Edwardian Inspired Dinner Dress

I was recently married (watch for that entry soon!). My daughter was my bridesmaid, so we got to have the fun of designing a dress together. Since my dress was inspired by a 1908 design, my only direction to her was that her dress should be inspired by that era as well.
Our first step was to look over my fashion books so she could get an idea of what "the look" was for the first decade of the twentieth century. We then discussed what colors would be in my dress - gold, blue, and green - and what colors she feels look best on her. She then sketched up an initial design idea so that we could know what we were looking for when we went shopping.

The main design details she wanted to incorporate were the Asian-inspired wide sash and kimono sleeves. At first, she wanted her dress to be a deep blue with gold accents, but of course it all comes down to what fabric is available at the time.

We did our shopping at Mill End Fabrics, which is a fantastic local resource. It is an independently owned store - well, there are two - that stocks a great variety of quality fabrics. The one caveat to shopping there is that often there limited stock of any given fabric. This is because many of the fabrics are purchased in New York as factory (mill) end bolts, rather than being ordered from a supplier. This means shopping there is fun since you never know what you'll find, but it also means that you won't always find exactly what you're looking for since they don't have regular stock.

The first fabric to catch my daughter's eye was a forest green lace with antique gold stitching.  It is a gorgeous piece, and the scalloped edge is perfect for an Edwardian gown. This did change up the overall design of the dress, since she had wanted a solid color dress with a train which would not work with lace. A quick sketch later, we found coordinating fabrics: a matte satin to go under the lace, changeable taffeta for the sash, and a lush silk velvet as a contrast.

Here is my final design sketch:

Here are the fabrics we selected:

 The next step was to draft the pattern.  I based it on a Regency era pattern, since the lines for the two eras overlap and I already had a sloper in her size range.

Just to be certain that I had the sizing correct, I made up the lining in satin first as a muslin. This allowed me to make a few tweaks to the fit and yet be able to use the pieces on the finished dress.  Once I knew the fit was right, I got to get down to the fun of getting the bodice details sorted.

There are four layers to the bodice: the lining in satin which works as a base, the lace center front insert with satin underlay, the velvet at the side front and across the back, and the overlays that come down from the shoulders to the sash.

Since I already had the satin lining done, I used that as a guideline to cut the other pieces. The back was to be solid velvet, so I cut that and assembled it first. That set aside, I cut out the center inset pieces and side fronts. I used the satin underlay for the center front insert to face the front neck edge. This took care of the raw edges and provided a nice background for the lace insert which I centered and stitched by hand along the raw edges and neck edge.

In order to avoid puckering, and because silk velvet can be a bit touchy to work with, I decided to sew the side front pieces on by laying them flat on the lining and stitching them by hand. This allowed me to control the two fabrics so they didn't slip, and to avoid crushing the pile of the velvet with my machine presser foot. Honestly, some days it's just easier to sew velvet by hand and since this was such a small seam it wouldn't have made sense to set up my machine to sew it.

As this was going to be sewn flat, I ran a basting stitch 1/2 inch in from the raw edge and pressed the edge under along that line of stitching.  This allowed me to get a nice edge without slippage and also ease the curve of the edge.  I use this step any time I need to press under a rounded edge or the edge of any fabric that has a tendency to wiggle.

Here you can see the pressed under edge after it's been sewn down with hand stitches.  This does leave some of the satin facing visible, but that will be covered up later on.

Once the front was assembled, it was time to assemble the bodice. This was a bit tricky, since so many different things were happening at the sleeve. This meant more hand stitching, in order to be sure that each element went where it needed to go and that I didn't sacrifice control by using my machine, given the different fabric textures that were meeting up in several different ways.

Here are some action shots of that process:

hand stitching the velvet lower bodice to the armscye 

binding the overlay starting at the bodice back seam

joining three of the elements together

end result: no raw edges

The bodice completed, I attached the skirt and lining. We wanted to feature the scalloped lower edge, so I cut the skirt lining so it would stop at the highest point of the scallop so it would disappear. As was common for the era, I gathered the skirt in the back only.  This creates a nice columnar line in the front and moves the fullness to the back of the dress. I encased the raw edges of the skirt seam with the lower edge of the bodice lining, hand stitching it in place.

Now for my favorite part of the whole process: once a garment is all one piece, I get to drape it on a mannequin and get my first glance of it as it will look once finished.

A quick fitting later, I was ready for the home stretch - creating the sash. This would cover the final raw edges and bring the waistline down from the high Regency style to the natural waist.  I created the sash by cutting a piece of the satin lining in the width we wanted and to match my daughter's waist measurement. The taffeta was cut to be the one inch longer and three inches taller than the lining base. This gave room for me to wrap the taffeta around the raw edges of the lining at center back and to create the gathers of the design.

The lining was cut on grain to give shape, and the taffeta on the bias so I could manipulate it. I stitched rows of gathering stitches at the side seams then sewed the taffeta to the satin.  Once turned right side out, I drew the gathering stitches so that the overlay matched the lining and pinned the gathers in place. This naturally created gathers across the front and back of the sash.  I tacked the gathers in place along the side seams and in a zigzag pattern from side to side along the front.  Doing this keeps the gathers in place while allowing to to look like it is naturally gathered rather than anchored in place. 

sash lining and taffeta

gathers pinned in place to be tacked down

Now that the sash was complete, I pinned it to the bodice along the waist seam. This was also the point where I gathered the bottom edge of the shoulder overlays in order to give them some depth. I hand stitched the sash through all layers along the top and bottom edges.

overlay gathers pinned in place

sash in place ready to be stitched

The major construction complete, I finished the center back edges, applied a hook and eye closure, and hemmed the skirt lining.

my daughter wearing her dress at the wedding