Project: Sherbet Striped English Dress – Dress and Skirt Assembled

I worked on my dress over the week-end. Up to now, everything is assembled: the bodice, the sleeves, the dress’ skirt and the skirt.

Sherbet Striped English Dress - Assembled Bodice

Sherbet Striped English Dress - Assembled Bodice & Skirt

Here is a close-up the all the pleating that had to be done to the skirt panel.

Sherbet Striped English Dress - Skirt Construction

For the flounces, I bought some lace from the sale section. Based on the measurements given in Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 1: Englishwomen's Dresses and their Construction, c. 1660-1860, I cut my pieces, being careful to go around the design. Then, I decides they were too white for my dress fabric, so I aged them by first giving them a tea bath, then rinsing the tea out, followed by a trip to the dryer to fix the colour and finally, a good pressing with a hot iron.

Sherbet Striped English Dress - Flounce before and after Aging

I know it is tough to tell from the picture, but personally, I think the effect is awesome.

So now, all that is left for me to do is do the button holes to lace the dress close in the back, hem everything and add the trim. Oh yeah, and make the tricorne. So yes, I still have a lot of work to do to be ready for the Photo Shoot with Nancy-Raven on Saturday. Let’s hope it is nice and sunny!