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On the 1879 Cuirass Bodice pattern, where is the center front relative to the front seam line? I'm going to keep the button front closure, and am trying to figure out how much overlap the pattern's designed for.

Thanks a bunch,
Coffee Em

Hi Em!! I turn under each side of my bodice 1 ince and have about 1 inch overlap or just a smidge moore...the trick for no pulling or gapping is to do your button holes horizontal and space them closely...I like them about every inch...keeps things closed nicely, and looks nicely victorian!

Josie(Known other places as Gypsy )

Hiya, Gypsy Josie! (Your photos posted in the other section gave you away!)

Thanks a bunch. A friend just did some pinning on my fitting shell for me yesterday evening, so I feel I'm ready to redraft my pattern and launch into, ahem, The Real Thing. She took out the slack in the upper bodice by pinning up the shoulder seams a bit (who knew!). She also wondered aloud about whether the neckline wasn't rather high in the front, so I'm giving that a last squint before doing anything irrevocable.

I begin to have hopes that I'll end up with 1) a bodice that fits, and 2), a pattern I can reuse to make more bodices that fit. Trust me, this is pretty much a first in my sewing life!

Best,
Coffee Em

Oh, and rest of response--when I did RennFairs, a lot of folks used a strip of boning at the opening edges of a laced bodice to keep the edge straight under the strain of containing their wenchly attributes . I think your tip--many horizontal buttonholes--will do just fine for me. (Oh, and I once heard from another clever costumer, who, when she came up short on boning for that opeing edge, used a section of car radio antenna sewn into the bodice front!)

Many, many buttons, huh? Yeah, I'll probably do this. Especially since I'm planning on covered buttons, and that sounds like just the sort of self-induced torment I'm always letting myself in for.

Best again,
Emma

[Heather]

Hi Emma,

The pattern should have a lap of 1" optimally. So the actual center front line is 1" from the cut edge of your fabric. This can be changed to fine tune your fit if you need to.

I like to put my buttons every 1 1/4" and have no problem with gapping. Horizontal holes always!

You don't want to put any boning along your button edges. It will make it more diffcult to button. You only need the boning on the edges when you lace something closed.

Thanks, Heather! Yep, it looks as if the one inch overlap will be very nice indeed.

I wasn't really proposing boning along the opening edge of this bodice; it was just that the subject of gapping reminded me of it, and of the story about the car antenna. I'm always impressed and delighted by these unexpected sewing notions. Costumers are a wiley bunch...!

Cheers,
Coffee Em