Confessor Dress: Part 4

Day Four (or Fourteen)

I tried on the corset yesterday and was dismayed that it was too large.  I chalked where the pieces of the corset should meet in the back, and then adjusted the corset.  I added the grommets, one every inch, and laced it up.  I love the result.  The cup hangs a bit off my buxom, but I am confident that this will change when I add the straps, so I am not concerned.  With the adjustment to the back, the corset fits perfectly.  It could be a bit tighter, if I wanted to corset to squeeze me in a bit more, but for my purposes it will work wonderfully.

The overdress for Kahlan’s costume turned out to be the most complicated part.  Although the construction was, for the most part, fast, it was more difficult than the other parts.  I used a pattern for the body of the dress, and it only took an hour or so to put together the dress hem the bottom, and do an imitation Serger stitch on all of the inside seams.  I do have a Serger, but I learned how to use a Serger on an industrial Serger and the one I inherited from my mother is very finicky.  It is easier, and more reliable, to just use an imitation stitch, although I’m sure it is not as good at keeping fray in check.  But for Halloween, and the occasional wearing of the costume, it will work just fine.  After I had constructed the body of the dress, I attached the sleeves.  I didn’t use a pattern for the sleeves, but freehanded the arm hole and left the rest in a long rectangle.  I then sewed it to the arm hole and sewed the seam down to the elbow.  While it worked, it it’s a bit too big around the upper arm.  I will have to go back and take in the seam to fix the problem.  The hardest part of the overdress was the hood.  Kahlan’s hood must lay a certain way or it looks wrong.  I ended up sewing a half-circle together so there was a finished seam framing my face and no messy seam lines to be seen.  I then had to figure out how to arrange it just-so in order to get the desired lay.  I trapped the neckline seam between the turned over hem of the hood so that it was inside the hood when I sewed the three pieces together.  Every two inches I pinched and pinned a pleat in the hood to create fullness.  I then sewed through all three thicknesses, effectively hiding the neckline seam for a finished look.  It was a pain and took me about three hours to complete, but in the end, I am satisfied with the results.  Kahlan’s overdress laces halfway up from her hips to her neckline.  There are, however, no visible grommets or eyelets for the lacing.  I went to SAS with the intention to buy a few yards of hook and eye tape, but they only had hook take.  I ended up buying it, thinking I could get the eyes later.  Instead I used the hooks for both sides, which actually turned out perfect although I had not expected it to.

Unfortunately I don't have a dress form yet, so at the moment it looks rather awful on a hanger, but at least you can see what it will look like when I put it on :)