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| Me and Kristen at the ball - photo by Nevada Live Magazine |
I couple weekends ago I was all a-tussle finishing the evening bodice for my new purple 1860s gown. I intended to wear it to a local Civil War ball, and was happy to put the finishing touches on it a couple hours before leaving for the ball.
I didn't take the easiest path on this bodice. I scaled up a gridded pattern from
Period Costume for Stage & Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress, 1800-1909
, using a
new-to-me digitizing technique, and after a quick toile (maybe a bit *too* quick), I cut into my silk and stabilizing layer.
Well it all worked out in the end, despite fussing with the side seams and performing an impromptu nip-n-tuck on the back pieces. I stitched in some hand-sewn eyelets, and bound the bottom edge in self-fabric piping. At this point, unadorned, the bodice looked very bridesmaid, which influenced my decision to add sleeves (because I'll avoid them if I can!). Again using Hunisett's instructions, I mounted organza puffs on muslin bases and stitched them in.
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| The bodice base without sleeves or any boning int he front point. It looks so...modern. |
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| The bodice with the sleeve puffs and the base pieces for the bertha pinned in place. Still no boning in the bodice. |
It's amazing the effect this little detail had on de-bridesmaiding the design, but the bodice needed the big finale to truly look period - the bertha.
One invaluable tip I picked up from Hunisett and Janet Arnold both was to cut bias strips and lap them onto a base, to create the pleated look of the bertha. I found this method SO much easier than trying to pleat a piece to shape, and gleefully layered on bias strips in the silk and organza, followed by a super-shreddy strip of ruched silk, and some trickier-than-they-look finishing pieces to cover where the berthabits met on the center front and shoulders.
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| Layering bias strips of organza and silk. Note to self - change the friggin' thread color next time, because that sh*t's visible! |
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| The nearly-complete bertha pinned into place. My first base wasn't big enough, so I added more organdy and kept layering until getting to the size I wanted |
Ginormous bows and bling finished it, and at least on the dress form the thing looked glamorous.
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| Day of the ball - adding black taffeta bows, big sparkly things, and planning jewelry for the evening. |
I wheezed a sigh of relief when the bodice fit my actual body like a glove, and everything stayed put, despite the incredibly low-cut design, and constricting shoulder (can I even call them that?) straps.
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| Photo by Willie P. |
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| Photo by Kristen - everything stayed put, thank goodness. |
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| Chatting with a gentleman I met at the dance. I need a bit more oomph in the skirt - elliptical shapes are a bit tricky to support. Photo by Nevada Live Magazine |
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| For hair I used several hair pieces and a wash-out mousse to color my own hair brown, so it would blend with the hairpieces. The tiara could use a better method of sticking to one's head. Photo by Nevada Live Magazine |
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| Photo by Nevada Live Magazine |
Most importantly, I felt wonderful in the gown. I felt regal and glamorous and graceful, and I can't wait to wear it again!
