Ok friends here we are: the design is set, the pattern is drafted, and the fabric is dyed. Countless hours later, we’re ready to sew. I began construction on November 17, 2022, and ended on January 16 2023!

The first step in the sewing process is actually cutting, which is very annoying. The skirt pieces alone took 3 hours to cut, since the pattern pieces are huge and the fabric is very light and prone to flying away. Then comes one of the most satisfying steps, stitching up the side seams and installing the pockets in the skirt - this of course called for an immediate try-on.

Cutting Organza

First try-on: skirt lining with pockets

Stitching up the side seams on the organza layers took significantly longer and was much more fiddly given the nature of the fabric. I had to hand-baste the seams before I could machine stitch them. I left an opening at the top for pocket access - that part gets stitched down later.

Hand-basting organza before machine sewing

Three skirt layers draped on the mannequin - I still shiver looking at this photo!

Now we leave the skirt for a little while and move on to the bodice, starting with the corselette. Once it was cut and the main pieces were sewn together I added boning channels and installed the spiral steel boning. I briefly considered making my own boning channels, before realizing that nobody is docking points if I don’t do every little thing the hard way, and just using the pre-made pieces that came with the boning. I bought my boning by the yard so I actually got to cut the steel to size myself, which was a very funny part of the process since it feels more like a home improvement project than sewing. The last step to the corselette is just to bind the top and bottom edges, which I did with bias binding made from the lining fabric. The corselette is exposed on the inside of the dress so I wanted to make sure it looked nice!

The corselette before adding boning

Fully boned and bound!

The next step is to cut and construct the main bodice! This piece is very finicky with the silks, so I made sure to mark every seamline in heat-erasable frixion pen and hand-basted the seams to make sure nothing moved from where it was supposed to be during sewing. The combination of extremely important fit lines and slippery fabric means slow going, much more than in the cotton coutil corselette which simply did what it was supposed to do without fuss.

Bodice pieces, cut and marked

Bodice main and lining pieces with side seams sewn and pressed, ready to be sewn together.

With the side seams done, it was time to attach the main bodice to the lining. I sewed them together at the top edge, with the spaghetti straps sandwiched in between (pulling the straps right side out is so deeply satisfying). During the design process I found that no matter how well I fit the bodice, the v-neck and top edge of the underarm will always gape out away from my body. I learned a new technique that I now use all the time, where you ease those edges into a slightly shorter length of stay tape (or ribbon, etc.) it will correct the gaping. You essentially need to make the stay tape as short as you can and still ease the seam into it without puckering - if you get tiny pleats in the fabric, you’ve gone too short. This was a lot of trial and error, but helped enormously once I got it right!

The final bodice, pinned to the corselette

With the neckline reinforced, the last thing to do on the bodice was to install the mesh at the v-neck.

At this point I had all the pieces: the bodice, corselette, skirt lining, and 2 layers of organza skirts. Time to put them all together. Working from the inside out, I stitched the skirt lining onto the waistline of the corselette (the skirt starts at the natural waistline, even though the corselette extends down to the hip for comfort and extra support), then machine-stitched the zipper. Next was the two organza skirts to the main bodice. I started by machine stitching the skirts to the main bodice piece, then hand-sewed the lining to enclose all the raw edges inside the bodice. At this point I had two dresses, the lining/support piece and the main piece.

The skirt lining and corselette, all zipped up

The main bodice & skirts, with the linings layers on the mannequin in the background!

This is the part of the process where it starts to feel like it’s almost done. But in reality I had only put about 30 hours in so far, out of a total of about 100 by the end. I had a lot of hand-sewing ahead of me.

The next step was to stitch the two main layers together. I did this all by hand so there wouldn’t be visible seam lines on the outside of the dress. I attached the main dress to the corselette at the neckline and the top edges, as well as at the waistline and the zipper, and stitched the organza down to the pockets. Once I’d placed the back of the spaghetti straps, which I attached both at the top of the bodice and at the waistline of the corselette for added security, the dress could be put on as one piece.

Hand-stitching the bodice to the corselette

Completed bodice back!

The next step is hemming, which for a dress like this is a two person job. You can’t just measure and cut it flat, since the different parts of a circle skirt hang differently depending on the direction of grain at any given point - it has to be cut while hanging on the mannequin. I’ve often wondered if there’s a way to math your way around this problem, but if there is nobody has told me about it. My amazing new sister-in-law came over to help measure the length while I stood there as straight as I could, and then we cut! She also helped me level the train which was giving me a big headache and needed another pair of hands to hold it even on both sides. Thank you Samantha! With the skirts trimmed all the way around, I could start the tedious process of hand-hemming.

The train, after trimming

In total I put in about 27 yards of hemming (9 for each layer of the skirt) over 15 hours. This is the most time-consuming way to put in a hem, but so worth it for the beautiful clean finish. On organza the hem isn’t as invisible as it would be on an opaque fabric, but I think it turned out perfectly. And with the hem done, I arrived at hour 67 of construction and the dress was theoretically ready to be worn. But alas, I had a lot left I wanted to do.

Hand-hemming the skirts

The dress is hemmed and theoretically ready to be worn!

I spent the next few days on florals. The first step was to cut out the pieces I wanted to use from the yardage, and start placing them on the dress. I love how the flowers look peeking out from under the top layer of organza, so I placed them on the second layer of the skirt. Once I worked out the placement I liked best, I got back to sewing. It took about 20 hours to sew down all the appliques, not the easiest since the organza kept wanting to shift around while I was working.