chemise dress

After seeing the gorgeous creations others have made, I jumped on the chemise dress bandwagon too, albeit a little late!

I went with the 'tube' idea as main construction. I gathered the four panels of 45", cut out some straps and set about playing with the gathers and deciding where I wanted the side seams. I probably made this harder than it should be. Anyway, I decided to put the side seams towards the back to meet the armhole part of the strap. The hardest part of this was cutting the armhole out of the gathered section. Next time, I plan to figure that out first and have the gathers sit more concentrated in the front with little under the arm. I really don't need to look any wider than I already am. But this worked, so I'm leaving it. I don't really like how I did the drawsting at the neckline. Still, for an initial try, it's going swimmingly!

For the sleeves, since I was going with the lots of gathers look, I decided to make them fitted so as not to overwhelm myself in poofiness -- though poofiness is not necessarily a bad thing! Just don't care for it on me too much. I took the mid-lenth sleeve from the Sensibility.com Elegant Ladies Closet pattern, figured up where it should meet the armhole and sewed them on. It took two tries to get the fit right and I like how it looks.

It's hemmed with a narrow hem -- I don't think I cut the length long enough. I tried it on with my corded petticoat and the petticoat wanted to peek out. I wavered between a two ruffle look at the neckline or a one ruffle look, finally deciding on a two ruffle look. There is also a tiny almost ruffle on the sleeve

Are you all proud of me? The only real pattern part of this project has been the sleeve! I think I'm getting better at this!

I'm seeing a need to make period undies in the future....