FarAboveRubies
  • Blogs
    • Blog
    • My Wedding Dress
  • Gallery
    • Formal Wear Gallery
    • Historical Costume Gallery
    • Theatre Gallery
  • Shop

Dressing Gown and Nightgown set

11/1/2012

0 Comments

 
So in my last post I shared some of my dressing gown inspiration. After some searching on the internet I found this blog post
which gave me the clues I needed to draft the pattern. I started with my basic bodice and skirt blocks.

For the back bodice, I ignored the shoulder darts (as a lower armhole is appropriate for a dressing gown anyway) and kept the waist darts as they are.
For the front bodice, I pivoted both the darts to the side just under the armhole, and drew a straight line from the neckline at the shoulder to 10 cm across from the centre at the waistline.
For the skirt, I pivoted out the darts to create an A-line skirt shape, then added the 10cm band at the centre front.

The gown was assembled using french seams, and binding used to finish the armhole. I added a wide bias strip around the front edges of the gown to finish the edges.
Picture
For the sleeves, I wanted something that would echo the bishop style of the Lucile robe shown in the previous post. I refered to the instructions for a bishop sleeve given in 'Metric Pattern cutting' by Winifred Aldritch. These basically consist of slashing the sleeve from wrist to shoulder and spreading the pieces out, adding more material to the back of the sleeve than to front. You then add a little bit of length (to allow the fabric to drape down), and when assembling the sleeve you gather the long wrist edge into a fitted cuff. I.m pretty pleased with the result, although if I made it again I think I'd add another inch or maybe 2 to the length of the sleeve, and I think it need to droop down just a little more. I may have to experiment with this, as I suspect the stiffness of the fabric also has an impact on how much 'poof' you get.

I decided to use some stash fabric for this project, and ended up choosing some dusky pink polyester satin. This was a mixed success - the colour was perfect, and the fabric draped beautifully and felt suitably luxurious. Unfortunately, I discovered when I wore it that the fabric creases horribly - I actually ironed it to the best of my ability before taking the photos above, but I'm not sure it'll ever be crease free again! So we'll call this one a wearable toile.
Apart from that I'm really happy with this one, it was quick and easy to make so I may well be making more of these in the future.

I also made a matching slip using the fantastic free ruby slip pattern.
I'm not going to tell you how I made this as the instructions on the site cover everything you could possibly need to know! As I was short on both time and money for this project, I bought 2 pair of black lace boxers in Primark and found that these gave me just enough lace to make the bodice, including matching the scallops. I did have to piece to get extra width on the sides, and make use of the stretch properties of the lace for the back.
I'm so pleased with how this turned out - the bias cut skirt hangs and fits perfectly and a slip is always useful so I'll definately be using the pattern again :)
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    My crazy costuming, sewing and maybe other stuff too blog! Hopefully others can learn from my mistakes and I can learn from your comments :)

    Hey you! ;)

    According to the stats people are actually visiting this site - I'd love to know who you are so please leave comments!

    Archives

    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    August 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    June 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    October 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    October 2011
    August 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010

    Categories

    All
    1830s
    1860s
    1870s
    1880s
    Bridal
    Coat
    Custom Order
    Florence Maud Dowding
    Historical Accuracy
    Historical Sew Fortnightly
    Holy Grail 2011
    Inspiration
    Kids Clothes
    Modern Clothing
    Pattern Drafting
    Project Destash
    Random Stuff
    Underwear
    Victorian Menswear

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.