Girl's Italian Gown

Today I finished the girl's Italian gown that I have been working on. It is a gift for a little friend's birthday this weekend, so I just scraped it in in time. It is cotton broadcloth with commercially produced pink gimp braid. The Birthday Girl loves pink, but her mum hates the colour. So this dress  is a compromise. It has cap sleeves with fabric puffs, because the Birthday Girl usually wears only a chemise underneath. It has a couple of tucks in the hem to allow for growth, which also helps to hold the hem out. It is a size 8 so that she will get (hopefully) at least two or three years worth of wear out of it.

This is the third or fourth gown that I have finished this year - I really must try to blog some dress diaries soon. Hopefully I can get some nice shots of the recipient wearing the dress.

Day 6 - 100 Days of A&S - Cartridge Pleating a Renaissance Skirt

Today I spent my time setting cartridge pleats. I made bigger pleats than normal, setting them at about 1cm apart. (Sometimes I do 0.5cm.) I cheated and drew the pleats up with a single thread of crochet cotton because I wanted the job to go faster. The 'proper' way to do it is to use 2 parallel rows of very strong cord/thread, and draw your pleats up. The big risk with the single crochet cotton is that it will shred and break and you will have to start all over again. Luckily, that didn't happen to me today.

Chalking out the 1cm markings

Adding the crochet cotton 'draw thread' (the smaller white thread is a tacking stitch to secure the top hem of the skirt panel during pleating and not related to the cartridge pleating process.)

Pleats ready for adjustment

The skirt panel ready to sew to the bodice. I divide my skirt into quarters and divide my bodice into quarters. Then I tack the points together and adjust the pleats evenly in each quarter section. It makes the job much easier and results in nice even pleat adjustment.