Adjusting a bodice pattern to a tail coat

 After contemplation I decided that I would use a pattern for the Beast’s jacket rather than a cut and shut job.  I have two blue velvet curtains for this costume that do not allow for mistakes and I am sure it will look better fitted rather than not.

Although I have a drawer full of patterns I rarely use them as I have discovered over the years...if it ain’t broke don't fix it (I said that before recently didn't I?)

My go-to pattern for the jacket is the bodice pattern I used for the chorus costumes.  I used this same pattern for the Victorian dresses too!  With a bit of manipulation you can get the pattern you want from this, with the first step being a quick sketch to show the original and where it needs changing.

The first, and most obvious, change is the sizing.  The bodice pattern will have to be made larger to get it up to the required 52” chest necessary to cover the bulky muscles and shirt.  As I have this pattern up to a 48” chest I just need to add on 4” which I will put on around the edges of the pattern pieces.  Eight pieces, with two sides each, mean I only need to put on about ¼” to each side and wont affect the shaping too much.

The second point is that the bodice is made for a womanly figure (if you get my drift) and there isn't much call for that.  So I will ‘flatten’ out the front side piece to take away any boob allowance.  If I was to do this at the chest area by taking it away, this would change the sizing.  But by adding to the waist area I will be keeping the measurement I require!

The neckline needs to be raised to make it sit closer to the collar line and this is to be done both front and back.  Then the centre front needs to have the bottom changed so that it forms a ‘V’ upwards and not down as the original pattern is (ignore where I drew the line wrong on the right hand side lol).

The front facing can be incorporated into the front pattern piece just to make life easier and quicker when constructing the jacket.

Finally, the ‘tails’ need to be added to the back pattern pieces.

The final pattern pieces should end up looking something like this...

I made up the pattern pieces to plan, cut them out and pinned them to the Beast muscle and shirt to check for fitting.

I just needed to make some adjustment to the side front pieces by cutting some off the width and the bottom needed a trim to get the downward 'V' right. Here the front view also has some of the trim I intend to use pinned to it and a stand collar also pinned on.

Here is the back view, I am still undecided on whether the tails need thinning out a bit.

Next step is to sew it all together!

Victorian dress from corset pattern!

I got up nice and early today and drunk copious amounts of coffee in preparation for a BIG sewing day.  At some point eldest daughter will turn up to start sewing her own dress so I at least want the ‘unexpected’ dress (I shall now call it UD to distinguish from the dress daughter will be making at the same time, hereby called DD) to have the bodice cut out so that I am at the same point with UD that daughter is at with DD.

I am hoping to have enough fabric to make two bodices, one day dress and one evening for UD.  The downside of all this is that I do not have the daughter around to get measurements so I am just hoping that I have enough knowledge of her body that it will fit. Luckily I come from a world where when a daughter asks for a Wonder woman corset I make her one and I therefore, in the bottom of my pattern drawer somewhere, have a pattern drafted to fit her that I can use for sizing and drafting a bodice. I do have a preference for hook and eye fastenings and would have preferred to do that, but due to the lack of the body UD is supposed to fit I will do lacing at the back of the evening bodice.  

After Googling frantically last night I have decided this simple dress will be the first bodice;

As the fabric is semi sheer I will also have to underline it for the evening gown, I have loads of white muslin so that will have to do (Q. Why is so much of what I do based on what is available in my stash? A. I don't know but it proves I need one so who cares!)  

Both DD and UD will be underlined and this involves cutting out two sets of pattern pieces, one in the fashion fabric and one in the lining fabric.  These are treated as one and sewn together.  It is a relatively quick and easy way of giving a lighter fabric some substance or, as is the case with UD ensuring you are not making a completely see through dress that your daughter will refuse to wear on modesty grounds!

The day dress will not be underlined as it will be based on this. 

I can see two advantages to this: First is that it doesn't have a fastening so if evening dress doesn't fit daughter will definitely fit in this one!  Second, I can tell her to bring along a strap or tank t-shirt to put under this if I don't have time to make a chemise!

But back to this morning...

I have taken the front pieces of my corset pattern and pinned it to my board.  To start with I left the side front as it was the one which dealt with the majority of daughters curves (there are quite a lot of them!)

I was basing this on the ‘Patterns of Fashion (2) 1860-1940’ pattern of an 1861 evening dress.  I know there is seam allowance added to my pattern so we are good to go! 

I drew round the pattern pieces and joined the middle front to centre front, then added the shoulder pieces.  I will check the measurements for the shoulders with other daughter when she arrives as she is similar size in most areas except the boobage!  I shifted the middle front piece over and re-drew in red.  The corset had a high top so I lowered the neckline to the centre front and also raised the sides as the corset went over the hips.

At this point I would love to say I made a toile, fitted it to my daughter and made minor adjustments to ensure it all fitted correctly.  Unfortunately I can’t say that, what I did do is sit staring at it and wonder if I had done anything wrong. 

I then made a cup of coffee and pondered it a bit.  I sat staring a bit longer, drank the coffee while staring, stood up and looked out the window, sat down and stared.  Contemplated cutting out the fashion fabric then stared a bit longer.  Looked at the fabric, reminded myself it was only £1 a metre (oh yeah, it was only £1 a metre so if it goes wrong no great shakes).  

Then realised that the skirt wouldn’t go wrong so if nothing else she could wear a shirt with the skirt and look ok for the event.  Second realisation was that I also had the other bodice to make that doesn't need to fit exactly.  Then realisation number 3 that I could check the measurements against the book for back up! Lucky I did that!  As I measured I realised that I had reduced from 3 pattern pieces to 2 and not taken away the seam allowance!  So back to the drawing board and removed those seam allowances from the pattern.

I then had an even more brilliant idea!  I still have the Wonder woman corset!  I put the corset on the dummy and pinned the pattern to it.

Daughter has more boobs than the average Victorian and this was always the issue when trying to make this bodice. All of a sudden I could see where the pattern was wrong!  A quick snip with the scissors and another piece of sticky tape and the pattern fitted the corset perfectly (lets hope the corset still fits the daughter perfectly).

Well the front of the pattern was ready...all I needed to do to the back was add the shoulder straps.

All done!  Then I get a text from daughter saying she is coming over tomorrow so I will have the body to work from!  Although after all that effort I may just go for it later today!