Truly Victorian

[the_costumer]

these things are so freaking cute!

How big are they anyway? Are the dresses really quick to make? What's the time for making one? Are they hand sewn? I can't imagine the little stitches, or small seamallowance or pressing of these things.

What do you use for boning, grommets, lacing?

I really want to make one!

[Heather]

They are way cuter in real life than the pictures, that's for sure.

They stand about 30" tall, which would be about the size of a 34" doll. They are the same as a 1/2 size dress form, if you have seen those. They are not so very small that they are difficult to sew. We used a sewing machine for almost everything, pretty much the same as on a full sized dress. The patterns have 1/4" seam allowances, the same used in quilting, so a quilters pressure foot really helps to get your seams the proper width. There are small quilters irons that you can use, but I think for most of it, we used a full sized iron.

For buttons, we found 3/8" and 1/4" button at JoAnns, which are the perfect size: they would be the equivalent of the 1/2" and 3/4" button on full size dress. For the boning, we found the miniature cable ties to work very well. These are 1/16" wide, which is perfect to scale, and easy to cut to the length you need.

For the corset, we used full sized grommets, size 00, as we couldn't get anything smaller. They look fine, just like the larger grommets would look in a full size corset. For the busk, we used a standard sized 6" busk. It also looked just fine. In one corset we omitted the busk, and that worked well, too.

These garments seem to take about 1/2 to 3/4 the time it takes to make a full sized dress. And only 1/4 of the fabric.
_________________
Heather McNaughton

Costume Designer
www.trulyvictorian.com
www.demifashions.com