ernie k designs: six napoleon

Showing posts with label six napoleon. Show all posts

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Six Napoleon - Epilogue

Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

McCall's 6396 would be easier and give you an everyday item, not just a formal item.

This is what this dress reminds me of. Love that Little Pony version on the right, btw.

So this pinned version is where I left off.

I steamed the skirt like a sauna, but those folds just came right back.

After a day of thinking and rethinking, I stitched down the draped skirt to the short base skirt.

Double stitched at the big triangular drop

Yanked the bondsuit top over it and pinned it down.

I had to add fabric at the sides to expand the top to cover the skirt. The crotch extensions for the bodysuit were barely enough.

I did not have to carve off the sleeves to fill the side gaps.

This is overexposed, but you can see the pleats in this.

The front and the back are the same, with four basic pleats

Okay, this is not a great diagram but you get the idea. The big [2] pleat combines with the [3] to its right side. There's a LOT of fabric in that center. I tried moving the volume out to the sides, and it just didn't give the same shape as the original.

The top of the big central pleat is covered a little; I had to pull it up otherwise the hem dragged on the floor.

At this point, to finish, I would stitch the top to the skirt and remove the parts of the underskirt that aren't sewn to the overskirt and the top.

Now, you're asking yourself: is she going to finish this?

And I don't think so.

I don't need this dress. The folks who were initially interested in a final version have changed their minds. I would have to build a new bodice and I don't know to what end that would be.

So I'm going to pull the bodice off, and save the skirt. It may yet find a job. But right now, it's just a noble lab sample.

Did I learn a lot? Yes. Was it fun? Yeah.

And now it's time to stop.

Because it's almost time to show off

THE BURLESQUE COSTUMES!!!!!!!

Yep. Rhinestones next week.

Monday, August 1, 2016

Six Napoleons Actual Draping With ... Drapery (tags included)

The thrifted original materials. A stretch bodysuit and two poly organza curtain liners. About $18 all told. Thank you Value Village.

So, now it's time to actually do some draping.

Need something to stitch this skirt to.

Used my jeans pattern to make a fitted half skirt base (zipper on right side seam)

Cut some thin painter's tape strips

Ya think? Nah.

I don't want to block a lot of zipper. I will want to get this off and on. Because of this issue, my angles are not as acute as Marianne's

Eh, okay

NO, I still can't unzip a dress or anything on my right, so zip's on my left.

Yes, that does mess up the angle of the skirt. And I do think it loses some of its charm.

Sigh. Moving on....

It will be the same angle on the front as the back. Did a pin mark and flipped it.

Flair pen!

So I noticed something about this skirt. It's a double layer all around, and given that, it's about the same length except for that dip in the front.

I am draping for the hem, not the v-shape. The v-shape of the bodice is going to get stitched over this piece anyway.

I honestly was going to measure out what i needed, but I had itchy fingers.

Starting at the side seam was too obvious for me. Gotta hide the join between two pieces of sheer fabric in a fold. That big off center one.

Start at this end.

Start at this end. Huh.

Huh. This isn't...working.

And then it hit me.

And this was the brainstorm. The fabric is draped doubled up. If I slice the corner piece and unfold a square of it, leaving the rest folded, I have a seamless godet in the middle, a double layer on the right side, and an underlayer on the left side.

So the single layer square goes on FIRST. I repeat this on the other side, single layer first.

See the tag?

And then I pinned the double end off to the right, over the single layer.
Repeated for second piece.

And I pleated and repleated and on and on and I had to stop and go be a mom. It was all of Sunday.

I will finish it up in a day, but I think I'm on the right track. Steamed out a little, it's better than this now. Given a little more hang time, even better.

Not as soft as the original, but it's not silk either. It won't hang the same, I'm not stupid. But that's not the point.

I am the cheapest toiler I know. And that is the point.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Six Napoleon Rethinking: When you can't get to the actual thing yet.

When I was testing pleats out, I came up with a sample set of pleats and how I thought they worked in the Six Napoleon dress and a couple of other Dogstar skirts.

I was wrong about the dress skirt.

That green godet pleat is much bigger than just that. There's a lot of skirt unaccounted for with so few pleats (yes, I know it's doubled, but still, look at it). Almost twice the volume is at that offset drop (the green line on the picture on the left).

I think it's a box pleat with the godet in the middle of it.

I think you could bury a seam (the red line) at some point in that box pleat to save on how insanely wide this fabric would have to be.

And I will need to measure out how long that piece of fabric needs to be

Erm, this really is not to scale, but if you colored the pleat parts differently, depending on their function.....okay, it works for me. And sometimes, this blog is my midnight record keeping device.

And since I'm being a thrifty creep in my version, I have to make it count.

Did I mention I've not been able to drape it yet?

So the next blog post has to be: making the damn thing work.

Meanwhile, a little video reminder for pleat planning.

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/45191/how-to-fold-knife-and-box-pleats