You have already seen the pattern of this design made up already but now here is the fun part, the making of the garment from the pattern. As a whole, this was easier to make than first expected and I even saved some money too, which I am quite proud of. . .First, the material though.
Since I loved what I saw on the cover of that magazine, I wanted to recreate that dress like pictured in the same or similar color scheme. After some hunting on ebay, I had a few o.k. hits but nothing really jumped out at me. I considered a run to the local fabric stores too but since I was in the middle of blueberry season, a fabric run was out of the question . . .simply not enough time to do so. On a whim, I went onto my stash and lo and behold, I found exactly what I wanted. I found a navy blue charmuse (synthetic fiber but it would do) and an incredible silk or rayon floral.
The floral was a gift from a friend cleaning out her stash and was part of a lot of other fabrics. This material was part of a cut up kimono (I think) and was in pieces. Thankfully, many of the pieces were just large enough for me to use and only one pattern piece required piecing of the material.
Although I was going to be making this up in a blue rather than a red, I was o.k. with that because I figured I could still wear the same accessories as planned. After making it up, I found that I could almost wear it with more of what I have now. . . .pulling the ivory, pinks, and yellows as my color palate, this print offers a lot of opportunity.
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| Bodice Front Assembled |
Cutting out the pieces required some thinking especially for the bodice which was going to be done in the floral. I needed to be incredibly careful because any messing up would be unforgivable in terms of material getting re cut. For the bodice, I knew I wanted to have as much floral as possible and that was easy to do as the floral that was there was plentiful. For the bodice back, I had to take my largest piece of the floral and add to it with the smaller pieces. Thankfully, once cut and sewn, you really cannot tell to much that it was pieced.
While cutting, one question that came to my mind was seam allowance. Was there any seam allowance in the pattern already or would I have to add that myself? At first, I thought that this pattern would be very much like my lutterloh ones where I would have to add the seam allowance myself. After some thought, I decided to go ahead and add it not knowing if it was there or not. I figured I would rather make the garment too big rather than too small . . you see, it is much easier to take in a garment rather than let it out. . . .
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| Close up of the Bodice Top Front |
Now, on to the construction . . .Right away after cutting, I assessed all of my pieces and decided to start with the bodice front first. For that, I did the gathers on the top of the bodice bottom front piece using two rows of gathering stitches. Then, I stitched the bodice top front together at the center front and did two rows of hand gathers down the center front to get that same effect like pictured. The bodice pieces were then sewn together and pressed.
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| Bodice Back Assembled Can You See the Piece Work?? I Bet Not |
Once I had the front bodice assembled, I started to look and think about the skirt. When I looked at the picture, the side seams looked like they were more pushed to the front than normal. With that said, a normal side zip may or may not work and that would make the rest of the construction . . . interesting . .. especially since I wanted to get in and out of this easily. After much study, I decided to sew the skirt front to the bodice pieces thus completing the front of the dress. Once sewn together, I re assessed the front and figured the side seams hit at an o.k. spot for a side zip. That made my life easier . . .
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| Close up of the Lower Back and Upper Back |
For the back, I started by pressing all of the back pieces really well and selected the lower bodice back to start. Here, I ran three rows of gathering stitches at the waist edge to get that shirred look like pictured. At the top, I ran two rows of stitching. For the bodice back top, I hand stitched the edges with a large rolled hem for buttons and button holes and basted the left and right together overlapping them. Easing the gathers to fit, the top and bottom bodice back came together.
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| Bodice Lower Back . . .The Start of the Gathering |
Once assembled, I took another look at the bodice lower back and ran a few more rows of gathering stitches. I also stitched the skirt center back and did the darts. Once the skirt back was together, I attached that to the bodice back. The back was now done.
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| Lower Bodice Back Sewn to the Skirt Back |
The dress ties were made from some large rectangular scraps I had saved just for this part. After hemming them and sewing them to the back, the front and back could now come together. First, I did the shoulders and then the sides leaving an opening large enough for my zipper. My zipper for this project was a baby blue metal one meant for another project . . but . . .not any more. . .
The zipper was hand pricked, the neckline was finished with a narrow hand rolled hem, and button holes were worked for the back. The buttons for this project were medium sized clear 'diamond' ones I found while on holiday. . . . Although a touch heavy for this fabric, they look amazing. The skirt was finished with a medium rolled hem.
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| Close Up of the Back Gathering |
Once the dress was largely done, I tried it on and had to take in the shoulder a little bit to accommodate for my narrow frame. Shoulder pads were also added to achieve a more period look. Putting the shoulder pads in took a little fussing and pinning but the end result I think was worth it.
As a whole, this dress came together shockingly well! The only difficult party of this project was finding the right material and getting the pattern out the mangled mess. Sewing the dress was relatively easy to do and the pieces for the most part trued up quite well. One thing I noticed on mine that I did not realize in the picture was the back was very blousy and so was the front. I was fine with the back being blousy and actually quite liked it. The front was too much for me and I tucked and stitched it down under the skirt waist line. I only tacked it down really in the event I want it back . . .
My final review of making this beast? Well, the dress is comfortable and appears to wears well. No strange pinching, tugging, etc. around the arm holes or waistline. Will I make another dress from this magazine? I think so. May I end up buying more magazines like this? I think so too.
Stay tuned for the final showing . . . .
