30 Day Blogging Challenge and an 1890s ballgown

I've been super neglectful of this blog this past semester. I've been sucked into the black hole of senior year, and all of my focus went to lab reports, data analysis, and research papers.

But now I am free! FREE! (Until June, anyway.) And just in time, too, as a blogging challenge popped up over on Facebook - improve your blogging by posting regularly for 30 days. This can mean once a day, it can mean twice a week, whatever works for you. It's just meant to get you posting again.

So, I am getting back to begin a good bloggess and posting!

I need to play a bit of catch-up since there has been a little bit of sewing and a few events, I haven't posted about any of them. First up is an 1890s ballgown that I finished for the Costumers Guild outing to see Cinderella the Ballet.

I admit, I floundered a bit trying to figure out what to make for this event. I wanted something Edwardian, but I needed to Stash Dash the project so I could do it on the cheap. I did find one dress that would work with the fabrics I had on hand, but after really looking at the dress the construction was so complicated that I had to abandon the idea.

Then I came across this dress.

It was simple, it was princess-y, and best of all, I had some fabrics that would work! I had a magnificent gold brocade that would work for the main parts of the gown, and a matching taffeta that would work for the underskirt panel.

I had to work fast and squeeze the project in between papers at school. I draped the pattern one evening and made the gown the next. This meant that several things didn't get finished for the event - the gown is supposed to lace up the back, and I had to sew myself in on the night of the event. The fit is alright, but it could be improved. And, most of all, my sleeves did NOT want to poof. The fabric, even though it's a rather light brocade, is too heavy for the massive sleeves I made, and the weight of all that gathered fabric just sort of made my sleeves wilt.

 But, there were lots of good things, too. First, I finally made a train on a gown that didn't act wonky. For some reason, trains seem to be my kryptonite, and they always end up a little weird. Not this time! Also, because my sleeves were so heavy, they ended up pulling down the ballgown straps and creating this really flattering off-the-shoulder look. I had no idea I could pull off the off-the-shoulder look, but I totally can! I also felt extremely pretty while I was wearing it, and I always count that in the win column.

I had to do a lot of on the fly fit adjustments before the event. There were issues at the neckline, and the straps were too long, so I was safety pinned to within an inch of my life the whole time. I've since taken the bodice apart and have adjusted the fit, and I'm working on finishing the eyelets on the back and tweaking a few other things. I'm going to try and switch out the taffeta underskirt for a different color to see if it matches the brocade better. I swear it matched the brocade in my sewing room, but as soon as I left the house it looked like a totally different color.

I plan to take some time before the summer is over to get some decent pictures of this dress. I definitely need to work on taking better costume pictures for the blog! I'll put that on my list of to-dos for the 30 day challenge.

Tomorrow, the Cinderella event!