DD: My first venture with dupioni silk
Sep. 22nd, 2009 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzWelcome back to the dress diaries. Previous posts in this dress diary:
The prelude;
Part I;
Part II;
Part III;
Part IV;
Part V;
Part VI;
Last time I posted something about this dress diary is already three months back. Work just got in the way, as it used to do.
But: November is rapidly approaching and the dress needs finishing. Since my red bodys (the third mock-up) were worn to Puerto, they're no longer salvagable. The coutil will hold up until finally the last bone has escaped from its channel and then it's really done for. High time to work on some new bodys!
I picked up again last Sunday, laying out the pattern pieces and tracing them onto the WonderUnder. Here's a quick picture to remind you what I'll be working with.
I've never worked with dupioni silk before but I did read![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
corsetmakers on a regular basis. I've heard of the terrors other people endured with silk. Silk taffeta rolls up like a crisp when you iron your interfacing onto it, and dupioni is known for its 'railroading' - your needle pulling fibres through, letting your fabric go all runny.
I must admit, I had little trouble.
I started out by ironing the silk on the wrong side of the fabric after wetting it. It smelled rather... strangely (reminiscent of pig farms...) but I persevered and let the fabric cool off and dry out over the ironing board before continuing with my pattern pieces.
As you can see in above picture, I lengthened the back somewhat. The bottom edge of the red bodys was pressing on (*blush*) one of my love handles whenever I sat down, making for an uncomfortable feeling. I'm curious if this will work -- but it's easily enough taken off again if need be.
The dupioni has this incredible sheen, emphasized by the flash. Ironing the interfacing onto it went fine. This is a front pattern piece. At first, when I ironed the interfacing to the silk, the silk would bunch up, creating a rubbed surface on the paper of the interfacing. As soon as the fabric cooled down, these wrinkles disappeared also. After cutting out the pattern pieces, I fused the dupioni to the coutil. I chose white coutil because black would shine through. White just emphasizes the amazing colour. I really love this fabric already...perhaps because it's behaving rather well.
After sewing the facing to the front closing, I opened up the seam and pressed the facing to the inside. Good tools make your job so much easier! I use two irons, and two ironing board covers. One iron and one cover are for working with Wonder Under, the others are "clean" -- no WonderUnder ever comes near it, so it can't accidentally be pressed onto the right side of the fabric, leaving black smudges.
But good machine feet are a wonder too. The above presser foot makes sure I keep an even distance from the side of the fabric. Since I can change my needle position in a 9 mm width, I can really set my position to be as close to, or as far away from the edge as I need. And your stitch will follow the edge perfectly, be it rounded or straight as a corset's lacing edge.
The finished facings. There are two boning channels stitched in there, and the raw edge of the fabric is turned under into the second boning channel. The thread matches the fabric so well I'm having a hard time seeing the channel stitches.
There's also space for eyelets, which will also be done by machine. The eyelet plate is another handy tool I wouldn't want to do without!
After two nights of stitching, the eyelets are done. I've tied all loose ends in the back. Work is putting a crimp in my tempo, but I'm sure that the hardest part is done now. I can't wrap my head around the lovely sheen of the fabric!
Next up: sewing boning tape into the front and back and putting it all togheter!
I'm sure I'll work on the bodys for the rest of the week as well, but I also need to visit the gym for some exercises and there's D&D on Wednesday, so I figured I might as well get this half online for you now.
The prelude;
Part I;
Part II;
Part III;
Part IV;
Part V;
Part VI;
Last time I posted something about this dress diary is already three months back. Work just got in the way, as it used to do.
But: November is rapidly approaching and the dress needs finishing. Since my red bodys (the third mock-up) were worn to Puerto, they're no longer salvagable. The coutil will hold up until finally the last bone has escaped from its channel and then it's really done for. High time to work on some new bodys!
I picked up again last Sunday, laying out the pattern pieces and tracing them onto the WonderUnder. Here's a quick picture to remind you what I'll be working with.
I've never worked with dupioni silk before but I did read
corsetmakers on a regular basis. I've heard of the terrors other people endured with silk. Silk taffeta rolls up like a crisp when you iron your interfacing onto it, and dupioni is known for its 'railroading' - your needle pulling fibres through, letting your fabric go all runny. I must admit, I had little trouble.
I started out by ironing the silk on the wrong side of the fabric after wetting it. It smelled rather... strangely (reminiscent of pig farms...) but I persevered and let the fabric cool off and dry out over the ironing board before continuing with my pattern pieces.
As you can see in above picture, I lengthened the back somewhat. The bottom edge of the red bodys was pressing on (*blush*) one of my love handles whenever I sat down, making for an uncomfortable feeling. I'm curious if this will work -- but it's easily enough taken off again if need be.
The dupioni has this incredible sheen, emphasized by the flash. Ironing the interfacing onto it went fine. This is a front pattern piece. At first, when I ironed the interfacing to the silk, the silk would bunch up, creating a rubbed surface on the paper of the interfacing. As soon as the fabric cooled down, these wrinkles disappeared also. After cutting out the pattern pieces, I fused the dupioni to the coutil. I chose white coutil because black would shine through. White just emphasizes the amazing colour. I really love this fabric already...perhaps because it's behaving rather well.
After sewing the facing to the front closing, I opened up the seam and pressed the facing to the inside. Good tools make your job so much easier! I use two irons, and two ironing board covers. One iron and one cover are for working with Wonder Under, the others are "clean" -- no WonderUnder ever comes near it, so it can't accidentally be pressed onto the right side of the fabric, leaving black smudges.
But good machine feet are a wonder too. The above presser foot makes sure I keep an even distance from the side of the fabric. Since I can change my needle position in a 9 mm width, I can really set my position to be as close to, or as far away from the edge as I need. And your stitch will follow the edge perfectly, be it rounded or straight as a corset's lacing edge.
The finished facings. There are two boning channels stitched in there, and the raw edge of the fabric is turned under into the second boning channel. The thread matches the fabric so well I'm having a hard time seeing the channel stitches.
There's also space for eyelets, which will also be done by machine. The eyelet plate is another handy tool I wouldn't want to do without!
After two nights of stitching, the eyelets are done. I've tied all loose ends in the back. Work is putting a crimp in my tempo, but I'm sure that the hardest part is done now. I can't wrap my head around the lovely sheen of the fabric!
Next up: sewing boning tape into the front and back and putting it all togheter!
I'm sure I'll work on the bodys for the rest of the week as well, but I also need to visit the gym for some exercises and there's D&D on Wednesday, so I figured I might as well get this half online for you now.
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