The Gown that Wasn't

In packing up for Costume College I took a hard look at where I was with my gown. As much as I'd been working on it for the last 2 months it would not be ready. One more week and I've have been good, but not this time. Easy I'd told myself.

The stripes are basted on. The swags are pinned on. I need to make more ruffles, add closures, neckline, flowers etc. But you can see the vision.

Shaping up. It no longer looks like a wedding gown. And the fit...

Curves for days.

The gown has 4 layers - a cotton sateen flat lining, organza interface, silk charmeuse ground, and silk gauze overlayer. This is the gown before the layer of gauze and hemming, with the ruffles laid out for effect.

For the hem I added bias cotton flannel interfacing, off instructions in "Authentic Victorian Dressmaking Techniques." They do not lie in the amount of basting needed for this method. The hem line and the flannel need to be based in. I ended up grading the inside (removing the cotton and organza in this case) of the hem, so I didn't have to fight 3 different fabrics. I did the tuck method to take in the excess, which worked great in this light weight charmeuse. I was not good about catching the flannel as I sewed, so I will need to run another line of stitches to keep the flannel from moving around.

The gauze is tricky as it needs to be fitted to the bodice but loose over the skirt.  I constructed the gauze layer seperately and put it on inside out so I could clip the seams, so they wouldn't show under the "stripes."  The stripes are about 5/8 inch wide, which doesn't leave me much wiggle room. In retrospect I'd only do the skirt section in advance, as I had to pick and re-do a number of gauze seams to get it to match the gown exactly. Gauze is squirrelly to work with, and hand futzing is what worked.

Sigh. Am debating adding another stripe to the side panel. The fashion plate clearly shows a dart here, but I'm finding with my less, um, delicate stature that it is creating a bit of a negative space. But aligning a stripe to the dart is surprisingly hard, and I may need to unpick.

It will be beautiful. Someday.

So instead I wore my modernized 1940's gown I made a couple years ago, a tiara and a fur coat. Hubby (accidentally) dressed like Mr Selfridge.