HSF 2014 Challenge #1: Make Do and Mend - Part 1

What do you know, I think I am actually on track to finish the first HSF challenge of 2014, on time! I am so excited! I still have to keep up the momentum through the week and finish up the sleeves, but hopefully that won't be a problem. My darling boy volunteered to cook almost every night, so that will free me up in the evenings. I've just got to bang out that sleeve pattern tomorrow night!

I tried on the dress one last time, and almost couldn't chop it up. Too many good times in this dress! However, I had already pulled off the sleeves to (unsuccessfully) re-vamp them, and I've been bothered by the various period-incorrect bits of this for a while now. So... after taking these pictures, I sat down and picked apart all the seams.

Bodice off, 2/3 length cut off of the skirt, and trimmed a bit off the lower
skirt to even out the skirt-front into a nice, tidy rectangle. 

I don't have a lot of in-progress pictures (oops), but today I got almost everything thing together but the sleeves. I popped it on the form and noticed... a couple problems.

The front is pretty cute. The top-front is gathered separately from the bottom-front (as observed in extant short gowns and jackets). There is a bit of awkwardness going on at the side-front bodice - I think my drawstring might be going back about 5"-6" too far, allowing some awkward gathering of the bodice shell. Hopefully tacking the drawstring down at side-front will even that out.

The shape at the side skirt dips in a bit, probably because it is a straight-up rectangle. And the pleats hang kind of "chunkily." However, I am pretty sure my skirt shape is correct, so I won't be correcting that.

All that remains is to trim the armscyes to form a more period-correct back shape, and pop on the sleeves. Then there are a few finishing bits like the hem and under-bodice, but that shouldn't take more than an evening.

I am so ready to have a completed project!