No survivor? No CSI? I'll sew, then.

Yes, all my fave tv shows were moved or ignored for NCAA craziness. Thus my evening was unobstructed sewing. What's funny is how little I actually got done considering how long I had...I was retardedly slow when it came to pinning (and sewing, too, actually) this evening.

Anyway, I cut the outerdress bodice fabric, and finally figured out how to sew the blasted thing together with right sides together and turning inside out without getting hopelessly twisted on itself. Long story. There was a lot of seam ripping involved....

Regardless, here is the bodice as it stands now:

front

I like the shape a lot. This pic is sans fancy corset, so I'd say the boning in the bodice alone is pretty sturdy if i wanna cut back on some layers. I used the cable ties for boning in all my channels except for the boning that goes over the shoulder. For that I used regular old poly boning from Joanns, since I could get that in longer lengths than cable ties. My concern with the bodice "as-is" is that you can see the boning through the outer layer, so I may need to add a little padding layer. Sigh, I was hoping to avoid additional layers. This could be avoided with creative trim, though, as Beth suggested. I will think on it more. Oh yes, and I'm hoping those side wrinkles go away with skirt weight. If not, I will have ot be creative with ridding myself of them.

Here is the back as is:

back

You can see the butt point. its more pronounced than in pics from yesterday, but I still think it could be a bit more so. For the practice dress, I'm happy with this and won't change it. But on the real deal, my plan is to take the side seams further to the sides as they approach the bottom so that the triangle won't be so pinched, and to perhaps lengthen the triangle if the widening doesn't make me happy enough. The two sides on the waist are a bit uneven, but I think that will correct itself when I actually measure as to where I'm sewing the eyelets. This placement was rather cursory.

Also note: These are still my impermanent lacing strips, as I'm not ready to actually put in eyelets. I am still thinking of changing this practice dress to be a ladder laced front, so that would mean I just sew the back seams. So it is likely I will never put real eyelets in this particular model...

Oh, and just cuz i'm tickled with this idea:

straps

This is the result of taking boning up the front sides, through the shoulder straps and down the back. This is just wondeful, and I will definitely be doing this for the real dress. These straps are sturdy, and you can see that they hold their shape very well. They will NOT be slipping of my shoulders, which is great. And added bonus: they push the bosoms in from the sides to (hopefully) eliminate side cleavage while enhancing the sexy little bit in the middle. Italian Rennaissance cleavage enhancement.