Drafting and Making a Victorian Evening Bodice - Christine's Masquerade Dress

[Music] [Music] [Music] so today we are going to draft the bodice for christine's masquerade dress it's 11 and we're gonna see what we can get done today [Music] so this bodice does have a back closure but for ease of trying on the mock-up i did a front opening there is a seam in the front i just left that one open instead of the back so after i tried it on it fit fairly well this is still pinned together and i made a couple different pin adjustments but after that i got this mock-up sewn together after that was sewn it was another try on time and this try on proved that the bodice fit fairly well there was just a couple little adjustments that i wanted to make and i'll make these on my paper pattern so i'll cut this draft apart make a paper pattern and make those minor adjustments it has been two hours and the draft for the bodice is complete that was way quicker than i thought but i'm really happy with it and so i'm going to get started on cutting out the fabric and we'll see what happens so when cutting out my pattern pieces i did not include seam allowance in these pattern pieces and i am chalking the sewing line right here and so when i cut my pattern pieces out of the silk i will add about a half inch of seam allowance along that edge for this bodice i am cutting a majority of the pattern pieces on a bias after getting the silk catheter cut out i went ahead and cut out my interlining i am just using a basic cotton for this and this is going to be an interlining so it'll be sewn with the fabric so it's not a separate lining in the bodice it's sewn right together with the silk before getting the bodice sewn together i am making up some piping that i will include in the back seams of the bodice i'm using a bias cut strip of fabric and i'm sewing a piece of cotton cording in the piping once i have that piping made i am first attaching it to one side of the pattern piece this will give me a guideline for when i sew the two pattern pieces together with that piping sandwiched in between and so here you can see that sewing line and i'll have that on the top as i sew and i will be able to sew right along that line and the result is an even amount of piping showing through the entire scene i am using piping along both of these back seams these are the only seams that will have piping with that we can go on to assembling the rest of the bodice seams [Music] along these curved seams i am cutting notches and as you can see i'm not just notching them i'm making them round and this is something i noticed when looking at extant garments is these rounded notches they're not just the v-notch which i think is really unique and so i decided to do that with this [Music] bodice [Music] so [Music] do all right it's day two for making the bodice and this is the current state as you can see all the seams are sewn but the length of the bodice as well as the neckline there's definitely some adjustments that need to go on there that's something i always do on my bodices even though i make the draft and i get those necklines and that length fairly correct i still don't cut that precisely on the actual bodice just because i'm always scared it's going to be incorrect and i've taken all that time and it's not going to work so that's just something quirky that i do with my draft drafting draping process is even though i have the pattern i never strictly cut it the height and the length that i might have made the draft i wait till the actual bodice is in form i try it on and then i mark out the waistline and the upper neckline it's just it's just quirky i know it's not conventional but hey i'm not conventional so anyway we are going to get this bodice hopefully wearable well it's technically wearable right now but like with hooks and eyes and bowing we'll see we'll see [Music] another try on but this time i didn't have that front opening because it needed to be sewn and thus the struggle of working by yourself because of that challenge i just left that little bit unpinned and i hoped that my fit would be okay because well you know living life on the edge [Music] so far that looks pretty good i'm pretty happy with that my waist is definitely needs to be shorter it's probably i'm going to before i final sew and cut this waistline i'll try it on over the skirt and make sure it's all looking good neckline definitely needs to be lower not too much lower i'm not a huge fan of low necklines but i can pull down my chemise a little bit to help with that from showing maybe i don't have to trim it down as much as i was thinking it actually looks [Music] i'm getting some of this weird buckling here but i'm going to unpick these seams just a little bit so that small adjustment of taking in this side piece a bit fixed the problem of that kind of gapey arm thing over here i still have it and you can see the difference so much much better the armhole still needs to be a little larger so i'll cut that away soon but yes that was an easy fix and [Music] of course there's going to be lace along this whole top so some of the things like how it dips a little bit there i could put padding to help fill it out just so it doesn't gap where my corset ends but i'll probably just play around with that and see what happens but [Music] after trying the bodice on i got a rough idea of what my neckline and armholes needed to be and so i started cutting that away i usually first trim one half of the bodice edge and then i fold the bodice in half and cut the second edge just so everything is the same on both sides of the bodice and then for the bottom point i actually used my rotary cutter which was maybe a little dangerous so maybe don't follow my example but i do like using it for this type of thing sometimes because it gives you a really nice smooth cut along whatever line you need cut and now finishing these raw edges with a zigzag stitch so if you look at those extant garment bodices you'll see sometimes they're bound with some sort of tape binding thing and i don't know if i've actually seen a zigzagged edged bodice but i know i've seen it in a book about historical dressmaking and so i am doing a machine stitching i could have hand sewed this zigzag stitch i tried a little bit and realized it would take me hours and decided machine stitches would be just as fine and now it's time to attach the boning channels so i am putting boning along each seam of the bodice as you can see i'm not going along the entire seam it's just a certain amount just to mainly get the lower half of the bodice very structured and then i just hand sewed these boning channels in place with a very quick whip stitch for this bodice i decided to use spiral steel boning i wanted a little more flexibility with those bones instead of the ridge's straight steel boning after getting the ends smoothed and coated with plasti dip i was able to insert the boning i made sure the boning was very tight in those channels and then secured that lower end we are getting so close [Music] for the center back closure on one edge i have this placket here that is a double sided piece of silk and i've sewn it to the back seam and then here you notice that it stops there because these both ends of the bodice will be turned under and the placket doesn't need to be so that's why that's shorter and then the other side we have just a single piece of silk taffeta that we're fold over and it's the facing of this side now i will be putting boning along both of these back edges so i have a very nice tight and straight back closure [Music] after securing those bonings in place i'm now going to use a fel stitch to secure this facing in place [Music] and then on the other edge i have a raw edge here that i'm just going to catch stitch and this will keep the raw edges contained as well as keep the seam allowances down so with the bodice structure all complete i can now go on and finish the edges of the bodice so the top edge of the bodice and the lower waistline so i am using piping along these edges because of a couple pictures you see of the original dress that indicate that this was used but i'm also using this piping as a facing and so this is the reason for that long bit of seam allowance this will turn under and become a facing for the bottom edge so i'm lining up the short edge of the piping seam allowance with the bodice edge and when you get to a point like this that the piping needs to go around you don't want to put a cut in the piping and so in the seam allowance of the piping i'm snipping the fabric including both layers of these seam allowances and then you can just flip the piping around and work that cording piping edge into the point and then you can go on your merry way for sewing my piping i am using a pin tuck or piping foot this is an old style bernina foot i really like mine because that piping edge fits snugly in one of the grooves and when you get to the point you stop at the point put the needle down and then move your project around so you can begin again on the next side of the point and you might have to manipulate the point piping a bit to get it so that the stitches don't sink into the actual piping with that sewn in place it's now time to turn up this facing edge of the piping along these very deep curves you'll want to snip the fabric so that it can turn up into the bodice now i had a little problem with my facing because the bias didn't give quite enough room to turn all the way up into the bodice and so i had to make these funky splits to the facing which not preferable on a facing i'd prefer a very non-cut piece of facing along the bottom edge but since it was connected to my piping and i didn't want to redo it i just made do and made these funky little splits to it and you know what it was fine again the point can prove a little tricky because there's so much fabric in that little point that you don't want a bunch of fabric and so my best advice is to trim away as much as possible this will definitely reduce the bulk in that area and then some folding and pushing the fabric in the right place is the best way to go about getting a small neat point [Music] once i got that facing of the bottom edge pinned in place i'm now moving on to the top edge of the bodice and this is the same process that i did on the bottom edge so now that the top and bottom of the bodice is mostly secured we now need to finish up the facing edge and so i am just using a fell stitch to get this facing sewn in place it might not look like it but i am only going in to the interlining part of the bodice this is not showing through to the front edge of the bodice after getting that facing sewn in place i then went on to the hook and eye closure with so much hand sewing to do i brought it along with me to the living room while we watched some shows and as a diligent costumer i brought my camera along [Music] so it's day three of making the bodice and it will be a short day because it is mostly finished i got a lot of hand sewing done last night and i got that piping facing thing sewn in place and then i started on the hooks and eye closure i have a few more thread bars for that aspect of it to do and then that'll be all finished the only thing left after that is to finish the armholes now there's something interesting about the armholes that you'll see in this picture here there seems to be an added piece of fabric that's kind of like an under section of a sleeve and then if you look at the top section of the sleeve it could be a little cap sleeve to help lengthen that shoulder area out a little bit i'm not really sure because it's all covered up with the lace but i don't know if i'm going to do that yet or not i'm going to try it on and see what it looks like and feels like so we're gonna do that and after i get those couple things finished i'm going to film the finished look of all this sewing that's been happening the last three days i was not expecting to get it done so quickly but i'm really happy that it that's happening so after getting those thread bars sewn in place i did decide to add a bit of padding in that hollow area of the bodice and this will just help things smooth out there hopefully it was an experiment but i just used some cotton batting and did a very large whip stitch to secure in place so i decided to look at some pictures again real quick of the bodice and realized that i am going to add something to the armhole i've decided that and it's going to be really basic so if you look at these pictures here especially this one of the back if you zoom up to the armhole there's definitely a strip along that back area and of course we saw that under arm area that also had that strip and so what i'm gonna do is just put a bias one and a half inch wide piece band around the entire armhole and i think that'll do we'll see if it actually works but right now that's my theory make it easy and i think that might be what they did but we'll see anyway i'm gonna do that so as i mentioned i'm just using a bias cut fabric for these armholes i cut a large strip and then folded it in half or mostly i again did the wonky thing of adding a little extra on one side and this would be the fabric that helps secure those raw edges that'll make sense in just a minute as you continue watching so i first got this armhole piece hidden in place getting around all those nice curves of the armhole so a lot of pinning is the trick after getting that sewn in place again more snipping to allow for the folding over of the seam allowance so here you can see that extra bit of seam allowance that i added to one side of this bias cut piece and it just folds over all those seam allowances and hides them and secures them and with some fell stitches securing this bit in place the bodice is complete let's interrupt this video for a little box opening let's see what's in it more cardboard so these are notepads that i got custom printed that you can buy but look at that [Music] so if you want to buy them the listing should pop up and will be in the description below and you know you can have a pretty notepad for wherever you want it to be on your sewing room desk on your desk your grocery list your shopping list anything so if you want pretty notepads you know where to find them now back to the video [Music] and the struggle of working by yourself i tried and tried and tried but could not get the bodice on and thus a text to my mom to help me my oldest sister was also over so she joined in and after that they stayed around a little bit looking at the dress and i had no idea i was recording this entire thing so for a little fun and random here's that time lapse of them looking at the dress and then also my little nieces were over swimming in the pool by the way we were being safe and my mom took this picture which i kind of really like [Music] and now back to being professional and a lonesome seamstress [Music] and for your information you can order the pattern for this bodice i have turned it into a pdf pattern and you can order that at the link that pops up and also down in the description also included with this pattern is a scaled version of the skirt pattern so if you are interested in the skirt pattern you can find that also at the links all right there you have the making of this bodice it is pretty good i think it i think it turned out good so there are some wrinkles like here and right here there's that because the bias cut and the bone ends right there and then back here up here there's some stretch because also that piece is cut on a bias but i wasn't going to focus too much on those areas because it is going to be covered up in place so fit wise it fits very well it just has some of those wrinkles because of the bias and i think that's okay because it's just going to be covered up with lace and i'm cool with that so overall the lower half i'm very happy with it's very smooth and very nice so i'm very happy with how it turned out and i also want to mention that you do see my chemise and the corset cover edge occasionally and also in the shoulder area but the sleeves are the sheer gauzy stuff that i'll be putting on later that's kind of embellishment i'm treating it as that but that'll cover up that aspect of it but then the neckline i think i can pull my trees down a little bit more after i put my corset on and that should keep it lower but if not i think it'll be okay because the lace does slightly go above the edge occasionally so whatever and then another thing is i was expecting to have to put clasps along this edge and my waistband to keep the bodice to the skirt and so you don't have this gaping of the waistband that you would see but with how tight my bodice is against the waistband i don't think there's a need for it it's not showing at all and i've moved and all that and it was fine so i don't have to add those clasps that i was thinking i might need to add and that would also add bulk to the waistline so i'm pretty happy that i don't have to do that it's like the sewing part of this dress is done the only thing that needs to be done now is to attach the lace and the embellishments and flowers and all the pretty stuff that it's on this dress so anyway i'm pretty happy that we're finally well it's actually a little fat that we're coming to a close of this series because it's been so wonderful having you guys along for this journey and just putting out these videos for you guys it's just been really fun and so i'm a little sad that that part is coming to a close but before i know it we'll be on to another adventure so thank you guys for watching and being part of this journey and we will continue next week with the embellishments so don't miss that part also if you were wondering what this swooshing noise is that's the skirt against the floor all right thank you guys for watching leave a comment like if you want and i'll see you next week with the embellishments and a huge thank you to the patrons who make this journey possible this project and my future one which is cinderella's ballgame so if you want to learn more about that the link will pop up and there's a link in the description and now go out into your own sewing area and learn create and inspire [Music] you

Channel: Bella Maes Designs

Views: 33,179

Rating: 4.9700747 out of 5

Keywords: the phantom of the opera, masquerade dress, christine daae, costume making, Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler, costumes of phantom, andrew lloyd webber, phantom of the opera, How to make Christine's dress, victorian era, victorian sewing, christine pink dress, making Christine's daae dress, Costume Details of Christine's Masquerade Dress, Historial sewing, victorian evening bodice, how to make a silk victorian bodice, Smooth tight bodice, well fit bodice, historical drafting

Id: wIWOYeUCAyo

Length: 28min 51sec (1731 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020