Sunday, October 14, 2012

My Orange 1820s Dress of Doom

The Day Version

Yes, I called this the dress of doom while making it. Why? Zillions and zillions of little piped bits! Fortunately, I love making piped bits, and doom in this usage is a good thing, but still, it was a lot! And I really want to make a similar pelisse, only with even more trim.

As usual (I'm not really into designing things, am I? I'm nowhere near as creative as people think!), I had an inspiration dress, seen in a flash video here. Needless to say, lots of pausing was done when studying the dress!

Progress

This is a sleeve band--see? Doom!

The Day Version The Day Version

The dress is made from silk taffeta bought from a rather amazing sale fabric.com had at the time. $4 a yard or something like that? Plus their normal coupons and I had some random money in my PayPal account. It was wonderful. The bodice is lined with lightweight linen and the skirt is unlined. I'm wearing it over shift, 1820s stays, and a bodiced petticoat.

The bonnet is the Lynn McMasters Seaside Bonnet.

Hemline Detail

The bottom of the skirt itself is the scalloped part. The millions of little ruffles were sewn separately and tacked in behind the floral trim on the skirt so no stitches show.

Neckline trim

The neckline is trimmed with bias strips of silk taffeta that were wrapped around strips of wool batting. Then I just twisted them together.

Sleeve detail

The sleeves started out as a standard puff sleeve. Then I sewed piping on or the cut outs and cut them out and put gathered netting behind it. The area between the top of the cut out and the top of the sleeve was then gathered, and a band put around it. The band doesn't actually gather the sleeve. Then, the previously mentioned sleeve bands of doom were attached. The undersleeves are just slightly shaped tubes with ribbon ties, and there are loops inside the short sleeves to tie them to.

Evening Version Evening Version

One of the best parts of this dress? Untie the undersleeves and take off the chemisette, and evening version!

Progress

It's hard to see, but the designs are drawn on the silk in this picture.

The trick to making the piped bits fun instead of frustrating is to sew first, cut last. Draw your designs on, sew piping around the design, and then cut. So much less fiddly! Also, there's no need to make the piping before you do it. I think it would probably be harder if you did, actually, since there might be less flexibility. Just fold your bias in half, place the cord in the middle, secure it, and start your design. You do have to continue folding it as you go, but after an inch or so, it really does settle into place.

Progress

The sleeve band in progress. Once each piece is cut out, flip the seam allowances to the inside and baste them into place if the element is going to be free standing like the top of the sleeve band, or, like I did for the skirt, just make sure they stay in place. No need to do extra work!

Progress

And here's the sleeve without the band. Much simpler looking!

Trimming the hem.

And here's sewing trim onto the skirt. As I sewed the trim on, I caught the inner ruffle. The hem is padded with wool batting.

Progress

The bottom edge of the bodice was hemmed, and the top edge of the skirt was folded down. They were then whipstitched together.

Progress

The dress closes with drawstrings and has a ribbon attached to the front of the bodice to help keep it in place. The back lining doesn't have any closures, it just sits in place. I suppose you could have someone pin it for you, but that's not really necessary. I saw this on an original, but several years later, I couldn't begin to tell you where!

So, that's all there is--I think--to my orange 1820s dress :)

LJ tag for the dress!

21 comments:

  1. Stunning!!! quite nice! piping!

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  2. This is one of my favorites of yours... :D- Margaret roth

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  3. Ooo... 1820s are a fun period to do. I'm making a series of things from 1823 right now. A corded petticoat, a wool walking dress, and a silk evening gown similar to yours. The trim on mine is going to be silk organza motifs. Love all your piped bits and the padded hem! And what a fantastic price for silk! Mmm...

    Best,
    Quinn

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  4. I love the detail, especially the ruffles. And I love how you can convert it to an evening dress. I'm always amazed by your work.

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  5. I "bow" to your sewing abilities! Sigh*

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  6. Beautiful details ! A great job :)

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  7. It is so pretty !
    All the details are just amazing
    (:

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  8. One of my favourites of yours, too - the fabric has a stunning colour, and all that piping and detail! - I love the cutouts with netting on the sleeves. Thanks so much for writing up how you made it!

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  9. So beautiful! The piping and other details are stunning and you look very pretty in the dress.

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  10. I think this is one of my favorites of your many beautiful creations!
    -Emily

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  11. This is an amazingly gorgeous outfit. Everything... the details, the fabric, the color. Awesome job!

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  12. I love looking at your blog!!! The dresses you make are simply gorgeous!

    Sapphire

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  13. I am amazed by your abilities and patience, thanks for being a constant inspiration!

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  14. I totally missed gown this when you did your recent re-org. It's the one that got me addicted to you blogs. In itself it is amazing, but then the record of its making adds so much more to the story.
    Sue H

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  15. I love this one. And the bargain silk is really beautiful on you!

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  16. Lindo! As mangas são sempre um espetáculo à parte nas suas obras de arte! Sou super fã do seu trabalho, nos presenteando com recriações de peças históricas, tornando-as reais, belas de alta qualidade e elegância. Poderia falar bem mais, mas ficaria mais evidente que estou "rasgando seda" para você ^_^

    Bruna Mara Wanderley

    The translation:

    Beautiful! The sleeves are always a sideshow in his works of art! I'ma super fan of his work, presenting us with recreations of historical pieces, making them real, fine quality and elegance. I could say much more, but I would be more obvious that I'm "ripping silk" for you ^_^

    P.S.: PS: I'm using an online translator, so please excuse any grammatical error or disagreement.

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  17. I love this dress! The color, the design, everything. I have a question, though: do you ever have problems with the satin ribbon knots slipping? I can never find the happy medium between "slipping open" and "never untying, ever again."

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  18. Wow, I love the evening version. Its sooo pretty! I aim to make something inspired by this...

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  19. Wow! Beautiful work! The result is breathtaking. It is such fun to see your step by step process. Thanks for sharing your gift with us online!

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  20. A stunning Dress. thanks for sharing the process.

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