Ericka's new dress

 I've been working on this dress for a friend to wear to a steampunk ball.  Just a couple of days squeezed between other projects, with minimal measurements, and no time to make the foundation layers, but since she had nothing whatsoever to wear and wouldn't have been able to go at all without it, it isn't the worst thing I ever made.  My biggest issue is the gap up front, but I'm hoping once the bones shape to her a bit and things move around, and maybe once she gets some real bodice laces in there it will close.  If not, I made a stomacher/placard of the stripe she can wear if she opens up the rest of the lacing a bit.  Wish I had time for more adjustments-- and to make a bustle petticoat.

The bodice is linen.  Actually, it is the bodice from my red camping dress remade.  I had put "I'm in a hurry" eyelets in the side lacing and they ripped out immediately.  I had also put minimal boning in it and it did this weird jutting out thing in the front due to fit problems.  Ericka was originally just going to borrow my red velvet from IRCC I and wear that as a Queen of Hearts outfit, but she was uncomfortable with the sleeves.  I needed to rehem it as well.  Since I hate to mend, I decided to just make something new so she'd get a dress at the end and I wouldn't have to put my red velvet back together once the ball was over.  Since the "Happy Meal Dress" was bugging me anyway, I pulled it to pieces and this thing just sorta grew.  I put a stripy panel in the side where I'd trimmed out the mess made by the eyelets and then closed it up, cut the center front and moved the central bone and put bones on either side of the new opening.  That sounds an awful lot like mending: extreme edition.  Ah well, I never claimed to make any sense.

The skirt is a hemp blend I've had kicking around for ages. I had a bolt of the striped cotton I'd purchased at Halloween from Walmart a few years back.  I followed Historic Sewing's 1870 Bustle skirt tutorial on YouTube.  Super simple, and I want to try doing another one soon.  My husband and I were supposed to go to this dance as well, but plans changed a few days ago.  Ah well, I didn't have the perfect dress anyway.  Since I keep wanting to do Steampunk things, I think I need to assemble the underpinnings and have them on hand so there isn't a scramble.  I'm thinking maybe I'll make them in February.  I've got Laughing Moon's Dore Corset pattern as well as the plus size add on (I've had it for 3 years or so and it is still uncut. . .)  I figure I should do that and probably Truly Victorian's Petticoat with Wire Bustle.