Last week, I was able to finish a costume that turned out way harder to make than I had envision : THIS skirt!
First of all, and since I won’t be uploading full pictures of the skirt yet since I’m waiting for the actress to actually try it on, here’s a short description!
The skirt is a 3/4 circle skirt that reaches below the knees. It is composed of two layers : one skirt cut out of a light yellow fabric, and one sheer “lace” overskirt layer. Both of the fabrics were originally curtains which might help you picture the texture of both fabrics a bit better.
Now! Onto the challenging sewing process ! (With more photos😁)
Beginning:
I started the whole sewing process thinking that this skirt would be quick and easy to make. I had already sewn a full circle skirt in the past and I had not found this to be very challenging.
So I started cutting out the 3 pieces necessary to sew the yellow layer (and actually did some piecing for the 3rd one since I did not want to waste fabric). This went pretty smoothly! I was able to sew the first layer with no big bump on the road.
The challenge :
Then I started working on the second layer, and that’s when things got pretty challenging for me. After having discussed it with a few members of our team, I had decided to incorporate the pretty cut out and pattern of the bottom of the lace layer which you can see below.
However, to do so meant that the pieces of the overskirt would not be cut as should be a circle skirt’s pieces... So, I decided to cut triangle pieces, thinking that I would be able to adjust it at the waist later when I sewed both skirts togethere (at the waist)...
Here’s a quick drawing that shows a regular circle skirt piece (which is how I cut the 3 pieces for the yellow skirt) next to how I cut the pieces for the overskirt:
I then tried to pin both layers togethere at the waist in various ways, trying to get the bottom of both skirts nice, matching and harmonious. I probably spent a whole week thinking about how I could get the skirts to match in length, but no matter what I did, either the top layer fell unevenly over the bottom layer, or the top layer was all bundled up at the waist.
I eventually resolved to turning to the option that was my last resort, since I knew it would be a first experience for me, and very challenging and time-consuming.
Solving the skirt problem :
I decided to divide the top layer into 12 parts (4 for every one of the 3 original pieces). My reasoning was the following : If each of the separate pieces was small enough, I would be able to cut each piece in a shape that would be close to a circle skirt piece, while keeping the semicircle shapes at the bottom of the lace layer (I apologize if this is not very clear, it is a pretty tricky part to explain through text).
To do so, I used some pattern paper to draw the form of one of the 3 pieces that make the yellow skirt before dividing it into 4 pieces.
I then used my pattern pieces to cut out the parts of the top layer. Since I did not have enough fabric, I had to piece togethere fabric to sew a total of 6 pieces (You can actually see a bit of the piecing on the first picture of this post). I then sewed my 12 pieces togethere, tried to pin it to the waist... AND LO AND BEHOLD! IT FIT!
Finishing touches :
I sewed the top and bottom skirts togethere at the waist, then cut out a belt in the yellow fabric and sewed in a very long zipper. The goal I’m trying to achieve with this long zipper, is for the actress to be able to get dressed by herself without needing help as time will probably be a big constraint when we film the webserie and there will be many other things to do, costume-, makeup-, and hair-wise along with preparing the filming part ;).
The belt is closed by two press studs. I did not bother hiding the sewing traces of the press studs (with buttons for example) since this belt is to be very discreet. Another larger belt (in a different color) that we have yet to sew, will be worn over the skirt.
Finally here’s a little picture of the inside of the skirt:
AND! That was it! XD Hope you found that post interesting ! :)
Can you guess which character’s costume that skirt is a part of?
So! As I have briefly mentionned earlier on, these past weeks, I have been busy with readjusting one of the shirts that was way too big for the actor... Except the cuffs that were TOO small X)...
I have made the biases for the cuffs myself and have sewn them mostly by machine. Only the tiny pieces of fabric on which will be sewn the button/s to close the cuffs were sewn by hand.
I usually do this whole thing by hand, but lately, we (the sewing Team X)) have had to readjust almost all of the men’s shirts due to having originally made them way too big for everyone X) SO I have chosen efficiency and have also taken into account the fact that this is a filmed project. Therefore, the machine sewing will not appear on camera. ^ v ^
And below is the final results when it comes to the cuffs! :D I still need to remake the ruffles which this shirt’s sleeves will have. I am planning on sewing two rows : One made out of the same fabric as the shirt and one in a sheer/transparent fabric with some kind of white embroideries on top (although that probably won’t be very visible since these will be ruffles after all)! :)
I haven’t been very active this week, I’m afraid ^^. I have done a little sewing mainly, readjusting Ange de la Pêche’s shirt (one of the pieces of clothing we’ve sewn so far) which was way too big for the actor (I don’t how I did it but I managed to make every single shirt three times too large for every actor, and we had to make so many changes to make them all fit, mainly in the sleeve department X))...
I’ve honestly made so many XVIIIth century shirts lately (5 maybe?), I feel like I could almost sew them from memory ^v^ I’ll show you all some sneak peaks later on ;)
