine was so popular back then.
Amen to the use of plastic these days

19th century Regency stays( ca1798-1825):

1. Use Hemp cord for thin channels
2. Use the Wissner boning as in the 18th century stays
3. Use heavy cotton twill or use coutil if you want and linen for lining
4. Single laced (offset) lacing holes authentic lacing techniques.
5. Has removable centre busk.  I bought a permanent sewn in metal busk.  Somewhat flexible

Regency stays have a lot less boning material than previous century

Victorian corsets ( ca1835-1900):

1. Use metal spiral boning and straight white metal boning (1 cm wide channels)
2. Cotton twill, silk taffeta, linen lining
3. Metal busks
4. DO NOT use plastic boning.  Not tough enough
5. Frilly lace for edging
6. Criss Cross lacing with "bunny ears" in the middle for waist tightening

So, a Victorian corset can use metal boning as is quite authentic and products these days don't rust.
For a beginner, Laughing Moon #100 is a good starting point.  I found it to be rather straight forward and the instructions were quite easy to follow

*** Do not use any man-made fibres for your corset.  Your skin needs to breathe and the fabric is generally not strong enough***

Here are my pictures

I used a tan coloured silk taffeta and linen lining:  worked well

Front Busk installed

Corset sewn with channels without boning 1 cm (10 mm)
wide channels



Looks like it fits with metal boning



Finished front. I left out the centre waist reinforcement..Just cuz

Finished grommets and lacing. See the bunny ears in the waist area?

Now, the fit with the metal boning looks as though some boning is too short for my channels.  I bought these in pre cut sizes, so I tried my best.

****This is very important for sizing the boning for each channel*******

Measure the length of your  unfinished channel eg 25 cm

Subtract 2 cm from the total length.  This is the length of boning needed for your channel. (23 cm)

Why do this? 

Well, think of your closed channel as a propane tank.  NEVER fill a propane tank 100%. There needs to be air space for expansion just like a corset boning channel needs some space for the boning material to move, otherwise, it contorts out of shape and can poke out of your channel in awful ways that can ruin your corset. Plus, the boning material can dig into your ribs or hips that can make it sooo uncomfortable.

Know what a proper fit looks like (Hard and fast rules):

When your corset is tightened enough without hurting, the gap in the centre back should be 2 inches or 5.08 cm wide.  Give or take a 1 cm , that should be a good fit.  If tightened and the gap is too wide, your corset is too small.  When tightened, and the gap closes, and your corset shifts slightly, it's too big.

Yeah, I know I would rarely wear these things except for Halloween and such, but it is such good practice and a challenge to get skills down right for any future projects that makes anyone a more experienced sewer.
Anyway, a quick post but more's coming...

Karin