Decisions Made

Hello again,

Its been another week and 1 more week closer to the planned weekend for the Renaissance Fair.  Hoping the weather holds.  In the spirit of my previous Renaissance projects I am amp-ing myself up with "Scrapped Princess" anime, that I really only play when I'm working on a project, and listening to my "Sew Ren" playlist that will soon be including the Playing to Vapors "Shred the Master" CD.

After my previous episode, I wore the mock-up top a little in order to get a better feel on the adjustments that I wanted to do.

I realized while doing this that I wasn't liking the neckline or shoulder straps.  Remembering that I was going to loose 3/4" as a seam allowance, the neckline would be too low for comfort and the straps too narrow to cover bra straps (I do not own a corset).  I already had to re-do the pattern for the Front Bodice (4), so why not?  Also it would not be difficult to adjust the straps for the Back Bodice (6).  Via the neckline side, I added 1/2 inch of width to the strap at the shoulder seam.  I then raised the neckline 1 inch.

I decided to brave the waters and trim the Bodice Sides' kick-out to 1/2 inch, instead of my initial 1 inch.  Afterwards I took a seam ripper to remove the Bodice Sides from the Center Pieces, because they were still good.

Then I decided to stitch everything up together.  I happened to have a large white zipper that I placed on the band markings and pinned it in place.  I did not see the point of stitching it to the bodice, because its a matter of time before it will be removed.  

Adding the zipper to that location helped a lot.  I didn't feel as though I was swimming in fabric trying to keep my straps up.

With all of these adjustments made, I was able to wear the Bodice "B" to assess the adjustments that were made and still need to be made.

One adjustment that needs to be made is to shorten the strap length on the Bodice Back 1/2 inch.  I pinned it this way and wore it.  It was much improved and kept the Front Neckline closer to my chest than before.

I also have decide to return to my Original Bodice Side Kick-out of 1 inch.  It is just a little snug with the 1/2 inch, not horribly so.  However when Samantha and I go, we are gone for the entire day.  So what I wear has to be comfortable enough for the entire day.  Samantha has already declared that she will be wearing her sneakers with her Renaissance dress.  To be honest, I am tempted to do the same, but I'm not quite there yet on that decision.

This now meant that I would have to re-do my bodice side piece patterns again, since the previous ones were cut via rotary cutters.  This time I did things differently from before.  

When I completed my initial pattern pieces, I was quickly copying the pieces to take with me to the Artist Salon.  Also previously I did not have my restickable glue stick.  

This time I kept the factory pattern piece on the Light Board and did not remove it until I had completed my adjustments for that piece.  This new preliminary copy that I made was the one that I cut up according to the adjustments that I needed to make.  Then using the restickable glue stick, I tacked the written side down to another piece of paper, spreading out the pieces as need be.  With those adjustments made, I flipped the copy and matched it to the factory piece.  This way I could adjust the seam lines to better match what they should have been.  Once this was all completed, I simply traced all lines so that I could peel and pitch the cut-up copy.

From here on out, this will be the way that I go about making my personalized pattern copies.

That is it for this week.  This is also it for the Bodice Mock-up.  The next time that I cut Bodice Fabric will be for the Grande Finale piece.  Before that, however, I do still require a mock-up of the sleeve. 

Until next week...