The Confessor's White Dress Post #3 Adding The Hood

Well, as you saw earlier today I got the sleeves attached nicely to my Confessor dress! I am SO pleased with how they turned out! I know they don't look exactly like the ones in the pictures, but they are the best I could come up with and I'm quite proud of them!

Since them I have been able to add in the hood and the lining in the back of the dress (in the top part only so far). The hood was very difficult. Not only did it take me forever to figure out how to get it started, but every time I thought I got to where I could get the thing attached I had to make some dramatic change which would then add a whole bunch of time onto the project. Needless to say...I am grateful to have a model (my little sister) who was patient and willing to stand still while I played with the fabric and made snips and pinned pieces until I finally got something that worked for the most part...as you will learn more about in the pictures...



Here is the latest look of the dress!!!
You will notice a huge difference between the waist line and below that...this is because the top part now has lining in it! YAY! The lining for the bottom part is cut and ready to go tomorrow as soon as I can get to it.



Although this pic is blurry you can see how big the two pieces of fabric were that I used to make the outer part of the hood. The two pieces were attached separately to the front pieces of the dress and then sewn around toward the back where they were connected and sewn together to create a 'hood' of sorts which is shown in the next few pictures.
Here Lyd is modeling in the dress.

 

Here is a front view of the 'hood' in its first version. It had been attached only around the bottom. The top is just placed over the head.

 

Side view of the hood which was not attached anywhere except around the bottom.

 

Back view of the hood with nothing attached except the very bottom.

 

Here is where I cut off the excess fabric and discovered that I had no clue what I was doing.
Thank goodness that cutting things sometimes does have a good ending!

 

I had my 'model' take off the dress and I unpinned the hood. I trimmed the curved piece you see there and then did a little sewing to make it not as pointed as it is seen on the left. This would become a collar of sorts which the hood would attach to.

 

And it turned into a beautiful collar I must say! If I was making a simple dress without a hood at some other point I would totally do this again!! I love the look and it was really easy! (of course I would put the seam underneath instead of on top, but this was done because I am attaching the hood to it...)
I began pinning and then sewing the hood to the collar. I did realize that there was a good amount of 'extra fabric so I just lined up the center of the fabric with the center of the back of the collar and left space to work with it after I had the majority of the collar secured.

 

I didn't realize just HOW big of a gaping hole I had in the back of my hood until after it was already attached...I decided to do a gathered stitch to take in all that extra fabric without adding a ton of extra work for myself.

 

I think it turned out pretty well. Don't you?

 

As for the lining? That will have to wait for another time since I've only added a little piece of it. I have most of the pieces cut for the skirt part of the lining. I want to do separate pieces which are gathered at the top and lose at the bottom so that they fit with the waist and hem of the design I already have going on. I really love the way this dress looks! It is coming along so well! I have a ton of little detail things I want to add to it, but they will be after the majority of the work is already done.

 

The important things that are left is to finish the hood (I need to add lining and finish around the front edge), do the lacing for the front of the dress (I already know how I want to do it, I just have to make it), make the lining for the skirt and front of the dress (the pieces are cut for the skirt part!), and hem the bottom of the dress. These are the basic things to the dress itself. There are the details such as adding the gold trim around each arm just before the long sleeves start which I will do at the very last once everything else that is important is done! :) I am so excited! I've never sewn a dress before, much less sleeves or a hood so this has been a very interesting experience! Especially since I've had to create everything with no pattern at all!

 

Read the other posts in this series (links open in this same window): My Halloween Costume Inspiration, Sneak Peek | Confessors White Dress, The Confessor's White Dress Post #2 | Adding The Sleeves, The Confessor's White Dress Post #3 | Adding The Hood, The Confessor's White Dress Post #4 | It's Done!!! I have a ton more to write about the making of this dress so as I write those posts I will be sure to link them up together at the bottom of each post so that they are all connected!