Fire in Cairo -- Part Three - the beginning

 As you know from following this blog, I'm making a hot weather outfit for Belvidere Victorian Days next month based on the idea that it is Cairo in 1888. Last post, I played around with fabric to get an idea of the drape. Today, we're cutting and sewing the skirt.

First of you, you will remember that our inspiration image shows gathers all the way around the skirt, not just on the back as with TV221 -- Tie-Back Underskirt. So I decided to increase the width of all the pieces except the back to try and replicate this look.

How did I do this? I laid the pattern pieces out on my fabric and let the fabric width tell me where to cut.

You see, there was exactly 12" between the side back and the center front piece as shown in the photo above. So I drew a line exactly 6" away from each piece (basically right down the middle) and cut there, transferring all pattern marks to those lines.

I sewed all the piecs together with French seams and ran a basting thread about 1" down from the top of the waist. Then I pinned the skirt onto my dress form wearing my corset and gathered up the waistline.

Not bad, eh? Obviously I will form the gathers more carefully when I attach the waistband. This was done to get the feeling of how it would look before I did any serious gathering.

The I ran up a mockup of the bodice just to see how it would look. It needs a little adjustment, but it is strangely close to my size right out of the box.

Tomorrow:   The hip drape!