Purple Overdress Part 2

This is part 2 of a random sewing project I did inbetween costumes. Part 1 included information on the fabrics and the pattern. As well as the cutting of the fabric pieces. What I did not mension was that for this project I also followed a tutorial on the sewing process like that of the one I used for my Toothless jacket. Here is a link to the tutorial - Simplicity Pattern 1773 - Medieval Dress - Overdress. On this post I will be going over the steps I took to sew the overdress.

Taking the two front bodice pieces and the ribbon I cut 14 pieces of 4cm ribbon.

I then folded the ribbon in half wrong sides together and pinned 7 to each side according to the dots marked on the pattern pieces.

After this I sewed a length of ribbon vertically from the top of each fabric piece to the bottom. I made sure the long piece of ribbon covered the raw edges of each loop. Though I love the colour clashes I think using the crushed velvet was a bad idea, because sewing the ribbon on the stretch fabric made it pucker a little and not sit very straight. Note I am mostly self taught so this was a learning experience for me on the properties of fabrics.
I then sewed all the bodice sides together to make one long piece and then separately did the same for the lining pieces. Then on both pieces I pressed the seams flat.

Next on the lining piece I measured out the boning strips. I trimmed 5mm off the boning and curved the ends so that the wouldn't poke in my sides. I chose to buy boning with pre-made sleeves to make the process easier.

I then pinned all pieces on the lining and sewed all the way around leaving the top end open.

I had some trouble with the tension while sewing. It turned out that at some point when my bobbin snapped a small piece of thread got caught on the inside and stuffed up my tension. I was easily able to clear up the problem by removing the caught thread. I then re-sewed over the existing lines.

I then inserted all the boning back into the sleeves and sewed the top ends closed.

I sewed the sleeves right sides together to the front bodice pieces. Then rights sides together I sewed the bodices lining and fabric together and turned it right side out. I then sewed the skirt pieces together following the patterns instructions and added it to the bodices then finally hand sewing the back of the sleeves to the bodice after adjusting the length.

I added the final touch of the ribbon that holds the bodice closed which was too long in the photos I will trim it later and my side project was done. Next post will be another side project which is a black dress.

Purple Overdress Part 1

I wasn't sure what to call this post because I didn't make this for any particular purpose I just had a pattern lying around and just bought some nice new fabric so I made it. The pattern I had was a medieval dress pattern by Simplicity, the number is 1773. The fabric I used was a dark purple crushed velvet and a cheap dark blue cotton. This project also needed boning and light weight fusible interfacing. I probably spent about three or four days on this dress because it involved boning and I had never done this before.

This is what the dress looked like when it was finished. I am not going to keep the excess ribbon that I wrapped around my waist in the photo. I accidentally over measured how much I would need.

Here is what the dress pattern looked like. I made the over dress which is pattern B on the package. You can also see an example on the front of the envelope my dress was the brown over dress. As you can probably see I altered the pattern so that I would just have shoulder straps instead of the whole arm loop things.

These are the fabrics I used (plus the interfacing)

The crushed fabric looked like this. I was kind of a purpley-blue in real life.

I used this cheap $3 cotton for the lining because lining is just as expensive as  the main fabric. Plus it does a fine job anyway.

This is the 1/4 inch ribbon I used. I wanted the colours to really clash and stand out. That is why I picked a fluorescent green.

Following the patterns instructions I cut out the pieces for the overdress bodice and skirt out of the main fabric. I then did the same for the interfacing and lining. But for these I did not cut out the skirt patterns again. then on the interfacing I trimmed about half an inch off of the perimeter and then fused the interfacing to the corresponding lining pieces.

That is it for part 1 of the over dress post. On the next post I will talk about the sewing part.