Epic Regency Sewing Project - Green Sari Overdress and Turban.

Now it is time to step into unknown territory.  Eeeeekkkkk!!!!!

I have been research overdress quite a lot on Pinterest and most people seem to use Jane Arnold's patterns of fashion book.

However I do not have this book so taking a rough guess of what the pattern needs in terms of pleats I decided the best way to make this would be to draft it.

Once again using sense and sensibility pattern I cut out only the bodice and marked out where the dress will be.

Now to makw things simply I am only going to add pleats at the seams.

But before I cut my sari I needed to make the lining.  I used some green cotton poplin for this.

Making sure it looked okay since this will be used as a bases for the sari but more important snug.

Now to actually cut the sari.

I only had one chance at this so I made sure the length and position of the pleats were correct.

there was not enough width to have pleats at all the seams so I just had them at the back and then a small pleat at the side which looks more like a dart.

Oh this is getting scary.

I wanted the border to go all the way round the back hence the long bit.  Yeah no idea how that is going to work out.

So let the sewing begin.

That is the pleats secured and time to attach it to the lining.

Oh dear!

Yep I did not cut enough of the border, will need to get that fixed.

Hmmm looking not bad.

Getting the edges all tucked in and the pleats on the border sewed down.

Yes all the edges done apart from that little gap at the top.

Yes this looks good!  

Now to make my turban or a big puffy cap.

No way was I going to make a template for this so what I did was fold the fabric half, then in quarters, and so on until it was a small enough for me to mark it in a few places.  Similar to how you would make a cartouche for cooking!

And voila!!! One massive circle.  Now I just need to attach it to a piece of the border and I have a turban.

Needs gold feathers I think.

Now to finish off my sari with a closure around the front and fix up the back.

You wouldn't know that I made a mistake here.  hehehehe!

Phew I can finally rest a little.

Making a Dress - Apron/over dress

No sooner as I was finished with the my high waisted skirt I had to decide on my next project.  Yeah I should have planned my projects but that would be far too easy and I like to keep my options open.

Inspiration

Anyway I had two dresses in mind.

Both adorable and I will make both of them but which one first???

So I asked my facebook friends and the decision was this one.

Hooray decision made now I need to make it.

Fabric

I do love cream as a colour but I wanted this dress to be more versatile and multi seasonal so it was going to be a dark colour.

Now part of this "Making a Dress" series is to see what can be made from a kimono bolt because I like a challenge.  Therefore the fabric I chose for this dress is a lovely navy blue wool fabric with a leaf pattern.

Here is a closeup of the pattern on the fabric.

I like the subtle pattern on this fabric because from a distance it looks just navy blue but only when you get closeup to the fabric you see the detail.

Design Process

I will be using the pattern from my lolita sewing book but as always I have to make sure the sizing and pattern work.

The skirt is simple enough but the bodice was the part that I was concerned with because I am not a standard Japanese size.

Front

Side

Back

There were two areas that I was concerned with.  First the back dart was just not right, it made the bodice poke out.

That will have to go and then there is the gap at the front.

Now this could be caused by me pulling on the fabric too much when I am edge stitching or maybe the pattern needs to be altered again.  Well it is better to be safe then sorry so I will alter the bodice a little.

Construction

So time to get cutting.

Of course I was muttering measure one, measure twice and cut.  Although for me I had to measure a few more times time this is not a standard width of fabric.

Anyway I had to bit the bullet and I eventually cut the fabric into the required lengths for each of my pieces

So in no time I completed the bodice.  Looking good around the front.

And so does the back.

Now to tackle the skirt and the 8 metres strip of fabric that will be turned into 2 metres of ruffles for the bottom of the skirt.  Oh my god!!!  I can not tell you how annoyed and how much I swore at the ruffles.  It took me one and half days to get ruffles hemmed and then ruffled.  Never again will I use this fabric to create ruffles.  It was insanely hard because it completely slip my mind that thicker the fabric the harder it would be to gather.  Oh well, I have started so I have to finish it.  It took me 4 hours to gather just under 8 metres of ruffles into 2 metres but I did it.

So the following day I managed to complete the dress.

Here is the front.

And the back.

Yep this dress has pockets!

And it has matching buttons.

I am very happy with the results.  It pretty much turned out how it should and apart from the difficulty of the ruffles it was pretty easy to make.