Fantasy Renaissance Madrigal Dress

I have completed Jenna's Renaissance Fair Madrigal dress!  Unfortunately, she will not need a Dickens-era dress, so that will have to be another day.  Here is a breakdown of the process and the modifications that I made to the pattern. *This is not a how-to, but simply a guide the the departures I made from the pattern instructions*

Simplicity Pattern #4940

To begin, I created a muslin mock-up of the dress that would eventually function as the lining:

I don't normally do this since I like to flat-line everything, but Jenna is so very petite that I was willing to put in a little extra elbow grease so I wouldn't have to cut anything twice.  I also didn't want to waste any of the beautiful red silk that I was using!

I then had her come in and do a fitting of the lining which I marked to her figure.  Post-fitting, I disassembled the lining and cut it to the marks, using the lining pieces as a pattern for the dress fabric pieces.

I flat-lined the madrigal dress fabric with the muslin by serging the pieces together and then assembling them.  I only flat-lined the main dress and the upper sleeves.  This provides durability where it is needed and absorbs sweat.

< This shows the inside of the flat-lined dress body with seams pressed open (always press your seams!).

< Silk & muslin serged together and assembled.

As I was cutting the muslin lining, I decided to add a train to the back of this dress that was not featured on the pattern.  This was my first time drafting a pattern piece freehand, so don't judge!  I think my parabola/curve on the top side is too narrow (left) and that the sides of the curve are too deep.  I think it needs to be more of a "waning crescent"  with less of a curve.  You can see from the picture on the right that there are 2 "ruffles" at the very back.  These don't show up terribly when the dress is right side out and the drag of the dress hides it pretty well.  Where the center back seam of the dress meets the train is where I installed the aforementioned wrist loop (previous post).  Wearing the wrist loop will greatly reduce the chance of losing the back of the skirt due to being stepped on. :D

I found some embroidered gold silk taffeta in my stash that I had used on a madrigal dress a couple of years ago (no connection) and thought that it would be a much richer complement to the merlot color of the dress than the cream silk contrast we had originally discussed.  After a quick text to Jenna and her mom, we went with the gold.

I assembled the sleeves according to the pattern instructions, doing a regular lining style on the drape.  The sleeve drape has a drawstring tie that can be drawn up to create a ruched look.  I threaded the cord through the drawstring channels before sewing the drape to the upper sleeve (therefore catching it in the seam) so that there would be no chance of losing the cord (in dry cleaning, etc).  It also helps to be able to draw the cord up really tight.

I just noticed that the ironing board legs behind the dressform make it look like some kind of wonky 3-legged mannequin. >

< Here is one of the only pics I took of the put-together dress before I put the trim on.  You can see the ruffly bits on the train don't really make it look unusual.
I have gotten into the habit of waiting to set the sleeves in a garment until I've finished the details on the neckline and sleeves.  This is especially true if the sleeves have a lot going on.  Trying to machine-sew trim onto a sleeve with a whole dress in your way--and vice-versa with trying to sew a dress with sleeves flopping everywhere--is pretty frustrating.  I have yet to find where this has proven to be a problem.  In my experience, sleeve details and body details are generally able to be separated.

If you have a hard time visualizing things without a picture like I do, then you may also feel like the collar on this thing was kind of a beast, according to the instructions. I have to turn on a part of my brain that reads the instructions one step at a time and doesn't try to put  things together my way.  Otherwise, I will skim the instructions and put the pattern together like puzzle pieces.  That is how I usually do it.

The collar is the same gold taffeta as the sleeve lining, with a sparkly net overlay.  When I made costumes for Performing Arts Supply, a rule we had in designing garments was that "if you have trim in one place, you need it in 3," meaning that you can't just have a color or type of trim hanging out by itself or in pairs.  Good and visually pleasing design is based in a golden rule of odd numbers.  That's not to say that this "rule" wasn't intentionally neglected from time to time, because sometimes, it just looks good the other way. :)

The collar and overlay are sewn together and a trim added to the bottom to disguise the ugly seam.  The trim I used is a 1/4" sheer organza ribbon with satin border applied with 3 rows of topstitching using Sulky metallic gold topstitching thread.  Sulky is the only brand of metallic thread I will use in a machine.  Every other brand I have ever tried breaks repeatedly and frequently.  Argh.

I added the facing to the collar, pressed it under, and hand-tacked it to the lining inside. 

< Cute shoulder bows!  I tacked these in the middle under the "knot" part of the bow and under the top "loops" to hide the thread.

The last modification I made to this dress was to add grommets to the back of the dress instead of a zipper.  I created the modesty panel that goes behind the laces to match the dress.

I created a lined piece 8" wide and 17" long--2 inches longer than the length of the grommeted opening >

 

 I added matching trim to the top so that it would continue the neck trim all the way around.  I hand-tacked the panel to the lining on the back left side of the dress, making sure that you could see it through the grommet holes on that side.

I used 20 gold grommets with a grommet-setting kit for the back. These grommets are spaced 1 1/2" apart.  I think it's a nice spacing, not too close, not too far:

I always use Fray Check on my grommet holes before setting them to avoid nasty frays and the loss of grommets...if the holes get bigger, the grommets will fall out!

In the middle of the whole process, I thought it would be nice to make a headpiece and a purse to complete the ensemble.  I made an autumn-leaf hair wreath and a small drawstring bag that hangs inside the sleeve:

I simply attached a ribbon loop to the seam where the upper and lower sleeve are joined and threaded the drawstring through the loop.

I thought it would be nice to make the purse out of the same fabric as the sleeve lining so that it would blend in (it's also reversible to the red silk used on the dress).  I used this tutorial on YouTube to make the purse.  I used a 16" circle of fabric because I didn't need it to also function as a hat (if you watch the video, you'll get that).  It will suffice to hold a cell phone and a wallet or coin purse, maybe some chapstick, too.

And, long story short, a little of this, a little of that, badabing, badaboom, Madrigal Dress!

 

You can check out all of the finished product photos under the Portfolio tab, including a close-up of the purse hiding in the sleeve (you can't really see it in this picture, but it's there!).

Abby