Sini TuuliaProcrastinated getting back to the bodice & sleeve basic block fitting by ordering supplies for a nice little corset. It's possible to get busks and coutil in Finland, but not in the colours and lengths I wanted, so to the Brits it was.
Tried to bung whatever I could think of into the order, as the postage would be silly in any case, and we'll see if I got all the things I needed and not just things an imaginary Sini of the Future might need.
I don't really actually need a third Early Edwardian style corset, but I wanted to remake the Little Emma button corset I made earlier this year, with a busk and better embroidery than I did. And in a nice white woman beige, I thought that would be a nice base for some linen (material & colour) lace and linen (colour) plus white embroidery. We'll see. 😶
Now, if I could somehow bring myself to get back to the Trials of the Sleeve... It's really close to being so good, but I'm also bored with all the minute adjustments and doing the same thing again and again, so I might try to change it up some by drafting a basic standing collar, see how that affects the fit. Ideally I'd also make a right sleeve also, and see if the same sleeve works on both sides, as my right shoulder is quite different from the left one. But perhaps I'll just stare out the window a bit instead.
Did take a look through multiple old pattern drafting manuals to see how they say you should draft a standing collar, decided I'd just wing it based on vague memories from pattern drafting classes in 2008 or so... And just eyeballed a collar that fits almost perfectly into the neck opening of the bodice, just based on what I felt like it should be shaped like. And now I must try it on.
Putting on the collar has revealed new and exciting issues with the neck opening and also the fit of the sleeve! I thought it would and was correct, so now I get to puzzle those out. 😆
Oh, I've also completely forgotten how to stand normally and how I usually hold my arm. This knowledge is just gone, how do humans arms
Latest news on the sleeve front: I've regrettably decided that I want to move the back seam of the two part sleeve higher up, because I like how it intersects with a bodice seam when making jackets, and want the basic sleeve block to have that baked in... There's instructions for how to do this, no issue, but the regrettable part is that I'm gonna have to make a third sleeve mock-up! Might as well make two, so I have both sleeves.
Pattern changes done, new paper patterns cut out, the rest must follow later.
It was delightful and bizarre how my slightly weird looking pattern started looking less and less weird (for 1895) as I was shifting things around... And at some point, the elbow line normalised completely? I didn't even do anything to it specifically, everything I messed with on the sleeve cap made it work out. I even sort of have correct grain lines now, remarkable.
I wish I had a videographer and editor on standby because I could go on at length, at great speed, with many hand motions, about everything I've done to the sleeve pattern sequentially. It would go very well with Flight of the Bumblebee, and some graphs and a board full of red string
Keystone Cutter my beloved, you always have me 😭
In sleeve land: I've cut out the third mock-up for the sleeve, now as two sleeves. It's not entirely feasible for actual final layers that are visible, but it's really nice to go over every seam allowance and other marking with vivid colourful contrasting thread so you can immediately see (and feel) where a seam or a marking is, and it doesn't shift or rub off when you're handling the pieces and doing fittings. It's nice.
The sleeve mock-ups look lovely and well behaved now, before I've set them into the arm's eyes and they become wrinkled and shronkled and skrinkled. 
Holy shit, it's so close! There's some excess height in the sleeve head, since I made ample room for my pointy shoulder in draft number three... But it's so close!
Next up: A break to maintain the flesh vessel, reducing the shoulder excess, moving the button above the bust, determining wrist length and figuring out the neck! Fitting GIFs.
It's much easier to draft in a bit of space for the upper chest in the centre front, and it was often curved instead of straight in Victorian tailoring, and continues being curved in Edwardian for women who have much padding, either worn or innate. Swing that excess off the front darts if necessary, it's much easier than redoing the arm's eye shape.
Movement is so comfortable that really I'd be okay with this, but I still have some energy left for the nitpicking the arm curve and front sleeve head, so I don't have to do it later... We'll see.
A break, it is required.
Movement is so comfortable that really I'd be okay with this, but I still have some energy left for the nitpicking the arm curve and front sleeve head, so I don't have to do it later... We'll see.
A break, it is required.
Also: Thinking about what the ideal fit is. For someone that's when the sleeve sits perfectly and beautifully with your arm down, and this is enough. For some it's acceptable to have some wrinkles in the back so you can reach forwards without your bodice riding up into your armpits...
For me? I must be able to sword fight, dance, adjust my hat and wildly windmill at will, other considerations are accompanying but secondary!
(That said, I have absolutely no idea where the sleeve should end at the wrist. Some of the rules of the art make it look too short for me, and some too long, and I never know if it's good or not based on if it annoys me... Which on any given day is a bit of a fluctuating metric!)
Yesterday I thought I understood how sleeves worked, today they are beyond me once again. I think I'm just gonna try pinning on the collar, see if the sleeves once again reveal themselves to me. 😶
My issue here is that my torso is tiny, and my arms are tiny. Small and slim beyond belief. Except for my shoulder blades, which are normal, and my big honking massive sharp shoulder joint! There's very little any fitting manual (I've read) says about this, and I'm doing a juggle between having a very slim sleeve and very much space for the enormous ball joint. This is why I usually do puffy sleeves, the enormo-joint just goes in the extra fabric without issue. Fucking shoulders, truly.
Like. Fucking hell, my waist and ribcage used to be EU32, and is now a comfortable 34. My bust is a reasonable 36. My shoulders? Will pull and be too tight in a 36, unless the sleeves are big and gathered! The shoulder, it will not fit!
Pour one out for my trans sisters trying to look cute, too. 😶 The shoulders! They hinder!
Also, honourable mention to my massive hips also, which have sampled sizes between 38 and 40, depending on how much exercise did.
Perhaps it is apparent why I make my own clothes, there's nothing out there that's actually my shape!
Sarah E Bourne@sinituulia I have always had to buy for my shoulders, which means the rest is too big. But that's better than not being able to move my arms because the shoulders are too small.
@sbourne Yeah, it's pretty much what I used to do. Some styles of sleeve would allow me to wear a 36 with the darts & side seams messed with... But bigger than that it would be like a bag on a skeleton figurine and not very nice!
Miriam's on Medical Leave@sinituulia this is why i wear a lot of tank tops, even in the winnipeg winter
@miriamrobern Regrettably am very very cold and sensitive to sun, and must almost always have sleeves!
Even more regrettably, am extremely particular about how clothes sit on me. 😆
Even more regrettably, am extremely particular about how clothes sit on me. 😆
John McChesney-Young@sinituulia Something which your posts and little fitting videos have underscored for me is the amount of measuring and cutting and sewing magic involved in making flat non-stretchy fabric into clothes that conform to a body shape without being confining. It's immensely impressive!
Joe W@sinituulia That... are some great design goals!
I really realise how uneducated about tailoring and fitting I am. Although I do admit that I sort of like wearing a suit sometimes and really think I look fab in it... (feels very out of place at my work, though). But I wouldn't know a good suit from a great one, know less about ladies' wear, and even less from different periods.
You probably know about Jill Bearup, who is a stage combatant and explained how to fit weapons into evening dresses?
@drchaos I am familiar with Jill (not personally, have seen her stuff) yes. 😄
Most clothes today aim for the goals of "fits most people enough to put the person inside it, not look great in it" and "the arms go into the sleeves and can sometimes be fully moved" because it's something of an art and every single body would need to be fitted and tailored to individually: Not something that gets done today unless you pay silly amounts of money for a bespoke suit or dress! With good luck people can find things they look nice in when the clothes are elastic and stretchy, but those will get sad and floppy much faster when the elastic fibres give out
@sinituulia ugh. Arms.
I used to play in orchestras (amateur), and playing the violin in a suit jacket can be surprisingly challenging. Same with nice shirts, the arms aren't well done, and if you do the civilised thing and wear the shirt in the trousers every movement just tries to untuck you. And don't get me started on some people's ideas of pockets, their size and placement, especially now I have a thicker neck than 20 years ago.
Your arms and the relative movement looks good (to me...)
@drchaos That handshake meme, tailors and physiotherapists both shaking on "that fucking shoulder joint..."
There used to be a specific button in men's shirts to button onto the trousers, so the shirt didn't ride up. A couple of little hooks for women's waists/bodices and skirts! But yeah, making the same thing for everyone fits on almost no one.
Sindarina, Edge Case Detective@sindarina Thank! Kerv is asleep on my lap so I am prevented from continuing!
@sinituulia Cat-enforced break time! 😻
Astrid@sinituulia looks great!
aceryz@sinituulia I did only a bit of sewing in my history reenactment days, and sewing in the sleeves was definitely the most frustrating part. I'm a simple amateur, give me the shirts made from rectangles...
Fingers crossed, I love the colour!
@aceryz They're mock-ups so they're made from a trash fabric (a twice repurposed old bedsheet) and only for the purposes of fitting the pattern!
@sinituulia Oh, this kind of mock-up. I thought it might be the sleeves proper, but with no seams yet, just to see how everything comes together.
Well, nice trash-fabric-colour, then ;)