Inspiration struck ten days before the ball. I’ll finally make myself an evening gown! I finished it the night before, just in time. Some parts were a bit rushed, but luckily only I know what it looks like on the inside. I really enjoyed this challenge, and having made one noble-based garment before helped. I learnt a lot about choosing fabrics, lining a garment, using iron-on interfacing and general patternmaking and fitting. And some hard lessons about the importance of making a mock-up and basting difficult seams before sewing them…
I made the first version of the pattern that night, and went shopping for fabrics the next day. I found this really pretty and cheap dark green polyester velvet, and some green slippery polyester fabric for the lining. In hindsight, the fabric choice was bad, because the velvet was a stretchy knit fabric and the lining was non-stretch woven. This made fitting the lining into the dress difficult, and I had to re-do the velvet bodice. I used interfacing along the neckline and next to the zipper to prevent the velvet from stretching out of shape.
In the final version the lining is attatched at the waist and the neckline, that I also top-stitched. I hid a zipper in the side seam, just below my armpit. It opens from the bottom up. That way it won’t slide down if the zipper loosens, and I can later add a hidden pocket in! I’m planning to make a matching clutch first, using the leftover pieces and all the fabric scraps I saved to pad and quilt the body of the purse.
Here are the pattern pieces for the bodice! I traced them from my laptop screen using the paperless mode. I had to add some ease for the back of the lining, and those alterations (as well as the v-shaped waistline) are added in yellow. They are ‘flippable’, meaning that I only taped them on one edge so that I can flip the alteration away when cutting the velvet that does not need them.
The dress turned out very versatile! Besides the annual ball that I made it for, I got to style it into a medieval look for another party.