After more than two years I finally finished this project and I am so proud of myself for that!
Sometimes I start a project and somewhere along the line I loose interest or something does not work out as I want to. This can be discouraging and most of the time it’s better to halt the project, put it away for a while and finish it when you’re in a better headspace.
This is what happened to this project. I couldn’t find a fabric for the bodice. My local shops had nothing good and thanks to Covid many sellers halted shipping to austria for a very long time. I also thought about embroidering myself, but I have a problem with one of my wrists which makes it impossible for me to embroider for a long time.
A few months ago, funnily enough on the day, two years after I started my project, I picked it up again. It was sitting in my ‚box of shame‘ and I decided that it’s time has come.
The underpinnings were done, as you can see in my last post about the dress. I also made the basic skirt back then, which I never showed you.
I again used an antique pattern but I don’t know anymore which one I used. It was pretty straight forward and I serged the seams on the inside, because I didn’t want to have visible stitches on the outside. The basic skirt looks a bit sad on my super skinny mannequin..I promise it looks better on me!
The next step was ‚the pouf‘.
I again don’t have a pattern, but it was loosley based on a diagramm for draped curtains. At first I tried to gather the fabric in the front, but hated it so much, that I redid it and made some pleats.
The whole thing was sewn onto the skirt waistband. As you can see, I also decided to with another corset unter this dress and not the pink one I made for the project. I just think, that this one is more comfortable to wear.
And now it was finally time to start the bodice. The pattern was based on one I made some years back which was not a good idea. My body changed a bit in proportions and also a new and better corset changed…everything. It would have been easier AND faster to just draft a new pattern.
So: Please always make a new pattern if the pattern is more than a year old.
Here you can see the first two mockup-fittings.
I couldn’t close it over my boobs so I had to change the whole front. The back was better but too big. The second fitting was much better. The sleeves got shorter and a bit tighter, the front finally closed and my mom was able to pin the darts. The back still was a bit too big and we also decided on the hemline.
And then it was time to start cutting into my embroidered silk from india. I flatlined it with some regular white cotton I found in my stash.
And as you probably know: I LOVE pattern matching:
And then it was time for another fitting:
I also decided to use authentic techniques for the bodice, so I attached some boning and a waist tape to the bodice. After this was done, I bought some green braid and sewed it on by hand. And on one of the hottest day we had this year I started making the pleated batist parts for the sleeves and the neckline. I also starched them so that they hold the shape better.
And after adding them..I was finished!
Please excuse the really bad picture on the mannequin. She’s too thin and the boning I added made it look really weird.
I’m super happy with how everything turned out and I can’t wait to go to the Palmenhaus in vienna to shoot the outfit. But I still need to wait a bit, because I pre-ordered the embroidered boots which American Duchess designed with the Bata shoe museum! Can’t wait for them to arrive! The embroidered flowers on the shoes will probably look really cute with my outfit.
