I'll start with the outer layer of the costume (it's part I like best). It was a fun gown to wear, and I can see the allure of making more after spending a day in one.
TIME: Roughly 35 hours for all outer layer items. My arch nemesis, hand sewing, was required for certain parts of this costume. The hems and fore sleeves required the most hand sewing, and it was necessary for all that cartridge pleating on the green portion of the dress. I hand sewed the hems because machine stitching would have been EXTREMELY visible on this fabric, and while I am not a purist by any means, I was trying to obtain a certain level of correct with my appearance.
This time also includes the hundreds of pearls, "jewels" and gold trim detail attached to to the dress and French hood. Those things were also hand sewn down. In retrospect I should have done the pearls before I added the felt backing to the forepart, but I wanted to make sure I had something finished I could wear vs. an embellished portion of a costume with nothing else attached to it. There is a small but growing benefit of the mass amounts of hand sewing I've been doing: getting better and ever so slightly faster.
Look at those tidy, tiny stitches!
GLORY IN THEM.
GLORY IN THEM.
ALTERATIONS: I did make a few.
The forepart directions called for a ribbon waistband. It just didn't seem like a substantial enough way to secure so much fabric to me. So I made the skirt with a normal waist band.
I had to change the shoulder straps to this gown. If I had followed the pattern markings, the gown would have slipped off my shoulders. Seriously. I had to remove about two inches off the straps to get the gown to sit where it wouldn't fall off. I'm not the most busty of ladies, so I'm sure that had something to do with it. Also, since this is a pattern made for a large commercial company, I'm sure they go by the "easier to take in than let out" motto. This changed how the sleeves were attached. I have to gather the fabric to get them to fit the opening. I have no idea if gathered sleeves are period correct or not, but I am not skilled enough to fool around with pattern scaling.
After some advice and research, I change the placement of the veil on the hood. The pattern called for it to be attached at the bottom part of the hood. It didn't seem right. It would have looked deflated. So it was moved to the top of the hood and flowed much better.
I did not use the gingham for the cartridge pleating. I marked my fabric with a chalk pencil and made the pleats that way. I didn't have any gingham on hand and I didn't feel like buying any.
The length of this dress had to be shortened. I'm 5'3" and I would have been tripping all over.
EASE OF INSTRUCTIONS: Very good instructions are included in this pattern. I had a bit of trouble with the steps involving how to turn under the fabric to create the pleating in the front. I'm not sure if how I did it was actually what I was supposed to do, or it just worked out for me.
FUN FACT: it is entirely possible to ride an elephant while wearing this dress.
My "sewing room" is in a fair state of chaos right now, but I'm hoping that once trim is down and the closet installed, I can unpack this costume and share more detailed photos of it.
