Robe à la Française - the first wearing at Christmas ball 2013

I had my doubts, but the robe à la Française got finished just in time for the Christmas ball trip, and with surprisingly little stress about it. Ok, to tell you the truth, I did panic a little on Tuesday (three days before the trip) when I had a problem with the front trim but I forced myself to stay calm and take care of the issue right away. And so the dress was finished a few hours before we had to leave home for the flight. I honestly thought I had a looser schedule than having to finish on the last minute!

So, this post is mainly about the dress and I will write another post about the event itself to avoid having a ridiculously long post on the blog.

Anyhow, as you can tell from the photos, I accessorized the dress with red, white and black to give this outfit some colour so it wouldn't be just plain white. I didn't have time to add the bows I was telling you about in the last post but it doesn't matter because it will be fun to add a little something new to the dress for the next wearing.

There are two pairs of tapes and loops on the inside of the dress so the train can be caught up for outdoors and dancing. 

Unfortunately my muff didn't fit in our bags so I had to leave it at home but I took a photo of it afterwards...

And since you're obviously moving when you're dancing, I also took photos of the hem pulled up later when I was at home.

The trim on the front of the gown was hugely influenced by the MET gown that I already linked to one of the earlier posts about this gown. I'm also considering adding some kind of garlands of flowers - similarly to the original - to the dress before the next wearing. I'm just not that sure if it will be too much decoration...

A little repetition here, in case you missed it earlier:  The bodice is based on a pattern in The Cut of Women's Clothes (1600-1930) by Norah Waugh. (See diagram XX on page 90) As usual, I enlarged the pattern on the computer as and altered it after printing it out. The bodice and the sleeves had to be shortened because I'm quite short and high-waisted (I'm pretty sure all my active readers are tired of hearing that all the time). I also had to add around 2 centimeters on the sides to the bust. Otherwise, it's basically the same. That is, if I remember correctly anymore. It's been a while since the pattern was drafted and fitted.

 Here you can see the lovely stripes.

And the dress seen completely from the front. I'm starting to think I actually prefer the way it looks when it's pulled up because it isn't so boxy like that.

The silk organza trim got officially approved by Leo... I really fell in love with this material. Actually, I liked it so much I'm thinking about using it for the robe à la Polonaise as well. It was so easy to cut and to work with. I barely needed to iron it because it folds easily with your fingers and nails. Leo also loved the box in which the fabric was mailed to us. He keeps sleeping in it so I haven't thrown it away just yet...

A couple of photos of the dress at the ball in the evening...

Special thanks to Ida for taking the photos and PS actions credits go to Bokhelie on DeviantArt.

PS. A few people have asked me if my hem got really dirty during the evening. Well, here's a photo that shows how dirty it got. I spent two days after the trip taking care of the clothes and cleaning the hem took the longest. First, I started by rubbing it with a wet piece of cloth and it worked ok but then it would have taken so much time to clean the whole hem with this technique so I continued the cleaning process by washing the hem in the sink with water and a little laundry detergent. I hang it for a while and after it had dried I noticed there still was some dirt on it so I rubbed the hem again with another wet piece of cloth. Finally after that it was clean enough so you can barely tell it had been dirty at all. It's never going to be completely clean again but I don't care because you kind of have to be mentally prepared for it if you decide to make a white dress with a long train. I could have, of course, lined the hem with another fabric, which would have made washing it much easier but the fabric is already quite thick so I didn't want to do that. 

Stay tuned for more photos of the Christmas ball and other events of the day... Oh, and if you like, I can take more photos of the construction details from the inside of the dress later on, once the batteries of my camera have been fully recharged...

Sneak peeking the robe à la Française

Time for a few sneak peek photos of the almost finished robe à la Française. Although I'm not sure if I can call it "almost finished" because there's still relatively lot to do... But the back side of the gown is actually at it's finished stage so I decided to take some photos of it to finally show you the progress on the dress and also to motivate myself. This dress just looks so dull when it's laying on my lap as I'm stitching it but once I put it on the dress dummy to take photos of it, it looks a whole lot different. I've had so many difficulties with this gown I've basically felt like giving up almost all the time but now I'm really happy I haven't done so. It's shaping up to be my first (but not the last, I promise) "pretty pretty princess dress".

The silk organza trim is actually striped. I was a bit disappointed to notice the stripes are barely visible once the trim was stitched to the dress. Oh well... at least the fabric was easy to cut straight.

I'm not particularly fond of the too synthetic looking lace on the neckline but it can be easily replaced as soon as I find something more suitable.

Being inspired by the painting below, I'm considering adding gray or black bows to the sleeves and the front of the dress....

And since Leo is my best (and worst) sewing buddy ever, he's doing what he does best and demonstrates how hard work sewing is.... 

Rescheduling... W.I.P. Robe à la Française

So, the robe à la Polonaise project got delayed because the floral robe à l'Anglaise - that was supposed to be finished before starting with the polonaise - got damaged and my schedule got messed up. After heavy repairing on the anglaise I realized that I would have to start preparing for the next event and start sewing my planned outfit for this year's Christmas ball. I could always wear the polonaise for the ball, but polonaises aren't really ball gowns so I decided it would have to be rescheduled for later. It might not even happen before next spring. It doesn't really need to be because it's probably best suited for strolling outdoors in the summer and I really need to make other garments now. 

So it was time to start making one of my other long term dream projects - A robe à la Française with narrow back pleats. I have always loved this gown from MET and wanted to create something similar. Luckily, I even happened to have some fabric ready for it in my stash. I had bought it more than year ago and had had difficulties deciding on what to make out of it so I had looked at some paintings of 18th century ladies wearing dresses made from white/cream silk satin. Then I remembered this famous gown from V&A and the decision was made - even though I was a bit afraid my fabric might be a little too heavy for the back pleats to drape well. Honestly, it should be a little lighter but I took the risk and I don't think it looks that bad. Or what do you think?

I enlarged the pattern from Norah Waugh's The Cut of Women's Clothes: 1600-1900 and spent almost all my spare time last week trying to get the bodice to fit. Finally after the third mock-up I was satisfied with the fit and the real fun could begin. First, the lining was cut from linen and the back was sewed up...

Then I moved on to the most exciting part... cutting and pleating the backside of the dress! Here's what it looks like at the moment, pinned on my dress dummy:

Tomorrow I'm going to stitch the front lining to the back of the bodice and try it on. I really hope it fits as well as it should...