FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
At Castle Leoch
(click images to to enlarge)
Other Credits
https://www.instagram.com/takumidk/
Outline the story …
I have always loved the story of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, where a woman from 1945, moves to Scotland with her husband, and while discovering new herbs, she feels drawn to a circle of stones, which is humming. When touching them, she gets transported to another time, which she later discovers to be 1743. There she is given some clothes to wear, which is described on Chapter 3 (and on my book, on page 94).
Now, this is where my first problem arose, since my book is in Portuguese. And the description slightly differs from the original, as I then discovered. Honestly it reminded me of “The Chocolate Girl”, which I then used as a sort of inspiration.
This was a project I had for a long time but never started, from a long way since I started reading the books, watching the TV show and even listening to the audio books when going to work. The world described in it, made the cosplayer in me wake up again, and the will to recreate the first outfit Claire gets to wear in the 18th century.
Outline the construction…
Starting with the stays pattern, which I already had but needed to enlarge. So I finally gave good use to my pattern drafting classes. Quite a good job, if I may say so. Even though in the book, no stays are referred.
At a certain point, I ran out of synthetic baleen. Since I couldn’t buy any more, because, quarantine, I used some plastic zippers instead. As they were short, I drilled them, sewed them in pairs, and got several longer ones.
Both the shift and the petticoats were fairly easy to make. I studied some tutorials on the www, which guided me to complete these.
Then, finally the bodice. This was my main problem, since the pattern is a bit different from what I am used to. I found a small drawing of a bodice pattern, made a grid on it, and scaled it to my proportions. Then made my first ever mock-up! Shocking, I know. But I felt I had to, because those arm holes and sleeves were determined to go wrong. And they did. I had to try it out, draw on the mock-up while using it, try to understand what was wrong, disassemble everything, and quick stitch everything to try it out again. And then, the final fitting, drafting the final pattern, cutting the final fabric and sewing everything. And,… still the arms were wrong. I disassembled them, fitted, cut, and put everything together again, which resulted on what you can now see on the pictures.
I too took inspiration from the “Chocolate girl. I love your shift detailing. You look AWESOME!
The “Chocolate Girl” is indeed wonderful, and probably has a lot of followers. Thanks you so much for your kind words ^_~
I love how that brown plaid fabric skirt is pleated, and the bright yellow colour of the jacket! It reminds me of a sunflower! You look wonderful in this!
Thank you so much. The plaid is quite a puzzle to get pleated. I am glad you have enjoyed my work ^_~
I have so much love for the delicate lace you chose!!
Thank you so much!! I believe it is the first time I used cotton lace on something. ^_~
Your stitching is so neat! Great job♡
So happy!! Thank you!! ^_~
That chocolate brown tartan with that bright yellow is lovely, and well done on the stays and the bodice, your hard work paid off! Love the creative use of plastic zippers too!
Thank you so much for enjoying my work!! The plastic zippers were a fun part… to drill holes, and stitch them to each other so they would be long enough. ^_~
Scaling up a pattern from a grid and fitting a bodice is hard work! It turned out beautiful, well done <3 I love the bright yellow 🙂
Thank you for your lovely words!! First time scaling anything this intricate and it makes me very happy to learn that others enjoy how it turned out. ^_~