Night of the Ball -- Soiree Au Moulin Rouge

Who doesn't get excited about getting all gussied up and heading out for a night at a Ball? Perhaps, if you're Scrooge, you might not, but even Cinderella's evil stepmother & stepsisters were excited about getting dressed to go to the Ball. I certainly was excited --- my outfit was complete; one of my favorite swing bands, Lee Presson and the Nails (LPN), was going to be playing; there was going to be cancan dancing; and a lot more.

My outfit before we left for the Ball

The weather wasn't cooperating and it poured buckets driving there. Visibility sucked, but we were committed to going, especially as we were bringing photography lights for the self-service photography area.

The location was the Michaan's Theater, which was an amazing location --- it was a renovated movie theater with an art deco Egyptian theme.

The organizers had done an excellent job with the decorations.  There was a beautiful jeweled elephant in one of the hallways.

This thing was amazing. It had taken volunteers many days to "bejewel" this elephant.

Insofar as my part in the event, the organizers had picked out a beautiful curtain backdrop, and we set up the lighting so that people could take photos at their leisure. Of course, I took my own photography gear to shoot at my own leisure as well as dancing.

The evening was full of lovely people in some very gorgeous outfits.

And then there was the entertainment!  LPN was fun and amazing, as always

There was a lot of dancing (oh, my poor feet....) Although LPN is primarily swing, they did play a few polkas, including the local favorite, the Congress of Vienna, and some very fast paced polkas. I had the (mis)-fortune of acquiescing to a very fast polka with a most excellent partner; I got dizzy very fast, but he was kind and took pity on my state.

CanCan Bijou and the other performers were extremely entertaining.

The absinthe tasting was available for those interested in trying the Green Fairy.

Sketch artists were on-hand to draw your portrait.

Overall, it was a most excellent night at the Moulin Rouge.

Day of the Ball --- It's the Little Things

Having completed a majority of work the evening before, I only had a few small things left to do today for the bodice. Primarily, finishing up the shoulder trim. I got some buttons from Joanns Fabrics.

And here the final cockade. 

It goes over the shoulder and the ribbon ends loop to form quasi-shoulder caps. 

I also had to add buttons for the skirt loops. I used the smaller button as a shank, by sewing both buttons together. I used the smaller button as a shank, by sewing both buttons together. This allowed me to pull up the skirt and hook it to the underside of my bodice.

 

And what's a dress without some accessories? About 2.5 hours before having to leave for the Ball, I realized that I had no hair ornaments and my 1890's hair style looked a little too plain. Whoops....

So I drove back to Joanns and picked up a few bits and bobs --- feathers and a silk flower. 

Within 10 minutes, using a bit of felt, some sewing, and a hot glue gun, I had a hair piece that I attached to a small hair comb that I slid into my hair.

I stopped myself at that point, because I seriously considered making a reticule (i.e a purse) out of left over fabric, when I really needed was to finished getting dressed. Instead, I grabbed on of my prettier yarn bags with scroll work.

(Note to self: I need to make more "formal" ditty bags 

that can do double duty as a yarn bag and purse for such events.)

Here's the bodice at various stages of trim.

I shall finish this series with a final post about the Ball itself, later.

One Day Before the Ball --- Trim, Trim, and More Trim....

It's only one day before the Ball, and I still have a bit of trim left to do.  Did I mention that trim takes up a lot of time & effort to do well? It's worth it though.

I have two cockades that I need to make for my shoulders. Luckily, they are easy, but time consuming to make.

A cork board, pins, and a compass are useful when making cockades.

I re-made the 5-pointed looped rosette...

...when combined form a nifty cockade.

A huge goldish button will be placed in the middle of this ribbon cockade when I'm done. Unfortunately, I don't have anything that works, so tomorrow will be a very quick trip to Joann's Fabric Store.

It took about 1.5 hours to make a set of two cockades, which will fit on top of the shoulders of my costume. It took so long because I was trying to make it perfect. Then I remembered my adage....

Perfection is the enemy of the done.

Consequently, I stopped 'futzing' and just finished it.

Also, do you know that cats are super helpful when working on a project? Mine are particularly helpful in supervising my work.

It's a good thing ribbon work takes little room.

I also added the closures to my skirt, which required more hand-sewing, but everything fit perfectly when I tried it on for practice. While I was doing that, my Viking reminded me that I probably want ribbons in my petticoats so I can hike up my skirt in a "fashionably" way. So I grabbed some silk ribbon and added ribbon loops to the inside of my petticoats!

All those little things you forget.....

There was one thing on my costume that I was dreading --- hand-sewing all of the gold trim. This process took about 2 hours to accomplish. The gold braid trim is thick and parts of the bodice have several layers of fabric.

First, I whipped stitched the edge, then followed it with a running stitch on the other side of the braid. After completely half of the bodice -- one hour -- I took a break as my fingers hurt, even with the thimbles...and using pliers to pull the needle through.

I think it gives the bodice a bit of life.

Things done and still left to do:

1. Finalize the front bodice pieces.
2. Sew the front bodice to the rest
3. Add grosgrain ribbon around the neck
4. Sew lining & fabric together
5. Trim, trim, and more trim.
• Make trim
• Add trim
6. Add closures:
• Add closures to bodice
• Add closures to skirt
7. Sew a new waistband onto the skirt. 
8. (Optional) Make Corset. -- Yeah, no way this is getting done.....
   
9. Get buttons for cockade and sew onto shoulders.
10. Sew buttons for skirt loops onto bodice.

2 Days Before the Ball --- Trimming Down

It's two days before the Ball and I still have a bit of work to do --- specifically TRIM!!! Of which I don't have anything appropriate at home. There's a Joann's Fabric store near work, so I went there and picked up a variety of trim (and saved the receipts for those I won't use....). I brought my bodice along to do some trim comparison.

The one thing I've discovered about trim is that I very rarely find the "perfect" one. I usually get close enough or I have to layer different trims to get the look I was after. In this case, there wasn't nothing perfect, but I didn't have time to look around at different fabric shops. (Plus, we now have a dearth of good fabric stores in our area.)

I found two trims that could be layered together to make something suitable. First, I found this long fringe that was intended for curtains or some form of upholstery.

It was much too wide for the bodice, but when folder over, it was the right size and it had a fuller look. Plus, it allowed me to sew down a few of the loose tassel bits that you can see in the photo.

I had to sew v e r y  s l o w l y so that the tassels wouldn't catch.

 

I purchased another length of trim that I layered on top of it. I think it looks good.

It took about an hour to pin and sew the three yards of gold trim together.  However, slowly sewing on the machine was much faster than hand sewing.

Before I attached the trim, I top-stitched all of the edges (collar, neck, armscye) to help flatten the edge and hold all of the layers together.

I pinned the trim to the bodice; sewing will come later. Also notice that I added all of the eyes and hooks to the bodice, which was also pretty darn time consuming.

Pinning the trim down.

I was also playing around with the ribbon, trying to make something appropriate for the shoulders...in this case a looped ribbon rosette. I'll probably make a centerpiece cockade for this.

Unfortunately, I didn't get much else done as the work was a bit time consuming.

Things done and still left to do:

1. Finalize the front bodice pieces.
2. Sew the front bodice to the rest
3. Add grosgrain ribbon around the neck
4. Sew lining & fabric together
5. Trim, trim, and more trim.
• Make trim
• Add trim
6. Add closures:
• Add closures to bodice
• Add closures to skirt
7. Sew a new waistband onto the skirt. 
8. (Optional) Make Corset.
   

3 Days Before the Ball -- Skirting the Issue

It's three days before the ball, and I've managed to get the whole thing nearly done. Yay! Go Me!

Last night, I didn't have much time. I had archery practice that evening, so by the time I had arrived home, fed the cats, and eaten dinner, it was nearly 9pm. I was so very glad that I had arranged it so that I could just add the new waistband to the skirt, which is simple enough although slightly time-consuming

I basted the interfacing to the waistband, then pinned & sewed the waistband to the skirt.

The biggest time sink was having to hand-stitch the inside of the waistband to the inside of the skirt.

I had some hooks and eye closures, which added. Unfortunately, they were the wrong sizes and couldn't effectively hold the skirt. Esme (the dress mannequin) is showing off the skirt)

With the bodice (still needs trim).

I'm pretty sure I won't have time to do the corset, but if I can finish the bodice trim tonite (provided I find appropriate trim), I might have 1.5 days left to pull it off.

Things done and still left to do:

1. Finalize the front bodice pieces.
2. Sew the front bodice to the rest
3. Add grosgrain ribbon around the neck
4. Sew lining & fabric together
5. Add trim, trim, and more trim.
6. Add closures:
• Add closures to bodice
• Add closures to skirt
7. Sew a new waistband onto the skirt. 
8. (Optional) Make Corset.
   

4 Days Before the Ball -- Down the Home Stretch

It's now 4 days before the Ball and I'm making good progress. I still had lingering side effects of food poisoning, so I opted to work from home just to be a bit more comfortable. I spent a few hours in various meeting and working on specific work projects. And instead of knitting during work meetings, I did a bit of hand-sewing instead --- and promptly at 5pm, I really got down to some serious sewing.

Consequently, I got quite a bit done despite the residual effects of food poisoning. 

The main part of the bodice is complete. Here is inside of the bodice with some boning. The lining can be attached after I do one last final pressing of all the seams and clipping & grading of all curves and allowances.

Grading means that I have to reduce the amount of fabric at the seams so that it lies flat without any bulk when turned right-side out, especially when the final product has three layers of fabric --- fashion fabric, thick interlining, and lining fabric. 

Adding the bag lining was simple but there was quite a bit of finishing work that needed to be done, including more clipping, more grading, and PRESSING the living daylights out of it the bodice.

As a result, you get a fairly sizable pile of clippings. These are the ones on the table. I had to do a bit of sweeping of the floor for the rest. 

(Where are my mice and birds to help me clean up around here? Cinderella had it easy!)

There is also a bit of hand stitching for the final few bits of the lining -- at the top of the shoulders and down one side. All of this finishing work took quite a bit of time to accomplish.

When it was all finally done, I went through my bin of trims and pulled out some potential candidates. Nothing looked right, even when stacking on multiple layers or trim. The bodice really needs trim as it looks plain, otherwise.

The bodice calls out for BIG TRIM!

Unhappy with my choices, I decided that I need to go to the fabric store and pick out more appropriate trim, as well as some appropriately sized hooks and eyes.  However, due to my work & practice schedule, I can't do that until Thursday. :-/ .

So, I switched gears and started to work on the skirt waistband. The fabric and interfacing is cut and just needs to be sewn to the skirt. I can work on that on Day 3 as I don't have many sewing hours on Day 3.

Things done and still left to do:

1. Finalize the front bodice pieces.
2. Sew the front bodice to the rest
3. Add grosgrain ribbon around the neck
4. Sew lining & fabric together
5. Add trim, trim, and more trim.
6. Add closures.
7. Sew a new waistband onto the skirt.

Who needs a fairy godmother? (Admittedly, a magic wand would help things go faster but it's unreliable about its whereabouts. )