As you can see, I shifted gears and decided to go for an open front, ladder laced bodice. It made sense, considering the problems I'd had with the bodice. SHAME ON ME for not making a mockup first. I learned my lesson, although I'm hoping this dress will be absolutely gorgeous when it's done. It's looking pretty good so far.
The white fabric is just pinned there to give me an idea of how it'll look.
Here you can see I had to add that front strip to the bodice. Otherwise, the front gaped open WAY too much. I'm thinking of using the same treatment I did on the sleeves to those inserts, much like in the sample above. That would be sharp. Plus, I can continue it down the front of the skirt. I'll use a little inexpensive trim on either side. I'll save money (a good thing!) and have a one-of-a-kind dress that will hopefully stand out from the crowd.
A side view of the sleeve. It's still not finished yet. I need to find a trim for the center of the gold band circling my upper arm. And I also need to finish up the edges. But you get an idea of what it looks like.
Let me say this. This was by far the most difficult sleeve I've ever tackled. It was a pain in the butt. I dread making the other one. But the results, I think, are worth it.
Total hours: 20 (so far) on just the one sleeve.
I decided to use a "base" of the gold fabric to stabilize the whole thing. That's also what you see between the panes of gathered red fabric.
A brief how-to:
As I said, I began with a basic sleeve, cut out of the gold material. I also cut out a sleeve, though much wider at the rounded "crown" at the shoulder, from the red material. I gathered the red as I tacked it to the top of the gold. Down further, the red is smoothed flat on top of the gold.
I measured out 1 1/2 inch squares and drew guidelines with a silver fabric pencil. Then I pinned the red to the gold to keep it in place and cut along the vertical lines, creating strips of red fabric.
Next, I sewed the red to the gold, following the horizontal lines.
Then came the tedious part. I gathered each little section by hand, stiched it and then sewed on the pearls. On the gathered upper sleeve, I sewed pearls where there were leaves and flowers embroidered. You can almost see the embroidery in this picture.
Oh, and I hated to do it, but I had to use Fray Check on the cut edges of the red fabric. It was a mess, and the Fray Check stained it a bit, but it was better than having little black threads all over the place.
Here's a close up. It's a little blurry because I used zoom, but I think you can still see the details.
When I attempt a project like this, I hold my breath, scared it'll turn out awful and I'll be out a ton of money and time. I'm quite pleased (and relieved!) with the results so far.
Feeling brave, I tackled the two front strips next. I wanted them to have the same look as the sleeves, but I needed the gold to lie flat, which wouldn't happen if I applied the red fabric directly to the strips and then cut and gathered the red squares like I had with the sleeve. The gathering pulls the gold fabric.
Therefore, after playing around with it, I decided I'd have to cut separate strips of gold fabric, apply the red to those. Gather the sections, and then sew the entire thing to the gold panes, which would in turn be sewn to the bodice.
Can you say "Complicated"?
To my surprise, it worked great, although it was tricky getting both sides to match exactly, since I did each one separately.
Here you see the end result. The panes are pinned to the bodice at this point, not sewn. Same with the black trim. But you get an idea of how it'll look when it's complete. I still need to apply the pearls and fuss around with the gathers a bit. I also want to sew the ribbon to the back of the panes for the lacing before I sew the panes to the bodice. That way the stiches won't show through to the front.
A sidenote: I'm going with a two-ribbons-per-side strategy. From what I've read on the net, it seems to be the only way to get the ladder lacing straight.
UPDATE: It's been a few days and I bravely tackled the lacing. First, wow. That was tricky. And tedious. But it works SO GREAT.
Here, you see the front, turned inside out, to show the two vertical sets of ribbons, a pair on each side. The lacing runs through slots on both ribbons on one side, across the center to the other side. Then up, around a bend and through the next row. Sounds complicated, but it isn't really. The trick is setting the two ribbons far enough apart from each other to keep the lacing straight, and measuring where to have the slots carefully, so they match from one side to the other.
Here, you see things turned right side-out again. I have only one sleeve completed, LOL. It's pinned on, just because I love to see how things will look when they're done.
My goodness, those laces are perfectly straight. I can't believe I did it, LOL! Any irregularity you see in the pictures is from the ribbon being twisted. When I actually wear this gown, I'll be sure to flatten it.
Here you see a photograph of the little furry critter that will also be part of my costume. Isn't he cute?!
I've seen sketches where women are wearing/carrying little furry creatures such as this. I was blessed to find this in a box of my hubby's grandmother's things. It's in absolutely perfect shape. I do wonder how old it is.
A side view, showing the sleeve. You can see I have a small problem with the skirt's waistband showing. I'm not sure yet if that'll be a problem when I'm wearing the gown. I'd love to add some tabs to the bodice but I have yet to find a picture that shows a Venetian courtesan with a tabbed bodice.
I'll keep searching.
BTW, the silver and black jewel on the sleeve is pinned...in the wrong spot. I haven't gotten around to sewing it on yet. I still have a bazillion pearls to sew onto the other sleeve yet.
Getting there!
A bizillion pearls (and hours) later, this is what I'm looking at. There are still some things to work out, like the closure on the overskirt. It shows between the front laces. Not liking that. Also need to add some Elizabethan bling. I have a cool pin down at the bottom of the bodice, and have hung my furry critter from a nice beaded chain. I also have some pearls positioned on the bodice, although they aren't sewn on yet.
As you can see, I did add some "tabs" to hide the waistband of the skirt. If I don't care for the look, I can flip them up and tuck them inside.
Did LOTS of work on the corset. It still wasn't fitting right and I needed some really strong holes for the laces. I started out trying the ribbon method I used on the bodice but it didn't hold up. I had to resort to metal grommets. Wasn't any other way. After five kids, I need LOTS of support :)
BTW, I tried bits of this outfit on...it looks better on the dummy (disgusted sigh).
