Day two of the four day polonaise project was spent laying out the outer wool, getting up the nerve to cut into it and fitting it over the lining.
Fitting the outer follows the same steps as fitting the lining, only now the goal is to line up the outer and lining as much as possible. Pins, pins and more pins are essential in this process. I sometimes call it "sewing with pins".
By the end of the evening I had also sewn the sleeves together and was roughly fitting them into the arm scye. Note the nice little pleats on the back of the shoulder being held together with pins.
I also turned under the seam allowance around the neckline and whip stitched it in place. I'm amazed at how nice my hand sewing has become in just under a year. I used to sew with these big Frankenstein stitches, and now they are actually neat and even enough that I want to show them off.
At this point in the project I had stopped following the directions that came with the pattern (naturally). I ended up relying on the techniques I learned in other projects and finished interior photos I've seen on-line.
While I could have turned under both the lining and the outer around the neck and done something like machine top stitching and/or prickstitching, I prefer the wool covering the linen. The flannel doesn't fray and will wear better around the neck. While in the end removing the lining for replacement will mean completely dismantling the bodice, I think the long term benefit of having a more sturdy edge will out weigh the possible non-historically based construction.
Fitting the outer follows the same steps as fitting the lining, only now the goal is to line up the outer and lining as much as possible. Pins, pins and more pins are essential in this process. I sometimes call it "sewing with pins".
By the end of the evening I had also sewn the sleeves together and was roughly fitting them into the arm scye. Note the nice little pleats on the back of the shoulder being held together with pins.
I also turned under the seam allowance around the neckline and whip stitched it in place. I'm amazed at how nice my hand sewing has become in just under a year. I used to sew with these big Frankenstein stitches, and now they are actually neat and even enough that I want to show them off.
At this point in the project I had stopped following the directions that came with the pattern (naturally). I ended up relying on the techniques I learned in other projects and finished interior photos I've seen on-line.
While I could have turned under both the lining and the outer around the neck and done something like machine top stitching and/or prickstitching, I prefer the wool covering the linen. The flannel doesn't fray and will wear better around the neck. While in the end removing the lining for replacement will mean completely dismantling the bodice, I think the long term benefit of having a more sturdy edge will out weigh the possible non-historically based construction.
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