In February the invitation arrived - two of my friends were getting married, and the dress code for the evening wedding was listed as "formal." Several ideas bounced around in my head as I debated what form this project should take. After all, it's not often that I have the excuse to wear a gown and therefore I rarely allow myself the luxury making one (at least a modern one). And I knew that I was going to use satin rather than my usual cotton, which was a little scary, but necessary. Finally I decided to use my old prom wrap as inspiration. It's a beautiful sheer turquoise and deep purple piece that makes me smile just looking at it.
I came home from the fabric store with 5 yards of deep purple satin and a plan for a simple, strapless, floor-length gown. My only concern was that the dress itself was too plain and that I'd inadvertently look like a wannabe bridesmaid (how embarrassing!) - made all the more pressing of concern when I couldn't get a grasp on what the color scheme of the wedding was. I had an idea to get some blue satin and make fabric flowers to decorate the dress to give it more pizazz, but ultimately decided to go in a different direction.
My first challenge was fitting the dress. I picked up a pattern while I was at the store for a simple A-Line dress that only called for 3 yards, and I figured that I could just add some gores to give it some fullness. However, the fit was TERRIBLE! I made a muslin out of some fabric that was too sheer to photograph, and while I could fix the front, the back needed a 4 inch swayback adjustment. Unfortunately, the pattern didn't have a waist seam, so I had no idea what do about that. While debating my options, I happened to be wearing my bee dress, and noticed that the back of that dress actually fit pretty well. So I Franken-patterned the front of one pattern with the back of the other, and it came out just about right! At last, I had a pattern to work from and was able to start cutting my dress!
I carefully stitched the front princess seams and immediately pinked them to prevent fraying.
Once the zipper was installed and the body of the gown was assembled I began on the facing. I worked so quickly on the main portion of the gown that I completely forgot about pockets! Oh well, it was an a-line cut, so my regular in-seam pockets might not have been flattering anyways, for the facing I just cut the top few inches of each of the body pieces and then sewed and pinked them together.
I should have interfaced the facing. Oh well, lesson for next time!
Time for more fun adventures in fitting! I wanted to add a bra-like structure to the interior of the dress, from this point on it will be referred to as the lining. So I took my test fabric and measured on my pattern to roughly the under-bust mark. I then cut that much of the pattern out of the test fabric.
I very carefully pinned the princess seams together, and the fit seemed the right length. So I pulled out the last of this this cute cotton dragonfly print #stashbusting to to the heavy lifting on the lining. As you can see that got pinned in place as well.
I reinforced all of the seams with the dragonfly fabric, and considered adding boning. Unfortunately my zip-ties were too wide to fit in the channels. Oh well. The back edges of the fabric were independently folded under and finished.
Since the test fabric was extremely thin, but also very smooth, I decided to keep it as an extra layer between the cotton and the dress body to avoid any extra pulling or friction between the two layers. So here are the twin linings being attached to the facing.
Much like a waist-stay, a piece of grosgrain ribbon (more #stashbusting) was added to the bottom of the lining to secure and strengthen that piece. The fabric was pinked, and the ribbon folded under.
Now the lining and facing piece could be attached to the dress! I added a skirt hook & eye clasp to the ribbon to make that more secure, and some quick hand stitches to tack the lining next to the zipper as well as a small hook and eye to the top of the zipper. My final pizazz came in the decision to add straps out of some crystal beading that was also hiding my stash (final #stashbusting for this project, I promise!) It's not supportive in the way that the lining is, it just encourages the top of the garment to stay in place. Hem the dress, and it's time for pictures!
Voila!
The Challenge: n/a
Material: Satin
Pattern: New Look 6379+ McCalls 6741
Year: 2022
Notions: Zipper, Thread, Crystal Beading
How Historically Accurate Is It?: n/a
Hours to Complete: 16:45
First Worn: Friends' Wedding
Total Cost: Fabric $20 + Zipper $2.50 + Thread $2.50 = $25
Book Review:
This dress's audiobook was "The Woman They Could Not Silence" by Kate Moore.
The easiest, most effective, and laziest way to discredit a woman is simply to call her insane. This non-fiction biography of Elizabeth Packard tells the story of a woman who is institutionalized by her husband in 1860 for such radical ideas as women's suffrage, abolitionism, and some very nuanced theological concepts that while not mainstream did have precedent such as the femininity of the holy spirit. After serving 3 years in the state asylum she goes on to become a writer and activist for the plight of married women and people deemed insane. She believes that married women should have equal rights and that anyone forced to live in an asylum should be treated humanely.
It was a powerful read, and it hit uncomfortably close to the modern day. Highly recommend.