Now that you have pattern pieces, it’s time to begin fashioning the inner structure, “the guts”, of your bodice.
There is no set-in-stone rule for this. If you are of a slight build with an A cup, you could get away with two layers of quilting cotton, starched and quilted. If you’re fluffy but still moderate in the bosom, you might need three layers of fabric, maybe one of them a canvas, and perhaps secondary stiffening such as rigeline or cable ties at the lacing edges and center front. If you have huge tracts of land on a small frame, you’re going to need much more infrastructure to get the right look which may involve multiple quilted layers of canvas or duck cloth.
My own process is to starch the living daylights out of my chosen “gut” fabrics, layer them, quilt them, add lacing stiffening, and try it on. I then determine if I need any additional stiffening based on that fit.
But how do you assemble it without seam allowances?? We will get there.
First- pick gut fabrics.
For the love of all things holy don’t use synthetics. It doesn’t matter if it’s cotton or linen. Just please no synthetics.
A tight weave is best and a firm hand is quite helpful. Quilting cotton works just fine. Cotton duck works very well for a heavier hand. Even a sheer such as cotton or linen organdy can work.
My current favorite infrastructure fabrics are cotton bedsheets from Goodwill.
Silk and wool, while both natural fibers have not worked well for me as inner layers. If you are planning a lower-class (less stiff and shaped) impression, heavily quilted wool might work quite well. For my purposes so far, a mix of cotton and linen has proved coolest and least bulky.
One consideration to keep in mind is the colors and sheerness of your final gown fabrics. Will the tones and or patterns of the guts show through? I ran into an issue with a gown that my random pattern but fabrics showed through not only the lining, but the face fabric.
Misery!
Often a printed fabric with its printed faces turned inwards towards each other will blur the pattern out enough that it poses no risk of showing through.
But check first!
Next, stiffen your chosen fabrics.
Starch is your friend.
I have “helpful” cats that are bound and determined to drink everything that will kill them, so I do not use liquid starch. I just use cans. Look for spray starch in local bodegas or outlet shops. Prices there are a fraction of what Amazon or a fabric store would charge.
Cut a section of your chosen scaffolding fabric at least 4- 5 inches larger in all directions than your pattern pieces. Remember that your pattern is designed on a fold for ease of storage. The actual piece will be twice as wide.
Lay that piece out and spray it down. I mean HOSE it down with starch.
Fold it up into a palm-size package.
Pick it up and squish the starch in. If your hand isn’t damp to wet, you need more starch.
Squeezing the starch in does two things. One, it speeds the process up by saturating the whole fabric at once rather than coating one side at a time. Two, it greatly reduces sticking issues with your iron.
Iron the fabric out. You want those fibers as flat and as far away from each other as the weave will allow. This is because natural fabrics react to body heat. Linen in particular is quite stretchy. “Pre-stretching” using heat and starch greatly minimizes any further movement after construction.
It should feel paper-like and crunchy when you pull it off your work surface. Be very aware of overspray or dripping! You can fall if you’ve starched your floor too!
Draw your pattern piece on the surface of one of your sheets, mirrored at the center. I like sharpies. A solid, relatively thick line works well with the stitching technique coming up.
Fold the piece of fabric with the traced pattern in half, drawn sides facing each other, lining the lines up as if it were a mirror image. Press a fold down the middle by hand, creasing firmly. Layer the traced pattern sheet with your other stretched pieces of gut fabric. Now you’re ready to quilt.