               
The overskirt
By the time I made the overskirt I discovered that even without the construction of the
previously mentioned mystery 'spanish' sleeves I would run
out of velvet if I would not be very, very careful.
While I have the opinion that the original gown would most certainly have had a train, I didn't want
one for my gown. Most of the possibilities for me to wear this gown include running around outside,
and I know my talent for finding and hitting the only water puddle in 100 miles distance.
So... no train for me, but a skirt I can easily control - I wouldn't have had enough velvet for a
train, anyway...
Margo's patterns are great, but I have discovered that the skirts are a tad too long if I indeed use
the pattern pieces. This would have cost me some of my precious velvet - which is why I had to make
the overskirt in a different way, which wouldn't cost me a single inch more velvet than I actually
needed.
I put all the undergarments on my dressmaking model and measured two things: First, from the back
waist over the bumroll to the floor (plus two inches for hemming) and then from the side waist over
the (in this place smaller) bumroll to the floor - plus, again, two inches for hemming).
I cut one panel with the first measure and two with the latter, giving me one back- and two front
panels.
What did I have left? About 4 inches of velvet.... from which I then constructed the bodice skirting
tabs (yes, the construction order is a little mixed up in this journal...).
I cut two strips from the sides of the front panels, re-attached them on top of the front sides and
decorated them with pearls, Quadruples and pearl trimmings in the same manner I had previously
decorated the bodice strips. Then I'd sewn the skirt panels together, gathered them for cartridge
pleating and just let them hang on the mannequin for several days, so that the fabric - even if not
cut on the bias - could stretch a bit.
I know that I have forgotten the slashed piping along the front opening edges. Yes, I have simply
forgotten it. On the other hand, I could not have made it even if I had wanted to - I would not have
had enough velvet to make them... alright, I could have taken another strip from each of the front
panels - but that would have cost me some of the skirt width, so I didn't.
I then hemmed the bottom with an approximately five inches wide strip of burgundy cotton twill,
and also decorated the lower edge with pearl strands - the pearls, as they are stiffening the
fabric, make the bottom pleats look nicer.
Afterwards, I hand-hemmed the upper edge of the twill strip to the left side of the overskirt fabric
- now the bottom of the skirt is fairly stiff and will not bend if I wear the farthingale a tad too
high, as I always do because I *hate* if the bottom hoop of the farthingale scratches over the floor
if I make an unexpected movement.
After that, I sewed the upper, gathered edge to a waistband, into which I then inserted belting,
and started some decoration by just adding some disks (disks again... yes...) to the front sides.
After that the skirt looked like this:
And like this with finished decoration of disks, pearls and "Quadruples", front-
and back view (back view shows the skirt color a little brighter in the picture than it is in
reality):
 
It's time for the forepart now.
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