I finaaaaaaaally took scissors to fabric on my Edith costume.
I’ve literally had the wig sitting in my sewing room since October last year. I had a little extra money from a bonus so I went ahead and bought the wig, thinking I’d get the costume done between Dec-Jan for MidSouthcon, but I didn’t even buy the fabric until January… and then I didn’t touch it til this past weekend. (Well, to be fair, I was busy – I did Disgust for MidSouthCon instead and I had the various theater projects to get done).
I loooove the fabric I settled on, it’s a lightweight silk that drapes beautiful and holds pressed pleats really well. Once I started getting it pinned on the form I realized it’s a little less sheer than I would have liked (hey, one layer is super sheer but once you start gathering, it’s pretty opaque).
First up, I dug through my patterns and found two good options as a basis for this – a yoke on an Edwardian dress pattern (which I apparently don’t have in my pattern archive on pinterest…) and the sleeve pattern on Simplicity 4156 (which I’ve had in my stash for yearsssssss and am finally getting to use).
I’m using some leftover white cotton as a foundation for the yoke and upper part of the sleeve – I got the yoke pieces cut, then got some of my silk fabric cut to use as the outer, gathered layer. Got all my sleeves pieces cut (and one put together as a test run). Then I used the rest as panels for the rest of it.
I sat and pleated the silk piece for the yoke and realized I had not cut enough for it. Boo! I added an extension and I’ll pleat that part tonight. I cut these pieces extra long so I’d have plenty leftover to trim into the right length for the ruffle.
Then I quickly pleated 3 of the panels together to see how that was going to look – no pressing yet, of course – but I realized I was going to need more fabric at this point. Probably another 2-3 yards. Thankfully it’s not too expensive.
I tucked the extra edge of the cut ruffle pieces up so I’d have a better idea of it:
So yeah, I’m going to have to buy more fabric for at least one more back panel, and more for the other side of the yoke – another 4 yds probably.
The worst thing in the world is going to be weathering this thing (I’m doing the end scene Edith, so I’m going to have to dye the bottom red and splatter blood all over).. it’s going to be like Corde all over again.