Dinner Dress Begins . . .

As promised, here's a bit of a diary on the Edwardian corset construction. I used a striped sage satin as the outer fabric, and lined it in a heavy twill and cotton, using a three-layer construction to protect the silk outer layer from shattering.

The construction itself was fairly straight-forward; I ignored the boning chart included with the pattern (as I usually do) and boned along the seams, and it was just a matter of putting everything together. The only real altering I did was to give the front a slight sweetheart shape, which I find more flattering than a straight edge. All told, it took two days, which is about average for me and corsets;)

Once again, I hand-tacked lace at the top edge, threading a mint green ribbon through. I think it sets off the sage silk nicely.

I used Sandra Altman's #106, the 1901-1908 "Straight-Fronted" Corset. It doesn't give me a straight front, but I don't have a particularly straight front to begin with, and even corsets can't do miracles;)

I also started beading the black lace overlay for the Edwardian Dinner Dress. Don't worry; I'm not crazy enough to bead all of it. I'd go blind! I'm intending to bead the bodice (which is what you see the beginning of here), and then 3-4 inches of the edge of the over-skirt. Once it is placed over a white fabric, as you see here, the lace really pops.

There's still a metric ton of beadwork to do, so I guess I better get busy! I do have until April to get it done, so at least I've given myself enough time . . .

A Night to Remember . . .

Those of you who aren't history nuts like me probabaly aren't aware that next April marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Those of you who are history nuts are probably already planning your wardrobe for the occasion;) As ghoulish as it seems to celebrate so many people dying with a party, that's still what plenty will be doing, serving it up true Edwardian-style with eleven courses and music and fabulous ensembles.

I've had to shelve my Halloween plans for budgetary reasons, so instead I'm focusing on something slightly farther out, and I'm starting work on a 1912 dinner dress. I already have some of the material for it and I'm beginning to bead a lovely black chantilly. As for the rest, I'm planning to make the dress out of white silk taffeta with a black silk velvet sash.

I don't have any extent garment images that exactly match what I'm planning so I posted these as a more general idea. I like the sleeves on the above image, and the stark white and black of the top image was the inspiration for my color palette. Hopefully I'll be able to post some in-progress pics; I just finished my Edwardian corset, and I'll try to do a short diary on that soon.