Sometime in a January, I am going to guess 2019 because 2020 was a blur of nothing, I started sewing a simple dress of green cotton to wear to an event at the Australiana village in Windsor. The idea was a rework of the pagoda bodice body, a semi-full skirt over just the petticoat with no hoop, long sleeves and the use of a collar I had acquired from the sewing basket. I had planed it to button up the side under the arm and sized the whole dress to be able to be worn without a corset for the sake of Australian summer.
I got the outfit to the point where the hem was pinned, no buttons yet and no sleeves but I had handsewn in the collar, which I may add, was no mean feat. Trying to get it pinned to lie flat on the bodice with it on me (Gladys is in need of repair so not really good for that sort of thing) was not something I wish to ever repeat - but I did get there. All the internal seams were finished in a hand felled method or french for the long skirt seam (there is only one). And there it sat.
From memory I had issues working out what sleeves I wanted then there was trying to get a sleeve to fit into the hole left by the drop sleeved style of the pagoda bodice, and finally the event ended up on a day I could not attend (the reason why escapes me as it was a date I had organised so all I can think is that a family event came up). Then I sent Gladys for repairs (that never happened and took 9mths but that is a whole other story) so the dress came down was packed away and passed over for more needed or exciting projects.
This month we have an event on, open themed and I wanted to make the renaissance dress for it but the green dress made its way back up and into sorting as we move my stash from under the house into storage for mould reasons. I took another look at it and thought it deserved to be finished - especially after the battle that was the yoke/collar piece, however the basic colonial style wasn't exciting me.
First step was to put sleeves in and rather than spend weeks wrestling with patterning I decided to put the pagoda sleeves on. I wondered if it would fit over a hoop (as that was also on my to do list this month) and a new plan was born. Raise the hem, make a pleated petticoat to go underneath and fit over a hoop. I added some stash cotton lace and ribbon to the sleeve ends to finish them nicely and balance the white portions. Also yay some stash use.
I did not have the required amount of fabric for the petticoat, so I hit up spotlight for the first of about a million visits this month. Cotton cost was high given the amount used in a hoop petticoat, plus the cotton needed for the pleats would make one very heavy petticoat. Given my other petticoat is already out of a too heavy linen the idea of having both on my hips was not appealing. In order to save money and in line with the "is it pretty" mentality I bought some $2/m poly/cotton poplin and a couple of meters of white quilting cotton (same quality as the green fabric).
As it turns out 2m was very ambitious as I worked out the pleat depth etc and returned the next day for another 2m. I would need 12m total to make the 4m hem of pleats. Setting the pleats I tried the vinigar methods and other than giving me a craving for chips it did not seem to help me much. But giving them a good steam and basting has held them so far. The dress hem ended up being lower than anticipated so I have kept a basting stitch above this hem to hold the pleats better.
When hemming the dress my original plan was to have about 10 inches of pleats showing, however that did not look balanced at all, so after consultations with friends it was decided to just about halve that, in the end its 6 inches from green to floor in hoop. This is mostly eyeballed but i also used a 6" paper template to run under the green and make sure it was at least in the ball park.
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| yes this was to much pleats |
One of the best secrets about this dress is the with the side closure I can line up a whole bunch of openings to be able to access my Bernie Pocket rather than carrying a bag.
I am very happy with the result and glad I took the time to reimagine and finish this project.
Keen eyes may have noticed a bonnet appear in the final photos.....I have considered a separate post but as the bonnet was made in one night I don't think I have enough to say to fill out a whole post.
The basis was made from some fleeting tips made by Angela Clayton, and it is constructed with buckram and wire frame, padded with some quilted wadding and covered in left over cotton from the pleats and uses up a length of ribbon I had in my stash from gods know when.
I love the gather effect on the back though I have been told it looks a little bit handmaids tale so I may need to add more adornments before I wear it again.
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