Need help-Converting Wedding Dress into a Court Dress

[Cilean]

Now what i wish to do with this is turn it into a court dress. I plan on getting velvet royal blue fabric to do the dress in, with black and silver trim, (at least thats what I am hoping)
But if you have any suggestions PLEASE give them to me I will be very thankful.  You all have helped me so much in the past

Okay,

Firstly:  Making a Court Gown I would make this H/A by using this gown as the kirtle. 

A) Are you smaller than your sister?
Because the bodice needs to be reworked and if you are smaller than your sister, with your PoB on then you can have more fabric to adjust.

B) If you are not then use some of the fabric you have in your train to finish the shoulders of your gown.

C) I would then bead the forepart of your gown, also ask about if anyone you know has an embroidery machine or you want to hand embroider the front of the Kirtle.  Many foreparts and sleeves were white, you can fudge with ivory, and they were embellished with; Gold and Silver spangles, embroidery, you can either purchase or make your own cording and add this to the kirtle.  You can use the train for your sleeves and embellish them as well.

Overgown or Gown
Now that you have a wondrous kirtle? You can now think of a grand gown!  It would look smashing like this ;


This is a gown in the french fashion



Here is a gown with the forepart done only in the white



Marie De Medici with tons of embellishments on her gown.



Here is one, that I think will have a white interior kirtle with sleeves.



here is one I am wanting to make, it is a lovely gown.

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Okay so here is my last one! I think this would look awesome!

So I think you could make a complete kirtle, or a forepart with matching sleeves with that gown and I think it would look smashing!


Good Luck

Cilean

[Syrilla]

I can't wait to see your progress! 

[LadySeasan]

well me and my sister in law are the same size so the dress fits perfectly

I just worked on the overskirt ( i suppose this is the correct term) and tomorrow I will be working on the bodice part. i will post pictures soon, just when i was about to post pictures tonight, my cameras batteries died, and then my cell phone died, so i had nooooo camera, lol

but i will be posting updates and such, here as well as my dress diary

mydressdiary.wordpress.com

i stabbed my finger

[Margaret]

i stabbed my finger

It's the cry of seamstresses everywhere:  OUCH!  Don't bleed on the fabric!  Don't bleed on the fabric!!"   

I bleed at least once for each gown I make.  Figure it's just the sewing gods demanding their sacrifice.


Good luck on the gown transformation!

[LadySeasan]

i stabbed my finger

It's the cry of seamstresses everywhere:  OUCH!  Don't bleed on the fabric!  Don't bleed on the fabric!!"   

I bleed at least once for each gown I make.  Figure it's just the sewing gods demanding their sacrifice.


Good luck on the gown transformation!

thanks for the luck

yeah my finger still hurts, lol. i stabbed it with the needle, and then i was using a glue gun, and touched the hot glue on the same finger -so now its a blister 

im going to be working on finishing the under part for the foreskirt (please someone correct my terminology lol) and begin working on the bodice.

once that is done i will make my a pouch, fan, parasol holder, and decorate my basket

ooh my i found the perfect brooch at walmart, i squealed when my friend showed it to me i cant wait to post pictures (later on today)

[LadySeasan]

here is my progress so far

a picture of the fabric, and the fabric with the trim-this is the foreskirt



and



this fabric will be used for that triangle looking part of the skirt and the middle panel of the bodice



and this will be the headband that will be attached to my snood( i love pearls)

the front of the bodice will have this lovely pearl brooch with draped pearls from side to side and the snood will have pearls sewn in

[Syrilla]

Looks like you have a great start.  If you are using part of the wedding gown bodice don't forget to change or add good boning!

As to the bleeding, in most costume shops that I have worked in, bleeding onto a costume is considered good luck to the wearer.  (As long as you can get it out, and it doesn't show! hehe)   BTW, if you get blood on the fabric, spit on it and rub lightly. Sound gross but it will come out.

[LadySeasan]

thank you

my first reaction was some bad words then spitting, but the fabric is a dark navy blue, so it didnt show up anyway, ive had a very interesting time so far working on this dress

especially me and the sewing machine. i always have the damnedest time trying to get the thread going once i put the bobbin in, the thread keeps breaking

[LadySeasan]

update: dress is 98% done, since i dont have a dress form, i need my friend to come over while i put the dress on and just tidy some things

here are some pictures!

so here i am modeling the dress without anything being attached nor wearing the hoopskirt, at this point i have yet to add my shoulder rolls and sleeves


here is an upclose of the bodice with my brooch and pearls draped



the shoulder rolls and sleeves were added last night, i still have yet to take pictures, but once i have everything completed, ill take a picture of the whole outfit

i am so proud of this dress, its my first big project that i planned out and took time working on! I just hope to get better from here

[Adriana Rose]

its looking awesome!

[isabelladangelo]

The skirt looks lovely.   Are you going to point the front of the bodice?

[LadySeasan]

The skirt looks lovely.   Are you going to point the front of the bodice?

ok that is something that i wanted to do, but im not sure how to do it at this point, being that i added the trim and dont have any extra, but i realized i wanted it pointed after i had everything together

so im not sure how to cut it but still use the fabric that is already on there

i do agree that it will look much better with a pointed bodice

[Adriana Rose]

Try fishing through your scraps there might be a piece that would work to make a nice point for the bodice...


It still looks fabbo!

[isabelladangelo]

Either try via scraps (piecing is period) to get a point in the front or make it into an Italian gown (high bust) and add a guard (more of the blue?) to the bottom. 

[LadySeasan]

i did find some scraps, well actually a big scrap, so as we speak my friend and i are working on making it into a point

if anyone is going to the mdrf i will be there!
if not ill post pictures tomorrow