Conquering the Invisible Zipper

For this year's Dickens Fair, I wanted to make a simple dress that was light, comfortable, and did not have a lot of fussy details to stress over. I chose the age-old Simplicity pilgrim/frontier dress pattern even though its envelope photo is simply awful. What appealed to me is the (pardon the pun) simplicity of it -- a bodice front & back, simple sleeves, and an attached skirt. Surprisingly it has some nice features like a drop-point waistline and, if I so choose, accessories like a mop cap or shoulder drape. With some modifications to the sleeves and shoulder caps, I thought this could turn out rather well.

One drawback:  this pattern calls for a big ol' zipper. Of course we all know that zippers were not invented yet in the Victorian Era, but I did not have the energy to make buttonholes, hooks and eyes, or snaps all down the back. So I decided to try the Dreaded Invisible Zipper.

Like most people who sew as a hobby, I have avoided the invisible zipper because of its fearsome reputation. Until now! Emboldened by my recent successes in corset making, I leaped right in.

First, I purchased an "invisible" zipper and the accessory package of universal zipper foot. Then I went home, opened the packages, read the instructions, and felt overwhelmed with confusion.

Seriously, these instructions are not helpful to the novice. I resorted to The Internet for answers and found a YouTube video by Professor Pincushion. Whoever this woman is, I owe her a debt of gratitude for her clear and easy instructions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlIFCuP3sZo 

All in all, the assembly of this entire gown took a single weekend. That's start to finish from cutting, to sewing, to embellishing. I used the machine's button feature to tack a row of buttons down the bodice front to give the illusion that it's buttoned, and the invisible zipper in back blends in with the stripes fairly well so it's hardly noticeable. The idea is that you're stitching so close to the zipper's teeth (with the custom zipper foot attachment) that it's a very small flap of fabric.

Once I added the final fashion accessories of a lace drape around my neck, the bonnet, and so forth, it was quite comfortable to wear at the Dickens Fair all day.

Hoop Snips

I let the Black Friday crowds die down, and on Sunday afternoon I went to OSH for "tin snips." Not sure of which kind would be best, I got the biggest ones they had for under $15. I figure they'll be handy to have around the house. Yes, they are huge! About 12 inches long.

The hoop skirt's steel wire is pretty tough stuff, though. I had to put it on the floor and lean down on it with my whole body weight to snap off a snip. But it did the job! A nice clean cut, that meant I didn't need to use the metal file. Then it was a matter of feeding the hoop wire into the 4 rungs of casings.  I joined the ends with Gorilla duct tape.

Sorry my camera ran out of battery, so I couldn't take a photo tonight of the finished hoop skirt. But trust me... it's hanging on the door in free-form and it looks circular. So I'm very confident it will hold its shape. The only mistake is that I came up about 6 inches short on the highest ring. A problem of measuring from the get-go, I suppose. So I bridged the gap with that awful plastic stuff.  It's not the greatest, but after all it's the top ring and the other 3 are doing great. Let's see how it looks when we try it on my friend "A" and whether it's going to look all right under the gown. Only 2 weeks until we go to the Dickens Fair!! Ahhhhh!!!

Success Hoops!

It's the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the postal carrier brought me a heavy envelope. The steel hoop wire (ordered off the internet) has arrived! Yeah! I threaded it into the bottom casing -- that nice coutil twill tape from Lacis -- and it slid in like a dream. The choice of plastic coated steel wire was absolutely correct. Much much much easier than the plastic stuff or even what buckram-coated wire would be. Also, it appears to hold its shape quite well. I'm sure when all 4 rungs are inserted, it will make a fine cage crinoline.

One thing I didn't plan on, though.  I DON'T OWN ANY HEAVY DUTY WIRE CUTTERS! Hmmm.... Always with the problems, I am.

Jumping through Hoops

Here's yet another example of why the proper choice of materials is essential to a project turning out correctly.  HOOP SKIRT IS A FAILURE. It was all going along so well. I had cut the basic skirt shape. I stitched up the seams. I put in a nice waistband borrowed from another pattern, and it's all so very lovely so far. Then I carefully measured and put in the twill tape in the rows and rows of rings that will be the casing for the hoop boning. So far, it's a happy Sunday afternoon.

Then, after taking a break to eat some grocery store California roll, I inserted the hoop boning that I'd just bought from Lacis in Berkeley.  My mistake was in picking the lower priced stuff ($8 a roll) because their spring steel hoop boning was $50 a roll. Quite a price difference!  BUT the plastic stuff does not hold its shape. It curls and warps every which-a-way.

No, this isn't me turning around. This is the shape it makes standing still.  Inconceivable!!  I hate to bad-mouth Lacis -- a landmark in Berkeley since forever -- but really, are those the only 2 choices?  I am forced to go elsewhere in search of the perfect hoop skirt wire.

Butterick 5831

I bought the Butterick pattern #5831 last year, when Joann Fabrics had their buy-a-bunch-of-patterns-real-cheap sale. It's marketed as a Civil War ear dress, but really the sloped shoulders make it acceptable for the Dickens Fair too. I've always wanted to try it, and this year I got the chance!

BTW, I prefer Butterick patterns because they have a clean, no fuss approach. The Simplicity patterns tend to have a lot of unnecessary steps and details which makes them a bit more work to adjust for size. I'm actually making this dress for my friend ("A") but except for my larger waistline we're almost sort of the same size.

My first decision -- and this made all the difference in the world -- was the choice of fabric. This is a "silkessence" polyester silk imitation, but it handles beautifully. It doesn't fray too much. It doesn't pucker. It is soft but not as impossibly slippery as gossamer, and with it's lower price it's not as scary to cut into as silk. Plus, I didn't make too many modifications to the original pattern. I was a good girl and followed most of the directions, including a cotton lining under the bodice that's a sort of fake chemise, and I put piping at the shoulder seams. The fabric was so thin and silky that I didn't need to do tedious cartridge pleats to gather the waistband. Whew! Also, I chose to make self-fabric loops for the buttons instead of button holes. I put a little modesty panel inside the front gap of the skirt. I hand-basted a lace collar that I got in the grab-bag at a rummage sale, and that really jazzes it up.

All I need to do is hem the bottom, which I can't do until "A" tries it on again, and which I can't ask her to do until I finish her hoop skirt. (Right now, I'm trying it on over my own ratty ol' hoop skirt.)  Glad her mom gave me that big bag of muslin to work with.

Finished!

I did a try-on and the corset looks fabulous on my friend Carolyn!

Done with Ears

I tried to stick the ear pieces onto a plastic headband, because that was the original plan, but no matter what I did -- they never looked quite right.

In the end, I glued the 2 ear pieces separately onto a thick band of twill tape with a wire in it. Then I stitched the twill tape directly onto the fur hood. The wire + the support of someone's head inside the hood appears to keep the ears upright just fine. To cover the twill tape and globs of hot glue, I stitched extra scraps of fur around it, and it all blends in to look quite shaggy and wild.

The ears are maybe a little too close together, but that's the trade-off to have them upright.

Hello Kitty corset

I must say, as a side project the "Hello Kitty" corset turned out well. Originally it was cut from scrap fabric as a mock-up for sizing the fancy turquoise brocade corset that I've been working on the last month. I'll post photos of that next week after I try it on my friend.

But the mock-up was too cute to just toss away, and my daughter encouraged me to finish it up. I put in 24 steel bones, tiny pink bows, made a bias strip of the Hello Kitty fabric to finish the top edge, laced it up properly in the back with a modesty panel, and luckily had a scrap of pink lace trim that fit just right!

Look for it on sale at Etsy soon!

Mask Success!

I was still so desperately unhappy with how the mask was coming along, in Sculptamold paste, that I decided to halt that effort halfway through. Instead I used it as a base form, and went back to the original plan of making the whole thing in FIMO polymer clay.

One reason I had hesitated to go with this plan, at first, is that FIMO comes in tiny 3 inch blocks. I buy the "FIMO - soft" but in reality it is not all that soft. It is primarily designed for making cute little necklace beads and earring bobbles and tiny tiny tiny flower buds to glue onto photo frames. For larger projects it takes a lot of kneading to get it to soften up, and it does not spread or stretch easily.

Michael's craft stores sells a Pasta Machine For Use With Polymer Clays. No seriously, that's what it is called. It's a hand cranking gadget that claims create uniform sheets. Uh-huh, it looks nice in the picture but the reviews are mixed. So I went back to the ol' empty jelly jar, hand kneading, lots of grunting and sweating, and.... ta-da! Made myself a pie crust of cherry red FIMO.

Despite my complaints, what I like about FIMO is that it bakes to the consistency of milk jug plastic. You can get it really thin. Though it doesn't blend smoothly into itself (like ceramic clay), the pieces adhere to each other pretty well.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. At last!

Not half bad, huh?

The last thing I need to figure out is how to make straps or a structure to wear it on a human face!!

Ears - Do Over

The more I look at the ears sitting on the table, the more I see flaws. The clay is too thick, and you can see the irregular edges where I pinched it with my fingers. Fixing it onto a wire form and baking a blob as a headband makes it heavy.  I'm really starting to hate them a lot. So in true artistic fashion, I'm going to toss that effort and start again!

I went back to the Sculptamold shape that I had pressed into the plastic toy boat. I used that as a base form to support new roll-outs of FIMO. I want to save my squares of red for the face mask (that I have not yet made!!!!) and I had some big chunk of off-white leftover from a phase in my life when I thought of making dolls. I only had one Sculptamold form, so I baked left and right ears in 2 stages. See the pencil lines?

Then, I am painting the beige FIMO with red on one side and black on the outside. This keeps them thinner, if I am not trying to make 2 layers of already-colored FIMO in red and black. I cut the edges before baking so they are nice and crisp. FIMO as a polymer material takes really well to the cheap acrylic paint in a tube. The plan, now, is to stitch these new pieces onto a fabric headband with fake fur to match the hood. Let's see how that looks! Halloween is now only 35 days away!!

Almost There!

It's been a busy weekend with other things.... but I managed to get the corset bones!  I sorted them out on the floor, of course, and swapped out the plastic zip ties according to my list.

Now the last step is to finish the edges. A while back, when I made my first attempt at a corset, it took some adjusting to the idea of how different it is from your ordinary dress bodice with a lining. You're not sewing the two halves with "right sides together" and flipping them around to make a clean edge. No, you sew them with "wrong sides together" and the raw edges are raw.

Instead, I'm using packaged bias tape to sew onto the raw edge. OK, they do make a thinner size, but it wasn't at my nearby JoAnn's in brown. I wanted brown! My daughter is skeptical, but it syncs with the overall steampunk theme, and it picks up the brown highlights in the brocade. I just trim down the excess.

So, despite the many interruptions, it looks like I'll have the edges finished today! Great excitement here. But I'll have to wait a couple weeks until I can try fitting it on my friend. Oh, I'll just have to do other projects in the meantime.

My Regency Gown

Life is so busy, and it's Thursday so I don't have time to work on things. But I wanted to put up a quick view of the back of my new Regency period gown. I'm very happy with the fabric covered buttons. I got the little Dritz kit and made them myself to match the sleeve cuffs and (you can't see it in this photo) the contrasting underskirt. The outer layer is tea dyed muslin and the underneath layer is an old ripped bedsheet that I cut up. The lace bits on the sleeve were a treasure haul from the Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild annual bazaar where a gal had a huge plastic tub full of lace scraps in ziploc bags that she was just giving away! The sign said, Free Lace. Who could  resist? Then of course I had to make a whole dress to go with them.

Princess Mononoke's Ears

I tried making them out of plaster cloth, but I was so desperately unhappy with the results...

I mean, really. Look at that. OK, if I was a serious cosplay costumer, I would have a full workshop with molds and plastic resin casting supplies. But I'm not quite there yet. This is supposed to be fun, right?

The knife turned out GREAT though, by baking Fimo onto the plaster-mold casting of a blade. It feels like real stone. It even makes a tinky-tink sound when you tap it on the table. My little assistant just needs to paint the red chevron stripes on it, and we can call the knife done.

The necklace is coming along. I'm puzzling over the earrings. I have not yet done the face but we're close. BUT it was the ears stressing me out! I decided to scrap the plaster cloth, the sculptamold, all of it. Although I did use those forms to shape ears out of freshly bought cherry red Fimo clay -- I stood in line at JoAnn's on Sunday for a solid 20 minutes waiting for some cranky ol' gal to haggle over the discount price of remnant scraps and insisting on using a coupon she had downloaded to her smart phone except she did not capture the part of the coupon that had the bar code! Arrrgh.

Suffering paid off, because the new ears are thin, light, and about as well formed as you can expect from hand pinching. The plan now is to fix them onto a headband and glue scraps of matching fur on the band so it fits either on the hood or through holes in the hood. We'll get to that puzzle later!

Boning Channels... Done!

Euphoria! It was one of those rare Sundays when - aside from scrubbing the kitchen counter and sink - I had no urgent "life" business to deal with. So I hunkered down in the sewing room and made huge progress today.

First, after hand basting down all the seams like the instructions said, I went down the same lines with the machine. What I really like about my Kenmore Ultra Stitch is that part of the base slides off to make a narrow extension around the pressure foot. The design is for doing sleeve cuffs, etc. This allows me to get my right hand underneath and make a sandwich with my left hand. (For taking the picture, I had to use my left hand.) I can really feel and control how the material feeds into the needle.

Actually, in this picture I am stitching the line across the bottom, but you get the idea.

I stitch the boning channel on the seam lines from the outside, because the seams of the lining don't exactly sync up with the fashion fabric. I had to do a little scooching here and there. Not much. But like I said, 1/8 or 1/4 inch can really make a difference.

It doesn't matter so much if the seam lines don't line up on the inside. Nobody sees the inside.

The instructions tell me to make all the vertical lines for boning channels by neatly stitching in meticulously measured rows. OK, now, this is supposed to be a fun project. Measuring and marking precise lines does not come naturally to me! Instead, I used "hem tape" which has markings on it already at 1/4 inch widths.

I went into a kind of Zen meditation mode to put them on -- one by one by one by one -- stitching slowly and neatly down each line. By the afternoon, I had all the boning channels installed at last!

The last step will be to insert the actual steel "bones" but since I don't have a corset workshop full of buckets of all sizes, I'll need to buy what I need. That involves measuring each bone channel and making a list. 

My sort of goofy way to aspire toward accuracy uses 1/4 inch plastic cable ties from Home Depot. This also checks that the hem tapes are sewn in correctly. You can't see in the picture, but I used a small Sharpie pen to write on the plastic tips:  1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Then I'll make a list on paper and write down exactly what I need. When the order comes in the mail, I won't have to fiddle with a jumble of 2 dozen little sticks to figure out what goes where all over again. 

So, tomorrow is Monday which means back to the office job. Once I acquire the bones, I'll be able to finish it up pretty shortly thereafter. I can't wait to try it on my friend "C" - she's going to look fabulous!

Big Progress on Saturday

I got a lot done today - it being Saturday and I don't have to go in to the office. Although I had other things to do in my life, and I worked on my Regency gown a little too, I still got in some time on the corset.

First, I used this kind of funky checkered grosgrain ribbon as the waist binding. Don't worry, it won't show on the outside! Even though I know my friend won't be "tight lacing" into an extreme hourglass figure, and the seams are not likely to split, the waist tape is there as a horizontal stabilizer just the same.

Then I attached the 3 middle pieces to the lining flaps.

I gotta say, the pattern instructions were a little vague on this point. Due to my stubbornness at not watching the accompanying DVD, it took me a bit of study and thought to have an epiphany. It sews together at the edges - right sides together - and flips inside-out like a pillowcase! Then you'll have a tube of panels all connected. This way all the raw edges are buried inside, and seams will appear clean both on the outer side and on the lining.

After this, we'll be on to make boning channels. Oh boy! But first, the pattern instructions are telling me to pick stitch, by hand, down along each seam to keep the lining and the outer fabric from shifting. True, it seems like a fussy detail. Can't I just shove it into the machine? I've got it pinned using my trusty concrete form tube as a dressmaker's dummy.

The Laughing Moon's pattern instructions literally say, "You will be tempted to skip this step but it is important." So, remembering my past failures, I decided to obey and do it. I'm not sure what pick stitching is, so I just did a running baste stitch. Does it show up in the photo OK? This is the coutil lining side. You can see my clumsy hand stitches running down the seam.

 Let's see if it makes a difference in the end.

Grommets... Done!

For a little over $100, there's an industrial strength, table mounted grommet setting tool. If I were making corsets professionally, I might invest in one. But for now, I still do the grommets by hand -- one at a time. This is an enjoyable hobby, a stress releaser, and a way to exercise my brain.

Here is my funky little tool set:  a tack hammer, a grommet setter, my new ergonomic awl, a chopstick, and of course the lovely antique brass 00 size grommets + washers.

I did a few last night and finished the rest early this morning. I'm sorry, neighbors, for the incessant "tink-tink-tink" noise! There's a total of 26 holes in this corset. I timed myself and it took roughly 45 minutes each side. Each hole is tenderly pried open with the awl, expanded with the chopstick, and grommet + washer is gently tapped in.

This is a view of the inside (the coutil) layer. The advantages of the special corset grommets are that they are smaller than the jumbo ones sold at JoAnn's or Hancock Fabrics, yet larger than the hideous eyelets that need to be squeezed with the hand-hurting pliers type tool. Also, they don't split open like a daisy, but fit really nicely into the washers so they are smooth on both sides.

Of course there are mistakes. I won't point them out because they're not so bad. It still looks really good from the outside.

And I am loving the color of the antique brass grommets on this turquoise-brown satin! 

Busk Knobs... Done!!

Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can use any ol' thing to poke holes in your fabric, such as, knitting needles, chopsticks, an ice pick from the hardware store, etc. No!!!! I used my 40% off coupon at JoAnn's and got an "ergonomic" tailor's awl. What a difference compared to the sadness and frustration of using the ice pick a couple days ago.

I brought the project to the office and used a little of my lunch hour. Comfy in a brightly lit room, full of coffee, I had the serenity to pry clean holes into the fabric. The idea is not to punch or cut big holes but to squeeze the fibers apart enough to slip the busk's knobs in like very tiny buttons.

Thanks to Bishonen Rancher's YouTube channel, I got the tip of poking one hole at a time and inserting the knobs up the line. Instead of poking all the holes at once and then getting frustrated with trying to force them all through. This polyester nylon brocade is kind of like glorified plastic wrap, so when you pry open a hole, the fibers want to close up right away.

I used my big paper clips to hold the busk strip in place while I poked each hole up the line. I also folded cut-up bits of old business cards so the clips wouldn't snag on the brocade.

I tested the fit, and wooo-hooo!!! It works!  The fabric looks weird in the photo because I took it outside to the parking lot in the sunshine.

One Grommet At A Time

For fixing the mistake from yesterday, I cut a new center front piece of fancy brocade and prepp'ed it by attaching to the saved piece of coutil. Blank slate, just like before. I marked again where holes should be poked but stopped before going at it. One shouldn't do precision work when one is tired! I'll bring it to the office and do it tomorrow on my lunch hour.

Instead, I worked on my Regency gown a little.... yes, I have a project on the side for myself! It's the old standard Simplicity 4055 that I've always wanted to try. I stopped at where I'll need to make a placket for the back opening of the skirt. I've never made a placket before! And let's not even think about the button holes right now.

Then I decided to whack at things with a hammer. After all these years of Ren Faire bodices, pounding in grommets is something I know how to do. I made a tool for myself of hole punches in pattern graph paper and used it to mark in chalk where grommet holes should go. Boy that coutil is a dense tight weave! I had quite a time coaxing those threads open before I managed to put in just one. One is enough for now.

The "antique brass" color grommets match up with the "antique brass" color busk hooks. They're going to look really nice on the turquoise-and-brown brocade. 

Fixing Mistakes

At the workshop I attended in February this year, Carol Wood (who is brilliant!!) advised us all, "Every stitch you put in, you may someday rip out."  Boy was she right. I keep 2 seam picker tools nearby in a cute little plastic case from Daiso that was designed to hold a kid's chopsticks in the lunch box.

Only the cheap polyester/nylon satin brocade is ruined. I can save the coutil, yeah! I'll just cut another piece and try again.

Yes, I went to YouTube and watched the Bishonen Rancher channel about how to insert a busk. If I wasn't so cheap and stubborn, I would pony up the $19 for a DVD that accompanies the Laughing Moon pattern that I am making right now. It's the pattern's designer going through it step by step by step. Probably more stubborn than cheap. Anyway, the YouTube video explains it pretty well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcqOgBncg0k

The Busk is Half Done

OK, things were going so well this morning. I used a half hour before I had to leave for work to mark out the spacing for the busk's hook side. So far, so good. The Hello Kitty pencil comes in handy again!!

Cool and calm first things in the morning, with a good strong cup of coffee nearby, I zipped through this part of the task. Yes, mom, I can follow instructions. You're supposed to sew little stop-and-start dashes.

And then the busk's hooks go sandwiched between the seam allowances, once you turn it around. Sorry for the blurry photo, but I had to leave for work! 

But then, in the evening, after a long busy day at the office and an hour+ commute through rush hour, I should have known better than to try and finish it up. I measured and poked holes for the knob side... out of alignment, too deep away from the edge. Plus, this fake silk brocade frays like crazy! When I poke a hole with my awl, the threads shrivel back up. I put a dab of FrayCheck around the hole, and that sealed them like glue! It didn't do this on the other test corset I made of cotton.... Grrrrr!!!  I am now debating if I should poke new holes when I am calm and rested, and try to cover up the other holes somehow. FrayCheck could work to my advantage instead of causing more frustration. Or, I have plenty of leftover fabric that I could re-cut this one piece and poke new holes. What to do? Maybe I'll watch a video of Bishonen Rancher and see if she has any tips. 

The Magic Begins

My dad bought me this Kenmore Ultra Stitch machine when I was in high school. Solid and durable, this lil' machine and I have produced many wonderful things together... and some not so wonderful.

I put the blue masking tape there to help me see where the 5/8 inch mark is on the presser plate.

I use the big paper clips to keep track of the "top" and "front" and "back" of the pieces. It makes them easy to unclip and move around, and I got the color ones to match up "left" and "right" sides of the corset.

Tonight was gym night, and there's other things going on in the house. Our refrigerator conked out and was leaking icky rust colored oily ooze, so we had to buy a new one that was delivered today. We're dealing with reorganizing and throwing out old jars that we forgot we had. (How old is that Madras curry paste?)  

I only had a little time to work on the corset this evening. I managed to stitch the boning channels on the Center Back pieces, though I'm still learning to make the lines exactly straight and 3/8 inch wide... not. 

And I stitched together the other 3 middle-ey pieces of the brocade. 

I'll do the middle bits of the coutil tomorrow. I hope to get to either the busk or pounding grommets this week. We'll see how it goes.