1909-1913 Gown
Although this dress got rave reviews, it was a pretty frustrating project and I'm not entirely happy with the results. (It probably didn't help that I only gave myself a few days to finish before the event I wanted to wear the dress to.) Let me start from the beginning.
The inspiration for this dress started out with a hat; my mother bought the hat from the Victorian Trading Company for me a couple of Christmases ago, and I have never had the chance to wear it. When the women at church started planning a ladies' tea, with a prize for best hat, my mother insisted that I wear the hat, and of course, I refused to wear the hat without an appropriate costume. Hence, the birth of a costume concept.
I was able to use fabric that I already had on hand, for the most
part. My mother had a light green satin, and I had cream colored embroidered
netting and lace trim that I purchased more than three years ago with a dress
like this in mind. (See, eventually I do get around to using the fabric
I buy.) The only tricky part was finding a light mauve fabric that would
match the hat so that I could somehow tie in the gown with the hat. I
looked all over the East Bay and ended up finding exactly what I was looking
for at the Joann store in Emeryville; it was the perfect color, the perfect
weight, and it was on clearance! At two dollars a yard, I bought the
whole bolt (about eight yards), even though I was only planning on making
a sash out of it; I figure that I can now make a second dress to go with the
hat, as long as mom doesn't get to the fabric first. Fortunately, I had recently purchased the Laughing Moon Pattern for the time period I wanted. I didn't realize until after I had already started, that I should have used a commercial pattern since I had so little time left; instead, I simply tried to take some shortcuts that I now regret taking. My first mistake was not reading through ALL of the directions before starting. My next mistake was actually a blessing in disguise; I omitted the boning due to time constraints which I should have put in to give the bodice a smoother look, but which also meant that I could use the machine to attach the skirt rather than sewing it by hand. Finally, I added an invisible zipper rather than doing a hook-and-eye closure down the back; my reason for this was valid--I wanted to be able to get in and out of this dress on my own--but boy did I have problems with that zipper! I think that by the time I put the zipper in, there were simply too many layers for the zipper to get caught up in; that, and I think I need to replace my invisible zipper foot--it may be starting to sew too close to the teeth. My mom was finally able to get the zipper to work, but not before the pull pulled right off! Now in order to get in and out of it, I have to attach a broach to the zipper. (I still haven't decided if I just want to replace the zipper, or if I want to pull the whole thing apart, add the boning, and attach a placket for a hook-and-eye closure.)
The pattern itself is fairly straightforward, and the directions
are decent. The bodice is two layers, one fitted the other gathered
(even for the version where the fitted layer doesn't show, which I really
don't get; I mean, they were wearing a corset, so why would they need one
layer of the bodice to be skin tight?). I did all my measuring before
I cut anything out. (I always measure the pattern pieces myself rather
than trusting the pattern's measurements.) I did have to make a slight
alteration after my first fitting; the bust was a little too big, causing
the center front neckline to gap a bit. I had the same problems with
the straight sleeve that I always have with straight sleeves: the sleeves
are simply too narrow to fit me comfortably, and I haven't quite figured out
how to widen the sleeve while leaving the armscye alone. I solved this
problem by widening the entire sleeve and then taking up the extra material
at the sleeve head with a box pleat; the result isn't perfect, but the straight
sleeve is covered by the kimono sleeve in my version anyway, so it was no
big deal and at least now I can move my arms. The only point where I felt the directions were particularly vague was when I was trying to attach the skirt to the bodice; I'm still not sure exactly how that is supposed to be done, but I at least got it to work. The bodice extends to the natural waist, but the skirt is sewn on at an empire waist, so if you bone the bodice you will need to attach the skirt by hand. It also helps immensely if you marked the sewing line on the bodice (this is where it would have behooved me to have read the directions ahead of time). Luckily, I have my mom around to do fittings, and she was able to pin the skirt into the proper position. By the time I got to this point, I was tired, frustrated, and in a hurry, so I just top-stitched the skirt to the bodice (with the top edge folded over, of course), knowing that I would be covering this seam up with the sash. However, I got really frustrated when I realized that there was no pattern for the sash, nor directions for how to make it; I ended up just making a rectangular tube, pinning it into place during a fitting, and then tacking it on in a few places.
The final dress was a smash hit at the tea, but it would not bear up under close scrutiny. Eventually, I'd like to use this pattern again, when I actually have time to follow the directions closely and make it period accurate. I'll have to keep in mind for future reference that when I'm in a hurry, I need to stick to commercial patterns.
...And the prize for best hat...Well, I got second place. First prize went to another Victorian Trading Company hat!