During the last month before ConQuesT, I had to complete everything I could on the costume instead of keeping up the journal. Then after that final push and after ConQuesT, I took a break from sewing and from the journal. I left the quest of the insane girl rather hanging I'm afraid. Now let's see where did we leave off...right, the piping. I finished the piping, which made for a wonderful clean edge along the bottom of the bodice.
At this point, I knew I was not going to be able to finish the costume in time, so I handed the cape off to Holly. She's only about the busiest person I know, but she always makes the time help. She even wrote a journal entry for the cape. I've added a couple of comments from the peanut gallery.
Hello, sewing fans, this is Holly dropping by from a neighboring blog to provide a guest entry here. Shara asked me to detail the assembly of her black Drusilla cape. Since we were getting down to the wire in time (2 weeks before ConQuest) I volunteered to put the cape together because I knew it wouldn't take me long.
Besides, I'd really been itching to work with that black cut velvet.
Alas, reality is seldom kind to desire. Sewing satin to velvet is generally not a fun thing to do. Velvet creeps, satin slides, and the two of them together conspire to crawl right off the sewing machine foot plate. Pins become curiously crooked and gripless.
The cape pattern was drafted by Shara and Cherry. The design is circular across the back and sides, with the front "wing" extended into a long W-shape. When laid flat on the floor, it looks rather like the Millennium Falcon. Shara already had the pieces cut out for me: one layer of black velvet, and two layers of white satin for lining and interlining. In retrospect, two layers of satin was probably not a good idea, but we'll get to that in a moment.
I stitched the shoulder seams of each of the three layers, then sewed the black layer to its interlining so I would only have two layers of fabric to handle. Each of these steps required many, MANY pins. I think I spent more time pinning on this cape than I did sewing, but that's okay, because bitter experience has taught me that pinning will ultimately save you the time and irritation of ripping out a seam that went crooked or didn't line up properly because one piece stretched along the bias.
This stuff actually crawled less than I expected it to, because the satin is a tight weave with a fairly stiff rayon backing on it (yes, that has been a life saver), so at least I didn't have a shifting bias to contend with. It was only inclined to crawl in one direction, and since this cape was circular, that one direction only measured about six inches of seam on either side of the cape. Still, at both those points my seam allowance was a little off, and if it had been a more fitted garment I might have had to restitch in a couple of places. Luckily, a cape is not a precision-fitting garment, and the flowery pattern of the velvet is very forgiving.
I got the outer layer and lining put together, turned it, pressed it, had her try it on. We were a little dismayed to find that the circular sides, being stiff from the two layers of satin, stood out from her shoulders, rather a lot.
"Maybe the lace will weigh it down," she said. I was less optimistic, but I wasn't going to propose ripping out that lining at such a late hour, so I took cape and trim home with me to wrestle it into submission.
Shara had gotten a good deal on some black lace from Ebay. It was 7" wide, with a raised-floral pattern on it, and double-sided. That was handy, because I could topstitch the gathered edge on the hem and it would give a little extra layer of frill. I gathered it about 3/4" from one edge. Ten yards of it. Lord, I hate gathering. I was afraid the thread would break, and I really should have done it in sections, but it held. I pinned and stitched it down all around the hemline, easing the ruffle around the bottom curves, and up the front opening.
Here I made my one bonehead mistake. There's always one in every garment, but you don't always cop to them. I forget to change my bobbin thread to white. I could have attached the lace with black thread through the needle, and white thread on the bottom, and neither seam would have shown from either side. But I forgot. And I wasn't about to rip it out and try again.
Nevertheless, the lace did make a tremendous difference. I don't know how much it's weighing the satin down, but it covers the edge of white lining that had been showing all round the hemline. The overall effect is darker, romantic, feminine, and Gothic. Quite like Dru.
That left only the neckline. Shara wanted lace around the collar as well, about 2-3 inches high. I had a neat idea for a velvet collar, to match the cape, so I picked up some black velvet ribbon, about 3/4 inches wide. I cut the reserved piece of 7-in. black lace in half, lengthwise, and sewed the ends together, then gathered the length. I zigzag stitched it around the neckline, leaving a wide seam allowance on the inside, so that single piece would serve as both collar and facing. Then I sewed the velvet ribbon in the ditch of the first seam, on the outside, to cover up any remaining areas of white and to make the lace stand up against the throat. It looks very polished and classy.
Shara had made a lovely black jet-like brooch to go at the collar and hold it closed while adding a bit of sparkle, but I knew that wouldn't be enough to hold that heavy cape closed, so I tacked a large coat-type hook and eye just below the collar, to the strong seam of the cape itself.
It looks marvelous. The long black lace definitely adds weight and length, but curiously makes the overall effect more ethereal. It balances out her trailing skirt quite nicely.
As an surprise, I got some slightly thinner velvet ribbon, and a rhinestone barrette, and made a headband just like Dru's. She hasn't seen it yet. I think she'll be pleased. :-) Love it!
While Holly worked on the cape, I made facing for the neckline and along the back opening to reinforce the fabric for the buttons. I gathered the black lace for the neckline and sewed the lace along the edge, right sides together, along the neckline.
I sewed the facing onto the neckline. I sewed the facing along each side of the opening in the back. I placed a mark every inch on one side for the buttonholes. My machine has a one step buttonholer. Unfortunately, it has its quirks and I'd never used this machine to make buttonholes. First, if you line up the positioning mark on the buttonholer foot with the mark on the fabric while looking at it from the front, the mark is 1/8" off. Then, after you set the machine to start the buttonhole, it starts a further 1/8" from the mark. So my buttonholes were 1/4" from where I had marked. That has made buttoning the bodice at the tightest point somewhat interesting. I'm not upset with the machine. Now that I know where the quirk is, I can adjust for it. That's what I get for starting right in with a huge project. I get to learn quirks on a tightly fit, difficult to adjust bodice made with expensive fabric. I bought uncovered buttons and covered them with black dupioni silk. I hand sewed the buttons to the bodice.
Buttonholes, out of place as they were, and buttons done the bodice was complete! Time to collapse and feel relieved? Oh no no no, with the convention less than one week away, I still had a dickey and choker to make. Following a suggestion by Holly, I used the bodice pattern to create a pattern for the dickey. I handkercheif hemmed along all the edges and put a couple of buttons down the back. Then I hand-stitched a section of lace to the front of the dickey.
By the time I was finished with the dickey, I had had it. ConQuesT started the next day and I wasn't entirely sure I ever wanted to sew again. So for the choker, I took some snaps, folded over the raw ends of the ribbon (leftover ribbon from the headband Holly made) and just pounded on the snaps. It works. I bought the cameo pin on Ebay.
Also, in that last busy week, I took lace gloves I bought, cut some length off and added gathered lace at the wrists.
For photos of the finished dress up to this point, return to the main journal page. The links are under Finished Garments.