Knock off dress July 4, 2006

The moment I saw this photo

in the book “Modern Fashion in Detail” which I ordered from the Victoria and Albert museum shop in London.

I knew I wanted to try to make such a fabulous dress.
And so I tried, back in the summer of 2002 I made my version inspired by The Bird’s Wing dress by Anthony Price.
The tiny technical drawing in the book showed the full dress
I drafted the pattern from scratch using the measurements from Irene a friend who was the model for this evening gown.

This picture

shows the pleats folded down after the pattern is spread and slashed.
The brown paper shows the drafted design of the pleated part , the white paper is glued between the brown paper to form the pleats for the upper layer front dress.

This

shows the pleated pattern how it is cut from fabric (white paper insets for te pleats)

Front
Evening gown in two tone red doupion silk, lined with bemberg.
The gown pattern exists of 5 pattern parts. gown back part is sewed without a waist seam but the front gown part exists on 2 parts , the bodice and skirt part , the upper pleating part has also a waist seam and is sewed ( sandwiched ) at the right side seam of the dress
The pleats are not sewn but pressed and fabric covered buttons are sewed thru the under layer dress. The bodice part front and back of the gown is underlined with silk organza, and one piece of rigilene boning is attached at the left side seam allowance of the inner dress .

The pleating part is made of a double layer ( stitch, clip and turn) the facing layer is interfaced with a knit fusible interfacing to add some “body” to the pleats.
The gown has a long 22 inch invisible zipper at center back and a long 26 inch slit to give the necessary walking ease.

Side view

Detail view