My Irish Dress

This was all started by a trip to a wonderful fabric store. I saw this great green fabric that I grabbed. I then found a butter yellow fabric. All I could think was "yellow chemise, green overdress".

That day my friend Kate showed me how to make a quick chemise without a pattern. I tend to be able to look at stuff and figure out how it is made so I dived right in.

I ordered a dozen 1/2" steel stays in the 12" length and a pair of lacing stays in the same length from corsetmakers.com. I got my order in a few days. I grabbed a piece of medium weight cotton and started putting together a mockup/liner for the top of my Irish dress. I used bias tape for boning channels.

This is what came out of the first attempt. There are 4 boning channels on each side. I tried it on and realized that it was way too big. So I chopped 2 inches off each side. Second fitting showed still too big and I needed two more stays on both sides. So more changes and time for the real fitting, lacing up and everything. Out comes the cord that I made and two darning needles and I literally sew myself into it.

It fit, YAY, and it actually held the girls up. Fantastic. Now to take another 1/2 inch off the sides and cut out the outside fabric.

Day 2

First I thought I'd show you where I sew. Yes, it's my dining room and it gets cleaned up when we have people over.

These are the colors I'm using. I really love the green. The colors don't come out quite right in this picture.

Today's adventure started with taking a 1/2 inch off the side of the lining. Then I cut out the green fabric to go over the liner. I cut it out in one piece. Boy I have to tell you it sounded like a great idea, and it looks really good but sewing it on in one piece was...well...interesting. Actually there was a lot of muttered foul and filth. But your intrepid seamstress prevailed, although it was close in some areas.

Now I'm back to sewing myself in with darning needles and cord. But it fits!

Dilemma, the only gold grommets I have are way to big for the holes in the lacing boning and I don't have any silver ones that fit either. I want gold so I'll have to make a trip to the craft store (O Heaven for fend :) ). I'm also thinking that I may have to trim the edges. I have to think about that.

Next step...adding the split skirt.