Project: Progress

The project is done, but you all will just have to wait to see it. For now, I'm gonna give you little snippets of it so I can make my posts more detailed!

And now back to the project: After a little bit of tweaking, I got the modesty panel to be just right... I had a really hard time getting the pretend chiffon to work properly... or how I wanted. I had to manually pin each gather where they were supposed to be, instead of the usual, gathering-thread-then-sew method. It was kind of a pain, but I managed.

It is lined with the same hospital sheets I used for my Regency petticoat. It was finished with a chiffon edge.

Panel, not yet attached.

In attempts to make sure the panel was the right shape and fit, I got a little creative.

I don't think I've looked that attractive
in a long time...

Idk.

yeahhhhh....

Well, maybe I got a lot creative. It seemed to look okay though....

So, with the panel now done, I inserted it after the sleeves in; and here's what it looked like:

On my clone.

 Isn't the turquoise-blue gorgeous????

On me and my late 1860's corset XD

I don't have a 1910's corset yet, so I'm improving with the one I do have. Since this is only for the top of the gown, I figured there wouldn't be much of a difference in size or shape.

Next step....TUCKING!

Beading!

For hours, upon hours, I spent my time trying to find a good image of 1910's beading on gowns. I wanted to find a design from the period, to keep it authentic as possible. Well, I had very little luck finding anything with any real detail to help me. There are lots of great pictures of garments, but none close enough to see it! The best I was able to procure were pictures like this:

All to small....

...to be of...

...any help.

I even checked out beading patterns for purses, I wasn't able to find a design/motif from the period that I really liked. So I used a postcard for "inspiration" and proceeded created my own design. I just wanted a hint of the pink beads and used mainly the green and pale turquoise, like in the postcard.

The Wonderful Postcard.

I had never done beading before and I found that it's certainly not a hard thing to do. But it is TIME CONSUMING. Lucky I had Netflix because I watched the entire season of Firefly, plus the movie, Serenity, and the 2nd season of LOST to finish both sleeves.

Before I applied the beads, I finished all the edges with a "chiffon hem" It really helped keeping it from fraying and looked nice too. Then I did the beading before sewing the arm 'round because the fabric was flattest and easiest to work with. And BAM!

Here's the motif I created

 Then I finished off the sleeves with French Seams.

First run with French Seams! 

And Voila! Pretty sleeves! I'm really happy with them, they lay nicely (just like in the design picture) and to my delight, the colors are far more muted than I was expecting! My mom took some great detail photos, too. Yay Momma!

Doesn't wicker furniture make wonderful scenery?

A pretty feather. I think I'm most proud of this one.

Not exactly matching garments, but the sleeve lays nicely.

Lilies... that don't really look like lilies...

:D

Final Project: 19-teens "Ophelia" Gown Bodice

I'm taking a Specialty Sewing Techniques course, which consists of different couture techniques and finishing methods. This is what I'm making for the final project:

For the project, we have to use at least 4 techniques we have learned in class and apply them to a blouse/shirt type garment. My techniques will be tucking, piping, beading, ruching and hem treatments. I'm going to make the gown in two pieces for now and put the two pieces together to complete the gown... just at a later date.

The turquoise silk cost me a mere 5 bucks for 6.5 yards!
Discounted Drapes. BOOYAAH!

 It's a vest type garment in a powdery turquoise silk with attached sleeves in a nice creme chiffon and ruching in net at the bust. There will be a copious amount of delicate tucking as trim in the blue silk and in the belt part. I'm also planning to have a beaded motif on the sleeves and overlay for the skirt. Look at the the beads I got! They go so prettily with it.

The colors are a little more muted in real life.

I was initially inspired by the actress Miss Lily Elsie. Her gowns and pictures are phenomenal. 

She has Rachel Weisz' profile.

Sigh

How perfect, right?

My second inspiration was the idea of Ophelia. Whenever I think of Ophelia (from Hamlet) I think of water lilies and consequently Lily Elsie.

I don't really care about the title, just the design.

It's so pretty!!!

The project has to be sent to Santa Fe, NM by June 3rd... leaving me 2 weeks to get it finished. Luckily, I only have to send in the bodice :D No sweat!

Regency Dress progress

So far this quarter, I've been trying to juggle taking a mere 12 credit hours (I normally take about 17), piano lessons and life. But here's the progress on the Regency dress!

Certainly not the most beautiful pic
of me, but there's the dress.

The pics have the dress pinned together (sans sleeves) in what I hope it will look like. I decided to gather them Corded style, so wonderfully explained by The Dreamstress...though, I did mine by hand instead of machine.

pretttttyyyyyy!

 I really like the cording method rather than a running stitch. It's way more secure and delivers the most gorgeous gathers! I do believe I will use this method of gathering from now on.

Notice the cream yarn? I'm using it for my cord instead of real cord. Why? It doesn't have a tendency to bulge, requires a very thin channel and I have a ton of it. Yay thriftiness!!!

Le View de Side

You can kinda see the cording on the skirt portion in the side view ANNNND you can also see the Apron-front line. I decided to do something a little different than the typical apron front bodices I've seen. I got the idea from the dress Marianne twists her ankle in.

I understand this is not Marianne, but
it is the same dress, just from Persuasion (2007)

Now, I realize that these pics are not of Marianne, but for viewing purposes, the stills from Persuasion (2007) are a lot more illustrative. The bodice piece is a gathered trapezoid creating a more seamless effect, so in theory, you won't be able to tell if it's an apron front or not... but we'll see how sneaky I actually am later on, when it's closer to finished.*crosses fingers*

See how the lines are angled?

I'm still not positive on the style of the sleeves yet. I'm torn between elbow length or cap. Sometimes I wish I could do both, but it would look rather silly.