More on the skirt...

After a sick day delay (boo!), I was able to finish up a large part of the skirt.  It's almost too bad a good portion of it will be under swaths of lace--although that will also hide some of the less perfect parts.

Hiding a pocket in the closure--easiest place to do it and it will be covered up anyway.  I made it deep enough to hold my cell phone since I always carry it around at school and never have anywhere good to keep it in the historic outfits.  This is way better than hiding it in my cleavage...

Showing the construction of the bands--there are no visible seems on the original dress, but also no images showing exactly how it was sewn together.  The bands seem to 'float' above the background fabric, so I gave them a bit of extra room to allow for puffiness.  I think this approach would have worked better if I'd used a fabric that could have a crisp edge ironed into it.  This thick upholstery fabric didn't quite comply with my wishes.  The green is sewn to the base layer (muslin) at the top, then the bottom is sewn directly to the smaller ivory band.  The ivory band gets top-stitched to the muslin very close to the green fabric seem (almost stitch-in-the-ditch), with a little extra room for the green to 'puff' and cover over the top-stitching.  The pattern continues, with no visible top-stitching once complete.

Right side of the skirt.  This will be largely covered by lace, fabric, and more fabric.  And some more lace.

Bands ready for decorative fun!  The original seems to have some sort of bows, but there is no photo of the left side of the dress (also where the top closure is hidden).  So without a clear direction, I chose to go off on my own.  No, I have no particular historic garment to justify this particular design.  Just that I am not overly fond of bows, but I do like buttons--sans buttonholes.  I hate making buttonholes.

Insets sewn in and ready to flip right-side-out.  Then a lot of hand-sewing to get all the parts connected without visible stitching.  This part got pretty tedious.

Buttons!  Cloth-covered and debonair.  

Next up are yards and yards of lace to drape artistically.  Followed by about seventeen hundred more tasks after that...until then, more NyQuil and some sleep.

Dress Construction!! Bodice and Skirt

Finally!  I'm actually working on the dress itself!  

First, there was a bit of a detour in fabricland since I couldn't find what I really wanted.  Apparently blue is just not in this year--it was impossible to find.  I did locate something that might have worked, but I would have had to order online and hope it was good, and at $70+ a yard, I figured I'd better pass.  So after one last-ditch trip to Joanne's, I did find some upholstery fabric that will work.  Out with the blue and gold color scheme, and in with the green and creme!

Dress form adjusted for corset and ready to rock

I needed to start drafting a pattern for the bodice.  Thankfully, a lot of the bodice is covered by other pieces, so this seemed like a great place to start.  The original body block/slope was for completely different measurements than the corset, but did have my correct armscye (I think I must have ape-like arms).  The corset pattern also had a lot of the correct shaping.  Therefore, I figured combining the two would at least give me a good place to start.

Original body block + corset pattern = new pattern

I had quite a bit of correcting to do from the first attempt (which I expected with such a random mash-up approach!).  I was glad I'd spent time figuring out how all this worked--it was much easier to snip, pin, move, and add darts than my first try at drafting a pattern.

Corrected pattern pieces out of muslin

Pretty new paper pattern all cut out and ready to go

I did add an additional piece along the front closure so I have a bit more strength when it comes to adding the boning, grommets, and lacing.  Oh yeah, I am out of grommets and only have a setting kit for 3/8th inchers.  Now I need to go get more grommet toys...

Not trusting my dress form entirely, I figured I'd better just try it on myself.  The front closure is just pinned together, but I think this will work!  Day 1 is a success.

 Next up, the skirt.  I started with just a big loop of fabric the correct circumference at the floor with a couple extra inches length on the back to allow for the bustle.  Then I used the dress form (named Dorcas) to drape and get the waist just right.

One side is all done--look how much extra fabric I removed by using darts instead of gathering (and that's just on one side)!  

Inside-out checking the fit one more time.  Reminds me of a nine-gore skirt.

Skirt is ready!  Right-hand pocket access is being planned in since I ALWAYS wish I had a pocket, but am usually too lazy to put them in.

Front is fairly narrow and drops straight down with little flare.

Shape of inspiration dress

Back is full of darts with one box pleat at the center to allow for lots of bustle room.

Back to the sewing table!