Making the 1850s Bodice

The pattern I used for the 1850's dress was that of a Summer Dress from Norah Waugh's pattern cutting book. I had not used her pattern cutting books and I instantly didn't find them as clear or precise as Janet Arnold's however it proved good for me to try a different pattern book as its a differnet perspective and a different way of working. The ability to work from two different books will benefit me in the future as if there is a pattern more similar to a design in one book rather than the other I will be able to use ether.

I had to cut this bodice with the under-skirt and crenoline on as well as the corset because it extends down over the skirt so the shape would change with the wide skirt structure underneath. I started but cutting the front pannel which when looking at the pattern looks as if it is slightly attached to the side pannel right up at the shoulder seam however in the end I concluded that it wasn't and that it would be easier anyway to cut them as two seperate pieces. Like before the bodice was relitivly simple to cut and tailor to the manniquin and I was able to sew bits of it together quite quickly. One thing I would say though is that it would fit much better if it were a whole bodice and not just a half and I wish I had done this as one of my dresses that was whole (however I did save money by just doing a half as this dress required a lot of fabric compared to others).

The hard part of the bodice was the gathers on the front. This had to be done after sewing the sleeve into the armhol of the bodice. Norah Waugh does not make it very clear as to which seam or where to place the edge of the pannel, whether it goes in the long seam between the front and side pannels of the under bodice or whether it is just sewn down wherever it looks right. The second is what I chose to do. I cut a piece of muslin (this this as gathers easily and is very light) into a rectangle shape that was over twice as long as the shoulder seam and over the lenght of the bodice. I then sewed 4 lines of gather stiches the pulled in the gathers. From there it was all a bit of trial and error and fabric manipulation on the stand to get it to the correct shape and in the right place. I found the ancoring it to the center front seam and then gathering, pulling and pinning it into the correct position was the best way to create the disired effect. All the pinning ruined the muslin so I decided to re-cut the piece and re-mount it only the front bodice before hand-in. Where to place the other seam was also a bit of trial and error as on the picture it looks as if it goes off the shoulder and attaches to the sleeve so I tried this by supporting the sleeve with one hand and moving the muslin over to it with the other. I then followed this line down the front of the bodice so it then came into line with the front/side pannel seam. This gave a very nice shape so that all that was left to do was to adjust the gathers so they coverd the edge of the muslin where I would hand-stich it down. This made it neater and also evened the gathers out a bit.

The shape of the muslin gathers -

I had issues with the amount of excess fabric at the bottom of the muslin pannel, as seen below -

I tried to trim it down as much as I could and move some of it into the center front seam however there was still a big excess and too much to just hem so I decided to bind the edge. This would make it easier and stonger, also, when I wanted to attach the skirt to the bodice. To keep backing fabric flat and not to tight before binding it, as it was curling up and creasing behind, I had to spend a lot of time pinning and re-pinning until it worked and moving seams and excess fabric. This was very time consuming and put me behind scedual again.

What was happening to the fabric behind the muslin -

The muslin had got pretty worn and dirty where it had been pinned and pulled over and over again at the gether lines so I coverd the line with some lace because on the Norah Waugh diagram it looks as if there is something covering the lines anyway. I also put some lace around the collar to neaten up the neckline of the bodice.

I wasn't quite sure how to sew the cartidge pleated skirt attached onto the bodice at first however with a little bit of trial and error as well as internet reserch I found the way. This was my favorite part of making this dress as I love hand sewing and find it really relaxing. It was nice to do work yet not be stressed for a little bit and was a welcome break from worring about the really short term (3weeks) we had after easter to make this and two other toiles. This bodice is when I really started to stress out about getting everything finished. The work experience and reserch had cut into my time so much what I had origenall given myself 1 and a bit weeks to do I had to do in about 4 days at the most netherless it got done (before the deadline at least) and I am relitivly happ with the final shape of the bodice.

The finished bodice -