Modified garb made good.

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

OK so another visit to CoRF is iin the bag and in a new dress... or not so new dress that I have had for three years. I had gotten this dress off of ebay as I said three years ago. It came to small for some parts of my body... mainly my arms as I have some nice guns or as I say Popeye forearms. I was bummed. I could get it on, but boy was it to tight and very uncomfortable. The rommets also too where pulling away from the fabric. While it was a very beautiful dress some parts of the quality just were not there. The seams where good and it was lined and looked very professionally done, but still I had to quastion how the maker could make something and disregard measurements. Even the skirt was tight on the waist and she had used elastic. I nor my sisiter who is smaller than I could get into the skirt. Getting it past the hips was impossible as was getting it over the head and shoulders

So deciding I was not going to let this dress go to toal waste I took it to a local seamtress. I had her first ajust the arms and make them fit then expand the shoulders a bit. While it still did not give me as much freedom of movement as I wished, it worked. The one problem however was if I wore a chemise with it, it made the arms tight again hum delemay again. I then had the seamstress put in a draw sting on the skit making it much easier to get over head and shoulders and even hips. This was much better. The other issue with a chemise is it cause the lace on the sleeves to not lay right. While a white chemise looked nice withthe black lace, the lace flaring out didn't look as nice. (There are pics of it under the sewing thread under Next Question)

So now to deal withthe grommets. Seeing how Lady Katherine sewed around my Katherine Parr dress grommets. I decided to do this also to reinforce them (Worked great BTW). The dress had a tendancy to gap really bad as it was a bit short if not sitting just perfect and even then when you sat, it gapped, kind of like plummers but but not showing the but. Fixing this I ties in 6 tie rings on the bodice and matched ties to the skirt. I also put in two hooks and eye's in the back just for a wee bit support. I then took an old but still very good white chemice and had the sleeves made short. This would work great if I decided to wear it as a wench chemice and give my arms air.

This dress is much eaiser to get into and out of and while still warm, it's not bad. At CoRF I had many compliments on it, even by men. I call it my hunting dress since I wore my tall hat with it. I had a green scarf wrapped around my hat, then added the black ostrich feather and two deep green ostrich feathers that almost match the scarf and a peacock eye.

This is a very fun dress to wear and while I would not consider it HA, I love it and plan on wearing it more now. A noble must have a dress to hunt in, and this one is mine.

[Master James]

WOW sounds like a LOT of work to fix a dress that should have fit to begin with!  But the results are great!  Congrats!  You look great in it and I love the colors.

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

You are very correct in that Master James on the trouble of it and should not have been.

I joke and it is mearly in jest that the woman who sewed it is from Canada. She was using the Canadian standard of measurements which are different than American standards of measurements. i.e like the American dollar three years ago $1 US = $0.75 Canadian so thus 1" inch US = 0.75" or 3/4" inches Canadian.

This is mearly in jest and not meant to offend any of our Canadian friends.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

What a terrific look Laney!!! You did great job and look smashing!!

I am glad that you were able to tweak the gown. Is the skirt seperate from the Bodice? What type of fabrics are they? Just wondering if we could work together to make it even more smashing as another gown in your growing wardrobe of garb.

There is a saying that goes like this..."Garb is never really finished. There's always something being done to it."

[Lady Caroline]

No worries, I think most of us Canucks have great senses of humour........ although I think our units of measure are at par now?

(had to change sense of humours to senses of humour.  But I'm sure those are great also   )

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

No worries, I think most of us Canucks have great senses of humour........ although I think our units of measure are at par now?

(had to change sense of humours to senses of humour.  But I'm sure those are great also   )

I do believe Lady Caroline that it is still off but in your advantage now with our American Economy. 1 US = 1 1/16 Canadian

[renren]

Wow, that dress is fantastic!
And looks stunning on you!

[Merry]

Great job Laney!  I LOVE the hat!

[Joyce "Delfinia DuSwallow" Howard]

Laney , you look just stunning in that dress! Great job and keep wearing it , it's beautiful.

[gem]

Beautiful gown!!  You must be so proud of the work you've done!  You did an amazing job!

I'm wondering if you might see if you can get/make a short-sleeved or even sleeveless chemise to wear with it instead--without an extra set of sleeves underneath your gown, the arms might fit you better.  I know that in my 18th Century ensemble, the sleeves of the chemise are short and not very full, but I still have to wrap them a little tighter around my arm so they don't bunch up inside my jacket.

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

Hi Gem

Yes I did have one of my chemices altored to do just that. It is short sleeved, still slightly puffy so I can use it as a wench chemice and also short enough not to go to far down the arm sleeves but to help fill the "puff" of the upper sleeves.

I did find that long sleeve chemises did bind more and the short sleeve chemice I altered was perfect. I think I have a pic of it of me curling my hair as Toki decided he wanted a picture of me getting ready.

[verymerryseamstress]

Ahhh!  You're gorgeous!  As always!   

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

Thanks Heather

It's always nice to hear things like that