Padme Senate Gown part 4

After farming the bead work out to my daughter (see post ) I sat on my laurels.  Not because I was lazy, but because if I begin and don't have a clear course of action I may not be able to correct the path.  So I lamented and considered and discarded idea after idea: how was I going to solve the embroidery down the front.  Originally I had hoped to have a couple of months however, as I stated before, the fabric was very hard to come by.  This left me panicked.  I finally broke down and purchased an inexpensive embroidery machine (made sure it could hook up to my comp--I know, usb drive would be best, but I have no problem hooking up my comp to the God send).  But I couldn't get the software to produce customized embroidery options.  So I did an internet search for a digitizing company that could turn the digitized format file over pretty quickly.  I found 24hourdigitizing.com.  I had already determined how large I needed each embroidered piece to be (calculated the length of the waist to the hem and divided by 13).  I had taped a print out of the picture to the window, traced a clean black and white copy, and scanned the image.  So I sent the jpg to the company, they sent back a quote, I said "OK!" ($15, not bad and i can keep it forever).  They got me the final file back (in the format for my machine) with in about 6more hours.  I plugged it into the machine and gave it a go.  Perfect!  Right size and everything.

The next day, I sent the other two designs off to them (that is today the 3rd of August) and I am waiting for them to come back.  Now onto the construction of the surcoat.

I started by sewing the body of the surcoat (bodice) portion.  Easy enough.  Sew the back to the front at the shoulders and under the arm (side).

Then I went to the collar.  The collar however, was not laying as I liked.  So to alleviate frustration, I am going to cover some of the skirt prep.

The velvet is a frustrating fabric--a rose with thorn.  So I kept the selvage and turned it under about 1 1/2"-- by sight, no ironing, no pressing--and I then hand stitched the hem in place making sure to only snag a few strands of the underside of the fabric so that it hopefully will not show on the outside when the gown is worn.

Hand stitched hem

Hopefully the hem stitches don't show too much

I hem the bottom first because of the next step-- a trick I learned from the Tudor Tailor.  I tie the skirt to the dress dummy at the waist.  I adjust the gathers and such, pulling up the waist until the hem lies where I need it to, whether to the floor or such as I have ascertained.  (On my own projects I adjust my dress mummy to my height at the shoulders so that I know the hem can fall to the floor.)

Rope/cord at the place I wish for the waist to be.
Gathers adjust to the approximatly placing they
will fall when the skirt is cartridge pleated later.

The front part of the surcoat skirt will lay flat on either
side of the center front about 4" so I adjust the gathers
to reflect the front flat.

The skirt of the surcoat needs to fall just below the
hem of the underskirt, due to the color of the
underskirt.  It might be good idea to shorten the hem
of the underskirt by about an inch to accommodate
this.

Use the marking tool to mark waist

You may notice that the back of the gown has less excess at the waist, this is one reason why we take the next step.  Now we use chalk to mark the waist.  Once the skirt is removed from the dress mummy and you lay it out on your flat surface, you will notice the chalk mark reflects the slight slope downward in the front.

Step 1a

1a.  Before we lay the skirt on the flat surface, fold the gown in half, matching center front to center front.  Be sure the hem is even with itself.

2a.  Lay the garment on the floor smoothed out.  

3a.  Use a large straight edge, ie yard stick, plank of wood, what-have-you, to straighten and even the straight aways.

4a. Use your eye to even out the curve down the center front. 

5a. NOW: using a ruler or 1/2" stay or such guide, draw another line above the first.  You are creating your 1/2" seam allowance.  CORRECTION:  Add 1" to the top--the method I use to attach the skirt uses 1/2".  So you need to add 1/2" for seam allowance and another 1/2" for the attaching method = 1".

6a.  Carefully cut through both layers of fabric following the second line you drew. 

NOTE to CONSIDER: some of us don't have even leg lengths, uneven hips, or what have you. 

• The previous steps might need to be altered in that the fabric should be marked on the dress dummy
•  then the fabric laid out fully on the flat surface.  
• Then using the chalk markings you made, smooth them out and then mark your 1/2" seam allowance.  
• Cut at this new mark along the entire waist line.  
• Proceed to the next steps.  (except folding in half)

7a. fold your lining fabric in half, keeping your selvage edges lined up.  I am using the selvage as my finished hem.  If you choose not to do this, then finish the hem as you wish before proceeding.

8a.  Smooth the fabric and then lay the skirt you have already cut on top, matching the hems and center back (fold).  Now move the over skirt down past the lining so that the hem of the lining is about 1" shorter than the overskirt.

9a.  Trim the front straight edge of the lining if needs be.

10a  Using a fabric marking tool, trace the waist line of the over skirt to the lining below.

11a.  Cut the lining.
12a.  I find cotton velvet frustrating to deal with.  Polyester velvet more so.  While attempting to sew the lining to the velvet at the waist, it shifted with no mercy shown to me.  So I adhered the two together with fabric glue applied within the seam allowance at the waist.  Once dried I sewed them together along the waist.  (That worked.)

I am moving onto to fixing this collar.  The skirt has to wait until the under lining of the collar and forefacing have been attached to the bodice.  So I will move onto fixing the collar.  Ugh.


Warmest Regards,