Vee's dress for the 18th Century picnic

[jaelie]

(This is cross-posted)

Ok, so I started out eyeing this image as inspiration for Vee's dress for the 18th century picnic:






I also used these two as references:







(To my relief, it appears that precise fitting on a toddler is not necessary. I say relief because trying to get a fully mobile 1 year old to stand still so I can put a dress on her is.... tricky at best!)

Here's the fabric:







And here's everything cut out so I could work on it on my recent trip to San Antonio (the dress is entirely hand sewn):




The basic construction of this dress is a bunch of rectangles. For the sleeves, however, I stole the sleeves from a pattern that I already had (Simplicity 4709). I've never made any clothing without a pattern before, besides skirts, so this was fun!

Here are the shoulder pieces:




Here I'm sewing the top hem for the front (I did the same for the back:




Attaching the shoulders to the front & back:




Hemming the back opening:




Attaching the front sides to the back sides:




Front:




Back:




Sleeve pattern & fabric:




Hemming the sleeve:




Hemmed sleeves & casings:




Sleeves attached (front):




Sleeves attached (back):




First fitting with the dress actually on Vee (she yelled at me every other time I tried):




Finished dress (front):




Finished dress (back):




I think I'll put a sash on it like the second and third pictures, but I haven't decided yet. I'll have photos of Vee in the dress when picnic time comes around in two weeks! :D

Of course, I'm going to use this as a Sunday dress for her, too. Why not?!

Next up, I have got to work on MY dress! I don't want to be stuck with the pink regency, but it will do as a back-up.