Corset Project

Since I don't have my dress form yet and the Maryland Renn Faire is coming up soon, I'm going to be working on a corset! I'll be doing it in a lovely black and silver brocade, but first I have to work up a mock up in some scrap fabric. Here are the cut out pattern pieces:

Now to pin and baste them together for fitting!

I worked up the draft corset and it was way too big! With 5 plus inches of excess I had to take in a lot of seams.

Here's how it looked after all that:

I'll have to chop it down to make it into a new pattern for cutting the final from it. That will have to be another day though because it's 1:40 AM.

Goodnight!

Ballroom Costume- The Beginning

My original purpose in creating this blog was to provide a forum on which to talk about the process as I attempt to make a ballroom dance costume from scratch. If you've never seen Dancing with the Stars or any other ballroom events, you probably have no idea what it is I am getting myself into. Here are some pictures of ballroom dresses to demonstrate:



These are just some typical examples, they can vary widely in color, style, and materials. I've been very excited about making this dress for quite a while as some of my dancer friends know as they have been hearing about it for some time. After many weeks of time spent searching online for dresses for inspiration, patterns, and any other helpful information I could glean, I have finally settled on a design.

After coming across this:
 
design, I knew it was what I wanted.

I want to say now that I am not an experienced seamstress. I've sewn a number of small things, pillows, stuffed animals, some clothes, but nothing on this scale. Everything I have made either came with a clear cut pattern or was simple enough not to need one. Not so for this dress. I will be making the pattern from scratch,  doing my best to interpret the dress. I don't intend to make this exact dress, I don't think it would turn out exactly like that anyway, but I used it for inspiration. My dress will (hopefully, and a big emphasis on that) be something like this:

those are rhinestones rather than sequins like in the gold dress

I haven't decided what to do about floats yet, but those are a ways off.

The first step will be to make a mock up of the base pattern in some cheap muslin so that I can adjust it for fit and shape before using the good stuff (well, before I buy the good stuff even, I need to know how much I will need.) Unfortunately, to do that I need a dress form which I don't have at the moment. I'm going to be making my own using plaster just as soon as the plaster cloth arrives in mail, hopefully it will be soon!

A Little About Me

Hello y'all.

I thought I'd share a little about me to start out. I am going to be a junior at the University of Maryland College Park in Fall 2011. There a majority of my time is spent between microbiology classes, knitting/watching tv (always at the same time), and ballroom dancing. I am one of the two team captains of the ballroom dance team there. I am an art person and enjoy knitting, painting, drawing, pottery, and sewing. I intend to use this blog to talk about all of those things and share my experiences, frustrations, and occasionally, triumphs in those areas. Along with anything else I just feel like talking about at the moment. So that's all for now.