Completed 1837 Christmas Dress, Pelerine, and Bonnet!!

Whoo!!  I almost didn't make this deadline!  I am acutally kind of shocked that I got everything done in the amount of time I had!  And might I please add that I NEVER want to do this again?  Yes, I did put this on myself, no one forced my hand or twisted my arm.  But please, next time I talk myself into doing this, someone please slap me...hard...right across the face!!  I totally give you permission!  Since I started the dress earlier this week, I completed said dress, the pelerine that goes with the dress, an 1837 bonnet, and a Scrooge night gown for my husband to wear for his roll as Ebenezer.  Like I said, I NEVER want to put myself through this again.

Anyhoo, here is the completed dress and bonnet!!  I acutally ended up wearing the lace pelerine today as my mom said that she didn't like the red pelerine because it covered all the pleating on the upper sleeves.  For the bonnet I use the Lynn McMasters 1830s Romantic Period Bonnet again.  I didn't have enough time to alter it so I made it as is right out of the envelope.  I really love how it turned out! I wanted the color to be totally non matchy-matchy and I think the teal and yellow worked really well with the color of the dress!

Items finished and ready to wear!

I know that I said that I would take tons of pictures of the sleeve making process, but I only took three.  I think the problem is I get going and in the groove and I plain forget to take pictures of the process!  But, the sleeved went together really smoothly.

Pattern piece.  The pleating of the sleeves took a bit of time.  In the future, I will put some layers of tulle in between the fashion fabric and lining to make sure the puff stays puffy

In the process of pleating.

Finished with the pleating!!  The black arrow shows where I placed a strip of self bias tape.  The pattern said to just bast across the bottom of the pleats but I wanted something a little more fancy.

You can see the band in this image.  

The next part was a bit time consuming.  The pattern said after you sew the sleeve up, to sew it into the bodice and then play around with the tightness of the sleeve.  I guess I have freakishly small arms as I took the sleeves in quite a bit to get them to really fit snuggly to my fore arms.

The pelerine was very simple to make.  The pattern didn't call for it to be lined, but I lined mine as my silk is stupidly thin!  I really like how the scallops look!  Next time I wear my dress, I will be wearing the pelerine!

Fun stove pipe bonnet of teal poly satin and pale gold silk.  The flowers came from hobby lobby and were made of paper.  I thought they were the perfect color to compliment the bonnet.

Inspiration for my bonnet came from Whitaker Auctions

I LOVE this bonnet!  The color combination is so incredible!

I did this bonnet in such a quick manner that the back seam ended up being off center.  It speaks volumes as to how tired I was that I didn't tear it apart and make it center.  Yay for conquering OCD!!

Tra la la la!!!  Sewing marathon is over and today was a fabulous day of playing dress up!

Next up... pictures of the wearing of the dress and bonnet and pics of the characters from our Ye Olde Family Christmas Event!!

Be blessed my friends!!

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