The Gown

Okay, so I think I have some explaining to do! It's been almost 2 years since my last post in this diary, and I've totally switched gears on the style of dress that I want to make. So here's the story in a nutshell - I discovered that ruffles take up a lot of fabric, and I underestimated the amount of fabric that I would need... by a LOT! So I realized that the only way to salvage this project was to change it from a gown made of all striped fabric, like the original, to one that supplemented the stripes with a solid. So I've been looking for new design ideas ever since then, and I finally found something that I could be happy with a few months ago in this Mode Illustrée plate from January, 1888. (BTW, I bought the pattern from this ebay seller, who has thousands of gorgeous period patterns, and she was a real joy to do business with!) For the new fabric, I decided to use some $2 a yard wool that has been sitting in my stash since last fall. I dyed the wool for a totally unrelated 16th c. project, but then one day I noticed that it matched my striped fabric perfectly, so I decided that the costume gods must be telling me something! You can see the fabric swatches and a colorized version of the fashion plate on the right.

So now that I have a new plan, it's finally time to get back to work. I traced the bodice pieces from the original 1888 pattern diagram, and enlarged them to fit me with the help of my nifty new Victorian-shaped tape dress form. I still need to do some tweaking on the sleeves and plastron, but you can see the general shape of the first mock-up in these pictures. I can't wait to see how it looks with the real fabrics. And I promise - I won't wait two more years for the next post!