Sketch of the Dress

What would the dress have looked like in 3D?
What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

Here's a sketch of the dress, used to diagram out some of the measurements as part of the patterning process.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

Lace Skirt Pattern - trueing up

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

It has taken a few draping sessions, but I think I've finally been able to true up the pieces for the lace skirt.



The pattern Emily made as a rub-off works extremely well. I just had to true up a few lines, straightening out the seams, waistline, and horizontal tuck. However, the process of trueing it up proved somewhat difficult - mainly because the skirt just wouldn't fit on the child-sized mannequin we were using! Our original wearer really was very petite. We had padded the hips of the child-sized mannequin slightly, but even after removing that padding, the mannequin was just too small. So, I switched back to the historic mannequin we used to mount the original dress (see these previous posts labeled with "size"). The mannequin doesn't really have proper shoulders, so I've piled on the shoulder pads to make the upper body a little more realistic, but now the lace skirt portion does seem to work properly.

There are some surprises here. The pattern pieces from the ruboff are rather asymmetrical, but when you get them back on a body they make sense again. I originally thought the horizontal tuck just below the waistline was an alteration to adjust the hem length, but now I see how it actually helps to shape the skirt over the hips.