Everyone needs a little red dress

More swan prep... To complete the outfit, Adelheid needs an overgown.

I found an inspiration piece in someone else's work for a loose, unfitted over gown where the shaping comes from the apron. I had some red wool (or wool blend) fabric donated to me, but I didn't have very much. The inspiration piece is fabric conservative, lower to middle class German, and is easy to put on. Perfect for a middle aged widow to travel in.

Essentially, it's wide rectangular panels gathered into a neck band. I've never made a dress like this so I made a mock-up. See, I do learn. It seemed successful so I moved on to step two.

I called a friend, Wulfwyn, to help me figure it all out. First, we burned a piece of the fabric to see what it was. There was some melting but overall it smelled like singed hair. Wool blend! We folded the fabric to get the rectangular panels, maximizing the piece of cloth and minimizing seams.

There she is, showing off her cool seam ruler, to cut off a strip suitable for the neck band.

We eyeballed enough to leave fabric for sleeves, and it all worked out to be a perfect length for my short little legs. 

We found the middle, and laid the mock up pieces over it. This shows the general shape, how the shoulder placement is normal, but the panels are quite wide. 

We sewed up the shoulders, and then gathered the fabric. After pinning the gathered fabric to the neckline, Wulfwyn showed me how to secure the gathers with a machine stitch, taking the time to even out the fabric and to make it pretty using a pin to help feed it into the machine.

My turn! Not as easy as she made it look.

After basting everything into place, I finished the neckline with hand sewing, folding the tape over the gathers and making it all nice.

Not bad for one day! 

Next, I cut sleeves to fit into the armscythe. Obligatory cat as helper.

I took the pieces we had left over, added a "swoosh" at the top of the arm, sewed up the tube, and fit it into the armscythe.

The sleeves just made it. Once I had accounted for the swoosh in the arm it worked out just right. Very lucky. Very very lucky.

Then it was time to gather the sleeves into a band. This was done by running a couple gathering threads and eyeballing. Pin pin pin!

I couldn't use the machine for the sleeves as they were too small, so I backstitched the cuffs/bands to the sleeves and then stitched everything down for a smooth finish.

Although I used the machine for much of the long seams and neck of the dress I tried to do the finishing by hand. I found the fabric a bit challenging to work with, a bit hard to press, and therefore my seams weren't as crisp as when I'm working with linen. Not a deal breaker in this style but I would have liked it to be a little sharper.

This is all the fabric I had left over - such an economical design. I think Adelheid would have been pleased. 

This gets a 8 out of 10. I love how achievable this garment was, and how much I learned in the process. I have made sewn on bodice dresses before, with relative success, but I've never gathered that much fabric into a band. I also appreciated working with someone else. There's so many tips and techniques to pick up on, and I enjoyed how Wulfwyn's brain works with regard to piecing the puzzle together. I learned a lot working it through with her. I find that a fun aspect of garb-making. 

Here's the final "proof of concept". I used my apron to fake the silhouette of the full apron and I just love it. 

Guess I absolutely need the full apron! Ha!

YIS

AW