Regency Evening Gown 2012

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have some process shots of creating my dress for this year's Jane Austen Evening. My dress was inspired by this one from the exhibit Napoleon: The Empire of Fashion - I've drooled over the dress ever since I bought the catalog, and when I found some sheer striped fabric in the LA garment district I decided to give it a shot.

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Inspiration

The below 3 images are found via Thomason Photography. I was happy to find this website, because the exhibit catalog doesn't show the sleeve clearly. I never found a photo of the back, so I just made it up based on my previous Regency dresses.

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Draping

Earlier this year I bought my very first dress form, Beatrice, and she was a life saver for this project. I took all my measurements with my stays on, then put them on her, laced and padded her out to match. I draped the bodice directly on top and only had 2 fittings from start to finish, and honestly the bodice of this dress fits me better than anything else in my closet. 

I had 2 fabrics to work with, my base satin and the sheer striped fabric. First step was draping the satin underlayer - I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted the neckline, so I marked a couple options and picked one in my first fitting. I think(?) I picked the lower one.

I like to make notes on my muslins during draping or fitting, so that I remember what to do to the pattern. I decided to have drawstring closures at the neck and waistline, and because I wanted a slight gathered effect, I added a little extra to the CB of the pattern when I traced off my muslin.

I don't have a shot of the side view, but I kept the armhole really high, right under the armpit. High armholes are not the standard in today's clothing but they are crucial for good movement (especially in non-stretch fabrics!), and since I would be dancing in this dress I wanted to be able to lift my arms!

Next I draped my sheer striped fabric on top of my muslin. Luckily this fabric was not expensive, so I bought extra and decided to drape directly in the real fabric, and knew I could start over if I had too. As you can see, the bodice is bias like the original. Love directional stripes! (OK, all stripes are directional, but you know what I mean.)

 I don't even want to remember how long it took me to drape this darn bodice! Hours, literally. Getting all the tucks and poufiness placed correctly and flatteringly was really hard. I draped half, marked all the tucks, and then transfered it to the other side on the flat. The over layers of the bodice are flatlined to the satin.

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Construction

The rest was fairly easy! So of course I didn't take process shots of it, grr. The neckline is finished with bias binding casing and trimmed with lace and a beaded trim, and I slipstitched the waistline seam allowance closed to create a casing. Here's the inside view of the front - yes, I overlocked the inside seam allowances!

For the skirt and sleeves, I used my modified Sense & Sensibility pattern from last year and just added the striped overskirt, which was a couple of rectangles with a bunch of box pleats. I did the CB placket wrong because the edges are supposed to butt up to each other, but my placket is for edges that overlap. Oh well, that's nothing a little hook and eye can't fix!

The Finished Dress!!

Whew! Thanks for indulging me that post, and congrats if you made it to the end! ;)