The Dress
So, here’s the tale of the dress. For this year’s faire season, I decided that I needed to make myself an Italian gown, based off many Veronese portraits like these
.
I wanted the distinctive front laced ‘V’ opening, decadent fabric and pearl accessories. I ended up finding a gorgeous silk jacquard at Manhattan Fabrics.
I actually made the camicia last year, but never finished the edges or hemmed it. So it hung in the sewing room for quite some time.
This season, I started out with the corset. First I tried the Margo Anderson pattern. That just didn’t work for me. I’m sure it was user error, but it just looked wrong on me. Next I tried the Tudor Tailor Elizabeth Vernon pattern, and amazingly, that worked! I left off the soft tabs, but otherwise, it fit just fine. I made it from two layers of canvas for the interior, a layer of 5.3 oz white linen as the lining, and a layer of white silk/linen herringbone twill as the outer fabric. I boned it with 1/2 inch flat steel, and made the eyelets using my machine, rather than grommets. For lacing, I used white grosgrain ribbon and spiral laced it. I did use grommets and ribbon to attach the shoulder straps in the front, but that was because I forgot to do them before I’d boned and finshed everything. I also made the mistake of serging the edges in green before I remembered that I needed it to be under a handkerchief weight camicia and the green might show through. So, I then rebound the edges with white silk bias tape. But not very well. A bit messy.
I’d also made a small shift to wear under the corset, but after one wearing, I decided that it was a little too scratchy and I ended up wearing a modern camisole instead.
Then, life got in the way, and I ended up working on two outfits for the Head TrashRat, a pair of pants and a shirt for another friend, shirts and pants for TOH, a skirt for myself, a quick bodice for myself (based on the TT corset I’d made), and a bodice and shirt for another friend. I was beginning to think I’d not get my own dress done.
So, fast forward to the week preceeding Friday, October 21st. I’d been working on my dress every weeknight after work, trying to get it finished for Saturday the 22nd. Up until this point, I’d gotten the bodice finished. For the bodice I had a layer of the silk brocase, a layer of habatoi silk, two layers of cotton canvas and a layer of silk/microfiber for the lining. I used duct ties for the boning, rather than steel, since I’d used the steel in the corset. I left work early, and came home to sew.
Cartridge pleating with drapery tape is a lifesaver. Especially when you are pleating over 13 yards of three layers of fabric. For the skirts, I used the layer of fashion silk, a layer of the habatoi silk lining, and a layer of brocade linen. Under that, I planned to be wearing my silk/microfiber skirt that I’d already made earlier in the season, because as a gored skirt, it had fantastic flair. Preparing for the cartridge pleating, I laid the bodice on top of the skirts and estimated the angle of the ‘V’ dip for front and back, then cut those pieces out, applied the drapery tape and gathered.
Rather than hem the bottoms of all three layers of the skirting fabric, I serged them to length. I spent the better part of the evening attaching the skirt to the bodice, and at about midnight Friday night, I tried the dress on. Here’s where the problem started. Because the bodice goes so far down, and is open all the way to the skirts, I thought It would be big enough to put on without too much trouble. Boy was I wrong. I couldn’t step into the dress, because it wouldn’t fit over my hips. When I tried to put it on over my head, it got caught and stuck at my boobs. It wouldn’t come down over the bodice. I ended up having Klumpen take scissors and cut a slit at the front waistline.
So, I ended up binding the edges of that slit with some leftover bias binding I’d made to bind the sleeve edges, and planned to use hooks and eyes to close it. I also cut out and begain sewing the sleeves. I’d wanted to do the “paned” sleeve tops, but didn’t have time to draft a pattern, so I went with plain sleeves. At this point, it was about 3:00 am and I decided I really needed to get some sleep.
Saturday evening, after Faire, I came home to start sewing again. I was sewing the lacing ribbon and hooks and eyes, when I fell asleep in my sewing chair. I took that as a sign to go to bed and get up early on Sunday morning to finish up. Sunday morning, as I was putting a button hole in my existing bloomers, I managed to slice open my middle finger with a Havel’s Seam Ripper. It’s basically a razor blade with a handle. It took at least 15 minutes for it to stop bleeding. We applied pressure, ice, and even dipped it in the styptic powder we used on the dog when we clip her claws. I was beginning to wonder if we were going to need to have it stitched. Once I stopped bleeding, I went back to finish up the dress so we could get on the road. Because I was running out of time, rather than two rows of grosgrain for lacing guides, I used a row of grosgrain at each dress edge, and the eye portion of hook and eye tape a little further in. Obviously this gave the lacing a wonky look, but I was pressed for time.
I actually ended up sewing the buttons to the sleeves in the truck on the way to faire. The loops were black elastic cord, sewn to the shoulders of the gown, and the buttons were ridiculously expensive glass ones from G Street Fabrics.
Once we got to Faire, it took TOH, Klumpen and the Alternate Daughter to dress me. Boy, I can see why they had servants.
This is the end result. I can see my mistakes, and there are several things I will re-do before next season (if I don’t redo the dress entirely), but I got plenty of compliments.