Eowyn Victory Dress Part 5: The Dress

I had planned on writing this blog much earlier in the week.  And then something bad happened, and I didn't sleep all weekend, and all the work I ended up doing over Saturday and Sunday had to be ripped out and remade, and then I got really sick because I hadn't had a good night's sleep for four nights ... but tonight, I finished the dress (except for the hem and serging a few seams, because I need a second pair of hands to help me with the hemming, and I'd rather serge everything at once).

Here is the reference shot:

The dress should have been a simple build.  I used a combination of my two favorite Simplicity patterns (4940 and 9891).  As I have obviously used both patterns multiple times, I wasn't worried about the fit.  I modified the front panel so that the neckline was correct.  I decided early on to simply make a gown and not a separate bodice, because no one was going to see anything from the hips up.

It looks pretty good, right?  WRONG!  Honestly, I don't remember what I didn't like about this because I was hopped up on Dayquil, but I had a freaking meltdown when I put it on.  I think the entire front poofed up or something.  I spent the next few days readjusting the bodice.  Also, I had gold piping on the sleeves, but then I realized later that there is no gold piping on the dress sleeves, only the jacket.  Argh.  So THAT all got ripped off.  As for the rest of the dress, I wasn't going to remake the entire thing because I wasn't about to start dying fabric again.  Luckily, I had JUST enough fabric left to make a bodice, like the dress is supposed to have.  Also, I don't have a shot with the sleeves, but they were WAY too long.

Using the pattern I'd made for the jacket, I made a new bodice.  I wasn't too happy with my original shaping, so I reshaped the neckline to make it a more gradual angle, and then made the neckline a little more pronounced.  I tried it on several times to make sure it would work.  Because the original costume has blue trim along the edges and I didn't really feel like worrying about that, I simply sewed about 3/8" from the seam to give a textured look.  I think it works.

I then pinned it in a very general manner to the original dress to see where it should lay.  After trying it on about six times, I was finally happy and sewed it on.  Believe me, cutting off the original top was very difficult to do!  I mean, if it didn't work, I was screwed.

 I think I may have dropped the waistline about 3/4", but unless you are paying a lot of attention, I don't think it's noticeable.

The final step was to add the buttons in the front.  I used these buttons from JoAnn's and painted them light blue by mixing together a variety of paints I had laying around.

I finally attached the buttons down the front of the bodice.  They don't lay totally straight because they have such a big stem to them, but they'll do.

And tonight, I realized that the shoulders weren't sitting correctly, so I ended up taking about an inch off of them.

Let's just keep something in mind here - NOTHING FROM THE WAIST UP WILL BE VISIBLE.

I'm hoping to finish the majority of the jacket and front panel tomorrow so that I can get started on Matt's Eomer tunic.  I'm so glad the dress is done.  It was much more of a headache than I would have liked!