I increased the width of the sleeves by 4 inches, so there is more to gather. I used the same support structure I used for the linen sleeves to prevent sagging. These sleeves were then gathered directly onto the velvet undersleeve. I stay stitched the armhole opening together, and gathered the sleeve onto the Bodice. Had to use my best guess as to where the undersleeve attaches to the gathered top in regards to the back center seam. The gather part has a center botton seam, and the velvet has a seam in the back to the arm. So had to off center this. Moved it two inches over. Came out OK. Maybe I should have move it more, but It works.
Last. around the neck of the dress you can clearly see a seam that runs about 1/4 inch down. This creates a look, but also help stablize the neck edge. It is hard to tell exactly what was done. I decided to Hand stitch a seam around the top, using back stitch, with a button hole stitch every inch, which I pulled to give a little indent. I am using antique gold colored silk thread. The partlett will have the same old gold look to it.
The top of the skirt has been turned 1 1/2 inch. A band of 1 inch red linen was inserted, and the edge turned in. I used stitch witch to do this, as the idea of hand sewing 290 inches of edging were undaunting. Also looks nice. I have measured out the band for 1 inch pleats. I like the size, but the tale will be attaching these to the bodice.
Next up will be the back lacing holes. Didn't count but should be 30-40 button holes to sew. Have a strong red button threads, which I like to use. Finding button thread in red suprised me, but it's perfect. I did the Linen dresses button holes in this tread, and it works. But that was a heavier material then this so I will experiment on scrape first.
Off to do more hand sewing.
