Not Enough

After the 1830s day dress I made last year turned out so well, I decided to make another one for this year’s Jafa, but this time a ballgown.

I’ve been thinking more and more about silk recently. I want to get away from using artificial fibres so much because the lack of breathability gets uncomfortable after a day’s wearing. I used silk in the corsetry workshop I did last year and again on trimming my 1830s bonnet. It was so good to work with that now, having used it, I don’t want to go back.

On the other hand, silk is expensive. I was hoping to find some cheaper silk when I went to Cabramatta. I had decided on blue to match a (not-remotely historical) necklace I had bought myself as a reward for being brave at work but turned out not to go with any of my everyday necklines. Alas, there was no silk to be had when I visited.

So, plan B. There’s been an embroidered silver silk dupion at Cardif Collective that I’ve been admiring for years. No-one's ever bought it so I figured that if I found nothing in Sydney I'd go with the silver. The embroidery is perhaps not completely accurate but I did find a few very embroidered skirts which would make it passable.

They all had relatively simple skirts so that would save a few metres I would otherwise have needed for self trimming the skirt. The pattern recommended 8m but the silver silk is pretty wide, so I figured I could get away with 3m for the skirt, 1m for the bodice and 1m for each sleeve.

I went out to Cadif the Saturday afternoon after the Sydney trip and found that the roll of silk was thinner. Horror! Three year’s sitting unbought and the same day I go to get it someone else bought half of it.

There is none of the silver left. However, last I saw there was still a roll in hot pink. Don’t all buy it at once.

There were 4m remaining. I did some maths at the counter and figured I could possibly, maybe, perhaps squeeze it out of 4m. I also wanted 2m of purple silk, the same as I had used for the corset, for a belt and trimmings and 2m silk organza for lining the sleeves, making 8m of silk in total.

I bought the last of the purple too; not as much as I wanted but I have some left over from the corset workshop.

Back in August I won a sewing machine in the Gamma.Con cosplay contest, sponsored by Cardif. As I am quite sufficiently supplied with sewing machines, Cardif generously allowed me to exchange the prize for store credit. So this is my actual prize: enough silk for a ballgown.

Because I had 1m from which to get what I originally thought would take 3, I had to change my plans a bit. I had planned to do a bertha for this dress but given the limited fabric I chose to make it in organza rather than use the silver.

Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as a bride, 1837.

I am reusing the Powerhouse museum pattern and modifying the sleeve design. My new design has a row of knife pleating, one puff and lots of flounces.

Laying the bodice pieces carefully allowed me more than half a width for the sleeves. However there was absolutely no way I was going to get all of the sleeve pieces out of that (and definitely not cut on the bias).

I was also not entirely sold on the organza bertha – the contrast seemed a bit random; I couldn’t find a way of continuing it around the whole neckline (something to do with curved lines and straight lines not being the same thing). Then my sleeve problem and my bertha problem solved each other: I could use organza for the large puff on the sleeve! The bertha no longer looks out of place and I think I have (just) enough fabric for everything.