(no subject)
Aug. 11th, 2004 11:42 pmI have no pictures to go with it, sorry :( But I tried to get as in-depth as I could.
The basic pattern.
- For the top, I grabbed a large piece of paper (a piece of newspaper would work), measured my bust, waist, and hips, and made an hourglass shape on the paper with those measurements. Add two to four inches to those measurements, depending on how thick you want the flaps for the grommets you want to be. Then I cut out two pieces from the black XL t-shirt and sewed the sides.
- For the skirt, I measured my waist (or where you want the skirt part to sit) and my hips and made a sort of triangle shape which was 13.5'' in height. I cut out two pieces of that for the base where the ruffles are sewn onto.
- For the ruffles, I made a long strip of paper that was 4'' in height and half of the fabric in width (so 1.5 yards, because my fabric was 3 yards. I cut out three of these.
The Corset
So once you've sewn the sides of the two top pieces together, you should end up with a tubetop that is a couple of inches or more too loose. Mark where you want the flaps for the lace to lace through are, and fold an inch flap on both sides. Pin it in place, flip the tubetop inside out, and stich down the fold so when you flip it inside out again, the flap is seamless. I did this so that the hem of the shirt is at the top and the loose end is at the bottom so I won't have to hem it. You can put boning on it, I suppose, but I won't be able to guide you through it.
The Skirt
Ruffle the three extremely long strips of fabric according to the measurements of the base skirt. For example, if the top of the skirt is 30'' and that is where Ruffle #1 will go, make the ruffle at least 31'' or more, etc. To ruffle, you can either:
- Set your machine to the longest zig-zag stitch, take the thread that goes in the needle out of the presser foot (just out of the presser foot so that it doesn't join the bobbin thread, NOT out of the needle), measure it out to the desired ruffle length, and hold the thread as you stitch the fabric. Be very gentle so that you don't snap the thread. This is the quick, easy, and consistent way.
- Fold the fabric an inch back and forth to create pleats. This way takes so much longer.
Putting it Together
I recommend sewing the corset part and the base skirt together first. All you do is turn one of them inside out and put one inside each other so that the right sides are facing. When sewing the ruffles on, I recommend sewing the bottom one on first, going up. The last ruffle should be stitched right on where the corset and the base skirt connects.
Finishing
- For the lace, I just ruffled it and made it as long the measurements around the bottom of the base skirt. Sew it on the base skirt itself so it just barely peeks out of the bottom ruffle.
- For the holes where the ribbon laces through, you can either poke small holes and set grommets on them (Make sure you use interfacing. You do not want to learn this the hard way like I did: grommets popping off galore), or make each individual hole and reinforce each one with the zigzag stitch (very tedious), or buy grommet tape (I'm sure I've seen this before). If you decide to buy grommet tape, you'd use that instead of the flaps.
- For the ribbon, you would need about 4-6 times the length of your corset. I went with 5 metres just to be on the safe side. You can always cut them if they're too long.
- For the strap, what I did was cut about an inch and a half of ribbon and sewed small loops inside the corset where the straps will hook on. You can sew the straps on as well, but I prefer removable straps, which you should be able to get at a fabric store.
And that's about it. Hope I made sense :)