The Smithsonian Gown, Part Two: The Skirt
The fabric I bought for the skirt has a wonderful border print on it, so that limited my design choices to straight panel skirts. However, it was pointed out that using a 4-yard length of fabric gathered at the waistband would look... terrible. A suggestions was made to put darts in the rectangle and reduce the amount of fabric being gathered. Then I decided to go a step further and create a yoke that would lie smooth from waist to hip, which was where the hem of the top should be.
So I went to the drawing board... actually, to the Pattern Editor portion of the Pattern Master software. I drew a rectangle of the correct size (4 yards wide and about 44 inches long). Then I drew a dart that "looked right", and copied it eight times. I didn't use any fancy math; I just eyeballed the whole thing.
Here's a scan of what I came up with:
The vertical lines indicate center front and side seams locations. In reality, there won't be any seams except at the center back.
When I calculated how much fabric would be left over after the darts were sewn, I came up with 80 inches. Since my hip measurement is 48" that seemed reasonable.
Then I went into Pattern Master and drafted a yoked skirt, which would give me the yoke and waistband patterns I needed to complete the skirt. I looked at the skirt portion that the program drafted and out of curiosity measured what the gathered portion would be if I used their pattern. Guess what? It came to 80 inches. That made me feel really good that my eyeballing was that accurate!
Now it's muslin time again.
I made the yoke and waistband out of the last remaining muslin I had on hand. Then I scrounged in my stash and found a piece of fabric that I have NO idea how I got it unless it was in one of the "grab bag" assortments I've purchased from Phoenix Textiles (NAYY... I just buy a lot from them!). I measured where the darts should go, slashed the fabric and sewed them up. Then I gathered the top and attached it to the yoke.
And here is the muslin!
Front view, showing the drape:
Front view, showing how much the gathers take in:
Back view:
It's remarkably comfortable, even if it's a bit long (I didn't bother to trim the bottom of the skirt). And it's going to stand out beautifully when the crinoline is added underneath.
So now I'm ready to make the skirt. The only thing I still need is the lining taffeta from G Street; they were out of it when I went there last week and I really hope they get it in today!
The Final Dress
Someone told me I didn't have a picture of the final dress on this site... oops! Here I am in the full get-up (but not with hair or makeup done):
One construction detail that I never revealed: how the skirt was hemmed.
This heavy taffeta showed EVERY single little stitch. I tried to pick up single threads, but all I got was a line of dots that really stood out. What you may not see is that the hem of this dress is very deep: about 12". I didn't want to cut the fabric (don't ask me why; at the time it seemed like a good idea not to), and since the hemline was straight (see pattern piece at top), I didn't have to worry about a deep hem distorting the edge. What to do?? Hmm, a roll of Stitch Witchery here in my drawer... why not?? Yep, the hem is just glued in place. And it held up fine. Why should it matter? Sometimes I kind of cringe at the "short cut" but it got the dress done and not a single person noticed.
Another thing I learned when wearing this dress is that crinoline underskirts will pillow out dramatically to the side when you sit down. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but when I was seated at the banquet table, the skirt tried to overflow onto the laps of the gentlemen on either side of me. Luckily they were quite gracious about it and didn't try to use the skirt as a napkin.