Eowyn Victory Dress Part 4: Piping

The trim along the sleeves of both Eowyn's jacket and dress is gold piping.  I couldn't find any at the local shops, and I wasn't going to go all the way to Vogue or the fabric district to find piping.  Plus, piping is about $2.50 for three yards, and I need a LOT of it.  There was some on eBay, but again,  too much money and waiting. 

So, for the first time, I made my own.

I bought one yard of gold metallic material from JoAnn Fabrics.  With my 40% off coupon, it was about $2.50.  I used 1/8" cotton cording from Home Depot.  It cost me just under $5.

I cut the fabric into strips just over 1" wide, then pinned it along the cording.

I sewed it with a medium length stitch so that it would be easier to rip when finishing the ends.

I sewed as close to the cording as I could without sewing through it.  Because the material is so slippery, it was bunching up a little as I sewed, but if I didn't catch the cording, it would stretch back out.

I finished with about 35 feet of cording for less than $10.  The only thing I didn't realize is that when I went back after putting all of the material on to sew over the edges and prevent fraying, the very act of sewing made it fray more.  I guess I should have sewed the edges as I went along.  It's okay: if it's not usable, I can remake it.  It only took about two hours to make.

Eowyn Victory Dress Part 3: Jacket Front Panel

I still don't know what to call this darn thing.  It must have an actual name.

So, the jacket has this really cool embroidered detailing over it.  I started drafting it the other night. I'm a bit annoyed that we don't know what the back looks like.  Is it just the front panel, or does this detailing go down over the back at all?  Oh well.

I made the jacket bodice mock-up out of white muslin, so I used scraps from Shadow Weaver to make the front piece and belts for contrast.

 I made some adjustments, then made another mock-up out of the original brocade I'd purchased for the costume.

It's just about right, so I made the patterns with seam allowances.  There will still be some adjustments to make with how the belts lay on the sides, but I think I'm about 95% done with the fitting for this.  I won't know for sure until I finish the base of the jacket, which won't be until I figure out what to do about the sleeves.   I also made the base of the jacket longer.  It can always be trimmed.

Patterns pre-seam allowance

The embroidery for this is going to be the trickiest part.  I won't be tackling that until the base of the panel is completed.

Here it is with the actual fabric I'm going to use and the jacket mock-up.  It still needs some adjustments, but overall, I'm pretty happy with where it is at the moment.

Eowyn Victory Dress Part 2: The Jacket

Yesterday I dyed the fabric for the jacket, and today I worked on drafting the pattern.  For the bodice of the jacket, I used Simplicity pattern 4940, which is a pattern that I turn to for a lot of projects.  In addition to the gown, there is a separate bodice pattern.  It's actually two pieces, so I had to alter it into one piece.  I did make some other adjustments, including lower the bottom of the bodice (I still have to make it a tad lower).  I do still need to work on the sleeve area, as it doesn't fall quite right with the drafted sleeve.

The fabric is a gold metallic brocade from JoAnn Fabrics.  I dyed it in my washing machine on the medium load setting with 2 tsp Teal and 2 tsp Evening Blue Rit Dye.  I think it turned out pretty well!  After careful consideration, I decided that the best thing to do was to make the next draft of the bodice out of the actual fabric.  The reason for this is that the fabric is a lot stiffer than the muslin, and I wasn't sure if it would lay the same way.  Luckily, I have about 16 yards of this stuff, so as long as I work with the same pieces over and over as I make my adjustments, I'll have enough to make more.

Here is the base of the jacket, both front and back.

The sleeves really had me confused for a long time (and I can't say that I'm NOT confused by them right now).  First, they are split in the front, which is actually more difficult to figure out than it seems.  Second, there aren't many reference shots of the sleeves, and they're not very good quality, so the shaping, the length, and the cut are difficult to discern.

After trying to modify one of my sleeve patterns, I decided to attempt draping.

But first, because my only reference photo of the length and width of the sleeves is of Miranda Otto from the back, I had to make a duct-tape dummy of just my bent arm.  I pinned this to my mannequin so I had a shape upon which to build the sleeves.

This is only a start, but I am heartened by how it went.  I think if I can use one of my sleeve patterns to do the shoulder area, I'll be able to use the sleeves that I formed by draping to make the rest.

Draping - Rear View

 And here's the sleeve sewn onto the bodice.  There is a lot of material that I have to remove under the arm and figure out how to do the split a little better.  I also feel like it needs to be slightly wider.  Also, the sleeve isn't actually that long, but I haven't figured out long they need to be.  I need to be in the proper shoes, first.

So, that's where I am now.  Tomorrow I'll post about the front panel (front piece?  What do I call that?)  I actually worked on that the other day.  Because so much of it requires trim and beads and embroidery, I'd like to get the base of it finalized this weekend so that I can start the detailing.  I ordered all of my lining yesterday, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish the under dress next week.