Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Bustle Gown, Plan B

Alright, so...there's no way that I'm going to have the black taffeta gown finished in time for the DFW Costumer's Guild meetup on Saturday. With finals this week, studying last week, and commissions before that, I didn't get anything done. Not much, anyway. I did some embroidery on the coronation gown, but that was on the machine, and it could hum away merrily, doing its thing, while I was off cramming for my tests.
So yeah, nothing was done on the bustle gown. And there's waaay too much to be done on it before it's wearable, so there's no hope of completing it once my finals are over.
That means I have to go with Plan B! A while ago, an absolutely amazing costumer named Kat did a recreation of the dress from Tissot's "Return from a Boating Trip". It was spectacular! And I immediately wanted one, too. (She's also recently done a recreation of the same 1874 fashion plate that I'm using as a reference for the black taffeta gown, and it is equally amazing. Check it out in her entry for The Most Beautiful Bustle Gown in the World contest, where she won for Best Day Dress. I hope mine turns out at fabulously as hers did!)
Anyway, her dress was fantastic. And I wanted one. So, I dug out some striped sheer fabric that I had in my fabric stash, and started on the skirt. Then...I got distracted. So, it never really got finished. I did actually wear the skirt once, to a Mounted Shooting event that my sister was participating in. But I wore it with a white blouse, a corset top, and a black overskirt. Not exactly the dress in the painting, but still lovely.
Well, I'm going to try and finish up the dress in the painting. You can see the skirt to the right. The only obstacle that I have...I only have about a yard or so of fabric left. Eep! It's super wide, so I may be able to finagle it, but it'll be a miracle if I'm able to squeeze the top, sleeves, and overskirt out of my small bit of fabric. The fact that I got the entire skirt out of that fabric and still have some left over is amazing, considering the bolt only had 5 yards on it to begin with! But, I'm optimistic, and there's far less to do on this dress than on the other, so I'm going to plug away on it and get it finished up! Fingers crossed!

2 comments:

  1. oh thats funny...a good girlfriend of mine sew the same striped bustle gown..you can see it there:

    http://mywielgreenleaf.typepad.com/blog/

    its avery beautiful gown an i hope you have enough fabric for it, because she need 15 meters of the stripped fabric for all ;-)

    (sorry for my bad english)

    wish you a wondeful day+kindest regards tuahadedana

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  2. Ooo, she does fantastic work! I should have done like she did and only have ruffles around the hem, it would have saved a load of fabric. x.x
    Your dress looks really lovely, I hope mine turns out as well! :D

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