Finishing

Continuing on with the elf gowns.....

​Before sewing the sleeves to the gown, it's important to do any embellishing on the bodice front, as it gets a lot harder once the sleeves are attached and they constantly get in the way.  The mauve bodice had lines from the scarf embroidery going haphazard across it thanks to the way it was cut from the fabric...

I needed to embellish the bodice front with more chain stitch embroidery, so had to find matching colours of embroidery thread...

Then I embroidered curlicues on the bodice front using chain stitch. 
​(I have a step by step tutorial on how to do the Chain Stitch)

I also embroidered the front of the pink bodice to match the embroidery in the lace, and embellished with sequins from the scrap lace. Now is also the time to insert the eyelets along the back, and to stitch the trim at the waist.

Then it was finally time to sew the sleeves on, matching the curves in the bodice and sleeves. Note that the trim at the waist curves below the seam lines at the back, folding in over the top of the skirt. That's so it doesn't interfere with the bottom eyelet.

Trying on the dress...

The next step was to do a row of picot beading around the neckline.
(I have a step by step illustrated guide on how to do Pecot Beading in my Tutorials)

I wanted to add a row of flowers along the neckline, and wanted to use the gold-edged ones I've had for decades, but I didn't have enough pink ones, so I had to dye some white ones with diluted pink acrylic paint...

The flowers were stitched to the bodice with three beads in each centre, starting with the flower in centre front, then going one direction, and then the other. Before doing that I first beaded much of the bodice because I found it too 'plain'. I also embellished the silver trim at the waist and upper armbands with purple beads. I was finding the dangly lace at the tops of the hanging sleeves a bit too 'dangly' so ended up trimming the ends back and securing the cut ends of the lace with FrayCheck.

the Back

Taking a closer look at the back.  There are five eyelets on each side. Note that the silver trim curves downward at the back and folds under the top of the skirt.

The gown laces up the back, but the skirt tends to hang open a bit, so I fold a short length of matching colour ribbon, stitch the edges together and stitch it onto one side of the top of the skirt opening. It's for a snap fastener to neatly hold the top of the skirt together.