Opening, Nov 12, 2018
The point of this gown is to try to mimic one we saw for sale 2 Pennsics ago, but also to make it a "Disney bound" style, with subtle hints to point to Ariel.This page will be a continuous work in progress, check back often! :) Have you been following along all this time? You can just click here to jump to the latest entry.
First task: Finding an actual historic piece or two ...
And second task, finding some Ariel-bounding ideas:
Gathering fabric and trim choices...note that I bought this trim about 2 years ago for her, knowing we'd be making this dress eventually.
And hey, I even found an old modern pattern in my stash that we might use for the sleeves!
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Getting ready to work, Jan 18, 2019
Since the last post, NJ has decided she loves the detachable sleeves from my peacock gown so much, she wants that for hers, too. Ok, no problem, kiddo!
So I'm sketching out the details now, including the laced side panels, where the trim will go, what colors will go where, etc...If you can read my pencil marks, here's how this phase looks:
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Jan 20th, 2019:
Today I got started on a "sloper". This is a made-up word as far as I can tell, but my sewing teachers/mentors and I use it to mean a quick-and-dirty version of whatever it is I'm making. This won't have finished edges or anything, but I will use it to fit the dress to NJ, and then rip it apart and use the pieces as my pattern for the final dress.
I started with the tissue-paper pattern pieces, and turned them into fabric pieces:
Then I started sewing pieces together, first ignoring all instructions to install a zipper. (shudder) I sewed the back pieces together all the way from top to bottom to start:
Then I followed the rest of the instructions, and am now waiting for NJ to get home from her sleepover party in order to start the fittings!
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Jan 28, 2019
I completed the fittings, with only a few adjustments. Let me see if I can remember everything I did, because I did not take pictures of any of it, but yet, this is the part where the most *thinking* happens!
The first try-on was a bit of a surprise. I thought I had made the sloper one size bigger than needed, and with the normal "ease" built into modern patterns, I was expecting it to be at least an inch too big. As it turned out, the thing fit like a glove! Well, okay, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I adjusted the length, because the pattern wants to make this dress drag on the floor, which is fine for events where you'll be indoors with clean floors, but not so much at Pennsic with tall grass, mud, dirt, dust...you get the point.
The trickiest part was making adjustments to create the side-lacing look that NJ wants. This involved inserting a new piece into each side of the gown. The pattern has two side pieces with a seam up the middle, where what we really want is for those two side pieces to be laced to each other with another piece in between them. I measured her side, and determined that a 3-inch gap would look the nicest, so I made a 4-inch wide piece for each side of the dress.
I stitched in that side piece without making any other adjustments. When I tried it on NJ, I realized my error. Can you figure out what it was? Well, remember when I said the dress fit like a glove? When I pulled the side seams together as if they were laced, of course they met each other perfectly, completely hiding the newly-inserted side panel piece! Doh! I then removed both side panels (oh my gosh my hands hurt from pulling those threads out), and trimmed a 2-inch piece of the side-back piece and side-front piece, on the edge closest to the sides. After I sewed it all back together, and tried it on again, we decided this was the final design!
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| The final design sloper |
I also adjusted the shape of the sleeve, since neither NJ nor I liked the "scooped" bottom of the modern pattern, and we prefer the more pointed finish that the green gown in the inspiration picture seems to have. Since we're also planning on putting on the upper arm band, this seemed like the best design to follow.
I then spent an hour last night pulling out all the threads of half the sloper, so that I could use the pieces as new pattern pieces. The "gathered" bit of the fabric is where the thread is in progress of being pulled out.
After separating each piece I needed to use, I made sure it was all going to fit on the fabric I had. I laid out each piece, and pinned it down, then only after ALL pieces were accounted for, I cut them all out.
One thing I did not put into the sloper was the facing of the neckline. The modern pattern makes this a very narrow (2-inch) piece, that in my past garments becomes a horrible solution. It ends up wrinkled, and not laying flat, and sticks out when wearing the dress. Instead, I extended the length of these pieces to use more like a bodice lining. You can see the original size of the pattern piece vs. the size that I will actually use in the picture below:
The other thing I did not put into the sloper was the side lacing. I've got thoughts on how I might make this work. My first thought is to sew "loops" into each side-front and side-back seam, using a ribbon or thin rope. I did a quick layout in the picture below to illustrate my thinking, but getting this to lay flat and be equally spaced while I sew it down is going to be a huge pain in the a$$. I wonder if there's already something I could buy that is exactly this solution? I'll be searching for more info on this before I get to the point where I need it.
May 13, 2019
As you may have noticed by the date, it has been a while since I've touched this dress. Since the last entry, I completed a few steps:
- Stitched the 2 back pieces together
- Stitched the front gores to the front body piece
- Stitched the back gores to the back body pieces
- Stitched the facing pieces together at the shoulders
- Stitched my newly-introduced side panel piece to the two side pieces, for both sides of the dress...and then realized that I forgot to account for the lacing loops on the 4th (of 4) seams...and I basically dropped the work in frustration and didn't touch it again until last night
Last night, there was a brief interlude where I realized that sometime back in January I screwed up one side of the dress. I corrected this last night, and now have the side lacing loops sewn into the side pieces of the gown.
I now have some random thoughts to share with you:
- This single page of this blog is supposed to chronicle the entire process of making this dress, from start to finish. Even if it takes a year to complete, it should eventually be one page. Therefore, the "tone" and details may not flow well until it is all complete, but at that point I may come back and edit it all to sound better. Or I may not. We'll see.
- I don't think I've yet decided how I'm going to finish the inside seams on this gown. It clearly is going to need something, though, because after all the handling of these side pieces they are already starting to fray.
- I'm going to need to decide now if I'm going to deal with inside seams during construction of the gown or after is it all together.
I do think I will use bias tape over the seams that are holding the lacing loops. This should give the loops some added strength so that if NJ decides to lace it tight the loops won't pull out of the seams and tear the dress. Now to go dig through my supplies and see if I already own such a thing...
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May 14, 2019
I decided that flat felled seams were going to be required, because I don't recall allowing the extra fabric required for French seams. Here's a quick page on how I did the seams: My Version of Sewing Flat Felled Seams.
The bias tape was more annoying than expected, but I think it will work. It certainly LOOKS nice on the inside, and I hope the 3 runs of stitching through the loops is enough strength to keep the dress sturdy for a long time.
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| First completely finished seam |
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June 21, 2019
I really have been working on this dress for the past couple of weeks...I've just been so frustrated with the mistakes I keep making, that I stopped blogging about it. I lined the sleeves, realized that it was going to look horrible, pulled all the stitches, lined them again, and put the trim on. It was a labor of love, I'll tell ya, but I am pleased with the results.
I marked the hem the other night, and now all that is left to do is:
I marked the hem the other night, and now all that is left to do is:
- Insert grommets on the sleeves
- Sew the hem
- Add trim around the neckline? (need to check if NJ wants this)
- Find and insert lacing in the sides
...oh...and figure out what the NEXT project is... ;)
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