The empire line on the waist dropped down on the sides and back up on the back (according to the design). I did this but emphasised the drop too much at the sides and didn't raise it enough at the back so the waist line looks far too modern for the regency era.
The other problem i had was the opening. Again i should have thought it through more before i started constructing it. There is no front seam or back seam on the design and a side opening was complicated with the diagonal seam lines, though this is what i did. I think the original garment may have used a gathered technique so the dress was big enough to pull over the body and was pulled in at the waist cuffs and neck to create a more fitted look.
Over all the dress looks pretty yes but i don't think i thought about the design well enough i was so preoccupied with making it look nice that the function of the garment escaped me. Depending on time, i might give this one another go sometime to correct the function and generally tidy up the neatness of the garment.
DRESS 2. So not only have i got to use striped fabric for this dress but my sewing machine is broken. So for the start of the dress I've had to hand stitch everything it's ridiculous but have just purchased a mini sewing machine to help me out it is a godsend. The dress is coming along fine but i can't believe the amount of layers it actually has. Surprisingly I'm finding using striped fabric is quite good my measuring is far more accurate and I've never had such precise pleats!!!
So my second dress is finished now thank goodness the skirt was a bit of a pain in the end i had to add layers to create the full effect i also put some net underneath some layers to create a more full look to the skirt. The waistband i made help to bring the jacket in at the waist witch was emphasised by the darts. It was definitely my favorite dress so far.
Dress Three.
This is the first time i had used a crinoline on a dress before i liked the fact the main silhouette was already created for me. However creating the dress hasn't been as simple as i thought the dress was split in threes panels but foe some reason when i pleated the skirt the panels pulled away from each other causing gaps and when i tried pinning them together the shape didn't work the skirt lost the bell like shape. So i took some intuitive and added some panels underneath and hand stitched some discreet safety stitches so it still draped properly as stitching on the sewing machine often causes restriction.
The bodice came next i like creating this but it was definitely harder to create the structure without using boanining and i really struggled to make it fit tightly to the mannequin i was afraid off disruption the shape and precision of the panels.
The sleeves are next oh how I'm dreading these!! Oh and did i mention i broke another sewing machine so am now borrowing a friends and praying i don't break this one!
The Final Dress.
I picked to use floral fabric and ribbon as i thought they worked well with the dress design and as the other dresses i had made were out of fabric other then calico it made sense for this one also to be a patterned fabric.
The silhouette was at it's most widest in this point in the nineteenth centre the waist was still small but large crinolines were used to create a bell shaped skirt. The sleeves were large but pulled in and tied round the cuffs.
This was by far the dress i struggled with the most most of the dress was fine but the sleeves were a nightmare. I needed to create large puffy sleeves with two layers. I made the sleeves large and added netting to make them stand out but all the fabric made the sleeves too heavy and the kept dropping i was really disappointed and if i made the sleeves again i would use less fabric and lots of netting. I think the sleeves look a bit ridiculous to be honest.
The jacket Started off well but at the back there are two pleated panels giving the dress a flared back i really struggled to make these fit and they definitely didn't match well. Because of this the center back panel on the dress was slightly lopsided and when i added the ribbon to the dress this emphasised the angle.
The dress has a lot of pleats this seems a common feature in the 19th century. This dress used lots of box pleats for detail but it also added to the silhouette shape creating a curved neckline ect.
The skirt i thought would be easy. I imagined just draping fabric round the crinoline. But the pleated panels pulled away from each other and revealing gaps in the fabric. To solve this i put panels of fabric behind the top panel's to save the bussel being revealed. The skirt had pleat like triangles on the bottom witch i added as i thought they were a more important to the design. I'm not quite sue how these were made so i took my initiative and use pleated triangles of fabric to represent these.I think i would have to play around with trial and error to find the best method.
My overall feeling to start with was rather disappointing this kept going well but the more i persisted the better it went.
Dress 4.
I decided to make dress four at the same time as dress three for time sakes and for my own sanity as i was struggling with dress three. I was quite looking forward to making this dress. The dress jackets was interesting to make i again i struggled with the fitting element but used darts and a split in the center back to rectify this.
The skirt i decided to make a plain paneled skirt to give the initial shape and then to add all the pleats and layers on top of this. More pleats Getting quite tired of them really. The initial shape seams to have worked well am feeling that perhaps the bussel I'm using isn't quite the right shape as I'm struggling to create the right shape on the hips because of all the bussel fabric underneath. I think i should have looked at different under ware for this dress.
This design i found properly the most interesting there were lots of different lines and angles to explore and i could work on back design myself. To start with i made up some of the skirt layers just so i could work out the size of the skirt.
I then moved onto the jacket i started off by making the front panels of a bodice using darts to create the fitted front. I then built the jacket up around the bodice panels working from the front to the back. Although this was only a toil from studying the design i notice how the dress seemed to made up of two colours or shades and the change from one colour to the next had a rather striking effect. The contrast from light and dark seemed to work well so i decided to make my dress out of two colours a cream and a Navy blue. I switched from on colour to the next depending on the design. The jacket wasn't two much of a hassle i did struggled to create a real waist define and think that perhaps it could have done with a few more pleats to bring the wist in. This was rather awkward though as i didn't want to muck up the shapes of the dress. I definitely think i need to work a bit more on where to place darts. As i don't always feel comfortable with there positioning,
I much preferred these sleeve toil the sleeves of dress number three. Th more fitted sleeve is easier to do and emphasizes the silhouette better.I fitted the sleeves quite easily put thing i was a bit out on my placement of them as they don't seem to sit right on the mannequin.
After the jacket was complete i went back to the skirt and made a basic shape of a skirt in the Edwardian shape and style and then added the different layers on top of it.
There was yet more pleating in this dress but i got to play around with the pleating a bit using horizontal and diagonal lines.
Over all i am pleased with the end product it is far from perfect but i feel I struggled least with this dress and really took the initiative and got on with it quicker and allot better then the other three dresses.
Final Evaluation
At the start of this project I was extremely nervous about the work set. It was not my initial choice and the prospect of making four toils was daunting to say the least. Firstly because I am a perfectionist and making toil and not a complete design is hard for me. Secondly because my forte has always been embellishing. I have always been good at the details but the cutting has always been my least favourite area.
I was disappointed with my first dress the regency dress I didn’t really plan how I was going to make it I just went for it and ended up creating more problems then I solved. I was so busy making the dress fit the mannequin that I didn’t think about where the opening would be I ended up having to pull the seams apart to get the dress off the mannequin. I was happy with the overall look of the dress except for the back of the top. The diamond panel at the back was hard to make symmetrical again I didn’t really think it through and although it came together in the end it looks scruffy and the shape was not very aesthetically pleasing to look at. I also spent far too long on the first dress.
So when it came to the second dress I was already behind schedule. The main difference with this dress was the amount of fabric needed not just for the main dress but for the polonaise and the train although I thought out my openings ect before I started I didn’t consider the amount of fabric I would need and ended up going back twice for more fabric. The second dress was my favourite to make and I got too into this dress and ended up putting in too much detail. The overall result was good it was my favourite by far and I was really pleased with the outcome.
The third dress was more of a structural dress bodice jacket and a large skirt. The size of the dress became the problem. The sleeves were massive and needed to puff out, but in order to make them bigger used a lot of fabric which made the sleeves dense and fall down. Apart from the sleeves I was happy with the overall dress.
The forth dress was the most fun to make it was full of different layers of pleating and ruffling so it was fun to make I also had a chance to design the back to my own idea based on the front of the dress I enjoyed this. I was pleased with the dress but felt it wasn’t as fitted as it should have been and it could have done with a few darts to pull the waist in.
I definitely think my dresses got better the more I did. My main problems were that I struggled to remember I was only making toils and wanted to add more details. My time management was very bad I didn’t stick to my originally time planning and really struggled to keep on track of things. I think for my next project I need to have more tutorials to make sure I know what I’m doing and to keep me motivated.
I really enjoyed the independence I got with the project it gave me a chance to sort out any problems I had myself instead of asking the lectures.
I found this project very challenging but I think it was good for me at the beginning of the project I honestly thought I wouldn’t be able to bring the four designs to life but really impressed myself by proving I could and although there are not the neatest or exactly like the designs I feel far more confident in my cutting and making and have learnt about the different silhouettes and structure of the 19th century.
