Well, I apologize for being so lax in my updates, but between the wild fires and the heat, my sewing has been fairly limited. I was, however, able to get portions of the bodice of the 1912 Bottle Green Gown finished :) I line the bodice with bottle green satin, unfortunately not silk because I couldn't find any silk in the correct color and weave. Then, I layered a beige lace with clear sequins over the front of the bodice. I took the edging from that fabric and created a scalloped trim around the entire neckline. That, of course, had to be hand sewn. I then set up the fabric pieces for the black lace overbodice so that the sleeve edging was the scalloped edging of the fabric. The front of the overbodice is a separate piece, and the 3 scallops are part of that. I then hand sewed the lace to the inside of the scallops of the beige lace. The neckline is gorgeous on, and the 2 laces give a ton of sparkle, I am pretty pleased with it. I am still in the process of deciding whether to close the back portion of the gown with a zipper, which would not be historically correct. The other option is hooks and eyes or snaps, which would be more historically correct, but probably not as 'sturdy.'
I am currently working on the skirts- the green underskirt has the same beige trim as the bodice, but it rings the bottom of the gown. There is then an overskirt of a black netting with velvet patterning on the bottom of the skirt, which has turned out to be a little tricky since it is hard to hide the seams on netting.
I also have been putting the finishing touches on the green natural form gown- hand tacking the lace trim on the pannier overskirt, hand sewing trim onto the lower seam of the bodice, etc. So, coming along nicely!
I will try to be better about updates, but it all depends on how much sewing I am able to get done. It is 102 degrees F today in Fort Collins, so being upstairs sewing is fairly miserable. We don't have AC. Fun fun!
