And then I found it!  A round tablecloth (72" diameter) with a lot of the lace throughout, and it was in black, no less!  There was only the one, so I bought it and hoped it was big enough for a blouse.

 So I fold the cicle in half, matching the lace patterns as much as possible, and layout my pattern for cutting.  The cloth being round, means that the grain line was really the radius of the circle, from the center to any given point of the outside edge, and top being the center.   The fold will be the center front and center back and the rest is in a big arc.   I started with the front piece, and layed it out maximizing the lace around the neckline.  I would have prefered to have the solid fabric band a little lower, but then I ended up with the solid center getting into the shoulder seam.  I had to settle with what would fit.  I then placed the center back, to line up the solid parts to the same level as the front.  I was worried that the sleeves would not fit, and I would have to make the sleeves 3/4 length.  But they fit perfectly, once I placed the sleevehead evenly on the solid center bit.

I know that I need to stabilize the neckline first thing, or it will stretch and do horrible things.  So I quickly finish the center back edges, and do up the shoulder seams.  Because of the lace, I did french seams to make them neat and actually hold a seam.  I made the collar out of a cotton broadcloth, and put it on.  This will be covered up with a stock collar that buttons on, so I am not worried about it not matching.

The side seams are next, and now its on to the sleeves.  One seam, and gather the wrists to fit a cuff.  For the cuffs, I started out with just the broadcloth.  But it really didn't match well.  So I added an overlay of the batternberg edge, with the edge just a tad longer than the cuff proper.  Then sewed the sleeves to them.  I love how the cuffs came out.

I also cheated with the cuffs, and made them slip on rather than button closed.  I didn't want to have to play with button holes in the lace and everything.

Sewing the sleeves to the blouse propper was the most difficult part, I think.  Half of the armhole is lace and stretching all over the place, and the sleeve head needed to be gathered to fit.  The gathers fit perfectly onto just the solid fabric portion of the sleevehead, so that worked out perfectly.  I kep thinking "shrink" as I pinned the sleeves in, to combat the stretch factor, and in the end it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  Though I think I may the shrunk a little too much; the armhole seems a bit snugger than it should be.  Hopefully, this won't be a real issue.

This just leaves putting the waist band and gathering the front to fit.  Again, I used a broadcloth band. It will be covered up with a belt anyway.  I still need to add hooks and eyes.  but here it is, all put together.  I made up a short stock collar with a battenberg overlay..  But for some reason, I forgot to put in on when taking the pics. 

So now I need to make a back corset cover, and a black skirt and petticoat.  And a black chemise and drawers.  Yay, more sewing!

I actually finished this a little while ago, and I took pics of it on a manequin in my messy sewing room. But those pics just didn't do it justice, so I wanted to wait until I had a chance to put on the dress, and get some decent photos.

And so, here it is. It still fits, and I looks just like I wanted it to. Now I just need a new top petticoat to go under it.  I think this dress is the lightest dress I have ever made.  I think it is less that 2 lbs all together.

When I told my sister Laura I want to find ideas for and Early Bustle bodice, she was mildly interested in helping me look.  For about 5 minutes.  Undaunted, I pulled a dozen books off the shelf and set to finding the next "new thing."   Every five minutes or so, I made her turn away from her computer to look at what I had found, receiving an unenthusiastic "okay..."  to the proffered item at hand.   After failing to really get her attention by the 10th try, I had to give up and try a new tactic.  So the next hour was spent whittling down the list to 3-4 pics I thought might work.   I then showed the short list to Laura, and asked her which one she liked the best.  She picked one, and of course, I picked another.

Laura's choice:

My choice:

The more she looked at the one she liked, the more excited she got about the idea of a new bodice.  She already had a skirt and overskirt made up for a new dress, she just needed a new bodice to go with it.  This would be the perfect match to what she needed.

But since I am the one who does all the work, I finally made the decision to do the one I liked, and "thank you for your help."  Her response was to turn back to her computer  and mumble "okay..."

So, over the next few days, I draft up the pattern for my new bodice.  I work out the kinks, have it pretty much finished, and ask Laura if she wants to try it out for me.  She says she is going to wait for the other one.  This one won't really work right for the skirts she already made.  Looking at her outfit, I can only agree.  And then I start to think about it, what kind of skirt/overskirt would this bodice go with?  Answer?  Not much.  As I picture the bodice paired with each of the patterns in the TV line, I am left with the realization that it just doesn't blend well with what I have.

I am forced to concede to Laura's wisdom, her bodice is indeed the better choice.   A few days later, I show Laura the pattern for her bodice, and she says "Print that up for me,  so I can make it."  Laura, who hasn't made a bodice in over 2 years, started in on it right away. And even more surprising, she finished it in a couple weeks.  OK, she still has some finish work to do, but it is wearable.

End result, I have to say, Laura looks amazing in this dress.

Which left us with a dilemma.  We could keep the color, but go down to a letter sized sheet.  Or we could go with keeping the legal sheets, and loose the color, going with a white sheet for all the patterns.  After much debate, and redesign, we have come up with a compromise, which I like even better than what we have now.  I wish we had come up with this earlier!

We are going with white sheets and new colored print.  Here is a sample of how it will look.  The patterns will still be color-coded by time period, so you can easily find patterns that can be mix-and-matched for complete outfit.  But the overall look of the patterns will be more consistent, for a cohesive, professional look.  We will be gradually easing in the redesign, as we exhaust our existing supplies and stock on hand.  I hope you all like the new look as much as we do!

This pattern includes a chemise with inserts at the neck, French circular drawers with 2 leg options, and a corset cover with ruffles. We have even included instruction on how to turn the corset cover and drawers into a combination.

Time to start practicing up on your heirloom sewing! And if anyone is looking for some fabulous cotton fabric, I found some beautiful combed lawn sold by the bolt at Dharma Trading Co.   They also had silk habotai, perfect for underwear.

Oh, need a pic...

I am hoping to get photos of the garments this weekend.  I will post them as soon as I do.

The Raphael bodice is essentially a dinner or evening bodice with a square neckline. It was featured in 2 different fashion plates from Peterson's Magazine. The first was the November 1860 issue, and the second was in the February 1861 issue. This bodice has the moderate low square neckline, typical of a dinner or evening dress of the period. The short sleeve has a puffed under sleeve, with an over sleeve. The center back laces closed. The waist can be either pointed front and back, or round. Also included is a pattern for the skirt, with 7 fabric ruffles and 6 lace ruffles, and a center back closure. The skirt has it's own waistband, which can be left separate from the bodice or attached the bodice. Fits over TV141 or TV142 hoop cages.

You can find more information at www.trulyvictorian.net

This is the same dress I've been making for the dress diary!

For the puffing on the neckline, I wanted a narrow-ish scallop for the edges. The one I am using for the ruffles is too wide with the flowers on it. Low an behold, I found a standard stitch on the Designer 1 machine what was a pretty scallop edging. (One of about 25 built in scallop edge stitches, actually.) This was perfect the edging on the puffing for the neckline. And it only took a few minutes to run 2 widths of fabric through the machine, top and bottom edges. (Umm... you mean I could have done the entire dress with this stitch in a few hours?! Just kill me now.)

I then mitered the corners and ran gather stitching along all the edges. I should have sewn the lace behind the puffing before gathering. But something told me to gather it separately. The neckline lace was easy; I sewed it to the neckline before adding the puffing. The outside lace was a problem though, as I wasn't exaclty sure where to put it. I ended up fitting and pinning the puffing in place, and then trying to slip the lace in underneath. The was a lot easier to say than to actually do, however. But perseverance got the job done. Last, I sewed the whole thing down with a top stitch around both the edges. I removed the gather threads and it looks fabulous. I toyed around with the idea of adding an 1/8" ribbon over the stitching, but I couldn't find the right color green ribbon. Oh, well, that might have been too busy for the dress anyway.

With the bodice done, I started in on the skirt, finally. The widths of fabric and a hem and it was all set to add the ruffles. I had the 2 ruffle pieces ready to go, so I ran them through the ruffler and hoped that they would fit around the whole skirt. And to my great relief, the first ruffle fit with 1/2" to spare. And that 1/2" was the lead to the beginning of the embroidery. OMG, am I good or what!! Ok, I was just flat out lucky as heck. My elation at not having to piece in any ruffles was tempered by the realization that I forgot to trim my ruffles to the proper width prior to pleating them. If you recall, I had problems with the embroidery traveling, and I was supposed to then trim the top edge to follow the bottom edge. Which I completely forgot about while doing this project an hour at a time. But no worries, the top edge is going to be covered by lace, and more ruffles, so it will just have to stay that way. I will make sure not to make the same mistake on the future ruffles. I have 5 more chances to get it right. I figure as long as the top ruffle is perfect, then no one will notice the problems with the rest of it all.

I gathered some lace with my new gathering foot. (Which, by the way, is my new favorite toy. More on that in a sec.) Was able to get a very lean gather for the lace. After sewing on the ruffle-lace-ruffle-lace parts, it's starting to look like a skirt. My pic doesn't show it off very well, unfortunately. It looks way better in person. On a side note, I am amazed at how little this dress weighs so far. I am used to wearing 20 lbs or more of heavy fabrics. I will be amazed if this dress tops 5 pounds all finished. I feel like I am sewing with paper, it is so stiff. But as it comes together, the fabric isn't bothering me so much.

Ok, about the gather foot. For Xmas, I bought myself an Heirloom Sewing Kit to make my Edwardian stuff. It had 5 feet, and some other stuff. I had seen the gather foot many years ago, but was never able to get it to work. The instructions in the kit helped make it sorta work. I knew I was missing some importance information to get it to work well. So today, I went to JoAnns and asked the nice lady in the machine dept to show me how it worked. She hadn't used it before, but she put the foot on a machine and found a book that gave detailed instructions on how to use all the feet. She set the dials (well... it was computerized, so she plugged in all the numbers) and ran a test strip. It gathered fabulously. It almost looked like it was cartridge pleated. (Hmm... I wonder...) So I bought the book and ran home to try it again. I do most of my sewing on my Emerald Husqvarna, which is a fabulous basic machine. But I guess it doesn't have the range of settings to get really tight gathers like she got in the store. I am running my Designer1 with more embroidery ruffles, so will have to wait for a later date to play more with the foot on that machine.

Next project, sewing an Edwardian Blouse, with insertion and tucks, aka heirloom stuff. And I already have a new pattern in mind to draft for the new blouse.

NO... MUST... FINISH... CURRENT... PROJECT!!!!

I realized last week after doing all the facings that I forgot to put boning into the center back edges.  Oops!!  Fortunately, I had left the very top of the facings open when I stitched the neckline facing and then went down the center back without backing up to the very top.  So I was able to slip in a bone to sit next to the fold of the center back edge.  And also, as luck would have it, I had two 16 -1/2"  bones on hand that are exactly the length I needed.  (And only 2, when I have about $500 of boning in various sizes in my stash. Those were the longest I had.)

With the bones in place, it was time to set the grommets.   I love my grommet machine!  It is the best money I have ever spent and the best sewing tool I own.   I was worried that I had used up all my white grommets for the last corset class I taught, but when I looked into the grommet box, there was  full bag of white, sitting on top.  Yay!!!

With the grommets in, I could now try my bodice on for the first time and see if it fits.  And another huge Yay!!!  It fits perfectly!!  Not ony does is fit perfectly, it looks fabulous.  I had lost about 15 lbs recently, and all of it off my waist, so my hour glass is back.  Still big overall, but shapely!  Sorry, I didn't take pics with it on.  I will get some soon, though.  The only issue was that the neckline is  only 98% snug at the front.   I could totally ignore it, and no one would even see a problem.  But before I add the trim to the neckline, I am going to run a hand stitch inside the neckline at the center front,  and snug it up about 1/8" on each side, or 1/4" total.  That will make it 100% snug across the top of the bust.  It should be an invisible correction, and then the trim will hold it all perfectly.

I had made up some under-sleeves in a white organza.  The pattern check was great, but I don't think I like the look of the organza.  I could see through to the seam at the bottom, where the gathers sews onto the fitted lining.  So I will toss those and make new ones out of the white saxaphone.  I hate to use such an inappropriate fabric, where it will be fully seen,  but oh well.  It's what I have and it will have to do.   I am going to sew the under-sleeve on separate from the over-sleeve, so I can swap it out at a later date for something more authentic.

For the over sleeves, I had to embroider my edging on with a curve.  I traced the line of the pattern onto the fabric and used that line to follow for the embroidery.  It worked very well.  However, my first pattern for the over-sleeves had some issues that needed to be tweaked.  I spent 2 days flip-flopping on whether to embroider new over-sleeves, or re-cut and use the flawed existing ones.  Laura voted for using the old, I voted for the new.  In the end, I followed my rule of thumb, "if it bothers you enough that you have to ask if you should redo it, then you need to redo it."  Because if you don't, that error will nag at you forever!!  I have the new over-sleeves ready to set in.  This weekend, I am going to make up the new under-sleeves and get it all set in.  I should also get some pics of me wearing it.

Here are the sleeves with the embroidery finished.

And did I tell you this fabric is stiff!!  And itchy at the seams.  I may have to go back and cover the seams;  at least the shoulder seams anyway.  Very annoying.  Look ma, it stands up by itself!!  Next time, I'm using a nice soft fabric. Well, or a silk.