bismuthburnsblue

[bismuthburnsblue]

thank u for the vibes, the fabric came and it is PERFECT. yall i cant wait

i ordered something online from a slightly dodgy listing photo (but a reputable seller) can i uhhh. prayer circle that it comes as i think it will

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1760-1765 Sack (robe and petticoat) (England)

Chinese silk, linen, paint

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

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i ordered something online from a slightly dodgy listing photo (but a reputable seller) can i uhhh. prayer circle that it comes as i think it will

[bismuthburnsblue]

burn out is so real & i should probably acknowledge when im feeling it more....

anyway im going to get back into the swing of things this weekend. calypso mock ups are going well, i think i can get on with making the full corset, which will be half the work done. i dont think ill get the full vision done by wee con, but id like to have something wearable. theoretically possible, but we will see

[bismuthburnsblue]

Sweet mother, I can't long for girls--Arachne has crushed me with desire for fiber crafts

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Some embroidery I did on a linen project.

I am really proud of it, now you have to look at it 👍

[bismuthburnsblue]

Today, ive been working on the first rough mock up for the full Calypso dress! I decided to use the Ivy pattern based on polls/my own notes, so thats where i started from :)

To make the velvet pattern (pink), i had to merge some of my corset panels together to give me more traditional dress lines. I merged 5/6 at the back, and then 1/2 in the front, which is where im not 100% on things.

My original plan was to use the 1/2 seam as my dress seam & merge 2/3 together, but i realised that was going to make the centre front skirt really narrow, and it would only get narrower further down. By splitting it the way i have, the skirt sections are going to end up pretty perfect (the centre panel is ~20cm wide, while the sides are 15cm), but the upper section sits pretty far round the side. I probably wouldnt be bothered, but i have bust cups to add on & i need to consider it all comes together.

The seams on the original costume do actually sit much further out than i remembered (which technically means theyre in the wrong place...), but its still not as far out as the seam im currently using.

So i have four potential plans of attack-

do the dart as normal, having the seam end without matching up to anything else. i dont super like this plan, it feels... sloppy to me, but it kinda seems like thats what they did on the original dress, so itd be accurate...

have a seamed cup, but put the seam in a different place to make it seem more thought through. im not sure exactly what this would be yet, but theres an idea forming in my head about angling the underbust line up into a point where the seam meets it (making an intersection that looks like this 🟀, if that makes sense)

play around with gathers. again, theres different ways i could play with this but (barring any issues when i test run it) im pretty committed to gathering the centre front section vertically to shape the cup. i think it'll look the most cohesive to the rest of the design, considering itll already be cut pretty low there. itll feel like a focal point, instead of being out of place like other gathers would.

move with the seam of the main dress. this would be more risky because it would mean i was messing with the fit of the entire corset, instead of just a fashion layer, but maybe has the chance for the best results??? id bring the seam further inwards at the top, but keep the bottom in the same place to not compromise the skirt.

Idk!! i think im just going to have to think on it for a while...

I like the sound of the gathers, but its something thats either going to look really good or really bad, with no wiggle room in between- and they'll be in velvet. a seamed cup will always be less obtrusive, so i have more ease for it to look weird, but im not quite sure how to actually execute things. i dont really want to move the seams on the corset just for the cups, but if you guys think theyre in a weird place anyway, then ill have a mess around.

oh, and here was it after i snipped open the front panel because i made it too narrow at the top (i knew i was doing this when i did it... and yet)

[bismuthburnsblue]

Step one on Calypso- picking a corset pattern!

This week, I made rough mockups of 3 different corset patterns to assess them for this project (well, 4, but i already ruled one out for not being what i was looking for) All 3 are free patterns from Aranea Black's archive!

I was looking for 3 things out of this test run:

Overall shape- did i feel like it gave me a shape that was dramatic & flattering? i want to lean into the drag roots with this dress, so the more impactful, the better)

Seam placement- i need one in a good place for a princess seam, and for the side seam

Bust support- the pictures you'll see were taken with a bra for modesty reasons, but i did try them all on without and take notes.

My plan for this costume probably involves at least some padding- i want to play with exaggerated silhouettes, and i think itll support my bust better too! Hip padding is on the list but more up in the air at this point.

i didnt make any of these tests super neatly, but they really were just to decide which pattern im even using, so... at least theyre all equal levels of messy. Ultimately, all of these patterns will need some level of modding to work for this dress (especially around the hips. im looking to make the corset as longline as is reasonable!) but i need to decide where to start.

Feel free to read through all my notes, or to just look at the pictures and give me a vibes based vote !! both are cool with me <3

SYLVIA

This one i thought had the worst bust support, but the best style lines for the princess seams, since the pattern doesnt flare in as much at the bottom. It doesnt really have a good candidate for a side seam in its current form

(i dont know why one side of the cup is sitting so much lower than the other, it wouldnt pull into place... blame that on my shoddy cutting, probably!)

DAHLIA

This pattern is based off of a victorian riding corset, and is a midbust style, which makes it a fundamentally different shape to the other two. While the other two patterns cup over the hip, this one is much more of a smooth line (neither is a definite win over the other, just different!)

I quite liked the bust fit on this one, though i definitely think this one would need padding to lift the bust up more. it also has more pattern pieces in the front, so the seams i would use for my princess line is between pieces 2/3. Theres also no perfect side seam candidate on this, though i think itd be a lot easier to shift the seams on this pattern than the other two.

IVY

this one absolutely had the best bust support, though i dont know how much of that is down to the fact that the centre is currently much higher (something thats possibly on the chopping block with the modifications to the pattern). It also had the most coverage around the hips, which im going to have to modify for the other patterns. Ivy also had a pretty good candidate for a side seam, though i feel like it has more narrowing of the front, which could be a problem for my princess seams.

One of the main differences between Sylvia & Ivy is where the fullness is built in. they are both 6 panel corsets, but Ivy has much more between panels 3/4, while Sylvias is pushed back to 4/5 and even 5/6. Insinctively the fullness being further forward makes more sense in my mind, but as you can see, it doesnt make a ton of difference to the way the shape sits on the body.

I think im split between Ivy and Dahlia (mostly on their differences, like would a midbust be more like the kind of support i need for this dress? more seams might make style lines easier to adjust?) But i still think Sylvia could hold some potential

[bismuthburnsblue]

Step one on Calypso- picking a corset pattern!

This week, I made rough mockups of 3 different corset patterns to assess them for this project (well, 4, but i already ruled one out for not being what i was looking for) All 3 are free patterns from Aranea Black's archive!

I was looking for 3 things out of this test run:

Overall shape- did i feel like it gave me a shape that was dramatic & flattering? i want to lean into the drag roots with this dress, so the more impactful, the better)

Seam placement- i need one in a good place for a princess seam, and for the side seam

Bust support- the pictures you'll see were taken with a bra for modesty reasons, but i did try them all on without and take notes.

My plan for this costume probably involves at least some padding- i want to play with exaggerated silhouettes, and i think itll support my bust better too! Hip padding is on the list but more up in the air at this point.

i didnt make any of these tests super neatly, but they really were just to decide which pattern im even using, so... at least theyre all equal levels of messy. Ultimately, all of these patterns will need some level of modding to work for this dress (especially around the hips. im looking to make the corset as longline as is reasonable!) but i need to decide where to start.

Feel free to read through all my notes, or to just look at the pictures and give me a vibes based vote !! both are cool with me <3

SYLVIA

This one i thought had the worst bust support, but the best style lines for the princess seams, since the pattern doesnt flare in as much at the bottom. It doesnt really have a good candidate for a side seam in its current form

(i dont know why one side of the cup is sitting so much lower than the other, it wouldnt pull into place... blame that on my shoddy cutting, probably!)

DAHLIA

This pattern is based off of a victorian riding corset, and is a midbust style, which makes it a fundamentally different shape to the other two. While the other two patterns cup over the hip, this one is much more of a smooth line (neither is a definite win over the other, just different!)

I quite liked the bust fit on this one, though i definitely think this one would need padding to lift the bust up more. it also has more pattern pieces in the front, so the seams i would use for my princess line is between pieces 2/3. Theres also no perfect side seam candidate on this, though i think itd be a lot easier to shift the seams on this pattern than the other two.

IVY

this one absolutely had the best bust support, though i dont know how much of that is down to the fact that the centre is currently much higher (something thats possibly on the chopping block with the modifications to the pattern). It also had the most coverage around the hips, which im going to have to modify for the other patterns. Ivy also had a pretty good candidate for a side seam, though i feel like it has more narrowing of the front, which could be a problem for my princess seams.

One of the main differences between Sylvia & Ivy is where the fullness is built in. they are both 6 panel corsets, but Ivy has much more between panels 3/4, while Sylvias is pushed back to 4/5 and even 5/6. Insinctively the fullness being further forward makes more sense in my mind, but as you can see, it doesnt make a ton of difference to the way the shape sits on the body.

I think im split between Ivy and Dahlia (mostly on their differences, like would a midbust be more like the kind of support i need for this dress? more seams might make style lines easier to adjust?) But i still think Sylvia could hold some potential

[bismuthburnsblue]

its time for my next big project!!!! for the next couple of months i am going to be working on Calypso from OFMD!!!!

(like, 2 whole people hyped me up for this one, so you can blame them for it!)

this cosplay consists of two main parts- the dress, and the boa- for now, im mostly going to be talking about the dress, but be sure i have plans for that boa....

The velvet ive picked for this dress has wildly shaped the project- for reasons that'll soon be clear. I didnt have a clear idea of what colour the original dress was (as far as ive seen, theres no pictures in natural lighting) but i did have a pretty good vision for how i wanted to add to the original costume- mostly emphasising the ocean themes- so i went looking with that in mind.

It took a lot of hunting (and i mean a lot), but i finally found a velvet i was happy with the colour of. its blue, but not too blue. its got a good lustre to it, and its soft as anything

the problem? Its not stretch velvet.

Yeah... stretch velvet must be out of fashion right now, because barely any shops even had it, and in light blue? absolutely not. I found this one in what i think was the upholstery section (though its pretty lightweight for that) and i had to come back to it like, three times to talk myself into (or out of) buying non-stretch velvet for a dress that should definitely be stretch velvet.

But its perfect. So i bought it, and now i had to figure out to shift what was once a very straightforward plan to compensate for this (i mean, honestly, i do this to myself)

Its taken a lot of thinking, but i think ive come up with a plan thats not only good, but is hopefully going to be better than anything i would have come up with originally

And in perhaps the most expected move from me ever, it involves a corset....

There was always going to be some kind of corset with this dress- while i fully believe the character would never do that, i simply do not have the kind of confidence that lets me wear form fitting garments without some kind of shapewear, and man, is a corset so much comfier than modern shapewear. A corset is also going to let me build in bust support directly into the cosplay, hopefully eliminating the need for a bra (and having to hide bra straps)

The dress is going to be built with the corset as part of the garment, rather than a separate piece- if youve ever seen the inside of old couture dresses, thats my starting inspiration, though im taking it to the extreme.

They'll be sewn together flat where the seams line up, though the back panels will be separate- im not sure exactly how i want to close up the velvet back (id like some sizing flexibilty) but i know i dont want a lacing gap in the same way that the corset has.

All the corset patterns im looking at dont have cups, and i think the cups i have planned for the outer wouldnt match anyway, so im thinking of sewing those on after the corset is largely constructed. The corset will cut out around the hips while the dress continues, so theres some weird patterning going on here! in my head it all makes sense, but ill need to trial it all to be sure before i commit. Theres going to be a bunch of small things i need to make sure i do right to nail this... It sounds like its right up my alley, honestly!

Ive got illusion net to build out the top- originally i was looking at power mesh, but it was far too opaque to ever give the invisible effect i want. Since the sleeves are only mesh on the top, im playing about in my head about how i can add as few seams as possible... but we will see.

The main problem with using non-stretch is going to be walking... i was planning on a pretty tight fit around the legs to really emphasise the silhouettes, but obviously... i will not be able to move. Joking about wheeling me around on a board aside, i am thinking about doing a secret godet in the back skirt- the current idea is to have it zip open and closed, so i can reach the extremes of shape and be able to walk about, too. This needs a lot more testing before i commit, though!

the organza section at the bottom is also sorta... very nebulous right now. im in love with these BTS pictures where the layers have more dimension, so im thinking about leaning into that idea. A lot of my inspiration for the dress draws from the ocean (she is an ocean goddess after all) and i think i want this part to feel like crashing waves on the shore.... texture and colours... maybe even beading and embroidery to mimic seafoam...

can you feel me biting off more than i can chew???

Theres more to say about this dress, especially in the details, but i think im going try and get a structure before we get too far ahead of ourselves!

[bismuthburnsblue]

exciting things happening... i have prepped FOUR different corset patterns for cutting out into rough mockups tonight

every one of these patterns would require a lot of changes to get them to where i need them for Calypso, but still, its exciting! things are beginning to happen....

[bismuthburnsblue]

how did you get started with leatherwork? I've wanted to get into it since I was a kid but it seems intimidating

A good chunk of leatherwork is small, repeated actions. And the basic stitch - the saddle stitch- is super simple. The most difficult skills, imo, are learning how to keep and use a sharp knife.

The tools are a little bit of an investment, but you can do a *lot* with just a box cutter, mallet, single hole punch, cutting board & mat, needle, and thread. Everything else just makes your work neater (edge slicker, stitching groove, beveler, etc.)

If you live somewhere near a Tandy Leather, I highly recommend going to a beginner class. You can learn the basics, then figure out what sort of projects you want to do. (What I did.)

If all you have is the internet, Tony See has great patterns and videos. A laptop sleeve makes a great first project. (Don't start with a wallet -- you have to do a lot of thinning - called skivving - to keep the bulk down.) Be sure to watch his technique videos where he teaches the saddle stitch and other basic skills.

It's a lot of fun, you can slowly expand your toolset as you learn, and it doesn't take much practice, imo, before you can start making useful objects, like bags and cases.

[bismuthburnsblue]

Evening dress, attributed to Liberty of London, 1880's

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ah sleeves, my enemy

i cant decide whether to put sleeves on the final version of the dress!

i wasnt super in love with how the pattern that came with the dress looked on my mockup, but this is a much lighter fabric & i think itll look much better. orrr i could make a new pattern- its just a basic flutter sleeve, in the end.

or do i go sleeveless? id obviously correct the pattern to sit in the right place..

i dont know? to sleeve, or not to sleeve?

[bismuthburnsblue]

i did not get anywhere near enough dress stuff done over the weekend, so its time to LOCK in... which also means its time for the accountability checklist! its quite a thorough breakdown this time because i need to make sure i catch everything (and actually follow it)

finish fixing the back seam (hand sew first?) i probably need to look at this again but... later (its pissing me off)

press them

finish the front & back seams

set the side seams as marked

(check the fit again)

press them

finish side seams

tack the shoulder seams in place, but not permanently

cut out remaining skirt pieces (check which way round the shine goes!!!)

sew them together in a loop

press seams

finish them

check the skirt hem sections havent dropped

sew them to the skirt, matching all the shapes (might need some handsewing)

press them

finish them

figure out what the fuck is happening with the sleeves, cut them out

cut out bias binding? could do later on though

trim up the armhole

baste sleeve in

check shoulder seam is still good, sew in place

press it

finish it

sew sleeve seam

set sleeves into place

press seam

finish it... you know the drill

mark final position of neckline

sew the bias binding i deffo should have cut by this point around the edge

press it

understitch! theres a new step

finish it

final fit check time!

make any adjustments- hopefully there is none

level the hem

hem the skirt (idk how yet)

hem the sleeves (also dont know)

rinse out the gelatin

i think??? thats all????

hopefully its good 👍

and all that... well, all machine sewing needs to be done by 7am friday- i have a little more time for hand sewing, as the event isnt till Saturday evening, but still. wish me luck 🫡

[bismuthburnsblue]

managed to get all the main pieces of the dress cut out correctly! ive gone completely rogue from the cutting instructions- more than i usual do, anyway ':) - and i hope it pays off! all the pleats flow beautifully into each other :)

im at the point where the lack of ironing is beginning to frustrate me, but again, pleats,,, so ill try and avoid it as much as possible! most of the creasing is a by-product of the fabric treatment at least, so when i wash that out it should all fall away!

the main thing i havent yet cut out is the skirt flounce- i did cut one of them, but then i freaked myself out about direction! the pattern says it gets cut on the straight grain, going down the yardage, and i think it makes sense to have the pleats vertically... but i think the shine of my fabric actually lines up the other way. its hard to tell right now (the gelatin kills the shine a bit) but i really would not want to cut them all out & find that it doesnt match up with the rest of the dress.

i think im going to go ahead and sew up the main dress, and then play around with that section more. itll feel good to get some progress in :)

... i havent even looked at the sleeves yet lol

[bismuthburnsblue]

today, we crack on with the cutting out for the real version of the calypso vias cut dress! i have one week till i leave for london, so i better get a move on

ive prepped my fabric with gelatin to make it easier to work with (more on that when ive tried washing it out) but its still not perfectly stable because of the pleats, so this is going to be a slow process.

im already a little nervous- because my fabric has pleats i need to be ULTRA careful about how i cut out the body in relation to the skirt and i dont think i have ANY room to mess up, so.... wish me luck!!!