Oh hey you're back! Now that we've made our corset, lets do the smart thing and completely cover it up so that no one can see our beautiful work.... (Le Sigh)
I fell in ABSOLUTE LOVE with this dress from the 1997 film "Anna Karenina" (The only one that matters in my opinion. Yes I know about the other one....I said what I said.)
So I thought, why not give it a go.... It just has a complicated bodice shape, heavily detailed underskirt, and a gathered/ruched overskirt that I cannot find pictues of the back of. HOW HARD CAN IT BE?
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| I MEAN COME ON! |
Great question, I'd be happy to tell you.
So to begin, I made a rough mood-board of the initial layout and notes of the dress.
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| Bonus samples of the Skirt/Bodice/Trim choices |
So now that we have our plan of action, let get started with the first layer, the base underskirt. This is built off of the Truly Victorian Fantail skirt pattern (
Click it). I've used this pattern MANY times, and have made small alterations (Widened the back piece and lengthened the back slightly with no train). I built the skirt out of a cream cotton.
PRO TIP!!!!! If you are building historical costumes and you need cotton for interlinings/flatlinings/linings, visit your local joann's and buy 108' wide quilt backing. When you get home, rip it in half down the yardage of the fabric. Then, (screams in cheap) YOU HAVE DOUBLE THE YARDAGE OF 54" WIDE FABRIC FOR A FRACTION OF THE COST!!!
After cutting it out, it was time to partially flatline it to the silk dupioni that I (Stupidly, more on that LATER) chose for the skirt. I didnt take the silk all the way up to the waist to save on fabric and reduce bulk at the waist. I marked a line about 20 inches down from the waistline on the front, sides and back. Then I ripped a piece of silk a touch bigger than the pattern piece and lined it up with the marking I made on the skirt WITH THE SILK ON TOP POINTING TOWARDS THE WAIST (go with me here). Once I stitched it down, I folded over the silk along the stitch line, and smoothed it over the base skirt pattern creating a clean line where the silk meets the cotton (I hope that made sense). Once all pieces have been flatlined in this manner, skirt is constructed and seams finished on my Baby Lock Victory serger (YALL I LOVE THIS THING).
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| Front and Sides with the line for silk facing |
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| Silk stitched 1/0 inch away from the line |
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| Silk folded over the stitchline |
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Final flatlined/faced piece
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The hem was then finished with a small hem facing of the gold silk (Also more on this later...)
This is when our intrepid designer realized (when typing this blog) that he never took photos of the finished underskirt... Just believe it when I say it looked great. Next up, onto the overskirt building (where I *think* I took more photos) !!
Look yall, I made this dress over the span of TWO WEEKS.... cut me a little bit of slack ok, lol.
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