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| Comic version (not clothes) |
Woo! It's a success!
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| Ren Faire version. Very witchy. |
Well, it looks alright anyway. It's not really a gown.
The PIC and I have been going hard at some 18th century stuff and I haven't had any spare time to invest in the Netherlandish gown, so I had to cram it into one weekend. Since I needed to get the whole thing done in a very short amount of time I took some shortcuts.
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| What's this? Why, it's a shot of the back of one of my dresses! |
I used an existing UFO shift that I found in my stash and just rolled the neckline edge under to make a casing and slipped some cord through it. Done. The sleeves are larger than I'd like, but it gets the job done and was almost no work. I just ordered a stupid amount of linen, so I'll likely make a nicer shift at some point in the future.
I drafted a quick and dirty pattern for a partlet. It's basically just a rectangle with the edges on one side slanted for the shoulder cut 4 times, sewn together and the back and sides and open in the front. I'm mostly happy with the way it turned out, except that I only had enough fabric for one layer which means that the hemmed edges are visible on the turned back collar. The partlet is not in any of the pictures, however, as I tore it when I pinned it on before leaving. I have all that linen, so I guess I'll also make a new partlet.
The hat came together surprisingly quickly and easily. I drafted the cone piece and then traced the brim of a straw craft hat. I doubled the felt on the brim, but it was still too soft to hold it's shape. I added a bit of wire around the brim and flipped the whole thing inside out then attached to the cone. It's a bit wonky where the edges of the wire pieces meet, but pretty good overall. I've decided this adds to the "character". The felt holds it's shape when I scrunch it, so I didn't have to add anything extra to get it to do that. I also reshaped a craft hat into something resembling the appropriate straw hat, so I have that to wear if I decide to wear this as a regular ren faire outfit without the witch hat.
I had already started on an 18th century petticoat in the exact same fabric that I'd bought for the dress and opted to use that as a separate skirt and just make up a bodice rather than making a whole dress. I used the 18th century bodice pattern but combined the back and side panels into one pattern piece. It's self-lined. I had originally planned to use lacing rings, but didn't want to mess with them with so little time so I just added a length of ribbon inside the lining piece of each side and stitched it down to make holes for the laces to go through. I found the lacing rings the week after I wore this, so I suppose at some point I'll finish it properly. I also have fabric to make a proper skirt piece at some point. It's on the back burner for now.
The apron was an 11th hour project. I procrastinated on ordering the linen and was waiting to see if it would come on time. I only ordered a yard and just needed to hem the raw edges and attach it to some twill tape. The back up plan was to buy a tea towel and paint it.
Luckily the linen arrived in time. The stripes ran with the selvedge and I needed it to run the opposite way, I ended up cutting it down to a half a yard so that the width would be right. I'm lazy and didn't want to piece the length, so it's a little short, but it works.
I just folded up some of the extra fabric and tucked it under the gown to create the stomacher. I wore it over my 18th century stays for some shaping. The stomacher piece I used was a little small, so I had to pin it in at the edges. I didn't want to cut into the extra fabric because I'll need it for the skirt I plan to attach and if I wear the gown again I'll likely use a contrasting stomacher.
Hopefully I'll get around to finishing (starting) the black kirtle soon and will be able to layer it if I want.
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| A front, back, AND side view? What's happening? |
