I'm standing a little odd in the middle picture, so I look kind of uneven, but the side and back views definitely make up for it. I love the side view!
I started the day without a bra, which is how the fitted dress is supposed to be, but by the time we got to the event, the "support" aspect of the dress had ultimately failed. I have very large and heavy breasts- I'm a DDD cup size (which is just a nicer way of saying "a size F"), and the fact is that very little in this world can keep them properly defying gravity and in place. Luckily, I had the foresight to throw my bra into my hatbox. So the photos above are of me with the bra on. I felt much better after I put it on (yesterday was the first time in a very long time that I went out into public without a bra, so I was really self-conscious about it.) Unlike my other dresses, my fitted dress and bra worked together to create a comfortable and flattering shape. I don't think of it as a compromise- I just needed to find what worked for me. The fitted dress will need a small amount of additional tailoring to account for how much the linen/cotton stretched as it warmed up, but I look at the whole thing as a pretty great success.
The teal dress is wonderful. It was well worth the cost of the fabric. Yesterday was a chilly day, and the dress was the perfect weight. I was wearing 6 layers (with one of those layers being both the third layer in the chest of the fitted dress and my bloomers covering my lower body from my waist to my knees.) I was also wearing my knit knee-high socks. My only problem was that the fitted dress and the wool dress are both short sleeved, and the pin-on linen sleeves (which I borrowed from mom) were only barely heavy enough, and there was a little gap at the back of my arms.
In addition to my dress, I was able to also make a mini-houppelande for Owen out of some burgundy corduroy. I think it ended up a little too short, or maybe a little too wide, but he looked really handsome. I made some pseudo-hose out of the gold knit cotton I ended up using to make a scarf for myself, but they were a little too small, so he wore a pair of blue pajama pants. Dearg made him a new belt, recycling the belt tip and buckle from the belt Dearg made for him when he was a newborn.
I even made a fake chaperone out of the scraps from my teal wool. He hates hats, so he didn't really wear it, but it was very cute when it was on his head! For the majority of the day, he looked like the photo on the right above- a perfect little gentleman.My open hood is also perfect. It fits perfectly, looks perfect, was the perfect accessory, etc. I loved wearing it all day- all the hard work was worth it!
The only problem I had with it was that I didn't make the best choice for what to wear under it. I chose to wear my cut-off shirt sleeve, which I normally wear under my veils as my "head underwear". I think I need a new sleeve, though, because it stretched quicker than normal yesterday and it kept slipping back. I had adjusted the whole thing shortly before this photo was taken, and I put the sleeve too far down, but this photo was better to show it than the one we took right after it, after I readjusted it so the sleeve was in the right place. I think the back of the hood kept popping up, but I can use a small pin the keep that in place in the future.I'll post more about the open hood in the next day or so, as well as more information about the inspiration and sources I used for the items of my outfit, but for now I'm glad all that hard work is over and I have great garb specific to my period and flattering to my frame.
