Elegant Lady’s Closet Pattern - Sense and Sensibility Patterns
So, really I should have photographed this ensemble several months ago. It is after all a spring/summer dress, certainly in terms of fabric and pattern. But better late than never!
I really enjoyed this project, as it wasn’t as difficult as the Tudor dresses and nowhere near as rushed to completion as my 1840s dresses. In fact it was quite a nice, fairly easy thing to have on the back burner over the summer, and making the bonnet was a very enjoyable learning curve.
I found the pattern brilliant, easy to understand and follow, and any questions I had were all answered in the comments page on the website. It’s very versatile as well with two different dresses and three sleeve types to chose from, and because the undergarments pattern is designed to go with it, that turned out great too. I designed the bonnet myself, followed quite a few tutorials, and went wild with the glue gun to trim it!
I love this piece. I think it’s very elegant and I’m super pleased with how it turned out. I’ve not made a lot of very delicate things before but this certainly is and it’s a nice change from the more corseted, upholstery fabric type things I’m used to making.
I recently performed in a production of We Are Three Sisters, a play about the Bronte sisters set in the 1840s. I offered to make dresses for the three sisters and their brother’s girlfriend, and have never sewn so much in such a short amount of time in my life!
After some research and online hunting, I decided on Laughing Moon Mercantile’s round dress pattern. This has a silhouette suitable for 1840′s - 1850′s looks, is quite historical accurate, and comes with three different views which meant I could make several different dresses with just one pattern.
This was certainly a lesson in time management and speed sewing. I had rather unwisely booked a holiday to Italy two weeks before the performance, and when I got back I realised I only had one dress done, one bodice almost done, and very little spare time from work and rehearsals to make the other two dresses. I’m still amazed I got them all done in time!
Unfortunately I didn’t take any “in action” photos, but there are front and back shots and more info below about the four different dresses!
Dress 1: Anne’s (brown and white check polycotton)
This was the first dress I made, and because of that probably the least well done. By the time I was making the fourth I’d really got the hang of the pattern and was finding my groove. This dress didn’t start off too well as I was sent the wrong fabric (I had hoped for a much darker brown 100% cotton) but they had sold out and sent me a far more synthetic feeling and paler fabric instead. It was too late to send it back and buy more so I decided that it would have to do.
I added lace trim around the neckline and cuffs and piped it in a contrasting green/brown. This was the first dress I’ve made in a size bigger than my own so I was quite pleased with the fit! However the skirt didn’t quite meet at the back and I ended up having to put a couple of stitches in to hold it together both nights of the show (the popper I put in earlier kept coming undone!).
Dress 2: Charlotte’s (navy blue heavy cotton)
I found the fabric for this at the sewing shop in my local indoor market and was quite pleased with it. It had a nice feel and good structure, but picked up dust very easily and looked grubby on stage, which I’m sure Charlotte would have disapproved of!
I made this dress for myself so I was able to fit it as often as I wanted and thus get it perfect. I put steel boning into mine (the others all have plastic) and an extra layer of cotton canvas in the bodice because I wanted to give it an extra rigidity. My main struggle was with the button holes - there were so many layers of thick fabric where I was putting them in that I ended up giving up on my button hole foot and just zigzagging along each side! Then when I cut them open all the white frays from the lining came through and showed up next to the buttons which was frustrating.
I piped it with black for a quiet contrast and self-covered the buttons. The sleeves have mancherons, but overall it is quite a plain looking dress. Despite my difficulties during construction I really like the finished look and the fit!
Dress 3: Lydia’s (two-shot teal faux taffeta)
This dress is for Branwell Bronte (the fourth sibling in the family)’s rich girlfriend, a woman called Lydia Robinson. I found this taffeta online and was very pleased with it - it catches the light beautifully and moves with a delightful swishing noise. I was surprised at how tight woven it was, and in that sense behaved like some of the thicker fabrics I’ve worked with, but it draped beautifully.
This dress uses the same view as dress #1 but as I was feeling more experienced with the pattern by now, features like the ruched front and the fit of the overlay onto the lining seemed a lot easier and I finished them better. It is piped in the same fabric and trimmed with lace around the neck.
I was impressed with myself in that I managed to put a hidden zip in the back (hidden under a flap) - the actress had a quick change and wasn’t able to reach round and undo buttons or hooks and eyes on her own!
The sleeves are decorated with tucks and extra half-sleeves. I would really have liked to add more trim and detail on this dress, but alas time would not allow it.
Dress #4: Emily’s (grey striped linen)
I think this is overall my favourite dress. I especially love the fabric, which I ordered off ebay after searching for suitable grey striped fabric everywhere else, which has a lovely weight to it and pleated, draped and sewed beautifully. The silhouette is especially flattering and I love the pagoda sleeves.
This dress also gave me the fewest problems, despite the fact that I made it in about three half days! I sewed the cartridge pleats on the outside on this one, as on all the other dresses they were sewn onto the inside of the bodice, causing the piping to roll up when tightened and expose the tops of the pleats. It looked and worked a lot better and took a lot less time than the others did!
The sleeves are wider at the cuffs and have fake undersleeves that are simply elasticated at the top and worn under the main dress.Â
My only let down with this dress is that because I didn’t make a mock up due to time pressure, and therefore had to refit the back, the hook and eye tape closure really showed up down the centre back. If I had had more time I would have been able to change this but in the end I decided it would just have to do.
My overall experience making these dresses was a good one and I’m certain I learnt some new skills. Next time I offer to make costumes for a play, I’ll be sure to plan my sewing time well in advance!
In this part I will be showing you how I made the skirt and attached it to the bodice (completing the main gown) and also made the underskirt. Here you can see them without the hoop skirt underneath.
Part 1 (the bodice) can be read here.
I sewed the skirt panels together with French seams except for the back seam.
I started by folding inwards the central edges of the front panels by a couple of inches, clean finishing the raw edge and basting the top and bottom down to hold it in place.
Once that was done I prepared the skirt for the cartridge pleats. I had never done cartridge pleats before and so I was a bit worried about something going wrong, but they actually turned out a lot easier to do than I expected.
I cut several strips of gingham and sewed them onto the assembled skirt panels, excluding the front two and stopping at the back seam. I clean finished the raw edges with zigzag stitches and trimmed the seam allowance to about ¼”.
At this point I needed to do the back opening so I sewed the back seam up (again with French seams) up to the marking I had made for the opening.
I bound the opening with the same fabric I used to line the bodice by first sewing it on right sides together as a facing. I then turned it inside, trimmed it, pressed the raw edge under and stitched in the ditch from the outside to make sure everything was secure but not visible.
The skirt all sewn together before being gathered and hemmed.
Then I began to stitch my cartridge pleats, using the boxes of the gingham as a guide for the length of my running stitches.
I pleated the front two panels with knife pleats, following the markings on the pattern – they were about 1 ½” each.
I then securely attached the front two panels to either side of the bodice front (one at a time!) and sewed them on securely by machine, right sides together. I bound this front edge in bias tape for a clean finish.
Then came the fun part! I pulled on the two rows of stitches I had made for my cartridge pleats and everything gathered up nice and quickly and neatly. I shuffled them around to make them the right length to fit the rest of the bodice’s lower edge.
I then pinned the rest of the skirt onto the bodice, having the tops of the pleats even with the bodice’s lower edge, and hand stitched each fold on. I also did some invisible hand stitches on the outside to make sure everything was secure.
From the outside the stitches are invisible and the pleats look lovely and even!
I then hemmed the bottom of the skirt using a slip stitch (by hand), but forgot to take pictures. Suffice to say that it took a couple evenings and a few hours of listening to podcasts while hand sewing – a seemingly recurrent habit of mine nowadays!
On to the underskirt! I started by cutting the decorative front panel out of a lovely green brocade that has a really nice silk look, and a felt for backing and support. I flatlined them to each other then attached the other skirt panels, which are just plain cotton calico.
Again I left an opening at the back seam, but didn’t bind it this time. Instead I just folded the raw edges under twice and hemmed then.
I gathered the top up using the longest stitch on my machine and then pulling on the threads to gather the fabric up. For the waistband, I sandwiched the gathered raw edge between two lengths of grosgrain ribbon, and topstitched close to the edges.
I finished the ends of the waistband by folding the ribbon under and hand stitching it into place. I added a hook and bar for closure.
I then hemmed the front panel by hand using a slipstitch, and hemmed the rest of the skirt on my machine – it will be hidden by the gown so this won’t be visible.
I also decided to add a little popper on the main skirt closure to hold the back edges together as they don’t quite meet up when I’m wearing it.
The finished underskirt, worn over my hoop skirt.
And here’s a little teaser of the finished dress – I’ll cover how to make the amazing undersleeves (I love them!) in my next post.
This is the first of four parts in a new little series on my blog, Sew With Me. Not as in-depth as a tutorial nor as vague as a brief overview, I’m going to be writing up what I’m doing as I work on a project and taking photos as I go along. I hope you enjoy reading and “sewing” along with me!
For this Tudor dress project, I am using the Simplicity pattern 2589. This is a dress from the Henrician Tudor era and is very similar to that worn in several portraits of Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr.
In this first part, I will be showing you how I made the bodice of the gown. Read ahead to find out more!
I’m starting with all my pieces already cut and mockup done. For those interested, I’m mostly using pattern size 16 with some adjustments on the back panel to make it narrower. Here’s everything labelled and ready to go!
I’m starting by pinning the bodice interfacing and lining panels together, right sides out. I used a cotton canvas for the interfacing and a soft, cream-coloured cotton for the lining. I traced the boning channels onto the outside of the interfacing layer as this will be sandwiched inside the lining and outer fabric, so having the markings showing was not a problem.
I then stitched around the top and side edges of the panels, leaving the bottom edges open so I could insert the bones. I stitched the boning channels and inserted the boning, strips of 3/8” Rigilene cut just shorter than the channels so I would have space for the bottom seam.
I then pinned the front and back panels in my main outer fabric, a brown slightly sateen-y upholstery jacquard, onto their respective lining pieces and stitched the top seams and the centre back seam. I flipped the pieces inside out and understitched the lining by sewing through the lining and seam allowances, but not the brown outer fabric.
I then added the outer fabric to the side panels, right sides out, and sewed all the bodice pieces together. With six layers of fabric to go through, the seams are quite thick! I clean-finished the seam allowances by binding them in bias tape.
I then added the grommets using my grommet setting kit purchased at a local sewing shop and a small hammer. Here is a view of both the inner and outer bodice once it was all stitched up.
I lined the underlap, flipped it inside out to create nice clean edges, and clean-finished the last raw edge with a zigzag stitch. I then hand-sewed it onto the inside of one of the back panels.
I hand-stitched the end of the shoulder straps onto the inside of the front bodice piece, matching it up the with the markings from the pattern.
Side note: as I write this, I now know that the shoulder straps are too long once the dress is finished (making the shoulders and sleeves stand up off my shoulders), so I would definitely go back and sew them on further down if I could! This wasn’t an issue with my initial fittings, but it seems that sewing the skirt on has increased the problem. I’ll talk more about this and cover how I fixed it in a later part.
To start the outer sleeves, I stitched the lining of the upper sleeve onto the contrast fabric right sides together and pressed the seam up. While sewing this seam, I added two thin ribbons which will later be used to attach the inner sleeves and pinned them out of the way.
I stitched the side seam and then did the same steps with the outer brown fabric, excluding the ribbons. I stitched the two sleeves (outer brown fabric and lining/contrast) together along the bottom seams, then turned the contrast inside the main so it looked like this.
I basted the raw edges together at the top of the sleeves and then set them into the arm holes, lining up my markings and seams.
I finished the seam again with bias tape.
I then folded up the contrast of the sleeve up over the outer brown, meeting the lower edge of the upper sleeve, and invisibly hand stitched down over the top half of the arm.
I then spent a long evening hand sewing on the trim around the neck opening, which consisted of a gold braid and a vast amount of pearl beads and small black beads.
And voila, the finished bodice! As I briefly mentioned above, the fit around the shoulders is not perfect, so if you are planning on making this yourself I would suggest taking them in a little. The photos show the bodice laced with blue ribbon instead of my actual brown cord as I hadn’t bought it yet.
Stay tuned for part 2, skirt and underskirt; part 3, inner sleeves; and part 4, French hood. Happy sewing!
I made this back in 2012 for World Book Day, dressing up as a female ranger from Middle Earth, and ended up wearing it to school along with a chainmail vest and long winter’s cloak!
Excluding the chainmail, it is an excellent simple Medieval dress, which can either be worn plain as I am below or accessorised (photos to follow) and used as the base layer in a more fantasy-world look, as was my original intention for it. I made it in a week and had very few difficulties when sewing it, which for my second ever big project, was quite impressive!
The dress laces up at the back and falls just above my ankles--I actually took the hem up significantly higher than the pattern said because I was aiming for something that would be more practical. The shoulders are just a little too wide and the armholes a bit small, but that is more my own fault during sewing than a problem with the pattern.
I think this is my favourite projects out of those on this blog; it was such a joy to make and I think it turned out beautifully. I made this gown for my sister over the course of several months in between work and rehearsals, and finished it in time to do a photoshoot in the beautiful Tudor village where my grandmother lives.
The outfit is composed of several parts: a gown with an overskirt, bodice and sleeves, a kirtle or underskirt with a decorative (or in my case fairly simple) front panel and plain sides and back, and a bumroll and farthingale to give the skirts their shape.
The bodice is the most intricate part of the dress, including detailing such as waist tabs, sleeve rolls, decorative lace and golden loop braid trim. The sleeves each have three buttons at the wrist. It is boned and lined with a sturdy cotton drill and muslin.
The back of the bodice laces up over a modesty panel and joins the top of the skirt, fastened by a hook and eye.Â
The main fabric of the dress is a beautiful floral tapestry upholstery fabric from iwantfabric.com, and the sleeves and front panel of the skirt are both faux silk taffeta from ebay. The front panel of the kirtle is also backed with felt to add strength and help it lie flat.
I would recommend this pattern to intermediate and advanced sewers as there are a few fiddly bits and it is a lot of work. It’s also worth noting that it runs a little wide/large in the shoulders; I would alter this if I were to make it again.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the undergarments on their own, but the pattern (Simplicity 2621) can be found here. I have yet to make the corset and chemise.
To celebrate my 13th birthday my family organised a “Victorian Day” (to suit my obsession with the Victorians)--we all dressed up, I in my new dress, and spent the day doing “Victorian” pursuits and eaten several-course meals from Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management.
(Three buttons appear to be missing in this photo--thankfully I was able to take more of the dress with buttons present!)
The shape of the bustle is highlighted here beautifully. Unfortunately, the fabric choice did not take well to the gathers situated on the back of the overskirt, designed to lift the skirt higher off the ground.
The rest of my family’s costumes weren’t quite so historically accurate, but the effect still produced a nice result!
This 1880′s dress was one of my first ever sewing projects, done once a week over the course of about 6 months. I will ever be in debt to our family friend Debbie who showed me how to read instructions, what everything meant and how to translate it to what I was doing, and all the basics of making a garment.
The dress is made up of three pieces: a two-toned bodice with buttons down the front for fastening and a small peplum at the back, an overskirt with a draped front and gathers at the back, and a flat-fronted underskirt with side fastening.
The pattern was relatively simple and easy to follow, and turned out beautifully. It was a little tight around the shoulders but the fit on the bust and waist was beautiful.
Hello, little 12-year-old me! Above you can see the flat fronted underskirt with pleats at the back.
The front half of the overskirt--an apron style drape. Ideally it would be lined in cream but I ran out of fabric and lined it with the green from the underskirt. The fabric is thick enough that the difference is only visible up close and in the right light.
yousharknotpass
izzy806
prguitarman
amandla
tangentwithtanner