2 Days Before the Ball --- Trimming Down

It's two days before the Ball and I still have a bit of work to do --- specifically TRIM!!! Of which I don't have anything appropriate at home. There's a Joann's Fabric store near work, so I went there and picked up a variety of trim (and saved the receipts for those I won't use....). I brought my bodice along to do some trim comparison.

The one thing I've discovered about trim is that I very rarely find the "perfect" one. I usually get close enough or I have to layer different trims to get the look I was after. In this case, there wasn't nothing perfect, but I didn't have time to look around at different fabric shops. (Plus, we now have a dearth of good fabric stores in our area.)

I found two trims that could be layered together to make something suitable. First, I found this long fringe that was intended for curtains or some form of upholstery.

It was much too wide for the bodice, but when folder over, it was the right size and it had a fuller look. Plus, it allowed me to sew down a few of the loose tassel bits that you can see in the photo.

I had to sew v e r y  s l o w l y so that the tassels wouldn't catch.

 

I purchased another length of trim that I layered on top of it. I think it looks good.

It took about an hour to pin and sew the three yards of gold trim together.  However, slowly sewing on the machine was much faster than hand sewing.

Before I attached the trim, I top-stitched all of the edges (collar, neck, armscye) to help flatten the edge and hold all of the layers together.

I pinned the trim to the bodice; sewing will come later. Also notice that I added all of the eyes and hooks to the bodice, which was also pretty darn time consuming.

Pinning the trim down.

I was also playing around with the ribbon, trying to make something appropriate for the shoulders...in this case a looped ribbon rosette. I'll probably make a centerpiece cockade for this.

Unfortunately, I didn't get much else done as the work was a bit time consuming.

Things done and still left to do:

1. Finalize the front bodice pieces.
2. Sew the front bodice to the rest
3. Add grosgrain ribbon around the neck
4. Sew lining & fabric together
5. Trim, trim, and more trim.
• Make trim
• Add trim
6. Add closures:
• Add closures to bodice
• Add closures to skirt
7. Sew a new waistband onto the skirt. 
8. (Optional) Make Corset.