Friday, April 30, 2010

1911 mockup


I made the mockup of my suffragette dress this week.  I like the bodice, but I'm not sure about the skirt.  It's fairly full in the back (I usually prefer the very narrow skirts for this period), and I never could figure out how to make the back pleats fall like they are charted in the Patterns of Fashion diagram, although I'm sure I can fake something.  Also, I omitted the decorative gore in the bottom of the skirt because I thought this would save me time (wow that's a lot of buttons!), but now it seems way too plain without it.  

So I can either keep the original skirt and add the gore back in, or I could switch out this skirt for the double-layer one in the Butterick pattern... or... I dunno?  Maybe just a straight skirt with a contrasting band at the bottom?  I'm just afraid that would make me look shorter.   I think some virtual mockups might help me make a decision.

Anyhoo.  Here are some more pictures of my trial run.

I probably have more poochiness in the front than necessary.  

You can see the lovely raised back waistline here.



I have a LOT more booty than my dress form does, so that should give it more of that Edwardian S-bend shape.

Now that I have a workable mockup, I'm going to switch gears for a bit and make myself an Edwardian corset.  I'll definitely need one before I can fine tune the fit of this dress.  I look like a lumpy mess in these styles without one!  

11 comments:

  1. Very pretty! I like the skirt fullness -- I think it will have a nice sweep in back, kind of transitioning out of the 1910s Edwardian skirt. I think adding the gore back in would add visual interest -- could you do it without the buttons, or with fewer spaced out more?

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  2. raaaaaahhhh ! Now I want a lovely teens dress ! Bad Jen !

    The dress looks pretty, and you will look lovely in the final version of it, with or without corset :)

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  3. nice ... and they were big on the poochy front, which just looks weird to the modern eye.

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  4. Super yummy! I'm with Kendra, I like the transitional skirt. It's very elegant!

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  5. Looking good! I like the skirt. And I think once it's worn on a real body that's filling out a bit more in back it will fall very nicely.

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  6. I made the Butterick skirt with the opening in front, but only put 4 large buttons up from the bottom. It's a quick one to put together, just incase for next time.
    It's turning out really nice.

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  7. I really like the fullness in the skirt-back...

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  8. Did you use a pattern for the top of the dress?

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  9. Kizzie - the pattern is from the book Patterns of Fashion.

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