Greek Court Gown from the 1840s | Amalia Costume pt.4

Welcome back everyone! Today is the day. The day we've all been waiting for. The day when I will be finally making the most exciting part of my 1840s greek court gown, the dress itself. After this, all that's left is the zipouni, the little coat, and the fez. And then this whole project will be done. If you're interested in seeing the final reveal, and I have really big plans for that, so you should be, feel free to stick around. But until then, let's get started! I started by marking out the shape of the bodice with my tin tape, while checking the neckline against the chemise I've previously made. I wanted the embroidery showing from under the dress. Once I had the shape I wanted, I draped some scrap fabric over it, pinned it tight, and marking the lines I cut along them. Using these, I made a mock-up with sleeves and sleeve ends, and after some modifications, I transferred the pattern onto paper. I scanned these papers in bit by bit, as my scanner can only do an A4 size, and pasted these pieces together in photoshop. I imported it into illustrator, where I also designed my embroidery, using an accident garment as inspiration from the collection of the lyceum club of greek women. As these patterns were traditionally done by laying and twisting a single piece of golden rope into different motifs, when I drew my patterns out, I tried to make them as one continuous line. I knew the sleeve ends were going to be the most elaborate, so I started by designing that. Because my machine can only embroider maximum area of 200 by 280 millimeters, I had to break up my design into smaller chunks. I cut it in places where I knew the design will hide any misalignment, if anything goes wrong, and I ended up with 7 hoops worth of embroidery. For one sleeve end! But before everything, I had to do a test embroidery, to see which type of stitch would look the best, and the most rope-like. As you can tell, the stem stitch won over the chain stitch, so that's what I'll be using. The front piece fit into two hoops, so I started by embroidering that smaller piece of work. When hooping it for the second part, I paid careful attention to the alignment. I also made it so the outline of the pattern would be the first to be embroidered, and this way I could see it at once if it aligned well, because the lines would meet up perfectly. And they did! The back piece only required one pass. Using the paper pattern I already had, I marked and cut the body's pieces out. For the sleeves, I started by embroidering the middle part of it, then I embroidered the right side parts, and then I mirrored them and embroidered the left side ones. And remember those little bits at the very top of the sleeves? Yeah, me neither. So all together it took 5 passes and around 7 hours of embroidering to make one sleeve. And for fun I added up the numbers. And all together it took 1084 minutes, or 18 hours to embroider everything, which doesn't sound that bad until you realize that that's just the pure embroidering time. When the machine was clicking away and didn't stop due to thread bake or color change or because I had to re-hoop the fabric and had to spend 10 minutes aligning and realigning patterns so it would match up perfectly, so all together it was more like two weeks of on and off embroidering. But once it was all done and I cut out the last sleeve and two, it was finally time to assemble it. I bought one meter of this pretty two-ton pink taffeta for the sleeve end lining, which ended up being enough not just for those, but I could also line the bodice too. The only part I didn't line were the sleeves to avoid a ball. I pinned and sewed the lining to the bodice pieces right sides facing along the neckline and the front opening. Then I understitched them to make sure the lining won't peek out uninvited. I clipped the seam allowance and turned them inside out and pressed them flat. I sewed the back and the front panels together at the shoulder seam. I've ended up piecing the sleeves because I was worried that the amount of fabric left over from the skirt won't be enough, but I sewed the pieces together where the stripes meet so it was pretty much invisible from the outer side. I pinned the middle of the sleeve to the shoulder point on the bodice, then I attached it along the armhole. Then I closed up the side seam and the sleeves in one pass. I prefer doing it this way as it allows for greater flexibility if the garment needs to be resized. This seam was later searched too. I sewed the sleeve ends together right sides facing, then I turned them inside out through the top edge. I pressed them flat and topstitched along the edge so the lining won't bulge out. I used a corning foot and a zigzag stitch to attach a decorative gold cord. I've put the bodice on and marked where I wanted the opening to be and pinned and sewed the sleeve ends accordingly. Here and also at the armhole I've only sewed the fashion fabrics together so I could use the lining to hide the raw edges. I tacked these down by hand so it would not show from the exterior. I sewed another gold cord along the neckline, this time by hand. I used hooks for the closure of the bodice and made thread loops on the other side. I serged the bottom of the bodice so it won't fray. Now that my bodice was done, I still had 4.9 meters of fabric left for the skirt, so my worries were pretty much unfounded. So I took a fork and started to pleat all up, with half covered stacked pleats. Then I secured the pleats together with a quick running stitch and attached it to the bodice. As the dress has a front opening, I left a couple of pleats so it would overlap with the other end of the skirt, so in case anything goes wrong, it won't be the petticoat peeking out from the opening. I opened up the pleats that were unneeded and cut the rest of it off. I hemmed this raw edge and used snaps on either end for closure and a hook at waist level for extra hold. Then I tacked the waist seam seam allowance to the inner pleats of the skirt, to reduce bulk on the waist and add volume to the skirt. Cut the skirt to length and hemmed it by rolling it back twice and it is done. Do you remember that in my previous video in this series, where I made the stays for this gown, I said that once I made the dress I'd wear it with and without the stays to determine which looks more like the paintings of the time? Well, here you can see me with both with and without them. And I'd be curious of what you think, which way does it look more accurate to you? One thing is for sure though, now I realize why many of the ladies very conveniently place brooch or pendant right where the stays would be peeking out. It's ingenious really, seems like I too will have to find a brooch. For the next time.