Basic gown complete

The basic dress is all assembled! Yippee!!! The picture is completely underwhelming, but here it is. Check out the gorgeous sleeves!!!

So, here's what's left on the To-Do list:

• hem the dress (I need a helper for this)
• Tack the fold of the dress down so it won't fold back
• Sew in hook and eyes for stomacher*
• Trim the dress
• Have someone else take some pictures. I'm getting tired of the silly/ugly mirror pictures, unworthy of the glory of this gown.

*I tried pinning the stomacher to the dress, and after stabbing myself repeatedly with the pins, and then still having the stomacher move and pull around, this is required. Kendra, of Demode, did this on her dress and it looks great.

Gown Coming together

The robe francaise is coming together very nicely! The lining is attached to the completed dress. I'm in the process of sewing on the sleeve flounces, and then I'll need to sew up the stomacher. A quick hem, and the gown will be ready to wear. I'll still have lots of trim to add the dress, some of which I still need to buy, but I'm very happy with the way the dress is coming together.

My biggest gripe so far about the pattern was when I sewed in the side extension and pleats. This part isn't visible on this picture, but the instructions were very confusing, and I walked through the process about 6 times before I finally figured out what I was supposed to be doing. There was a neck binding piece that was also very frustrating because I had to take it out and redo it several times due to unclear instructions. Despite these issues, the gown is fitting nicely, and I can't wait for the final product! See the pretty back pleats below.

Does everyone agree with me that I MUST have a fan to go with this outfit? I've also got to figure out what to do with my hair since my haircut is all wrong for the time period. I could probably make a little lace cap, pin my hair back, and then cover it all with the cap.

Completed Lining

Here's the finished lining. Inbetween my last post, I became paranoid about the changes I'd made to the neckline of the muslin, so I went ahead and made up a muslin Robe and sewed it to the muslin of the lining to make sure it fit. Surprising, everything went together just fine, so I went ahead and started making the final product.

The first thing I did was take apart the muslin of the lining, and then re-stiched everything together. When I'd been working on the muslin, I'd been using green thread, and hadn't been backstitching. I also attached the boning and ties to the back of the lining that will permit me to adjust the size of the dress (this is a really neat feature that allowed women to easily let their dresses out when they got pregnant). Other then needing a second person to help me adjust the ties in the back, everything is fitting nicely, so I added the eyelets to the front, and I'm now moving on to the Robe.