Enough, Enough Now

My last post was about the fabric (silk!) that I am using for an 1830s ballgown. After cutting all the pieces – and a couple of strips for binding – I had this much fabric left over:

4 metres was enough, but only just.

Skirt
Because of the limited fabric, I faced the skirt hem and waist. The facing is cotton homespun which I also used for flatlining the bodice. As with my previous 1830s dress, I sewed a strip of wadding around the hem, used double inverted pleats at the front waist and cartridge pleating at the back.

Dear future self, use 1cm stitches for cartridge pleating skirts, not 2cm stitches.

Bodice
I gave this bodice a straight edge (the pattern has a centre front peak) because I want to have a belt that goes with it. It is finished with self-binding – cut on the straight because that was all the fabric I had left. The back seams and neckline are piped in purple. The centre bodice and shoulder seams are self-piped. I didn't want to use purple next to the bertha as I thought the white/dark contrast would be distracting.

I thought the inside colour scheme turned out quite nice.

I had the very smart idea of doing all the hand sewing before putting the sleeves on the bodice. Sewing on the hooks and eyes and binding the sleeve flounces was much more convenient when the pieces were not attached to each other. Usually I wouldn't do this, because a dress can be worn with these features incomplete if it really needs to be but, for once, I had started sewing with plenty of time.

Bertha
The pattern I am using has a bertha. Its version is made of alternating strips sewn down to overlap.

Source

I didn't think that would work so well for me, what with the organza being see-through and all, so instead I pleated my organza all in one piece, along the lines of how my inspiration portrait looks. The raw edges are tacked underneath.

The bertha is attached to the bodice by being caught in the shoulder, sleeve and centre front seams. I did do a little bit of tacking near the shoulders to stop the fabric overlapping the neckline. Said tacking is hidden under the third layer of pleating so as to not affect how the edge of the organza sits.

Sleeve
The top of the sleeve is knife pleated. I used a cable tie to gauge the width (because it was lying around nearby) and kept pleating until the sleeve was the width I wanted. The resulting ruffles are perhaps not quite as nice as they would have been had I had enough fabric to cut them on the bias but less fancy ruffles are better than no ruffles. The other ruffles are just gathered and all are edged with purple silk bias.

I used French seams on the organza puff – I have mixed feelings about French seams but they turned out all right here. The rest of the seams are finished with Hong Kong binding. To hold the organza puff in place I made a rouleau from the organza and stitched it down at the top and bottom of the puff and into the sleeve seam.

I love how the sleeves turned out. I’m very glad I didn’t have enough silver for them – I think this looks so much better. My only qualm is that the puff could probably afford to be a bit bigger but that’s not a significant problem.