Edwardian couture evening gown part 2: The bodice and final result

Hello and welcome. I'm Maria from Sew Thru Time and in the last video I started making an Edwardian evening gown using couture techniques. I started out by first making my design and doing the foundation skirt. This time in this video I will be showing you how I did all of the beadwork on top of it and also how I did the bodice and especially those couture techniques that make that bodice special and the over skirt. For my bodice I'm using a pattern I've used before. It's an evening gown pattern from 1901 and it comes from Frances Grimble's book Voice of Fashion. I'll link the video down below and above somewhere where you can find the previous bodice that I did. That one I did with kind of turn of the century techniques but not really haute couture level kind of techniques like I'm doing this time. Now what makes an evening gown or a bodice really haute couture for this time period is that they are usually overcast by hand and they're boned with whalebone so I'm using synthetic whalebone. Usually the boning is sprung so that that means that it will flex better with your body so that it is slightly gathered at the waist or wherever it needs to bend the most. And then it will have bigger chunkier hooks and eyes and they will usually be in pairs so that you have a hook on one side and an eye here and then the next one will be a hook on this side and an eye here. And then on top of this they have always a waistband and that waistband will have the designer house's logo or print whatever on it. And another important thing that defines a couture bodice versus a nice homemade or local seamstress made bodice is usually the lining material. In a lot of nice bodices but that are more homemade you will find things like glazed cotton or other like nicer but cheaper materials that will hold the shape just as well they work just as fine but they because it's saving money where you don't really need to waste it whereas in couture bodices will have a silk taffeta lining and I'm using a silk taffeta though it's not really I guess that high end this is actually a thrift store find but we won't tell the Edwardians that I'm cheating. In the end I'll also go through my material costs so and break them down to for you so that you can kind of understand how much money goes into an evening gown like this in modern sewing. As for the overskirt that pattern also comes from the Voice of Fashion but it is a different evening gown it's an evening gown from 1900 and it is originally meant to have a skirt that doesn't have a really long train for it but I left this open in the back instead of closing it so that the train swoops out the way it does in my design and the overskirt is finished with a so-called soft finish on the hem because it doesn't actually hit the ground and even if it would a lot of times Edwardian fancy evening gowns the topmost skirt would be finished with a soft finish so it wouldn't actually like have any kind of hem stiffening in it but it this one is lined because of all the sequin work that I did I didn't want those threads to be visible and possibly get stuck on things. Here is my design for this evening gown. I was inspired by a fashion plate from 1902. The original drawing had a diamond shaped design on it but I changed it to a spider web because I liked how that could accentuate the narrow waist and would give the gown a vampire twist. A spider web design would also be historically plausible since they did a lot of fantasy details on evening gowns. The original has a lace collar and sleeves that I thought I might later make as a chemiset style so that this gown can transition into a more conservative dinner dress when full dress is not required but have sequined shoulder straps for more formal wear. I start by machine sewing my bodice lining together and marking the front placket so that I can try it on and mark any possible changes to the back. After trying it on unsurprisingly the side seams were a bit big for me at my rib cage because well I don't have a rib cage and I needed some upper bust darts. Okay and now I have fitted it on and made sure that everything fits and it's time to trim the seam allowance and make notches in it so that it lays flat. And here is a very important lesson about bodies and how they are never really completely symmetrical. I don't have scoliosis or anything like that but yet my other side had this much extra seam allowance and this side has far more. I don't know I haven't ever noticed before that my sides wouldn't be very symmetrical but for some reason that's what this pattern came out to be. And I've tried it on it looks good on my body everything looks right all the seams look like they're in the right place and it just happens to be not very symmetrical this time and that's fine that's just the beauty of bodies. All the raw edges are overcast by hand using a whip stitch. The synthetic whalebone is cut to size inserted in the boning channel and sewn on the seams so that the channel is slightly gathered. Plackets are reinforced with crinoline that is basted on. The edge is turned and basted again then turned again and sewn closed using a hem stitch. Then the hook and eye closures are sewn on. I couldn't find the right kind of beefy hooks and eyes so I made my own. The fashion fabric back piece is placed on the lining with the center marked with pins and draped on turning in the edges. Then the fashion fabric is sewn onto the lining. The front fashion fabric is first decorated flat before pleating the sides and attaching it to the bodice on one side. I start by pinning on the vertical sequin lines in my spiderweb design and sewing them on. I stitch them by inserting my needle on one side of the sequin trim and run it to the other side and stitch through so that my thread ends up under one of the sequins and then take the next stitch through on a few sequins below on the opposite side again. The same is done to the back piece trying not to stitch through to the lining piece. Then the fashion fabric front piece is pleated on the sides to match the lining in length and sewn on on the right hand side and the bottom is gathered and sewn onto a cross grain ribbon. Then the ribbon is hemmed on the inside for a clean finish. The bottom edge of the lining is also finished off with a cross grain ribbon. The right half of the fashion fabric top edge is turned over the lining and hemmed while the left half is turned over a cross grain ribbon and hemmed down. Both sides are gathered slightly as you hem to match the lining edge in length. Then hooks are sewn onto the left side of the front piece. All hooks and eyes on the fashion fabric and the lining are covered with a cross grain ribbon for a clean finish. Thread loops are sewn onto the left side on the back piece with buttonhole twist silk thread to close the bodice and give it a seamless finish. Lastly the horizontal spiderweb sequin loops are sewn onto the back piece making sure to match them up at the closures with the horizontal loops on the front piece for a truly seamless look. The over square pieces are sewn together and the spiderweb sequin design sewn on. Once all the sequences are sewn on the fashion fabric and the lining are sewn together right sides against each other on the bottom edge and the back edge to form a bag lining. Then a strip of lead curtain weight tape is sewn on to both back edges and the waist is finished with a cross grain ribbon. Okay let's break down now a little bit of the cost what went into materials for this gown. I used six and a half yards of that Ryan Bag satin and that would have that cost me 150. If I would have bought it full-on silk duchess satin from I looked this price up from Mood Fabrics so you could get it for different prices at different places but that's a reasonable option and there it would have been $69.99 a yard so that would have landed me at a total of $455 not including postage of course and then so that 150 versus 455 there's quite a significant change when you change that back fabric into Ryan instead of silk and if I would have bought it a polyester I could have gotten it for 107.7 so though it is much cheaper it's actually not that significantly cheaper than it would have than it was with Ryan Bag silk satin. Then I needed about 17 yards of the sequins and that cost me about 15. Then the silk taffeta that I used I used about four yards and I got it for 10 because I found it thrifting but a relatively like normal real price would be about 70 for it so the grand total real price that if I would have bought all of this new would be 275 because I bought this silk taffeta used or thrifted and I also bought some of had bought my some of my notions already for other projects and I was basically just using leftovers I actually ended up using only 200 for this project if I would have used completely polyester I could have got and I would have bought everything new I would have got it for 227.6 and if I would have used the duchess satin silk satin and the silk taffeta it would have cost me 510. So there are ways that you can get this significantly cheaper but even in modern days a gown like this will require quite a bit of investment but then again if you go find a modern evening gown you're not gonna find anything even in the cheapest flimsiest polyester really under this price tag. So I'd say this is a fairly reasonable amount but if you are on a budget don't be afraid to go for budget friendly options and really if you would have thrifted all of these materials especially curtains can be an excellent way to thrift evening gown materials because curtains are usually quite cheap you can get some for 10 or 20 and usually and that is usually enough material for most of the pieces if not all. So if you were to be really budget conscious and thrifty I think you could manage to get this for about 50. So when it comes to costuming really what is important is really what is your budget and how much you are willing to spend on a piece. It doesn't necessarily have to be expensive but it can be and you can always find different options no matter what you are making to suit your budget but you might want to keep in mind that the cheaper you want to get something most likely the more work it is going to require from you for finding those materials. But I think my point here is that no matter what budget you have and you if you want to make something you can find a way there don't let budget be your obstacle in making something beautiful. If you enjoyed this video and if you did please hit that like button and if you haven't subscribed already please do that so that I can see you again next time. Bye!