Rosie's Wedding Dress
Note: I often reference Alley Cat Scratch's LOTR Research and Lavenda's Hobbit Research
.. They are wonderful sites, and if you haven't visited them already I strongly encourage you, because they have invaluable information!
Supplies:
Procedure:
1. Bodice -
I made the bodice using Terry Fox's Perfect Boned Bodice instructions. It is by far the most work I've ever done on a bodice before, but I'm very hopeful that the boning will not show through to the front, and yet be close-fitting and supportive like the original was.
First I mocked up the bodice. I patterned it very loosely off of the bodice from McCall's pattern 4107 view B. I worked with the toile for a few days, narrowing the bottom of the frontpiece, attaching the straps to the front in a curve, raising the back, and drafting the side front, side back, and back pieces into one piece. The final bodice has three parts, the frontpart and the two sides.
When the toile was how I wanted it, I marked in boning channels. I actually plan on using four different types of boning: spiral steel on the two curving front seams so that the bodice curves in the right places without wrinkling, plastic boning in the middle of the frontpiece and two running parallel to the side seams so that the front part curves where it's supposed to, 1/4" steel boning on the stomach of the front part and on the back, where there would be side seams and on either side of where the grommets go to strengthen the area, and 1/2" steel boning on the front part of the side pieces to keep the stomach in, and in the back to right below the shoulder blades to keep a nice line. Hopefully I can get an illustration of this up soon.
When the pieces were complete I picked a side and cut out my fabric pieces. I started with a heavy white canvas, which I interfaced with heavy curtain interfacing (fuse-a-shade) for stiffness. I actually cut the canvas slightly smaller than my seamlines. This will keep the huge, thick canvas from bulking up my seamlines. I then cut a lining from thin, cheap muslin. I stuck the muslin to the front side of the canvas using quilt basting spray, which is great stuff. Pressing firmly to ensure there were no bubbles or wrinkles, I sewed around the edges of the canvas to keep the two pieces together. Then I cut the same piece out of a thicker, more tightly woven cotton sheeting from the quilting section. This was sprayed with the quilting spray and attached to the front (canvas) of the other two pieces. I stitched around the edge of the canvas again, and then I quilted the insides, using about twice the width of my presser foot as a basis. It's not incredibly exact, but that's fine, because it won't show. The main purpose of the quilting is to provide a stiff base for the boning, so that the boning won't leave ugly lines on the outside of the bodice when I'm done. Then I added in the boning casings according to the lines I drew on the toile. I sewed the plastic boning in its own casing, and I used 5/8" and 7/8" white grosgrain ribbon for the 1/4" and 1/2" boning casings. After securing all the ends with stitching I cut them to the seamlines and fray-checked the ends so they wouldn't unravel. Then I once again sprayed the back of my pieces with the basting spray and added on a piece of white quilter's flannel. This will cushion the boning from the outside and help again with eliminating boning lines. I stitched in the seam allowance to secure the flannel to the other pieces. Next I cut out the Vanilla duppioni for the sides, ensuring the slub-lines are horizontal so that they match the line direction on the skirt. I'm on hold here until my front gets done, for the next step is to attach the fashion fabric to the outside and add the seam boning channels.
The frontpiece is a challenge to me. I totally suck at embroidery, so originally I was going to use fabric paint. The concept seemed to upset my roommate, Katie, though. She has the wonderful touch and CAN embroider, so she offered to do the front piece for me. After I finished the toile for the bodice I cut the frontpiece from white duppioni (ensuring the slub-lines are horizontal) and interfaced the back with heavy iron-on interfacing. I can't really explain what she's doing with the embroidery, since I'm all dumb at it, but if she can explain it to me I'll put it in here. Meanwhile I have some progress pictures:
2. Underskirt -
From viewing the pictures, I knew the skirt had to have some kind of petticoat underneath to keep it sticking out. I decided to do the easiest petticoat I could think of, since it wouldn't show anyway. I took a 3 yard length of cheap, 36" muslin and cut it down the center. I sewed the two lengths together into a 6 yard length, then gathered the raw edge. I sewed this to the middle of another 3 yard length of muslin, gathering as I went. then I flipped the ruffle down and pressed, so that the raw edge was hidden underneath. This looked good, but it wasn't as full as I wanted, so I cut a 4 yard length of stiff netting down the middle and layered the two pieces together before gathering them and attaching them under the fabric ruffle. This was exactly full enough, so I folded the waist over into a casing and inserted elastic. No hemming was required, because I used the selvedges of the base and the ruffle!
3. Skirts -
From Alley Cat Scratch's LOTR Research on female Hobbit skirts:
SKIRT
The well dressed hobbit woman seems to wear two skirts. Young women wore their underskirt, or petticoat, a few inches below the knee, while older women wore them closer to their ankles maybe hemmed about mid calf but that varies based on the extra's height.
The over skirt, or main skirt, is usually about 3 inches shorter. Fancier outfits have double skirts, two very different colors but muted. Some have multiple rows of tucks, like a ruffle, a few inches above the hem. I believe someone else saw ribbon on the skirts.
Even though the only part of Rosie's skirt you ever see is gold duppioni, I decided, from this evidence from the movies, that Rosie's dress had to have two skirts, even though we couldn't see the second one. I decided to do the underneath skirt in the same white duppioni I used on the frontpiece to tie the bodice and the skirt together. I cut both skirts using McCall's pattern 4090 view A. I shortened both of them quite a bit, so that the white one hits somewhere around mid-calf or high-ankle (on someone short like me, it's not that much of a difference). I flat-lined both skirts with ivory polyester organza, which I chose because I had it laying around. It gives the duppioni a little stiffness and keeps it from wrinkling as much.
I'm going to interrupt here for a little discussion about fabrics. Most of this dress is duppioni, so I knew I'd need a lot. I've gotten lazy recently, and I didn't want to dye the fabrics the right colors, so when Fashion Fabrics Club had a sale, I jumped on it, getting silk duppioni at a very good price. I got a yard of Vanilla for the bodice sides and 4 yards of Honey for the skirt. For the white duppioni I still had yards of undyed white duppioni from Dharma leftover from a previous project, so I just used that. I don't plan on ever washing the bodice, mainly because it's a bad idea to wash metal boning, but I did have the suspicion I would spill on my skirts, so I prewashed the Honey silk. It came out awful. Looked more like raw silk than duppioni. No amount of ironing, starch, and stiffener could bring it back. It ended up being a moot point, because I was a yard short anyway, but I definately learned a lesson. Pretest, pretest, pretest, and you get what you pay for. I called back and ordered another five yards of the honey, which will be dry-clean only from now on. It's not a bad silk, but I really should have tested before I washed all of it.
Anyway, back to the skirt, I've got both cut out and the white skirt sewn together. When I get them both done, I'll baste the tops together before gathering them to the waistband. Gathering the two at once will be less bulky and keep the waistline small. Then I'll do the hems, to make sure they're level and even.
4. Apron -
From Alley Cat Scratch's LOTR Research on Rosie's Wedding Dress
We can see very little of the skirt. It looks like the top layer is of dense white lace or a textured silk with lace insets. It is open in front to reveal an underskirt of light gold silk dupioni (just a couple of shades darker than the bodice.
The white skirt is edged in silk flowers of white, blue/purple and more. The gold skirt has little flowers going across the edges, white and lavender. It may be a flowered trim.
I'm calling the top white layer an apron. All the other hobbit dresses we've seen have aprons, so it stands to reason that the white is just a highly decorated covering. I do disagree with parts of this, though. I can't see the apron being lace or highly textured silk. We do only have the one picture, but it's pretty high-res, and I can actually make out the pattern. The apron is covered in the same white wreaths that are on her sleeves. I can't see any kind of pattern in between the wreaths, so I think the apron's just cotton or linen embroidered like the sleeves are, then worked with a little cutwork in the embroidery, kind of like cotton eyelet material you buy at a fabric store. I DON'T do embroidery (see the part on the bodice frontpiece, above) and I didn't want to take the time to have the fabric embroidered, so I decided to work on doing the cutwork a little differently. First I cut a base out for the apron. I used silky lining material from JoAnn's in ivory. When I got the shape of the apron how I wanted, I doubled the length and added 8 inches on to the width, and cut this piece from a cotton-poly fabric I found in the quilting section. I cut an equal length and width from the nylon embroidered fabric I am using for the sleeves. Flatlayering the two together, I picked a motif and pinned around that pattern every time it repeated in the pattern. Then I sewed the border of the motif using cheap cotton quilting thread.
Originally, I planned to dissolve the backing using Fiber Etch. Fortunately, learning from the skirt problems, I did a test first. The Fiber Etch doesn't work as I would like. It only dissolves the cotton of the backing, leaving a polyester lacy part, and it makes the nylon sticky and wrinkled while dissolving the embroidery (which must be rayon, by this test). When three different methods with the Fiber Etch revealed the same results, I switched to plan B. I'm going over the stitching with white fabric paint, and then when all the motifs are done and dry I'll carefully cut the fabric out of the center.
5. Shirt -
I actually can't see Rosie's shirt in any picture where it sticks out of her bodice neckline. I've been debating making an entire shirt, or just making the puffy sleeves and attaching them to the bodice. The fabric I've picked is nylon, so an entire shirt will be uncomfortable.
6. Flower Wreath -
I am so uncoordinated, I truely don't know what to do with this prop piece. I'm saving it until closer to the con, and in all likelyhood I'll get my wonderfully talented friend, Katie, to fix it for me, since I'm all thumbs with anything that doesn't come on a bolt or spool.
