I know, I know it’s been a while. I lost my sewing muse.. but eventually I found her. Anyway. In thinking about it, a light grey kampfrau dress may not be the best idea for.. you know.. camping. So, change in plan.
I’ve set aside 7 yards of light weight dark green wool and some yellow wool for the guarding. I think the colors will scream WEST KINGDOM but I’m ok with that. I also set aside some green linen and black linen(if needed) for the lining and some blue/grey striped linen for making mockups.
Yesterday I took off work a little bit early and stopped at Lacis on the way home. While there I picked up 4 feet of heavy duty black hook and eye tape. It’s some seriously heavy hooks. It looks like I’ll only need it in 8 inch chunks.. but 4 feet gives me plenty to work with. Who am I kidding.. I didn’t have any idea how much I needed so I just over-bought.
Anyway. I washed and then measured my Saxony dress. This gives me some idea of the measurements to start on my Trossfrau dress. I followed those measurements and cut out/sewed together my first mockup of the bodice. It wasn’t horrible but it still has a ways to go.
The front panel is a little bit too small across the top. I had alot of boob droopage and boob flattenage. I’ll add an inch to each side of the top and re-sew and try it out again.
I had F take pictures of the back. I want to compare my back with the back in the inspiration picture above to make sure my back’s not too low. Looking at it now I think it’s too low. I want to bring the back up about 3 inches. I think that just about makes the back in-line with the armpits. It may have the added bonus of helping the tops of the sleeves to stay on my shoulders. I know I have a bit of a problem with that in my Saxony dress.
In looking at the pattern pieces, if I’m moving the back up 3 inches then I could just add 2 inches to the straps on the side pieces and elminate the little bits that get added to the back piece. I’ll go ahead and cut mockup 2 (see pic) with that in mind.
I don’t have any compelling reason to have the back piece cut as a V. It does kind of follow my back nicely.. but I suspect the seam should actually be running up my side at the armpit. After I cut mockup 2 I may move that seam to be under the arm and totally change the cut of the back/side pieces for mockup 3. I do like having the front/front-side as two pieces. That allows the front-side piece(and the straps that go over the shoulder) to be cut on the grain.. this plus the seam right next to the straps gives added strength to the straps.. Since these straps are doing the heavy lifting of the boobage I kind of like that structurally.
So far so good.