Saturday, August 15, 2015

A screaming yellow chemise a la reine

Y'all, it's almost my birthday! I'm turning ~mumble~ this year, so I thought I'd celebrate in style with a Petit Trianon themed birthday dinner. I have a bunch of costume friends coming over, and we're all going to party in Marie Antoinette style - lots of food, lots of treats, and of course, we'll all be wearing chemise gowns!

I didn't want just a plain white chemise gown, but I wasn't sure on what color to make it, either. That's when I came across this painting.


Her petticoat is this lovely buttery yellow color, and she has a green sash! Her voile is a sheer strip, where mine is plain, but it's just so pretty! The yellow I have in my Stash is also much more lemony/screaming yellow, but it's a color I love, so I decided to go with it.

I started on my chemise gown just the other day, and it's already coming together really quickly. The first thing I had to do was make some 1780s skirt supports, since that's not a decade I've ever explored before. I decided to make the split false rump that I've seen some others use to good effect. I think I probably made my pillows a bit too narrow at the top, but it all worked out in the end, and they do give a nice shape to the skirts once they're on.
 

The next step was the yellow petticoat. I made a bit of an oops with it and neglected to account for the hem and waistline when I measured everything, so it's a couple of inches too short in the back. ~sigh~ I may go back and add a yoke at the back waistline to even things out but...meh. It'll all be covered with gown in the end, so I'm not terribly worried about it.  Also, I ran out of my screaming yellow thread, so there's also that keeping me from wanting to redo anything.
 
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I intended to go on and work on the gown itself, but discovered....I don't have any white thread. ~facepalm~ I feel like every supply I own is running out! I did go ahead and cut out the gown panel, which literally just involved cutting a 4 yard length of 60" wide fabric. It's all pinned onto the dress form right now, and it first it just looked like a big white tent, but once I tied the sash around the waist it actually started to resemble a gown. XP
 
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I need to purchase some ribbon to make my casings and act as my drawstrings, and once I have those I feel like I should be able to finish this dress up fairly quickly!

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