The four Renaissance gowns are presenting me with new challenges at every turn. First there wasn't enough of several of the fabrics I wanted to use, so the under-dresses had to have 'pieced' skirts. One of the skirts refused to let go of it's creases, and then the iron fought back, spilling water on the satin and making permanent stains.
I designed the sleeves so the lower part could do up with snaps instead of lacing through eyelets, since it's so much easier to do up. But even though I thought I added enough extra width to the bottoms of the sleeves, after all the layers of fabrics and trims, they would no longer overlap at the wrist. But I hadn't planned on using eyelets so the trims were not sewn on leaving spaces for eyelets. Okay, so the sleeves will now have snaps partway down, and the wrist will get tied shut with ribbons, which I still have to sew on.
This morning I stripped my Rosy so she could model along with Ryung. The underdress went on fine. Rosy isn't quite as large in the bust area as Ryung, so the dress fits a bit looser, but the over-dress can be laced tightly over top, so it doesn't matter. BUT, then when I tried to put the over-dress bodice on Rosy, her one hand wouldn't go through the sleeve. I had designed the sleeve to let through Ryung's hand, but hadn't considered some other dolls of similar size have wider-spread fingers. Rosy's hand will have to come off in order for her arm to fit through the sleeve. Which means I need to design some 'dressing balls' to include with the gowns. 'Dressing balls" are wooden balls, a bit larger than the wrist opening on the lower arm, and they have an open screw-eye hook on one end and a closed screw-eye on the other. You gently pull the doll's hand, hook the 'dressing ball' into the arm elastic, remove the hand, and then dress the doll. After you are done, you pull the 'dressing ball' to expose the arm elastic, and slip the doll's hand back on. Always something!
Anyway, here's Ryung and Rosy, both in their under-dresses, trying on a bodice with one sleeve...
I designed the sleeves so the lower part could do up with snaps instead of lacing through eyelets, since it's so much easier to do up. But even though I thought I added enough extra width to the bottoms of the sleeves, after all the layers of fabrics and trims, they would no longer overlap at the wrist. But I hadn't planned on using eyelets so the trims were not sewn on leaving spaces for eyelets. Okay, so the sleeves will now have snaps partway down, and the wrist will get tied shut with ribbons, which I still have to sew on.
This morning I stripped my Rosy so she could model along with Ryung. The underdress went on fine. Rosy isn't quite as large in the bust area as Ryung, so the dress fits a bit looser, but the over-dress can be laced tightly over top, so it doesn't matter. BUT, then when I tried to put the over-dress bodice on Rosy, her one hand wouldn't go through the sleeve. I had designed the sleeve to let through Ryung's hand, but hadn't considered some other dolls of similar size have wider-spread fingers. Rosy's hand will have to come off in order for her arm to fit through the sleeve. Which means I need to design some 'dressing balls' to include with the gowns. 'Dressing balls" are wooden balls, a bit larger than the wrist opening on the lower arm, and they have an open screw-eye hook on one end and a closed screw-eye on the other. You gently pull the doll's hand, hook the 'dressing ball' into the arm elastic, remove the hand, and then dress the doll. After you are done, you pull the 'dressing ball' to expose the arm elastic, and slip the doll's hand back on. Always something!
Anyway, here's Ryung and Rosy, both in their under-dresses, trying on a bodice with one sleeve...
The bodices won't get their edge trim and eyelets until after the over-skirts are attached. The wine and gold sleeve still needs some decorative beading and the snaps sewn on so it fits tight.
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