Leaves of Lorian: 'Cinderella' Gown; Leaves of Lorian Original

‘Cinderella’ Dress

[so Named by the Mother]

Original Leaves of Lorain Design

Leaves of Lorain
High Quality Replica, Custom and Cosplay Costuming
“Not Idly do the Leaves of Lorian Fall….”
Cover Photo courtesy of Dom Bare Photography
I am a very lucky woman. I get to live my life playing Pirates, Duchess, Mistresses, Colonels, Superheros and everything else in between. Let’s just say I have a very interesting life…

Anyway, this particular dress came into concept about a year ago as a handmaiden dress. I revamped it and changed a few things around to work as a duchess gown when I cast was for
BlackRock Medieval Fest
this year of 2013; where I reside as

Andromeda Praetoria, Duchess Supreme of WinterHall of the Iron Peaks, Lord and Masteress of lands, isles, inlets and waters therein; slayer of the masters dragon five, keeper of the thousand tongues of the dead.

Now say it five times fast and you’re hired.
I need a new Harold…the last one got beheaded. He he…

So, here we go.

CONCEPT ART

My original concept art was yellow. It involved three layers of dresses and skirts, bodice and corset. And a pretty elaborate headpiece.
The headpiece will have a separate blog.

ACTUAL DRESS

Clearly got cut down a little bit. While I did purchase fabric for a bodice and corset, I got lazy and also realized that a corset is slightly beyond my grasp at the moment…and just bought one.
(I’d still like to try and make one someday… :P lol)
The dress was turned blue due to the fact the court of BlackRock was required to wear shades blue this year.

For the FABRIC of the underdress, I got about four yards of crepe backed satin in a teal/turquoise blue.
The Skirt of the dress was two yards (I recommend three!!) of a very light weight fabric, (the name escapes me atm), which is mostly sheer with a touch of color to it.
The overdress is 6 yards of a Silk/taffeta like martial in robin‘s egg blue. I found it on the clearance rack…and I’m not sure what kind of fabric it is. It’s got he feel and rustle of silk.

PATERNS
Once again, I used rather a few of them…
For the underdress I used Buttrick B4827.…

I altered the neckline and shoulders.
For the skirt I used the skirt from the same pattern, with no alterations.

For the overdress I used McCall’s pattern M4491
And put the sleeves from M4490 (#4) on it.

I deviously did quite a bit of alternation on the overdress. I’ll get to that later in the blog.

‘CREATING’
Now then, let’s start with the underdress. I cut it straight from the pattern, then scooped the neck line more to my liking.

The sleeves also came from the pattern. I cut the top of the sleeves off and pointed the bottoms, surged them and roll hemmed.

I surged around the shoulders of the dress and roll hemmed those as well.
The hem was surged and roll hemmed.

It zips up the back.

The nightmare of the dress (not counting the headpiece, of course!) was the skirt….The fabric is slippery and slightly stretchy, which made it fun to pin and sew. I also managed to make the skirt out of two yards of fabric, which I don’t recommend highly! And, silly me, I somehow forgot to leave a space for my zipper (o.O)
I ended up putting the zipper in the side, which works fine, but I was so paranoid I as going to forget to put it in that I had my little brother remind me the zipper went in the side every time I sat down at the sewing machine. He was super thrilled about that.

Out little Kitty, Kit, decided to help me out with the whole pattern thing too…

He was most helpful, I assure you…

It’s got a bit of shine to it, and you can clearly see my pants through it.

The overdress was fascinating.
The sleeves were ENORMOUS…I think they took a yard and a half…each. For such a small sleeve, you’d never think they’d take SO much. They required a gusset to fit correctly.

The neckline sits off my shoulders. My mother helped me cut it down (DON’T try to do it yourself!) and I took a couple tucks in the back to make it sit correctly.

I used snap tape for the back. Since I wear a corset over it, I needed something flatter then lacing and zippers.

My sister (most willingly…ish) consented to be my mannequin so I could cut the bottom. (My brother volunteered…he said, “I’ve always wanted to Hulk out of a dress!!”. I said, “No.”)

She looks so happy!!

The front has a long diamond shape to it, and the sides are rounded down to the back. It has a little bit of a train. I seared around the edges and roll hemmed the whole thing. I might put some wire or interfacing it in at some point, but it stays pretty flat unless it the wind catches it.

And the corset is from LacedLadies for those wondering. They are online.

So here’s me as Andromeda….Check out the headpiece blog and I am on
the book of the face. ;)