Gallery:

October 2005
Revamp of the tea gown that wasn't.

October 2005
Before the revamp.

August 2003
"Phase One" of this dress, held together with safety pins and missing the back bow. Oh well! More pictures from the evening can be found here.

Dress Diary

Summer 2003

With my corset finally complete I need something to wear with it! I do have plans for a heavily embellished concoction someday but right now I need something for a party I'm hosting in July. So I began looking for something fun that I could realistically get done in time.

I found inspiration from a vintage gown I came across in 2001. I found the circa 1908-1912 tea dress in an E-bay listing. A few months ago I was lucky enough to stumble upon a length of high quality black point d'esprit, on G Street's $2.79yd bargain table. It's not 100% cotton but it has a lovely drape and softness you don't find in your typical poly Jo-Ann's version. Whatever the fiber content, it is gorgeous stuff!

While searching for fabric for the under dress, I hit the jackpot on my Hancock's bargain table! My $1.99yd cotton sateen has a lovely feel and drape to it. It is a lovely creamy green-yellow color, a pale chartreuse I guess you'd say, and looks great with the black point d'esprit. It's at times like these that I love my life!

I will be using Sense & Sensibility's Tea Gown pattern for the bodice and Butterick 3418 for the skirt. The point d'esprit tunic will be draped, rather than using a pattern. I haven't decided if I'm going to embellish the inset at all. Still thinking… I really don't know if I'll have enough time for that.

July 1
Yesterday I cut out my first toile bodice along with the inset from my fashion fabric, so I can begin the embroidery. The inset size doesn't change much and it is much easier to embellish the inset before the bodice is constructed so I need to start that right away.

The dinner party I am making this dress for is on the 18th of July. Let the countdown begin…

July 2

Even though my time to work on this project is short, I couldn't bear the thought of a plain inset (so pathetic I know). My Mom bought two wonderful embroidery books during her recent trip to England. She found them at the Royal School of Needlework shop in Hampton Court. I've been very inspired by these books and the embroidery on the vintage gown I'm working from. So embroidery it is!

Rather than copying the design on the vintage gown I decided I wanted something a bit more original. So I began the search for a simple design to embroider. After a bit of searching, I found the perfect design. It's based on a William Morris wallpaper of chrysanthemums. Lately I've been on an Arts & Crafts kick and have been particularly inspired by the designs of William Morris.

I did some testing of the design, trying out a few "new" stitches from the books Mom brought home. I've decided to do the outlining in a stem stitch and the inside stems in a Pekinese stitch. I'll be using a mixture of white and off white threads. I don't want the embroidery to stand out too much and I love the effect of white on the pale chartreuse.

Yesterday I cut out the inset from my sateen. Today I traced the design on my fabric with a transfer pen and a now ready to begin embroidering. So the stitches I'm using are:

• stem stitch
• Pekinese stitch
• double buttonhole stitch
• whipped running stitch

July 8

Yesterday I fitted my toile bodice. Oh it looks so cool! The corset really makes this dress look good - much prettier than a modern bra!

When I was searching in the notes from Jennie Chancey's Tea Dress class that I took 2 years ago, I found the original toile I had made for that project. I didn't know I still had it! It happened to be the right size so rather than sew up the one I had cut last week, I used that original for my fitting. The toile fit just about perfectly (as opposed to last time when I had to use a bigger size *wink*.

The darts are, of course, all wrong due to the corset but that is not a big deal. Luckily Jennie gave very good instructions on changing darts due to the use of a period corset in her class. I should just have to move them up a bit.

July 11

One of the things that caught my eye of the original gown was the silk flower. I found a lovely large peony in the dried flower section of my local Michael's Craft store. It is made out of paper, so it's nice and soft when my arm brushes against it and it's a bit on the flat side to match the original.

My initial thought had been to have either a red or a yellow flower, to compliment the pale chartreuse fabric. The red peony I found was a gorgeous color so I had to get that. The store also had a lovely champagne pink peony too. The red is striking, perfect for an evening occasion and the pink is romantic, perfect for an afternoon tea. I couldn't decide what mood I was in so I bought both. I'm so bad!

July 13

I've finished! It's very early in the morning and I'm beyond ready for bed but I've just finished the embroidery. I think it came out quite pretty and it was easy to work. It's very subtle but that was what I wanted. The little pearls add a nice "punch" since I'm planning on wearing pearls with this gown. (They are leftovers from my 2002 Renaissance outfit - waste not, want not!) At some point I'd like to carry the embroidery design onto more of the dress, maybe the sleeves or the hem but that is a project for another day….

In case you are wondering about the white fabric and the teal basting stitches in the large scan… I mounted my fashion fabric inset to a larger piece of white cotton so I could use an embroidery hoop while I worked. This way I was able to use a hoop without distorting the shape of my pattern piece and to keep my tension evenly distributed without having to move my hoop all around. I plan to cut the white to match the inset, treating the cotton layer as an interlining.

July 14
Yesterday I spend my evening tracing my updated toile/pattern onto a tissue master pattern for cutting. I also made little "extension patterns" for the top of the skirt, since the original pattern is designed to end at the waist and this dress is above the waist. Today I was able to cut out the fabric and mark those dratted, I mean those nice little darts. I'm a bit behind on this project because of other commitments so I now have only one day to assemble the entire thing. Eeek!

Issues with an Overskirt
I'm still not sure how exactly I am going to attach the point d'esprit skirt. The problem is it goes all along the back, right where my back zipper closer is. If I'd had time to work on this dress I would have tried making the period correct front side opening with hooks and eyes that Jennie taught in her class but with my time restraints I knew puzzling that out would be beyond mental!

So now I have two options. My first option is to split the skirt in the center back and have the waist band fasten center back (like the original). I'm reluctant to do this because (a) I am freaked out about cutting my precious netting so I want to keep the cutting to a minimum, and (b) I have just enough netting to reach around and pleat up a bit and this option would mean over lapping a bit.

My second option is to attach the netting to the waistband but only attach the waistband to one half of the back (the rest attaching with hooks and eyes), so that I can get to the center back zipper. I don't know. A waistband presents it's own set of problems because the bodice of the dress curves quite a bit and ends in a "peak" in the back. I will need to make a contoured waistband, something I've never done before.

Well I guess I will sleep on it and ask Mom for her advice in the morning…

July 16
It's done! Well, I still have a good bit of handwork and the hem to do but the construction is complete. I spent the whole of yesterday working on it, aside from sewing on a waistband to another costume's skirt. I stayed up until 5am, but I managed to finish it. Let's see that was probably - minus the other skirt and lunch breaks and the sort - about 17 hours of work. Considering all the mistakes I made and the fact that I made up the whole point d'esprit part as I went along it's not too bad really. :>

My biggest mistake was the mis-measuring of my skirt extensions. Some how I ended up 9½" too small at the top (fitting at the waist). It was a really stupid mistake, costing me about an hour and a half of work. I solved the problem by cutting out 3 triangles of fabric. Two triangles were 1" wide x 3" long (plus the seam allowance), these I placed at the back side seams (all the gusset work paying off!). The third triangle (7½" wide by 20" long), I sewed to the center back (splitting it down the center to keep a center back seam for the zipper). My little fix worked and doesn't look to bad, I don't think. Luckily the point d'esprit is there to help camouflage.

The point d'esprit overdress was a more enjoyable process, although it did take time. I first divided my length of netting into two pieces, one long enough to cover the bodice front to back and the other for use for the over skirt. The bodice piece I ended up cutting into two 30" long x 14" wide strips (with a good sized piece left over of course). These strips I draped over my bodice (which was pinned on my dress form). I gathered the width at the shoulder by hand with three gathering stitches and pleated the bottom front and back until I was satisfied with the look. I then simply trimmed away the excess and machine basted the bottom of the bodice. That was fun.

When I came to the over skirt, it was about 4am and I was really not in the mood to start on a contoured waistband. Besides, I didn't want to cover up the delicate bodice pleats and pretty lines of the waist. Inspiration struck and I found that a piece of ribbon would do the job without covering up the lines much. I went with a ½" satin ribbon from our stash. I finished the ends by hand and mounted the point d'esprit to the front of the ribbon by machine (after having draped it along the dress on my form to get the pleating right). I'm not entirely happy with the way the point d'esprit looks on top of the ribbon, Perhaps at some point I will mount a second layer of ribbon on the top edge or something. We'll see…

I don't have time to mess with the back bow before my party so I will just go without. It really looks nice with out it but I do want to add the bow eventually. Right now my dress is a bit of a hybrid between my original inspiration this Karen Augusta tea gown.

July 25

Well I managed to pull off wearing this gown to my party. I just barely made it though! There was so much hand sewing to do! Despite staying up late the night before, my hem was done by machine, the bow was missing and half the point d'esprit overskirt was safety-pinned on while the other half was held by only two snaps. Whew!

It did look very nice though, or so everyone said. I even got the compliment of looking like Kate Winslet. I'm still trying hard not to let that go to my head! This is one of those gowns that is great fun to wear. I felt so elegant!

I did make the dress a tad tight. Luckily it's designed to be worn with a corset so all I had to do was lace a bit tighter. It fit to perfection but it did make it harder to make it through our five-course French meal. *eek!* I'm now in the process of re-doing / finishing all that hand sewing that I fudged on.

Oct 28
I've decided to wear my Cream Tea Dress for Halloween later this week? *wicked grin* I'm in charge of the Cake Walk at the church's Harvest Party again this year so I'm silly to want to wear a restrictive corset but what can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment.

I have decided to add some new trimming to it. The gown is a bit plain… too plain for 1912 really. I never had the time to finish it properly and it's bugging me now. I don't have a plan per say but I've pulled a few trims and laces from the stash and we'll see what I come up with between now and Monday.

Nov 1

Well that was a nice idea. After adding some sparkly trim and lace I tried on the dress to decide what shoes to wear with it.

It doesn't fit. *weeps*

Life is so not fair sometimes! So I had to pack it away as the dress re-vamp that never was and find something else to wear for Halloween. Moo.