A Teal & Black Bustle

An actual dress post! Can it be?

You may remember some long ago posts about a teal contouche that I was trying to rescue from the naughty corner. I never hung correctly, the fabric was a pain, and it was an impossible color to match. I tried making a new petticoat to go with it, but I hated it so much I never wore it. So, in the naughty corner it stayed.

Then I finally decided that it just didn't want to be an 18thC dress, no matter what I told it. So, with Costume College on the menu for last year, I decided to do something Steampunk with it. I managed to find a teal and black striped taffeta at one of Dallas's fabric warehouses, so that became the underskirt. Then, I ran out of time for CoCo, and the dress went back into the naughty corner.

I finally had the chance to get back to work on the dress at the beginning of this year. The DFWCG was having an outing to the Caillebotte impressionist exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum, and it seemed like the perfect excuse to finally finish the thing. The underskirt was already finished, and the overskirt had been draped, but not sewn into place, so I figured I was close enough to finished with it that I could pull the rest of the dress together in a week!

Because I'm an idiot.

I had a sleepless week trying to finish this dress, and I almost made it. There are some definite things that need to be repaired on the bodice, and there are a few tweaks to the overskirt that need to be made. There is absolutely no closure. I intended to make a placket at the front, but I ran out of time and in my hurry completely forgot my own plan. I had to sew myself into the bodice the day of the event. Yeesh.

I want to go back and properly finish off the sleeves and add a little bit of length to them, make a better front panel by adding buttons or frogs to close it, and I want to add some sort of trim so there's not such a sharp line between the striped from panel and the rest of the bodice. The back of the bodice needs some fitting, too. But, the dress was wearable and I felt pretty cool while wearing it, so it's still a win!

Thanks to Jen at Festive Attyre for all the great pics!