Peacock Ensemble

An idea that I've had kicking around in my brain pan for many, many moons was to make a dress based on a peacock.  There were many designs I had dreamed of, fell in love with, and for whatever reason, cast aside later on.  But, finally, the time came that there was a masquerade put on my LARPing schedule and I felt the time was right for the peacock dress to become reality.

I started with these fabrics...

And turned them into this ensemble...

I added a bustle (of sorts) and all together, it looked like this...

Yes, that is "Autumn Queen" next to me in her dress, sans the skirt.  My *beautiful* mask was made by Contessa Esselia, who is an amazing artisan.  My ensemble paled in comparison, enlarge the picture and you'll see that it is a bit on the "ill-fitting" side.

I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but 2013 is my year to "Fix It and Finish It".  With it fresh on my mind, the Peacock Ensemble gave me an opportunity to get a jump start.

I started with the skirt, which had some problems.  I adore three-tiered skirts, but I hate (read: HATE) gathering.  When you hate gathering, but love three-tiered skirts, things like this happen...

Enlarge the picture, and just about dead-center, you'll see it.  Yup!  A little tuck of gather escaped my initial seam!

But I overcame this dilemma by adding some trim.  I realize that I'm admitting to all kinds of mistakes here, something that artisans should never do, but I see no point in trying to be sly...

I just sewed some trim right over the seam.  It covered and sealed the tuck away just fine!

And I feel that the skirt looked better for the trim, anyway...

Far-away and close-up views of the trim on the skirt.

The bodice had *many* problems...

I am not really sure what I was thinking, but when I put this all together, I didn't bone the bodice *at all*.  Not even lightly.  I also thought I was clever by putting a zipper in the back, the initial thought being that I could put it on myself and not have it take 1/2 an hour; good idea, terrible practice.  Finally, I managed to forget a common problem that I have with bodices of any kind, which is that my "overbust" measurement is smallish in comparison to the rest of me.  Overall, I had an ill-fitting, rumpled mess that wasn't *awful*, I suppose, but I didn't feel *amazing* in it.

So I boned the bodice, took out the zipper, and hacked out about an inch from the back...

I won't go into a lengthy description of what I did here, but some highlights include: I use industrial-size cable ties as cheap and easily attainable "medium" boning and I make sure I *number* the darn things as I measure them for length against the bodice so I put them in the right way.

I hit my sewing-zone as I button-holed and boned the bodice, so I sadly don't have any progress pictures to show, but here was the end result...

I managed to restore my faith in my own sewing ability, just by boning a bodice!  Duh!

This ensemble will undergo a few other changes, mostly having to do with the bustle (and turning it into an actual bustle) and a hat, in time for New Years.  So, be sure to check back.