Entry 002: Corsets And Tiers.

Hello Sewist, 

I guess 2022 is the year I make good on my promise to work on sewing and also share my journey with you. For this entry, I will be taking you through the process of creating a short gown that consists of a three-tiered skirt and a "corseted" bodice. 

What do you say?

1. Pattern Making/adjustment

For this pattern, I consulted “Patternmaking For Fashion Design by Helen Joseph-Armstrong” for reference. I based the pattern for the bodice on the princess torso foundation(Ch. 19), and the skirt on the separated tiers(Ch. 13). 

For the adjustment to the skirt pattern, I added an extra one inch to the back skirt foundation to suffice for zipper allowance, and to complete the pattern, I added ½ inch as seam allowance. 

The skirt pattern. I made it to be three-tiered

For adjustment to the bodice pattern, I didn’t cut the centre front as separate panels, but as a single panel, as a solution to the challenge, I faced when I was doing a test fit for the pattern. Although I notice the bodice was quite long, the plan I have is to make adjustments for the difference in length when I am constructing the garment.

The bodice pattern.

2. Material used.

    a. Yellow lace: 2 ½ yards

    b. Lining: 2 ½ yards

    c. Boning

    d. Zip

For the choice of fabric, I am using yellow lace. Because it is quite sheer, I have decided to add a lining layer and also add a layer of fusible interfacing for the front of the bodice. I didn’t use a lining material for the underlay though, because I figured out that it would not be seen. One thing I was not sure of was how much material I need for the lining so I just added like extra ½ inch to the pattern when cutting out the lining.

Cut out the pieces from the pattern.

3. Garment construction

The plan for the garment construction was simple. I worked on the skirt first, because I didn’t do a test fit on the pattern, and there were no instructions on how to assemble the garment. 

    a. Skirt:

Starting with the skirt, the first thing was to attach the lining to the corresponding pieces with ¼ inch seam allowance, turn it right side out and then press the seams. Then, I worked on the darts on the underlay. I was not sure which direction was better, but I went with joining the front and back piece of each tier(flare and underlay) to each other, then attaching the flare to the underlying. The result of this is that the flare in each tier didn’t enter into the seam allowance.

    b. Bodice/ boning

For the bodice, I start with pressing the interfacing to the wrong side of the front of the bodice. I joined the panels of the design fabric to each other and then the lining to each other. I attached the design fabric to the lining, pressed out the seams, turn it right side out and tried it on. I went back to trim out the excess allowance. Also, I marked out the length I wanted the bodice to be plus ¾ inch seam allowance and trimmed away the excess fabric.

Two types of boning you can easily get in the market.

For the boning, I used the one that I can sew onto the fabric directly which spared me the job of creating boning channels.

    c. Gown

Now the skirt and bodice have been finished, I joined the two pieces with ½ inch seam allowance. I closed the back of the gown with a zipper. One helpful trick when attaching the zip was to insert it first using a basting stitch before going over it with the sewing machine. I don’t know about y’all, but fixing zips is a struggle for me.

Final thoughts:

The completed garment

I will say that I got the general idea of what I wanted to sew down, I am not too pleased with how the gown turned out. I don't think I will be getting a lot of wear out of this outfit. Also, I am yet to hack the bodice as well as I want to. But I will be styling this with a denim jacket and maybe sandals or strappy heels. I can also do a nude turtleneck top underneath the gown and finish it with nice boots and a jacket. 

So, what do you think? What could I have done better?

Until next time,

The Estherian.