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My latest project has been this evening gown. It's yet to be finished since i haven't even found the fabric(s) for the front, but otherwise it's going quite nicely. I'm thinking of getting some kind of linen for the front, with one color being kind of burned orange like my top i have under the dress now.

It's a reversible gown, so all the seams are double seams. Also whatever structures there are, are or will be on both sides, like the clasps in the front and lacing in the back. I found the fabric from a fabric store sale pile where they sell it by kilo. It was really some kind of home decoration fabric for furniture or curtains or something, but who cares. The fabric has the darker "right side" with light gray patterns and the lighter gray "wrong side" with darker patterns. Well there's not such a big difference in the color on each side, but enough to make it look a bit different.

Most of the other things like the clasps, lace and lacing are from this lovely little store which i visit often. It's held by this old lady and the pathways in the tiny store are so narrow that two people can hardly squeeze past each other. I also used a kind of corset bone material, although plastic, to keep the garment in shape when lacing it.

I don't even know why i wanted to make an evening gown, since i have no idea where i would need one, but i figured then atleast i will have one if i do need. And i like new and challenging projects. I didn't have any sort of patterns and i didn't make any either, i just pinned the shapes down on the fabric, cut the pices out and hoped for the best. My sewing skills aren't the best and my sewing machine is a little... well, atleast i have one. So from close up things might not look so great, but i think the main thing is that i get something done and enjoy spending time on the project.

It all started from this sketch. My original plan was to have the fabrics one colored, so no patterns, with some kind of embroidery on one side in the hem, but when i found the fabric with big flower patterns with just the right colors i just knew that was what i wanted to make the dress from. I played with colors and styles a little before deciding what i will do.

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Here are my cut pieces and i'm ready to start the very long process of sewing. Long since i had to sew each seam 3 times so that when the dress is reversible, there's no ugly seam to be seen on one side.

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So it took some time, but now i'm in the point where the "outer shell" of the gown is ready. Now i just need to make the front. I'm planning of making the front reversible aswell. So 2 kinds of fronts and 2 kinds of shells to choose from. Therefore i willl kind of have 4 evening gown options. Who would make just 1 dress when you can make 4 at the same time? Most of the pictures so far are of the darker side and the lighter side also only has preliminary lacing since i didn't have proper lacing for it. I don't even know yet if i will put just black lacing on that side like i did on the darker side.

Here are some pictures i managed to take. Really hard getting the whole thing into a picture. It would be much easier if i got someone else to take the pictures for me, but there's nobody here. So i had to use a mirror to take some of the pictures. You don't suppose i went a bit over the top with the amount of fabric in the hemline...? ;)

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Update: I added the ribbons to the sleeves now. You can tie the ribbons in different ways and fold the sleeves or not and that way you can get various kinds of stlyes for different looks and purposes. I like having my options open. And i tried, the sleeves work quite well when playing the piano even when ribboned shut so that they are long. When the sleeves are not tied shut the ribbons can be tied to a bow in their place. Here's some of the style options and movement of the sleeves displayed:

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I'll post more when the dress is completely finished or atleast when it even has the front. There are still things that i will do to the outer shell aswell. I haven't even planned things much further yet. This is what all my sewing projects are like. I make it up as i go.

 

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