HI, I made this Edwardian Tea Gown with the help of my sewing teacher for Canberra’s Centenary. Canberra, the capital city of Australia turned 100 last year and it was my pleasure to spend at least one day with some friends of mine renacting at the National Museum of Australia’s Country Fair. I chose the Laughing Moon pattern #104 as it represented styles of extent dresses in the musuem’s collection. This dress took upto 12 months sewing part time to make the hat, corset and the costume. This dress is made from a blue brocade silk sari, black satin, black dance wear netting, white corded lace and black daisy trim. This is one of the hardest dresses I have made, so I asked for help in fitting and learning some new construction methods for sewing lace fabrics. I even made a hat from scratch using period techniques as well for the full write up of what I did please see: http://rosiesstuffnsew.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/the-canberra-centenary-tea-gown.html However, I wasn’t too concerned with using a sari to make a costume as experinece has taught me to experiement with pattern piece placement to get the best result. Also I have used a sari previously to make a Regency Ball gown and found that depending on the weight of the silk you can either use it as it is or underline it with cotton. In this instance the sari was of light weight silk and needed to be underlined. If you want to use the a sari to make a dress, it is best to unfold the whole sari and examine how the fancy borders can be incorporated in to your overall design then place the pattern pieces accordingly. Although I enjoyed making this dress, I don’t think I will make this pattern again but it was a good insight in to how people made their clothes 100 years ago with a modern twist!

Thanks for reading and do drop by my blog as I add new things as I finish them.

Cheers

S. Doig

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