Bodice with Bretelles

Halloween Sew-Along Part 2

For this project, I chose the night and day dress. I had seen it years ago while researching what fancy dress ball gowns looked like. Unfortunately, the origin of this lovely dress is a mystery. It is all over pinterest, yet  following link after link only leads to a twitter account that is no longer active or a picture on tumblr. http://www.rmgandco.com/cms/?option=com_k2&view=item&id=

204:nightday-dress-by-cf-worth-1858&Itemid=244 was another link attributed to this dress, but the link must be broken or non-functioning. The url says it was a night/day dress by CF Worth in 1858. If the date is correct, this dress would have been during the first year of House of Worth being started. Wherever this dress came from, it absolutely stunning, and would turn any lady into the belle of the ball. To recreate this dress, I had to break down the many different part of it. From the top layer to 

the bottom.   The dress is divided into two sides, night and day. The night side is done in  cool tones of blue and silver, with the day side  in warm yellows and gold tones. For the velvet bodice, I had to raid Joann fabrics for their high quality apparel velvet. I showed this picture to the lady behind the counter and thankfully their yellow velvet matched the day side of  the bodice to a T! The night side velvet was a bit more tricky. This was one of the times that I wished I had access to larger fabric stores. As a compromise, I found a nice velvet.... in the  home decor fabric section.

 I know, I know, no self respecting historical costumer would use poly velvet or home dec fabric 

for a garment. But I'm poor and on a bit of a time crunch. So in the name of industry, I will make do. Swallow my pride and grit my teeth. The blue side of the bodice is made of curtain material, there, I said it. Hopefully my dignity may someday recover.

For the top white layer, I had a little bit of off white taffeta  left over from a different project. I did have to buy a bit of silk chiffon, which I found on the old, faithful Fashion fabrics club as a remnant. 

The over-skirt was a bit trickier as I'm not 100% sure on how they  did this. It looks like beading, but someone else more  knowledgeable than I suggested perhaps embroider. I went with embroidery for the day side, and beading on the night side on tulle

For the under-skirt I chose a nice taffeta in tan and a nice taffeta in a light blue. Yard and a half of each. They were fairly easy to locate and shout out to the folks at India Silks for such a nice

selection at a decent price. 

The bottom of the skirt I found a nice metallic fringe at  Jo-Ann fabrics that came in both silver and gold that  worked fabulously. The original looks to be chenile but a  lady can only do so much. Chenile in any color is rare to find so I'll take what I can get. As of now, finding the bat and the butterfly is proving to be a challenge. Such a simple looking decoration, yet so hard to find. I may resort to pipe cleaners.  Time will tell how it comes together. 

To be continued...