Smithson Gown 2006
February 12, 2006
The Planning Begins!
It's that time of year again... time for me to design and fabricate a gown for the James Smithson Society Gala, held every Spring at one of the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, D.C. This will be the fifth year we have attended the Gala, and every year I have made a special outfit for the event. Also, every year I have shared the design process with some of my online friends.
This year, the process will be a little different.
In late March, I will be going to Tampa, FL to participate in the International Window Coverings Expo. I will be creating a "Concourse Vignette" -- a display of window treatments tied into a theme. This year the theme is all about "Inspiration", and participants were asked to design vignettes inspired by quotes. My quote is "Inspiration is the sincerest form of flattery."
How better to illustrate that than with a lovely gown that echoes the design of the window treatment?
Here is the initial design rendering, showing the room setting as it will appear in Tampa:
The wall is eight feet wide, painted silver. The blue fabric will be a deep crushed velvet, and the sheer will be white with metallic silver fibers. The jabots are highlighted by strands of Aurora Borealis beads. The drapes also have inset "godets" of the same metallic sheer.
Now for the dress: it will echo the strong vertical line of the draperies, and there will be a draped back out of the same sheer material. Right now it shows as sleeveless, but I'm not convinced that's the best look.
Oh, and the chair will be upholstered in the same colors and design. I'm learning upholstery for this project as well!
It's a pretty rough sketch, I know. I hope to have a better "working design" for the dress in the next few days.
March 7
First Muslin a success!
While I'm waiting for the fabric to arrive from Germany, I have been working on getting the dress design finished. I'm very happy with the first muslin! I was going to try and make a bustier to go under the dress, but gave up on that effort and ended up going to Sylene's in Bethesda and buying one.
Here's the first muslin. The fabric is a drapery-weight cotton. The basic draft is of an armscye princess sheath dress. The zipper is in the right side seam.
I have it on here without the bustier, so the fit is a little off, but I can tell right away that it is a bit too big all around (hmm; has the diet been paying off?). But it's not by much... perhaps an inch or so. I won't make any fit changes until I try it on with the proper foundation.
The neckline is staystitched but not trimmed, so it looks higher than it is going to be.
The front was drafted with two darts, but I did not sew the second dart.
The back will have the sheer drape and jabots , which I didn't do for this muslin (I ran out of sheer material).
The back was drafted with one dart; this is a look I'm starting to like more and more for my sheath drafts.
The finished version will probably have some kind of sleeve. I drafted one, but again, I ran out of sheer fabric, so couldn't add it.
In looking at the shoulder seams, I see I need to angle them down a bit... although that might change when I add the sleeves. And I will probably add some shaping to the center back seam to snug it up to the small of my back.
Showing the flare of the pleats. I'm not sure whether I should raise the point where the insets start; right now they are 20" up from the hem, about at my knee. It does twirl nicely, though!
This picture shows the pattern pieces for the dress. You can see the "wing" pieces that form the individual pleats within each seam.
Here is a picture of the fabric I will be using:
It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but it is a crushed velvet. It has a pretty short nap and drapes very nicely. I'm looking forward to working with it.
March 8
Muslin Number Two: Improvement, or Not?
Second muslin is done, and I'm really not sure if it's an improvement or not!!
(First of all, you'll have to ignore the tired look on my face... Not enough coffee today, I guess)
Changes made: lowered the front neckline (and trimmed it to the stitching line). Took about half an inch of ease from the bustline but left everything else the same.
The front pleat ends just about at the bottom of my crotch point, which really freaked me out a bit the first time I tried it on, but I realize that it shows absolutely nothing because the sheer really isn't that sheer.
In this picture, I am wearing the bustier.
Back view. I played around a bit with the armhole shaping, bringing the openings a bit more onto the body. Not sure about the effect, which is kind of hard to see here anyway because of the draped sleeve things.
The center back pleat is at 20" up from the hem, which was the original height of muslin #1; the other pleats are 2.5" higher at each seam until you get to the front pleat, which is 30" up from the hem.
I tapered the center back seam in about 1" at the waist, which snugs it nicely.
Don't forget I will be adding a sheer draped piece to the back.
I hate the sleeves.
They are uncomfortable and I think they make my upper arms look like hams.
Nice idea, but they don't work for me. I may try regular sleeves out of the sheer.
I do like the pleats. Doing them as graduated lengths is, I think, the right answer.
I'm wondering about adding just a teensy bit of flare to the fabric panels, so they will "close in" more over the sheers when I'm standing still.
Looking at this picture, I'm also wondering if I couldn't peg just the back panels of the skirt, tapering them in just about two inches or so at knee level, to accentuate the "kickiness" of the back pleats? Or would that accentuate the caboose too much?
March 9
By Jove, I think she's got it!
Sometimes it's the third time that's truly the charm. I feel MUCH better about this final version.
Yep, I look happy too.
Here are the changes I made:
1. Change the front neckline to a sweetheart cut.
2. Lower all pleats 5 inches.
3. Add set-in sleeves with flared hem.
Tried the swag and, while this isn't precisely the right drape, I think it will look nice once I tweak it. That's a minor fix. The swag hangs from the shoulder seam.
I did peg the back of the skirt ever so slightly from hip to knee.
Aahhh, sleeves I like.
These are set in, with a flared hem. I'm thinking of making the back half pleated rather than flared, to pick up the design of the jabot. But, at the same time, I think I will leave the "display" dress sleeveless, as it is hard to make sleeves look good when they are hanging limp on a dress form.
Yes, I'm wearing the bustier. Time to hit the ab-lounge.
These are nice pleats. Ignore the fact that they are short: I neglected to add the 2" hem allowance when I drafted the pattern. Silly me.
Pegging the back of the skirt (actually, I only pegged the side back panels) really made a difference, I think.
So, now I have nailed the dress pattern. All that's left is to wait patiently (hah!) for the fabric to arrive.
March 23
The Real Deal!
The fabric finally arrived on March 16. I sewed all weekend on this vignette, and today I finished the main body of the dress. I still have to add the sheer drape to the back, but I am so excited about getting the dress itself done that I wanted to post pictures.
The crushed blue velvet was actually quite easy to work with. However, trying to insert sheer panels into the pleats was totally nightmare work!! And I had to do this for the drapes and the chair as well!!
I'm not wearing the bustier for this shot.
The buttons were a last-minute design change for the panels in the vignette, so they needed to be added to the dress.
The back view. Remember, there will be a swag drape going down the back of the dress, in the same fabric as the pleat inserts.
The no-sleeve look is the way to go, I think.
Looking at the picture, I also like the way the curved line of buttons echoes the scooped back.
The pleats move very nicely. However, it is not a dress for long strides... it binds just a bit at the thigh.
Still, it will be fine for dining and dancing. And the buttons don't get in the way when I sit.
This dress will go on display in Tampa next week; I'll take pictures of it all set up!
And now, the Big Night!
More pictures from the Gala are here.
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