Hello everybody,
Since it is Christmas, I thought it made be nice to make something Holiday themed. So I decided ( also because I found an amazing Christmas fabric) to attempt making my first costume and full length dress. All of that till Christmas with lots of upcoming tests in school. this should be exciting.
So first of all I bought the Christmas fabric, which is the one on the very top. the I made a design based on the fabric. The other fabric I am using for this dress is a black javanaise for the lining, shiny red Polyester for the side panels of the dress and a bow and some beige lace and gold trim for decorations.
I dyed the lace with some black tea.
I began with draping the pattern on my dressform, I didn´t go into the Details again, but I documented the whole patternmaking process better, than in´the last post.
When I removed it from the dressforma I had a pattern looking like this. I marked th chest dart and the waist line, when it was still on the dressform ( please excue the ugly fabric, I just like to drape with really ugly fabric. It kinda motivates me to move forward to the real dress)
The transfered the pattern to paper and added seam allowances and up/ downsized it to my measurements. with this pattern I made a mock-up, please don´t ever skipt this step, if you cut it from the real fabric you can´t reverse anything.
My pattern was to wide so I reduced the width of the waist again and shortened the straps.
I made all the alterations and added a little bit of length to the waistline so I have enough room, to have the waist exactly where I want it.
With the finsihed pattern I could start cutting my beautiful floral fabric. I cut the front part on the fold and the back part in two seperate pieces.
When cut it looked like this:
Then I began sewing it together, first the the darts on the bodice, I marked them with chalk, then folded them in half and sewed across the line, but there a bunch of tutorials, which explain the process a lot better. Then I sewed the side seams with 1 cm to create a full bodice.
With the finished bodice I could start finishing the seams, first the facing made out of black Cotton, so the whole neckline and arm openings are stiffer. I made the facing by tracing around the neckline, then I added 5 cm to the line, which created a thick strip.
I cut all the facings out, on the left side you can see the facing of the armholes and the neckline. I also cut out some boing channels, where I turned the edges inward with made bias tape maker. I also cut out a modesty panel, where the closures will be. so there sonest show any skin on the back. I made the modesty panel, by sewing around the top and bottom edge with half a centimetre and turning it inside out. It was cut on fold so didn´t worry about the left side.
When I turned the panel inside out, i just ironed it flat and the sewed it onto the back of the bodice. eventually the bodice will close with hooks and eyes. The eyes will be sewn on the modesty panel.
Then I sewed all the facings on. first the one for the neckline, then the facing for the armholes. I first pinned the edges togehter and made sure that the points of the neckline match. I sewed it with 1cm seam allowance
To secure the seam allowance to the facing iI simply, pressed the allowance to the left side and sewed across the very edge of the facing. but there are also a lot of tutorials on the internet, where the whole facing process gets explained way better.
When that´s done,
I flipped the facing inward and since I stitched the sea allowance to the facing there is a small line of the outer fabric on the inside. This is great because it prevends the facing from peeking out while worn.
I should look like this, when all the facings are ironed to the wrong side.
Now for the lining: the part I hate the most...
First I cut it out and I used a synthetic black fabric, which is beautiful, but a pain to work with.
The lining gets sewn in the exact same way as the main fabric. First the darts then the side seams.
To give the whole bodice a little bit more stability I decided to add a few boning chanels, wich I first made out of black cotton. I sewed them onto the lining, so the channels won´t be visible on the outer fabric. But this solution isn´t ideal, I would recommend making a base layer for the bodcie too. In my case this wan´t an potion, first because I didn´t have a suitable fabric and second becuase I was worried that the bodice will the too stiff.
The I sewed the lining to the facings, by hand, so there isn´t any visible topstitching.
I turned the edges of the lining inward and sewed it with whip stitches. there wasn´t any boning in there yet.
To finish the remaining raw edges I folded the main fabric to the lining two times and sitiched it down, also by hand.
I really had to be carful, that the lining didn´t shift too much, otherwise there would some parts could be too floppy or could have too much tension.
When everything is hemmed it looked like this, pretty and neat, so now for the closure
On the inside it looked like this. I first had to insert the boning in These boning channel, so I can´t accidently sew them closed, which happend to me two times.
Then I sewed the closures on. This was quite frustrating. First I tried hooks and eyes, but they didn´t had a good quilty, or maybe I have done something wrong?. When I closed the third hook, the first one opened itself and so on..
Anyway I decided to sew on snaps, since I hadn´t this issue there. It took me altogether three evening to sew and rip out all the closures... This was a shame
But then I could add the remaining boning, which is always quite funny at least I think it is. I used plastic boning, marked the length i needed, cut it there with regular scissors and the filed the edges, so the cannot damage the fabric.
The last the step to make a functional bodice is to sew the straps togheter, I made them with 1cm seam allowance.
I finished the edges of the straps with some satin ribbon, which I first sewed down on one side, then flipped it over and sewed it on the other side, just like bias tape.
This gives a neat finish, the edges of the ribbon will get turned a bit inward and then sewn down by hand.
And that was the construction of the main bodice. it was a lot of work, but I am glas that I have something for Christmas. The skirt is currently in progress, but there´ll be a part two for the very same dress.
I hope you enjoyed reading my post and stay tuned to see the 2nd part.
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