So, I started the main dress with modifying the pattern. The pattern I had, had totally different frontal section that I wanted. There was another option with the pattern that had continues front so I combined both of those options and made the first version of the bodice.
The references images show that the dress has very low bodice. I was never going to go that low as I wanted to be comfortable while wearing it. Sorry, I love details and trying to copy every aspect of the original dress but that was just something I was not going to do. I wanted not to worry about the dress all the time when I am in con. So, to figure out the bodice, first I made the underdress that is visible under the bodice. I used nice fabric meant originally to make curtains. It had right color, very nice pattern with golden threads on it and it was very quick to make. All the first images have this underdress with them on the mannequin. At the later stages of the project, when I actually tried it on, I realized it was horrible fabric to wear. It was so itchy. I should have thought about it before as the fabric was meant for curtains. So, at the end, I made a new underdress with even nicer fabrics.
I have tons of strong linen that I used for lining. So, first, using the continues pattern, I made the lining, and then, with colored fabrics, I made the main part. The straps came out really nice but the first version of the bodice was too high. So, I just had to take it part again and do it again. it also had boning on the lining so that made undoing harder. It took me three tires, if I remember correctly, to figure out how to position the pattern, how to get right height. Also, first I planned to put the fastener at the back but then my sister suggested to have it on the side for convenience. More undoing but it was the right choice. I think I have not very good fastener as it is horrible when pulling it up. It comes down very easily but whenever I try to put the dress on, it is always horrible fight with lot of strength involved to close the fastener. After I discovered it, I just did not wanted to undo it all again. So, I had to live with it and so far I have managed.
Then, the next step was the skirt. I had pattern for it but I made my own as I was going to make 12 tiles. 6 with pattern and 6 green mint. That was the easy part so far. Now I needed to start to have details. Between every tile there had to be silver bias cord with piping. I could not find right quantities from local fabric stores (I needed a lot of it!!! Almost 50 meters were used) I had to order it from ebay and it took some time to arrive. In the end, I actually had to order more of it as I ran out of it before the end. Also, I needed small silver thread to go with the bias cord. Again, for the quantities, I ordered it from ebay. I used that for more than 70m on the whole project!!!
Then, when I had the cord and silver thread, it was hours of hand sewing. I knew I would never be able to sew the cord between two tiles correctly without basting before hand. Every tile was more than a meter long. So, 12 meters of basting at least. Then, it was carefully sewing the cord in place with machine. In some cases, the basting was not done well enough, so I had to undo some parts. Lot of work and hours went into adding the cord between the tiles.
Then, when the cord was in place, the silver thread came into play. Actually, the cord gave me extra nightmares. It was very easy to unwind and started to disentangle from its shape as soon as I cut it. I tried to used candle to melt it slightly (like I usually do with ribbons) but it was not plastic but I am not even sure. The cord did not melt very well so there was not much to connect (and I ended up burning myself more than stopping disentanglement). I then tried using sewing thread to stop it and it worked better but the unwinding gave me a lot of troubles, specially when I tried to overlock the edges later.
So, the silver cord. Every green tile had two silver threads at the sides. Again, more than 12 meters of hand sewing. The silver thread was narrow but not that narrow that I could just sew over it. I had to use the needle pierce through the thread that was not easy most of the time. Anyway, it took hours. While doing the cord and thread, I managed to ping-watch 3 seasons of "Black Sails" (so 30 hours?) (actually, more like listen - as my eyes were on the project).
The silver thread had also the unwinding problem but I just made knots at the ends and it worked fine.
When all the was finished, it was overlocking the top and bottom and doing the bottom part, by hand again, so that it would be almost invincible. It was long process but the result looked really nice.
Then, I realized that I have the zip at the side and I should split one tile so that the zip could be added. Luckily it was the mint green tile as I was worried I may ran out printed fabric.
The next part was connecting the skirt to the bodice. The skirt, as you can imagine, had much wider width than the bodice. The reference shows really nice ruffles and gathering. So I did my best to mimic it. The front part of the bodice had to fit the first, central, tile so there the gathering was slightly more intense than on the rest of the dress. In the end, the zip was added and the main part of the dress was done.
The references images show that the dress has very low bodice. I was never going to go that low as I wanted to be comfortable while wearing it. Sorry, I love details and trying to copy every aspect of the original dress but that was just something I was not going to do. I wanted not to worry about the dress all the time when I am in con. So, to figure out the bodice, first I made the underdress that is visible under the bodice. I used nice fabric meant originally to make curtains. It had right color, very nice pattern with golden threads on it and it was very quick to make. All the first images have this underdress with them on the mannequin. At the later stages of the project, when I actually tried it on, I realized it was horrible fabric to wear. It was so itchy. I should have thought about it before as the fabric was meant for curtains. So, at the end, I made a new underdress with even nicer fabrics.
I have tons of strong linen that I used for lining. So, first, using the continues pattern, I made the lining, and then, with colored fabrics, I made the main part. The straps came out really nice but the first version of the bodice was too high. So, I just had to take it part again and do it again. it also had boning on the lining so that made undoing harder. It took me three tires, if I remember correctly, to figure out how to position the pattern, how to get right height. Also, first I planned to put the fastener at the back but then my sister suggested to have it on the side for convenience. More undoing but it was the right choice. I think I have not very good fastener as it is horrible when pulling it up. It comes down very easily but whenever I try to put the dress on, it is always horrible fight with lot of strength involved to close the fastener. After I discovered it, I just did not wanted to undo it all again. So, I had to live with it and so far I have managed.
 |
| First try - underdress is visible but the central fabric is off and bodice is too high |
Then, the next step was the skirt. I had pattern for it but I made my own as I was going to make 12 tiles. 6 with pattern and 6 green mint. That was the easy part so far. Now I needed to start to have details. Between every tile there had to be silver bias cord with piping. I could not find right quantities from local fabric stores (I needed a lot of it!!! Almost 50 meters were used) I had to order it from ebay and it took some time to arrive. In the end, I actually had to order more of it as I ran out of it before the end. Also, I needed small silver thread to go with the bias cord. Again, for the quantities, I ordered it from ebay. I used that for more than 70m on the whole project!!!
Then, when I had the cord and silver thread, it was hours of hand sewing. I knew I would never be able to sew the cord between two tiles correctly without basting before hand. Every tile was more than a meter long. So, 12 meters of basting at least. Then, it was carefully sewing the cord in place with machine. In some cases, the basting was not done well enough, so I had to undo some parts. Lot of work and hours went into adding the cord between the tiles.
Then, when the cord was in place, the silver thread came into play. Actually, the cord gave me extra nightmares. It was very easy to unwind and started to disentangle from its shape as soon as I cut it. I tried to used candle to melt it slightly (like I usually do with ribbons) but it was not plastic but I am not even sure. The cord did not melt very well so there was not much to connect (and I ended up burning myself more than stopping disentanglement). I then tried using sewing thread to stop it and it worked better but the unwinding gave me a lot of troubles, specially when I tried to overlock the edges later.
 |
| Silver cord inserted between tiles |
 |
| Silver thread is also added to the green tiles |
The silver thread had also the unwinding problem but I just made knots at the ends and it worked fine.
When all the was finished, it was overlocking the top and bottom and doing the bottom part, by hand again, so that it would be almost invincible. It was long process but the result looked really nice.
Then, I realized that I have the zip at the side and I should split one tile so that the zip could be added. Luckily it was the mint green tile as I was worried I may ran out printed fabric.
The next part was connecting the skirt to the bodice. The skirt, as you can imagine, had much wider width than the bodice. The reference shows really nice ruffles and gathering. So I did my best to mimic it. The front part of the bodice had to fit the first, central, tile so there the gathering was slightly more intense than on the rest of the dress. In the end, the zip was added and the main part of the dress was done.
