1930 Evening Gown Part 2

What a busy couple of days I have had!

I went to Swannanoa, VA on Saturday, where we found this old mansion summer home a railroad baron built in the 1910's. It's the sister building of the Maymont building in Richmond, VA. I'll post some pictures later after I've gone through them.

I am still crocheting my mother's shawl. Two more skeins to go!


And then there's the dress.
Ah, how sewing brings out the best and the worst in you. I finished putting together the skirt of the mock-up Sunday.
I basted all the seams to that I could be sure it was big enough. Then I undid one of the seams to that I could attach it to the top half of the dress.

Or try to.

I had to make the top 8" wider than the original pattern (4" on the front, 4" on the back).

However, we weren't sure how we needed to add those 8 inches to the skirt, so I cut it out using the original pattern. Putting the top to the bottom revealed how the 8 inches were distributed across the top, and how that affected the 4 pieces of the skirt. My mom and I spent over an hour Sunday evening actively discussing how to fix this.

The Front Panel needed nothing added to it. It just sits in the very front, and the side panels need to be visible from the front, as shown here.

The 4" increase of the Front Top was added to the Side Panels and the 4" increase of the Front Back was added to the Back Panel of the skirt.

On Tuesday I cut out the extra paper for the pattern and the extra fabric for the mock-up. The increases worked!

I have a neat striping effect on the skirt of the mock-up. The summer dress I am going to make out of the mock-up will definitely look different from the final evening gown.

The mock-up has not been put together completely, just enough for me to see that the increases worked and when pinned together, fit me. So here's a not-so-awesome picture of the WIP. It looks better than the picture suggests.

I need a dress model. This would be easier to sew if I had a dress model. I have started to make one out of duct tape, but need to make the support structure for it. I considered buying one, but I like the idea that the duct tape one really will match me. Most of those manufactured models have small breasts and no butt! Plus, you can't pin anything to most of the more affordable models. There are cloth ones, but those are very expensive.

On Sunday, I bought my gown fabric at the new Jo-Ann's on Midlothian. It's so pretty! I'll take a picture after I iron it.